Mass-luminosity relation for massive stars

A catalog of massive (⩾10 M _⊙) stars in binary and multiple systems with well-known masses and luminosities has been compiled. The catalog is analyzed using a theoretical mass-luminosity relation. This relation allows both normal main-sequence stars and stars with peculiarities: with clear manifestations of mass transfer, mass accretion, and axial rotation, to be identified. Least-squares fitting of the observational data in the range of stellar masses 10M _⊙ ⩽ M ≲ 50 M _⊙ yields the relation L ∼ M ^2.76. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Main sequence models for massive Zero-metal stars

Zero-age main-sequence models for stars of 20, 10, 5 and 2M _⊙ with no heavy elements are constructed for three different possible primordial helium abundances:Y=0.00,Y=0.23, andY=0.30. The latter two values ofY bracket the range of primordial helium abundances cited by Wagoner. With the exceptions of the two 20M _⊙ models that contain helium, these models are found to be self-consistent in the sense that the formation of carbon through the triple-alpha process during pre-main sequence contraction is not sufficient to bring the CN cycle into competition with the proton-proton chain on the ZAMS. The zero-metal models of the present study have higher surface and central temperatures, higher central densities, smaller radii, and smaller convective cores than do the population I models with the same masses. If galaxies containing the zero-metal stars were formed as recently as one third the Hubble time, they would likely appear very blue today — perhaps bluer even that most known quasars — and their redshifted effective temperatures could range as high as 3×10⁴ K to 4×10⁴ K.     

Outflows from massive blue stars

We present in this contribution a revision of the origin, main properties and open issues in the field of winds of massive blue stars, with a particular emphasis in the ultraviolet observations     

Presupernova structure of massive stars

Issues concerning the structure and evolution of core collapse progenitor stars, and stellar evolution in general, are discussed with an emphasis on interior evolution. We discuss some recent results that address quantifying the uncertainties inherent in modern stellar evolution calculations, and we describe a research effort aimed at investigating the transport and mixing processes associated with stellar turbulence, which is arguably the greatest source of uncertainty in supernova progenitor structure, besides mass loss, at the time of core collapse. We highlight the important role played by precision observations of stellar parameters in constraining theoretical models, as well as the physical insight that can be garnered from three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation.     

Chemical enrichment by massive stars

Heavy element abundances derived from high-quality ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectroscopic observations of low-metallicity blue compact galaxies (BCGs) with oxygen abundances 12+log O/H between 7.1 and 8.3 are discussed. None of the heavy element-to-oxygen abundance ratios studied here (C/O, N/O, Ne/O, Si/O, S/O, Ar/O, Fe/O) depend on oxygen abundance for BCGs with 12+log O/H≤7.6 (Z≤Z_⊙/20). This constancy implies that all these heavy elements have a primary origin and are produced by the same massive (M≥10 M_⊙) stars responsible for O production. The dispersion of the C/O and N/O ratios in these galaxies is found to be remarkably small, being only ±0.03 dex and ±0.02 dex respectively. This very small dispersion is strong evidence against any time-delayed production of C and primary N in the lowest-metallicity BCGs, and hence against production of these elements by intermediate-mass (3 M_⊙≤M≤9 M_⊙) stars at very low metallicities, as commonly thought.In higher metallicity BCGs (7.6<12+log O/H<8.2), the Ne/O, Si/O, S/O, Ar/O and Fe/O abundance ratios retain the same constant value they had at lower metallicities. By contrast, there is an increase of the C/O and N/O ratios along with their dispersions at a given O. We interpret this increase as due to the additional contribution of C and primary N production in intermediate-mass stars, on top of that by high-mass stars. BCGs show the same O/Fe overabundance with respect to the Sun (∼0.4 dex) as galactic halo stars, suggesting the same chemical enrichment history.     

Radial pulsations of massive main-sequence stars

The evolution of Population I stars (X = 0.7, Z = 0.02) with initial masses 40M _⊙ ≤ M _ZAMS ≤ 120M _⊙ until core hydrogen exhaustion has been computed. Models of evolutionary sequences have been used as the initial conditions in solving the equations of radiation hydrodynamics that describe the spherically symmetric motion of a self-gravitating gas. Stars with initial masses M _ZAMS ≥ 50M _⊙ are shown to become unstable against radial oscillations during the main-sequence evolution. The instability growth rate and the limit-cycle oscillation amplitude increase as the star evolves and as its initial mass increases. The pulsational instability is attributable to the iron Z-bump κ mechanism (T ∼ 2 × 10⁵ K). Convection that transfers from 20 to 50% of the total energy flux and, thus, reduces the efficiency of the κ mechanism emerges in the same layers. The periods of the radial oscillations of main-sequence stars lie within the range from 0.09 to 8 days. The boundaries of the instability region of radial pulsations in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram have been determined and observational criteria for revealing pulsating variable main-sequence stars have been proposed.     

On the formation of massive stars

We present a model for the formation of massive ( M ≳10 M⊙) stars through accretion-induced collisions in the cores of embedded dense stellar clusters. This model circumvents the problem of accreting on to a star whose luminosity is sufficient to reverse the infall of gas. Instead, the central core of the cluster accretes from the surrounding gas, thereby decreasing its radius until collisions between individual components become sufficient. These components are, in general, intermediate-mass stars that have formed through accretion on to low-mass protostars. Once a sufficiently massive star has formed to expel the remaining gas, the cluster expands in accordance with this loss of mass, halting further collisions. This process implies a critical stellar density for the formation of massive stars, and a high rate of binaries formed by tidal capture.     

Sensitivity in the models of massive stars

Two related problems are discussed in this article: The width of the Main-Sequence of massive stars and sensitivity peatures introduced into the evolutionary tracks of massive stars by mass loss and core-overshooting. It is suggested that core-overshooting may not necessarily be implied by the observations of the width of the Main-Sequence band. It is also noted that models evolved with both mass loss and/or core-overshooting reveal the presence of a large and unexplained expansion of the stellar models under certain conditions. This sensitivity feature would seem to be a fundamental feature inherent to the structure of massive stars.     

Note on the evolution of massive stars

By use of the fluctuation theory the mass of the massive stars can be calculated from the ‘observed’ luminosity, effective temperature and mass-loss rate. These masses differ from those obtained by fits to the ‘conventional’ evolution-tracks and they are used to construct alternative evolution-tracks.     

The evolution of massive stars with mass loss

The evolution of massive stars is investigated in the phases of hydrogen and helium burning, taking into account the mass-loss due to light pressure in optically thick media. The evolution in the stage of hydrogen burning near the Main Sequence occurs without mass loss. The large inverse density gradient appears in the outer layers of a 30 M star after it goes into the domain of red super-giants in the helium-burning stage. This effect appears as a consequence of an excess of luminosity of the star the ciritical one in sufficiently extensive outer layer, where convection is not so effective. In this way, the conditions for outflow of matter are formed. The sequence of selfconsistent models is constructed, with the core in hydrostatic equilibrium and hydrodynamically outflowing envelope. The amount of mass loss is not a given parameter, but it is found during the calculations as a characteristic number of the problem. The amount of mass loss is very high, of the order of 0.5M yr, the velocity of the flow is 20 km s^–1. The star loses about 7.2M during 15 yr. The amount of mass loss must rapidly decrease or finish altogether when matter near the hydrogen-burning layer begins to flow out, and a transformation of stellar structure must occur.The evolution of a 9M star is calculated. The density in the envelope of this star is sufficiently large and the outer convective zone, which develops on the red giant stage, prevents the outflow of matter. The intensive mass outflow from such star can take place at the carbon burning, or heavier element burning stages. The formation of infrared stars and Wolf-Rayet stars can be possibly explained by such a mechanism of mass loss, so that the infrared stage must precede the Wolf-Rayet stage.     

The massive winds of luminous peculiar B-type stars

The wind characteristics of a small group of luminous B-type stars are investigated. They present a momentum problem, similar to but not as obvious as that seen in Wolf-Rayet stars. However, there is no violation of a fundamental limit since the energy to be extracted from the radiation field is small. Moreover, their mass loss rates can be roughly reproduced in the context of a radiation-driven wind provided we make use of larger values for the radiative parameterk.     

Pursuing Local Group blue massive stars with WSO-ISSIS

The Local Group galaxies enable us to study the impact of metallicity on the structure and evolution of massive stars through spectroscopic analyses. However, color-based target selection for spectroscopy (in absence of known spectral types), though relatively successful, usually produces lists dominated by B-type modest-mass stars. We have developed a friends of friends code to find OB associations in Local Group galaxies (Garcia et al. in Astron. Astrophys. 502:1015, 2009; Bull. Soc. R. Sci. Liege 80:381, 2011a). The interpretation of the association’s color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) and the automatic determination of evolutionary masses for the members, allow a more insightful choice of candidates for spectroscopy and to spot out potential advanced evolutionary stages (Garcia et al. in Astron. Astrophys. 523:A23, 2010). We show our results on the dwarf irregular IC 1613 as illustration of the potential of the method.     

Gamma rays from colliding winds of massive stars

Colliding winds of massive binaries have long been considered as potential sites of non-thermal high-energy photon production. This is motivated by the detection of non-thermal spectra in the radio band, as well as by correlation studies of yet unidentified EGRET γ-ray sources with source populations appearing in star formation regions. This work re-considers the basic radiative processes and its properties that lead to high energy photon production in long-period massive star systems. We show that Klein–Nishina effects as well as the anisotropic nature of the inverse Compton scattering, the dominating leptonic emission process, likely yield spectral and variability signatures in the γ-ray domain at or above the sensitivity of current or upcoming gamma ray instruments like GLAST-LAT. In addition to all relevant radiative losses, we include propagation (such as convection in the stellar wind) as well as photon absorption effects, which a priori can not be neglected. The calculations are applied to WR 140 and WR 147, and predictions for their detectability in the γ-ray regime are provided. Physically similar specimen of their kind like WR 146, WR 137, WR 138, WR 112 and WR 125 may be regarded as candidate sources at GeV energies for near-future γ-ray experiments. Finally, we discuss several aspects relevant for eventually identifying this source class as a γ-ray emitting population. Thereby we utilize our findings on the expected radiative behavior of typical colliding wind binaries in the γ-ray regime as well as its expected spatial distribution on the γ-ray sky.     

Very massive stars: Evolution with mass loss

In a previous paper (Klapp, 1983) we have described the evolution of metal-free mass-losing very massive stars (VMS) in the 500–10 000M range. The present paper concerns to the nucleosynthesis and mass loss aspects of the hydrogen- and helium-burning phase. Through radiation driven winds, the star losses 20–40% of its mass as helium and 1% as carbon and oxygen. The results show that VMS cannot produce the cosmological helium abundance without overproducing heavier elements. The high oxygen yield of VMS makes them the best candidates for producing an oxygen overabundance in old Population II stars.     

Collisions and close encounters involving massive main-sequence stars

We study close encounters involving massive main-sequence stars and the evolution of the exotic products of these encounters as common-envelope systems or possible hypernova progenitors. We show that parabolic encounters between low- and high-mass stars and between two high-mass stars with small periastrons result in mergers on time-scales of a few tens of stellar free-fall times (a few tens of hours). We show that such mergers of unevolved low-mass stars with evolved high-mass stars result in little mass-loss  (∼0.01 M_⊙)  and can deliver sufficient fresh hydrogen to the core of the collision product to allow the collision product to burn for several million years. We find that grazing encounters enter a common-envelope phase which may expel the envelope of the merger product. The deposition of energy in the envelopes of our merger products causes them to swell by factors of ∼100. If these remnants exist in very densely populated environments  ( n ≳ 10⁷ pc⁻³)  , they will suffer further collisions which may drive off their envelopes, leaving behind hard binaries. We show that the products of collisions have cores rotating sufficiently rapidly to make them candidate hypernova/gamma-ray burst progenitors and that ∼0.1 per cent of massive stars may suffer collisions, sufficient for such events to contribute significantly to the observed rates of hypernovae and gamma-ray bursts.