Observational consequences of unstable stellar interiors

Abstract

Stars are responsible for the production of all the elements, aside from hydrogen, that constitute our body. To understand the life and death of such important astrophysical objects, their interiors need to be modeled. The evolution of stars, including the effects of rotation, internal magnetic fields, convection, thermohaline mixing and pair creation is the main topic of this study. Stars often come in pairs, and the consequences of binary interaction have been explored as well. A new channel for the formation of Long Gamma Ray-Bursts has been discovered thanks to the inclusion of the aforementioned effects. This scenario suggests that a possibly large fraction of long GRBs occurs in runaway stars. A novel study of convection in massive stars is also presented, showing that microturbulence in the photosphere of hot stars might be caused by the presence of sub-surface convection zones. Such study suggests that clumping in the winds of OB stars could be caused by the same mechanism, and that magnetic fields produced in such sub-surface convection zones could appear at the surface of OB stars.