Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2016
We investigate the influence of convective overshoot on stellar evolution models of the thermal pulse AGB phase with MZAMS = 3M⊙. An exponential diffusive overshoot algorithm is applied to all convective boundaries during all evolutionary stages.
We demonstrate that overshooting at the bottom of the pulse-driven convective zone, which forms in the intershell during the He-shell flash, leads to more efficient third dredge-up. Some overshoot at the bottom of the convective envelope removes the He-H discontinuity, which would otherwise prohibit the occurrence of the third dredge-up for this stellar mass. However, no correlation between the amount of envelope overshoot and the efficiency of the third dredge-up has been found.
Increasingly efficient third dredge-up eventually leads to a carbon star model. Due to the partial mixing efficiency in the overshoot region a 13C-pocket can form after the third dredge-up event which may be crucial for n-capture nucleosynthesis.