Radiative atomic Rosseland mean opacity tables

Abstract

For more than two decades the astrophysics community has depended on opacity tables produced at Los Alamos. In the present work we offer new radiative Rosseland mean opacity tables calculated with the OPAL code developed independently at LLNL. We give extensive results for the recent Anders-Grevesse mixture which allow accurate interpolation in temperature, density, hydrogen mass fraction, as well as metal mass fraction. The tables are organized differently from previous work. Instead of rows and columns of constant temperature and density, we use temperature and follow tracks of constant R, where R = density/(temperature) 3 . The range of A and temperature are such as to cover typical stellar conditions from the interior through the envelope and the hotter atmospheres. Cool atmospheres are not considered since photoabsorption by molecules is neglected. Only radiative processes are taken into account so that electron conduction is not included. For comparison purposes we present some opacity tables for the Ross-Aller and Cox-Tabor metal abundances. Although in many regions the OPAL opacities are similar to previous work, large differences are reported. For example, factors of 2-3 opacity enhancements are found in stellar envelop conditions.