Implementation of New OPAL Tables in Eggleton's Stellar Evolution Code

Abstract

Based on the work of OPAL (Iglesias & Rogers 1996) and Alexander & Ferguson (1994), we construct a series of opacity tables for various metallicities Z=0, 0.00001, 0.00003, 0.0001, 0.0003, 0.001, 0.004, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.1. These tables can be easily used in Eggleton&#39;s stellar evolution code in place of the old tables without changing the code. The OPAL tables are used for ${\log}_{10}(T/{\rm K})> 3.95$ and Alexander&#39;s for ${\log}_{10}(T/{\rm K})< 3.95$. At ${\rm log}_{10}(T/{\rm K})=3.95$, the two groups&#39; data fit well for all hydrogen mass fractions. Conductive opacities are included by reciprocal addition according to the formulae of Yakovlev & Urpin (1980). For different metallicities $1M_\odot$ models are constructed with the new opacity tables. Comparison of 1 and $5M\odot$ models constructed with the older OPAL tables (Iglesias & Rogers 1992) shows that the new opacities have most effect in the late stages of evolution, the extension of the blue loop during helium burning for intermediate-mass and massive stars.