Blue loops during core helium burning as the consequence of moderate convective envelope overshooting in stars of intermediate to high mass

Abstract

New calculations of stellar evolutionary sequences without semiconvection in any phase have unexpectedly turned up, for stars in the mass range 3-30 solar masses, an irregular pattern of blue loops on the H-R diagram during the core helium-burning phase. Blue loops occur for 3 and 10 solar masses, but not for 5, 7, 15, and 30 solar masses. It is found, however, that the models near the bottom of the red supergiant branch are only marginallly stable against small inward displacements of the former base of the outer convection zone when it was deepest, for the stellar mass range 5-15 solar masses. As a consequence, convective envelope overshooting need only penetrate a distance of about 0.3 of a local pressure scale height to promote a delayed blue loop in these particular sequences. In conformity with previous work, the triggering mechanism for the blue loop appears to be proximity of the hydrogen-burning shell to the hydrogen discontinuity at the former base of the outer convection zone.