A code for simulating the evolution of stellar properties (stellar radius, luminosity) from the bound core stage through to the core hydrogen ignition as a zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) star and beyond.
This code is written in Fortran 90 for my M.Sc. thesis work in astrophysics at McMaster University. The entire thesis can be downloaded from the DigitalCommons open access dissertations and theses archive at McMaster University.
This code was implemented as a module in FLASH astrophysical fluid dynamics code developed by the University of Chicago. Simulations conducted with this code studying protostellar evolution and stellar radiation feedback formed the basis of the following two papers:
- H II Region Variability and Pre-main-sequence Evolution. Klassen, Peters, & Pudritz. 2012. The Astrophysical Journal, 758, 2, 137.
- Simulating protostellar evolution and radiative feedback in the cluster environment. Klassen, Pudritz, & Peters. 2012. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 421, 4, 2861
To compile the code, adjustments may need to be made to the Makefile to set the Fortran compiler and compiler flags. The main program code is in Driver.F90, which calls EvolveProtostellar. In Driver.F90, the timestep dt and accretion rate mdot are set. These can be changed manually to run the code with different accretion rates or with a different timestep size.
When run, a file protostellar_evolution.txt is created and the stellar properties are written to this file as the protostar evolves with the simulation. All units are in the CGS system, as is the standard in astrophysics.
The protostellar evolution code relies on two precomputed tables: modeldata_table.dat and beta_table.dat. These have been precomputed and are present in the root directory. In order to recreate these tables, the code in the subdirectory 'table_generators' needs to be compiled and run. There is a separate Makefile for the code in this subdirectory. Once compiled, it must only be run to recreate the precomputed tables. This process can take some time however.