Dust formation in massive stars and their explosive ends

I. Cherchneff

Published 2009-09-01Version 1

We review the observational evidence for dust formation in Wolf-Rayet binary systems and in Type II Supernova ejecta. Existing theoretical models describing the condensation of solids in carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet stars and in Supernovae close by and at high redshift are discussed. We describe new modeling of carbon- and oxygen-based grain nucleation using a chemical kinetic approach applied to the ejecta of massive pair-instability Supernovae in the early universe. Finally, dust formation processes in colliding wind regions of WC binary systems are discussed.