Libstatmech and Applications to Astrophysics

Author

Tianhong Yu, Clemson UniversityFollow

Date of Award

12-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Legacy Department

Physics

Committee Chair/Advisor

Meyer, Bradley S.

Committee Member

Leising , Mark D.

Committee Member

Daw , Murray S.

Abstract

In this work an introduction to Libstatmech is presented and applications especially to astrophysics are discussed. Libstatmech is a C toolkit for computing the statistical mechanics of fermions and bosons, written on top of libxml and gsl (GNU Scientific Library). Calculations of Thomas-Fermi Screening model and Bose-Einstein Condensate based on libstatmech demonstrate the expected results. For astrophysics application, a simple Type Ia Supernovae model is established to run the network calculation with weak reactions, in which libstatmech contributes to compute the electron chemical potential and allows the weak reverse rates to be calculated from detailed balance. Starting with pure 12C and T₉=1.8, we find that at high initial density (&rho~ 9× 109 g/cm3) there are relatively large abundances of neutron-rich iron-group isotopes (e.g. 66Ni, 50Ti, 48Ca) produced during the explosion, and Y_e can drop to ~0.4, which indicates that the rare, high density Type Ia supernovae may help to explain the 48Ca and 50Ti effect in FUN CAIs.

Recommended Citation

Yu, Tianhong, "Libstatmech and Applications to Astrophysics" (2010). All Theses. 992.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/992