MESAHub / MESAHub/mesa

Fix Z scaling for Freedman et al. opacity tables

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kap
Dominant language
Fortran
Stars
249
Forks
82
Avg merge
1d 3h
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

Freedman opacities assume the Lodders 2003 solar composition. The tables are at [M/H]=-0.3, 0, +0.3, +0.7, +1.0, +1.5, and +1.7. kap/preprocessor scales these w.r.t. Z=0.02. Lodders 2003 Zsol = 0.0133 != 0.02 so the scaling done in kap/preprocessor needs to be fixed.

Unfortunately, they do not say in the paper how exactly they scale He with "M" and/or H so we can't be sure what Z values these [M/H] correspond to.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start in kap/preprocessor and trace how the Freedman opacity tables are scaled relative to Z=0.02. Compare that logic with the Lodders 2003 solar composition value Z=0.0133 and the [M/H] table values. Resolve how hydrogen and helium are intended to vary before changing the scaling, then validate the resulting metallicity mapping.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
fortran
Domain
data
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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