Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars

Nathan Smith

Published 2014-02-06Version 1

Our understanding of massive star evolution is in flux, due to recent upheavals in our view of mass loss, and observations of a high binary fraction among O-type stars. Mass-loss rates for standard metallicity-dependent winds of hot stars are now thought to be lower by a factor of 2-3 compared to rates adopted in modern stellar evolution models, due to the influence of clumping. Weaker line-driven winds shift the burden of H-envelope removal elsewhere, so that the dominant modes of mass loss are the winds, pulsations, and eruptions of evolved supergiants, as well as binary mass transfer. Studies of stripped-envelope supernovae, in particular, require binary mass transfer. Dramatic examples of eruptive mass loss are seen in Type IIn supernovae, which have massive shells ejected just a few years before core collapse. The shifting emphasis from steady winds to episodic mass loss is a major change for low-metallicity regions, since eruptions and binary mass transfer are less sensitive to metallicity. We encounter the predicament that the most important modes of mass loss are also the most uncertain, undermining the predictive power of single-star evolution models beyond core H burning. Moreover, the influence of winds and rotation in models has been evaluated by testing single-star models against observed statistics that, as it turns out, are heavily influenced by binary evolution. This alters our view about the most basic outcomes of massive-star mass loss --- are WR stars and SNe Ibc the products of single-star winds, or are they mostly the result of binary evolution and eruptive mass loss? This paradigm shift has far-reaching impact on a number of other areas of astronomy. (abridged)