MESA MODELS OF CLASSICAL NOVA OUTBURSTS: THE MULTICYCLE EVOLUTION AND EFFECTS OF CONVECTIVE BOUNDARY MIXING

Novae are cataclysmic variables driven by accretion of H-rich material onto a white dwarf (WD) star from its low-mass main-sequence binary companion. New time-domain observational capabilities, such as the Palomar Transient Factory and Pan-STARRS, have revealed a diversity of their behavior that should be theoretically addressed. Nova outbursts depend sensitively on nuclear physics data, and more readily available nova simulations are needed in order to effectively prioritize experimental effort in nuclear astrophysics. In this paper, we use the MESA stellar evolution code to construct multicycle nova evolution sequences with CO WD cores. We explore a range of WD masses and accretion rates as well as the effect of different cooling times before the onset of accretion. In addition, we study the dependence on the elemental abundance distribution of accreted material and convective boundary mixing at the core-envelope interface. Models with such convective boundary mixing display an enrichment of the accreted envelope with C and O from the underlying WD that is commensurate with observations. We compare our results with the previous work and investigate a new scenario for novae with the He-3-triggered convection.