Stellar evolution For MODEST: full calculation, fitting formulae and future prospects

Justham, S.; Podsiadlowski, Ph.; Rappaport, S.; Nikku, M. and Kolb, Ulrich (2006). Stellar evolution For MODEST: full calculation, fitting formulae and future prospects. In: Modelling Dense Stellar Systems: 26th meeting of the IAU, 22-23 Aug 2006, Prague, Czech Republic.

Abstract

We have evolved over a hundred thousand binary systems using a full stellar evolution code in order to investigate the feeding of any IMBHs in gobular clusters and their claims as ultraluminous X-ray sources (Madhusudhan et al., 2006). Full stellar evolution codes will need to be incorporated into MODEST to allow stellar physics to be faithfully represented: interesting objects tend to be unusual ones, and hence are unlikely to be well described by fitting formulae. However we note fitting formulae have probably not yet reached their potential and have some extremely significant advantages in both speed and stability. Experience of simulating large populations of stars using both full binary evolution calculations and fitting formulae has given us some insight into the advantages and disadvantages of each method - and more importantly into the improvements which need to be made in order for the goals of MODEST to be fully realised. Speed is no longer an insurmountable problem in the large-scale use of full stellar evolution codes, but stability and reliability are both significant issues.

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