The impact of radiative levitation on mode excitation of main-sequence B-type pulsators

Abstract

Context. Numerical computations of stellar oscillations for models representative of B-type stars predict fewer modes to be excited than observations reveal from modern space-based photometric data. One shortcoming of state-of-the-art evolution models of B-type stars that may cause a lack of excited modes is the absence of microscopic diffusion in most such models. Aims. We investigate whether the inclusion of microscopic diffusion in stellar models of B-type stars, notably radiative levitation experienced by isotopes, leads to extra mode driving by the opacity mechanism compared to the case of models that do not include microscopic diffusion. Methods. We consider the case of slowly to moderately rotating stars and use non-rotating equilibrium models, while we account for (uniform) rotation in the computations of the pulsation frequencies. We calculate 1D stellar structure and evolution models with and without microscopic diffusion and examine the effect of radiative levitation on mode excitation, for both low-radial order pressure and gravity modes and for high-radial order gravity modes. As is common practice in asteroseismology, rotation is included in the pulsation computations according to the mode’s frequency regime. For modes having frequencies below twice the rotation frequency, that is, modes in the sub-inertial regime, we adopt the traditional approximation of rotation. For modes in the super-inertial regime with frequency above twice the rotation frequency, rotation is treated perturbatively up to first order in the rotation. We consider macroscopic envelope mixing induced by internal gravity waves to compute the modes and study its effect on the surface abundances. Results. We find systematically more modes to be excited for the stellar models including microscopic diffusion compared to those without it, in agreement with observational findings of pulsating B-type dwarfs. Furthermore, the models with microscopic diffusion predict that excited modes occur earlier on in the evolution compared to modes without it. In order to maintain realistic surface abundances during the main sequence, we include macroscopic envelope mixing by internal gravity waves. Along with microscopic diffusion, such macroscopic envelope mixing ensures both more excited modes and surface abundances consistent with spectroscopic studies of B-type stars. Conclusions. While radiative levitation has so far largely been neglected in stellar evolution computations of B-type stars for computational convenience, it impacts mode excitation predictions for stellar models of such stars. We conclude that the process of radiative levitation is able to reduce the discrepancy between predicted and observed excited pulsation modes in B-type stars.