Runaway stars as progenitors of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts

By J. Eldridge, N. Langer, C. Tout. 2011

196 citations recorded by the source corpus.

When a core-collapse supernova occurs in a binary system, the surviving star as well as the compact remnant emerging from the supernova may reach a substantial space velocity. With binary population synthesis modelling at solar and one-fifth of solar metallicity, we predict the velocities of such runaway stars or binaries. We compile predictions for runaway OB stars, red supergiants and Wolf–Rayet stars, either isolated or with a compact companion. For those stars or binaries which undergo a second stellar explosion we compute their further evolution and the distance travelled until a Type II or Type Ibc supernova or a long or short gamma-ray burst (GRB) occurs. We find our predicted population of OB runaway stars broadly matches the observed population of stars but, to match the fastest observed Wolf–Rayet runaway stars, we require that black holes receive an asymmetric kick upon formation. We find that at solar metallicity Type Ic supernova progenitors travel shorter distances than the progenitors of other supernova types because they are typically more massive and thus have shorter lifetimes. Those of Type IIP supernovae can fly farthest about 48 pc on average at solar metallicity, with about 8 per cent of them reaching 100 pc. In considering the consequences of assuming that the progenitors of long GRBs are spun-up secondary stars that experience quasi-homogeneous evolution, we find that such evolution has a dramatic effect on the population of runaway Wolf– Rayet stars and that some 30 per cent of GRBs could occur a hundred parsec or more from their initial positions. We also consider mergers of double compact object binaries consisting of neutron stars and/or black holes. We find the most common type of visible mergers are neutron star–black hole mergers that are roughly 10 times more common than neutron star–neutron star mergers. All compact mergers have a wide range of merger times from years to Gyr and are predicted to occur 300 times less often than supernovae in the Milky Way. We also find that there may be a population of low-velocity neutron stars that are ejected from a binary rather than by their own natal kick. These neutron stars need to be included when the distribution of neutron star kicks is deduced from observations.

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f841d8a1dca51ca8fee5fd0862d736a0718c35ae

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1. C. Steidel
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Citations in the corpus

• Stellar population effects on the inferred photon density at reionization (2015, methodology): “We also account for QHE in the method outlined in Eldridge et al. (2011).”
• Progenitor mass constraints for core-collapse supernovae from correlations with host galaxy star formation⋆ (2012, background): “A recent study by Eldridge et al. (2011) specifically looked at the production of CC SNe through binaries and how the initially most massive stars explode and ‘kick’ their lower mass companions with velocities, meaning that the lower mass stars explode further away from their places of birth than…”
• Three-phase Interstellar Medium in Galaxies Resolving Evolution with Star Formation and Supernova Feedback (TIGRESS): Algorithms, Fiducial Model, and Convergence (2016, background): “Runaways are massless star particles ejected isotropically with initial velocity distribution consistent with a binary population synthesis model (Figure 2 of Eldridge et al. 2011).”
• THE INCIDENCE OF STELLAR MERGERS AND MASS GAINERS AMONG MASSIVE STARS (2013, background): “In many cases the acquired velocities will be moderate, i.e. a few to tens of km s−1 (e.g. Eldridge et al. 2011).”
• Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis Version 2.1: Construction, Observational Verification, and New Results (2017, methodology): “We identify the supernova types as described in Eldridge et al. (2011) and Eldridge et al. (2013).”
• The Observer's Guide to the Gamma-Ray Burst-Supernova Connection (2016, background): “One such indication may be idea that the progenitors of GRB-SNe are “runaway” stars: that is, massive stars ejected from compact massive-star clusters [484, 485].”
• THE ROTATION RATES OF MASSIVE STARS: THE ROLE OF BINARY INTERACTION THROUGH TIDES, MASS TRANSFER, AND MERGERS (2012, background): “The majority of the systems is, however, expected to be disrupted as a result of the kick of the neutron star, thereby producing single Be stars (e.g., Blaauw 1961; Eldridge et al. 2011).”
• Massive runaway and walkaway stars (2018, methodology): “…O and B-type stars is v & 30 km s−1 (e.g., Blaauw 1956; Gies & Bolton 1986; De Donder et al. 1997; Hoogerwerf et al. 2000, 2001; Dray et al. 2005; Eldridge et al. 2011), although sometimes other values have been considered (e.g., 40 km s−1 in Blaauw 1961; de Wit et al. 2005; Boubert & Evans…”
• THE MOSDEF SURVEY: ELECTRON DENSITY AND IONIZATION PARAMETER AT z ∼ 2.3 (2015, methodology): “Steidel et al. (2014) showed that, when properly normalized, a blackbody spectrum is a good approximation of the spectrum of massive stars bluewards of 912 Å using BPASS stellar models that include effects from binarity (Eldridge et al. 2011; Eldridge & Stanway 2012).”
• RECONCILING THE STELLAR AND NEBULAR SPECTRA OF HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXIES (2016, background): “…massive stars with metallicities Z∗< 0.004 (Z∗/Z < 0.35) can lead to “quasi-homogeneous evolution” (QHE; Yoon & Langer 2005; Cantiello et al. 2007; Eldridge et al. 2011; Brott et al. 2011; Eldridge & Stanway 2012) in which the more massive star over-flows its Roche lobe and dumps mass onto…”