Effects of Scattering on the Temperature Stratification in 3D Model Atmospheres of Late-Type Stars

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) radiative hydrodynamic model atmospheres of metal-poor late-type stars predict cooler upper photospheric stratifications than their one-dimensional (1D) counterparts. This property of 3D model atmospheres affects the determination of elemental abundances from temperature-sensitive spectral features, with important consequences for galactic chemical evolution studies. In this contribution, we investigate the impact of different approximations of scattering in the solution of the radiative transfer equation on the temperature stratification of 3D model atmospheres of metal-poor red giants. We use the B code to construct 3D model atmospheres of metal-poor red giants using three different approximations of scattering. First, we self-consistently solve the radiative transfer equation for the general case of a source function with a coherent scattering term; second, we solve the radiative transfer equation assuming a Planckian source function and neglecting altogether the contribution of continuum scattering to extinction in the optically thin layers; third, we assume a Planckian source function and treat continuum scattering as pure absorption everywhere in the simulation’s domain. We find that the second approach produces very similar temperature structures with cool upper photospheric layers as when treating scattering correctly, and at a much lower computational cost. In contrast, treating scattering as pure absorption leads to significantly hotter and shallower temperature stratifications.