On turbulent mixing

Extract

Several authors (myself included!) have suggested that turbulent mixing takes place in some, if not all, stars, and in particular that such mixing can explain the low solar neutrino flux. This turbulence is thought to be caused by differential rotation produced by braking due to angular momentum loss in a stellar wind, and/or to the effect of meridional circulation currents in redistributing angular momentum. Whilst such instabilities may exist even in the presence of a stabilizing distribution of chemical composition, they do not necessarily cause mixing. To be effective in mixing, the energy available to the instability be it differential rotation or any other mechanism, has to be sufficient to lift the helium rich matter in the interior of the star to the outer regions. This requires where E_rot is the kinetic energy in rotation, E_g the gravitational energy, τ_th the thermal time scale and τ_nuc the nuclear evolution time scale of the star.