A New Version of Reimers’ Law of Mass Loss Based on a Physical Approach

By K. Schroeder, M. Cuntz. 2005

190 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present a new semiempirical relation for the mass loss of cool stellar winds, which so far has frequently been described by "Reimers' law." Originally, this relation was based solely on dimensional scaling arguments without any physical interpretation. In our approach, the wind is assumed to result from the spillover of the extended chromosphere, possibly associated with the action of waves, especially Alfvén waves, which are used as guidance in the derivation of the new formula. We obtain a relation akin to the original Reimers law, but which includes two new factors. They reflect how the chromospheric height depends on gravity and how the mechanical energy flux depends, mainly, on the effective temperature. The new relation is tested and sensitively calibrated by modeling the blue end of the horizontal branch of globular clusters. The most significant difference from mass-loss rates predicted by the Reimers relation is an increase by up to a factor of 3 for luminous late-type (super)giants, in good agreement with observations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e3cb86e04ea90b9c45fe112a50b300b4f10ed609

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. A. Karakas
2. L. Girardi
3. J. Lattanzio
4. Michela Mapelli
5. D. Stello
6. A. Bressan
7. W. Chaplin
8. A. Serenelli

Citations in the corpus

• The Dawes Review 2: Nucleosynthesis and Stellar Yields of Low- and Intermediate-Mass Single Stars (2014, methodology): “While there are refinements to the Reimer’s mass-loss law (Catelan 2000; Schröder & Cuntz 2005, 2007) we are still lacking a detailed understanding of the physical mechanism responsible for mass loss on the RGB.”
• The great escape: how exoplanets and smaller bodies desert dying stars (2011, methodology): “We adopt the ‘typical’ value for η of 0.5 (Hurley et al. 2000; Schröder & Cuntz 2005).”
• Asteroseismology of old open clusters with Kepler: direct estimate of the integrated red giant branch mass-loss in NGC 6791 and 6819 (2011, background): “…obtained by combining all available constraints will potentially allow detailed tests of different formulations of the RGB mass-loss rate (e.g. Catelan 2000; Schröder & Cuntz 2005, 2007), eventually leading to a better understanding of the physical mechanism responsible for the mass loss itself.”
• The Supernova Channel of Super-AGB Stars (2007, background): “It is derived from observations of RGB stars with a small range in temperatures and radii; however, Schröder & Cuntz (2005) have revised the Reimers rate.”
• Distant future of the Sun and Earth revisited (2008, methodology): “In order to quantify the mass-loss rate of the evolved, cool solar giant at each time-step, we use the new and well-calibrated mass-loss formula for ordinary cool winds (i.e. not driven by dust) of Schr¨oder & Cuntz (2005, 2007).”
• THE ACS NEARBY GALAXY SURVEY TREASURY. IX. CONSTRAINING ASYMPTOTIC GIANT BRANCH EVOLUTION WITH OLD METAL-POOR GALAXIES (2010, methodology): “One critical feature common to casesA andB is that, despite the low metallicity, the mass-loss rate Ṁpre−dust predicted by the Schröder & Cuntz (2005) relation is already efficient, quickly increasing from ≈ 10−8 to ≈ 5 × 10−7M⊙ yr −1 in a few thermal pulses.”
• Simulations of two-planet systems through all phases of stellar evolution: implications for the instability boundary and white dwarf pollution (2013, background): “…is observationally motivated by the horizontal branch morphology in Galactic globular clusters (Iben & Renzini 1983), and lies in the centre of the range recently considered by Veras & Wyatt (2012), who discuss this choice in light of an updated version of the Reimers law (Schröder & Cuntz 2005).”
• FORETELLINGS OF RAGNARÖK: WORLD-ENGULFING ASYMPTOTIC GIANTS AND THE INHERITANCE OF WHITE DWARFS (2012, methodology): “Several stellar evolutionary models that follow the temporal behaviour of the mass loss during the AGB together with the thermal pulsation of the star are available in the literature (Vassiliadis & Wood 1993; Blöcker 1995; Schröder et al. 1999; Schröder & Cuntz 2005; Wachter et al. 2002).”