This project is supported by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics (the NSF grant PHY08-22648), TRIUMF (Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics), and the University of Victoria.
This tutorial explains how the MESA and NuGrid tools can be used for simulations of classical nova outbursts and nucleosynthesis. As an example, it describes MESA simulations of a nova outburst occurring on the 1.3 M_sun ONe white dwarf (WD) with the initial central temperature 12 MK. It is assumed that the WD accretes a pre-enriched mixture of equal amounts of the WD and solar-composition materials with the rate 2e-10 M_sun/yr.
To reproduce the MESA nova simulations described in the tutorial (use the MESA version 3611), you have to copy the following files to your MESA star work directory:
1. inlist is the main inlist file.
2. inlist_ne_nova is the project inlist file.
3. inlist_ne_nova_pgstar is the pgstar inlist file.
4. nova_ext.net is the file specifying the nova extended nuclear network.
5. nova.net this file should also be present in your work directory because it specifies a shorter list of isotopes with which the WD model had been generated
6. my_log_columns.list is the file specifying the output data for each model.
7. ne_wd_1.3_12_mixed.mod is the initial WD model.
8. ne_nova_1.3_mixed_comp is the composition of the accreted material.
9. run_star_extras.f this fortran subroutine should be placed in the directory work/src. After that, you should make the MESA star code in the work directory with the command ./mk.
10. se.input this file defines a name of the directory (currently, "ne_nova_hdf") where stellar models are stored for their subsequent use by the NuGrid MPPNP code. You MUST make a subdirectory with the name ne_nova_hdf in the work directory before you launch MESA star.