Excitation of pulsations in the CNO ionization zone of luminous stars

Abstract

Homogeneous models of luminous hydrogen-and-helium burning stars were constructed on the basis of Carson's new radiative opacities. These opacities exhibit a large 'bump' at moderate temperatures and low densities as a result of the ultimate ionization of the CNO group of elements and they induce in the envelopes of the more massive stars a strong local convection zone, a high central condensation and pulsational instability by means of the kappa-mechanism above a certain stellar mass. This critical mass for Population I hydrogen-burning stars is probably greater than 45 solar masses for the fundamental radial mode, with the overtones being more stable, while for the homogeneous helium-burning stars, the critical mass lies in the range 2-6 solar masses for all modes up to at least the third overtone. Convection is alternately treated by means of the mixing length theory and the assumption of strict adiabaticity.