New radiative opacities: Their influence on stellar models

We investigate the influence of different assumptions about radiative opacity on the theoretical evolution of stellar structures in the range of low and intermediate mass stars. Selected evolutionary models with Z≤0.02 have been evolved through H and He burning phases, in order to allow a comparison between models obtained on the basis of either the recent Livermore (OPAL) or the previous Los Alamos opacity tabulations (LAOL). Our main results are: (i) The use of OPAL produce appreciable variations of the evolutionary scenario only for stellar models having mass larger than 3M ○. (at Z=0.02). (ii) In all cases, stellar properties depending on the physical structure of the H or He burning cores are practically insensitive to the latest opacity computations