Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Magnetic Inhibition Of Convection And The Fundamental Properties Of Low-Mass Stars. I. Stars With A Radiative Core, Gregory A. Feiden, Brian Chaboyer

Dartmouth Scholarship

Magnetic fields are hypothesized to inflate the radii of low-mass stars—defined as less massive than 0.8 M _☉—in detached eclipsing binaries (DEBs). We investigate this hypothesis using the recently introduced magnetic Dartmouth stellar evolution code. In particular, we focus on stars thought to have a radiative core and convective outer envelope by studying in detail three individual DEBs: UV Psc, YY Gem, and CU Cnc. Our results suggest that the stabilization of thermal convection by a magnetic field is a plausible explanation for the observed model-radius discrepancies. However, surface magnetic field strengths required by the models are significantly stronger …

Observational Constraints On General Relativistic Energy Conditions, Cosmic Matter Density And Dark Energy From X-Ray Clusters Of Galaxies And Type-La Supernovae, P. Schuecker, R. R. Caldwell, H. Böhringer, C. A. Collins

Dartmouth Scholarship

New observational constraints on the cosmic matter density Ωm and an effectively redshift-independent equation

of state parameter wx of the dark energy are obtained while simultaneously testing the strong and null energy conditions of

general relativity on macroscopic scales. The combination of REFLEX X-ray cluster and type-Ia supernova data shows that

for a flat Universe the strong energy condition might presently be violated whereas the null energy condition seems to be

fulfilled. This provides another observational argument for the present accelerated cosmic expansion and the absence of exotic

physical phenomena related to a broken null energy condition. The marginalization of …