Evolution and fate of very massive stars

By N. Yusof, R. Hirschi, G. Meynet, P. Crowther, S. Ekström, U. Frischknecht, C. Georgy, H. A. Kassim, O. Schnurr. 2013

166 citations recorded by the source corpus.

There is observational evidence that supports the existence of very massive stars (VMS) in the local universe. First, VMS (Mini ≲ 320 M⊙) have been observed in the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC). Secondly, there are observed supernovae (SNe) that bear the characteristics of pair creation supernovae (PCSNe, also referred to as pair instability SN) which have VMS as progenitors. The most promising candidate to date is SN 2007bi. In order to investigate the evolution and fate of nearby VMS, we calculated a new grid of models for such objects, for solar, LMC and Small Magellanic Clouds (SMC) metallicities, which covers the initial mass range from 120 to 500 M⊙. Both rotating and non-rotating models were calculated using the GENEVA stellar evolution code and evolved until at least the end of helium burning and for most models until oxygen burning. Since VMS have very large convective cores during the main-sequence phase, their evolution is not so much affected by rotational mixing, but more by mass loss through stellar winds. Their evolution is never far from a homogeneous evolution even without rotational mixing. All the VMS, at all the metallicities studied here, end their life as WC(WO)-type Wolf-Rayet stars. Because of very important mass losses through stellar winds, these stars may have luminosities during the advanced phases of their evolution similar to stars with initial masses between 60 and 120 M⊙. A distinctive feature which may be used to disentangle Wolf-Rayet stars originating from VMS from those originating from lower initial masses would be the enhanced abundances of Ne and Mg at the surface of WC stars. This feature is however not always apparent depending on the history of mass loss. At solar metallicity, none of our models is expected to explode as a PCSN. At the metallicity of the LMC, only stars more massive than 300 M⊙ are expected to explode as PCSNe. At the SMC metallicity, the mass range for the PCSN progenitors is much larger and comprises stars with initial masses between about 100 and 290 M⊙. All VMS in the metallicity range studied here produce either a Type Ib SN or a Type Ic SN but not a Type II SN. We estimate that the progenitor of SN 2007bi, assuming a SMC metallicity, had an initial mass between 160 and 175 M⊙. None of models presented in this grid produces gamma-ray bursts or magnetars. They lose too much angular momentum by mass loss or avoid the formation of a black hole by producing a completely disruptive PCSN.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/88a96b5df33c2ae7d053f99d273f8f3b7fb1de5b

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Michela Mapelli
2. Ilya Mandel
3. Selma de Mink
4. Mario Spera
5. N. Langer
6. N. Giacobbo
7. D. Holz
8. N. Smith

Citations in the corpus

• The R136 star cluster dissected with Hubble Space Telescope/STIS. I. Far-ultraviolet spectroscopic census and the origin of He II λ1640 in young star clusters (2016, methodology): “Therefore, the youth of R136a does not support a scenario in which all the VMS are merger products.”
• DOUBLE COMPACT OBJECTS. II. COSMOLOGICAL MERGER RATES (2013, background): “A recent theoretical study by Yusof et al. (2013) suggests that such objects (150 M –500 M ) will not increase in size significantly during their evolution.”
• BPASS predictions for binary black hole mergers (2016, background): “Yusof et al. (2013) find such stars have very large convective cores so that mass-loss can expose material from the core rapidly without the need for rotational mixing.”
• The effect of pair-instability mass loss on black-hole mergers (2016, background): “This gap in the mass spectrum of BHs, ∼50−135 M , is the second mass gap predicted for compact-object formation (Yusof et al. 2013; Belczynski et al. 2014; Marchant et al. 2016).”
• DOUBLE COMPACT OBJECTS. III. GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE DETECTION RATES (2015, unknown): “On the other hand the intense wind mass loss may additionally reduce the envelope (e.g., Yusof et al. 2013; but see MESA models for very massive stars; Belczynski et al. 2014).”
• The search for failed supernovae with the Large Binocular Telescope: confirmation of a disappearing star (2016, methodology): “We matched the estimated progenitor luminosity and effective temperature estimates from the MCMC realizations with those from the parsec and Geneva stellar models (Ekström et al. 2012; Yusof et al. 2013).”
• The Wolf-Rayet stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud - A comprehensive analysis of the WN class (2014, methodology): “7 and 10) with the stellar evolution tracks by Meynet & Maeder (2005) and Yusof et al. (2013).”
• COMPACT BINARY MERGER RATES: COMPARISON WITH LIGO/VIRGO UPPER LIMITS (2015, background): “If this is the case, there may exist an additional population of very massive stellar origin BHs with mass ∼> 100 M⊙ (Yusof et al. 2013).”
• Pulsational Pair-instability Supernovae (2016, background): “…star will end its life as a PPISN (or a PISN), but an appreciable fraction of stars with metallicity below 1/3 Z might (see also Georgy et al. 2013; Spera et al. 2015; Langer et al. 2007; Yusof et al. 2013), especially if the metallicity scaling of Vink et al. (2001) is employed instead of Z0.”