README

ESTER is available under the GPL Version 3 license.

The ambition of this project is to set out a two-dimensional stellar evolution
code, which fully takes into account the effects of rotation, at any rate and in
a self-consistent way. The difficult, but important point is that rotating stars
are spheroidal and are never in hydrostatic equilibrium. They are pervaded by
flows everywhere, even in the stably stratified radiative regions. These flows
are essentially convective flows in thermally unstable regions (convection
zones) and baroclinic flows in the radiative regions. These latter flows are
grosso modo a differential rotation and a meridional circulation, with likely
some small-scale turbulence. Radiative regions of non-rotating stars experience
very little mixing (only due to microscopic phenomena). Rotation induces flows
and therefore some mixing, well-known as "rotational mixing". This is a key
feature of the evolution of rotating stars. Besides, these stars also oscillate,
and astronomers would like to get from the oscillation frequencies some good
constraints on the structure of these stars. The foregoing reasons and many
others motivated us to construct a two-dimensional model of rotating stars that
is kind enough to enlight us on the numerous questions we are wondering about...
Please send any question or comment to: ester-dev@irap.omp.eu.

Michel Rieutord

http://ester-project.github.io/ester/