Stellar models for a wide range of initial chemical compositions until helium burning: III. From X = 0.55 to X = 0.75, for Z = 0.03

In this Paper I present grids for the stellar models with a slightly higher metallic content than in the previous works (Claret 1995; Claret & Giménez 1995), say, Z = 0.03. The initial helium abundances in mass are Yi = 0.42,0.32 and 0.22; this last value was used only to facilitate interpolations since it is a little bit smaller than the primordial helium abundance. The present computations are based on the radiative opacities with spin-orbit coupling provided by the Lawrence Livermore group (Iglesias et al. 1992). For the lower temperatures I have used the results by Alexander (1992). Core overshooting was taken into account as well as mass loss. The models presented here cover the mass range between 1 and 40 M⊙. I also compute for all models the internal structure constants kj and the radius of gyration β. For the first time the calculation of the tidal constants E2 and λ2, which are used to evaluate circularization and synchronization times in binary stars, are presented for stellar models as a function of the initial mass and time. The former is related with the dynamical tidal contribution to the total perturbed potential in a binary star while the latter is connected with the external structure of the outer layers.