The R136 star cluster hosts several stars whose individual masses greatly exceed the accepted 150 Msun stellar mass limit

Abstract

Spectroscopic analyses of H-rich WN5-6 stars within the young star clusters NGC 3603 and R136 are presented, using archival HST & VLT spectroscopy, & high spatial resolution near-IR photometry. We derive high T* for the WN stars in NGC 3603 (T*~42+/-2 kK) & R136 (T*~53+/-3 kK) plus clumping-corrected dM/dt ~ 2-5x10^-5 Msun/yr which closely agree with theoretical predictions. These stars make a disproportionate contribution to the global budget of their host clusters. R136a1 alone supplies ~7% of N(LyC) of the entire 30 Dor region. Comparisons with stellar models calculated for the main-sequence evolution of 85-500 Msun suggest ages of ~1.5 Myr & M_init in the range 105 - 170 Msun for 3 systems in NGC 3603, plus 165-320 Msun for 4 stars in R136. Our high stellar masses are supported by dynamical mass determinations for the components of NGC 3603 A1. We consider the predicted L_X of the R136 stars if they were close, colliding wind binaries. R136c is consistent with a colliding wind binary system. However, short period, colliding wind systems are excluded for R136a WN stars if mass ratios are of order unity. Widely separated systems would have been expected to harden owing to early dynamical encounters with other massive stars in such a dense environment. From simulated star clusters, whose constituents are randomly sampled from the Kroupa IMF, both clusters are consistent with a tentative upper mass limit of ~300 Msun. The Arches cluster is either too old, exhibits a deficiency of very massive stars, or more likely stellar masses have been underestimated - M_init for the most luminous stars in the Arches cluster approach 200 Msun according to contemporary stellar & photometric results. The potential for stars greatly exceeding 150 Msun within metal-poor galaxies suggests that such pair-instability SNe could occur within the local universe, as has been claimed for SN 2007bi (abridged).

20 pages, 14 figures, accepted for MNRAS. Version with higher resolution figures is available from http://pacrowther.staff.shef.ac.uk/R136.pdf See also http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1030/ from Wed 21 from noon (CEST)

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• Studying the kinematics of the giant star-forming region 30 Doradus. I. The data
• High contrast and resolution near infrared photometry of the core of R136
• On the binary nature of massive blue hypergiants: high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy suggests that Cyg OB2 12 is a colliding wind binary
• The Range of Variation of the Mass of the Most Massive Star in Stellar Clusters Derived from 35 Million Monte Carlo Simulations
• Very massive star winds as sources of the short-lived radioactive isotope ${}^{26}$Al
• Gas Dynamics of the Nickel-56 Decay Heating in Pair-Instability Supernovae
• NGC 3105: a young open cluster with low metallicity
• A superluminous supernova in high surface density molecular gas within the bar of a metal-rich galaxy
• Very-high-energy $\gamma$-ray emission from young massive star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• A Systematic Study Of Superluminous Supernova Lightcurve Models Using Clustering
• Brightest stars of irregular and low-massive spiral galaxies
• The first GLIMPSE of the faint galaxy population at Cosmic Dawn with JWST: The evolution of the ultraviolet luminosity function across z~9-15
• The magnetic field and magnetosphere of Plaskett's star: A fundamental shift in our understanding of the system
• Massive open star clusters using the VVV survey IV. WR 62-2, a new very massive star in the core of the VVV CL041 cluster
• Physics of Superluminous Supernovae
• Modeling Increased Metal Production in Galaxy Clusters with Pair-Instability Supernovae
• A Multiwavelength Survey of Wolf-Rayet Nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Wide Field CO Mapping in the Region of IRAS 19312+1950
• VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy of massive young stellar objects in the 30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Contribution of young massive star clusters to Galactic diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission
• pySTARBURST99: The Next Generation of STARBURST99
• Detecting Population III Stars through Tidal Disruption Events in the Era of JWST and Roman
• Three-Dimensional Modelling of Ionized Gas. I. Did very massive stars of different metallicities drive the second cosmic reionization?
• Probing the Dragonfish star-forming complex: the ionizing population of the young massive cluster Mercer 30
• Ages and Masses of Star Clusters in M33: a Multi-wavelength Study
• The formation of globular clusters with top-heavy initial mass functions
• The winking eye of a very massive star: WR 21a revealed as an eclipsing binary by TESS
• Simple interpolation functions for the galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function and its effects in early-type galaxies
• Astroinformatics based search for globular clusters in the Fornax Deep Survey
• Supernovae from stellar mergers and accretors of binary mass transfer: Implications for Type IIP, 1987A-like and interacting supernovae
• Surface chemical composition of single WNh stars
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey XXXII. Low-luminosity late O-type stars -- classification, main physical parameters, and silicon abundances
• Cluster formation induced by a cloud--cloud collision in [DBS2003]179
• First Light for the GRAVITY+ Adaptive Optics: Extreme Adaptive Optics for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer
• Broad Balmer Wings in BA Hyper/Supergiants Distorted by Diffuse Interstellar Bands: Five Examples in the 30 Doradus Region from the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey
• Progress in Nuclear Astrophysics of East and Southeast Asia
• Three-dimensional dust geometry of the LMC HI ridge region as revealed by the IRSF/SIRIUS survey
• Moderate-Resolution Holographic Spectrograph
• Stellar age determination in the Mass-Luminosity Plane
• On the Contribution of Very Massive Stars to the Sulfur Abundance in Star-Forming Galaxies: the Role of PISN
• Scalar Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background in Brans-Dicke Theory of Gravity
• Extinction towards the cluster R136 in the Large Magellanic Cloud: An extinction law from the near-infrared to the ultraviolet
• Very massive stars at low metallicity: evolution, synthetic spectroscopy, and impact on the integrated light of starbursts
• Synthetic Spectra of Pair-Instability Supernovae in 3D
• Stellar photometry with Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics
• Properties of star formation of the Large Magellanic Cloud as probed by young stellar objects
• Enhanced Mass Loss of Very Massive Stars: Impact on the Evolution, Binary Processes, and Remnant Mass Spectrum
• The neutrino emission from thermal processes in very massive stars in the local universe
• Holography, large scale structure, supermassive black holes, and minimum stellar mass
• The Local Ultraviolet to Infrared Treasury I. Survey Overview of the Broadband Imaging
• One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey
• Experimental study of an advanced concept of moderate-resolution holographic spectrographs
• Massive star cluster formation III. Early mass segregation during cluster assembly
• Evolutionary models for the Very Massive Stars in the R136 cluster of 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The outer orbit of the high-mass stellar triple system Herschel 36 determined with the VLTI
• Search for the brightest stars in galaxies outside the Local Group
• Identifying Stars of Mass >150 Msun from Their Eclipse by a Binary Companion
• The VLT-Flames Tarantula Survey: an overview of the VFTS results so far
• Metallicity Ceiling in Quasars from Recycled Stellar Winds
• Extreme adaptive optics astrometry of R136. Searching for high proper motion stars
• Dynamically consistent analysis of Galactic WN4b stars
• Mass loss and fate of the most massive stars
• The origin of the most recently ejected OB runaway star from the R136 cluster
• Evolution of stars with 60 and 200 Msun: predictions for WNh stars in the Milky Way
• FROST-CLUSTERS -- III. Metallicity-dependent intermediate mass black hole formation by runaway collisions in dense star clusters
• Studying the multi-phase interstellar medium in the Large Magellanic Cloud with SRG/eROSITA -- I. Analysis of diffuse X-ray emission
• Winds of Massive Stars: High Resolution X-ray Spectra of Stars in NGC 3603
• Dense clumps survive in the vicinity of R136 in 30 Doradus
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey
• Environments of massive stars and the upper mass limit
• Testing Evolutionary Models with Red Supergiant and Wolf-Rayet Populations
• FLUID: A rocket-borne pathfinder instrument for high efficiency UV band selection imaging
• Kinematics of Wolf-Rayet Stars in the LMC: Clues to Subtype Origins
• The Tarantula Nebula as a template for extragalactic star forming regions from VLT/MUSE and HST/STIS
• First studies of the diffuse X-ray emission in the Large Magellanic Cloud with eROSITA
• ALMA measurements of mass loss and wind clumping in the massive stars of the Arches cluster
• Populations of OB-type stars in galaxies
• Godzilla, a monster lurks in the Sunburst galaxy