Exploring the Mass Loss Histories of the Red Supergiants

Abstract

We report mid- to far-infrared imaging and photomety from 7 to 37 microns with SOFIA/FORCAST and 2 micron adaptive optics imaging with LBTI/LMIRCam of a large sample of red supergiants (RSGs) in four Galactic clusters; RSGC1, RSGC2=Stephenson 2, RSGC3, and NGC 7419. The red supergiants in these clusters cover their expected range in luminosity and initial mass from approximately 9 to more than 25 Solar masses. The population includes examples of very late-type RSGs such as MY Cep which may be near the end of the RSG stage, high mass losing maser sources, yellow hypergiants and post-RSG candidates. Many of the stars and almost all of the most luminous have spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with extended infrared excess radiation at the longest wavelengths. To best model their SEDs we use DUSTY with a variable radial density distribution function to estimate their mass loss rates. Our mass loss rate -- luminosity relation for 42 RSGs basically follows the classical de Jager curve, but at luminosities below 10^5 Solar luminosities we find a significant population of red supergiants with mass loss rate below the de Jager relation. At luminosities above 10^5 Solar luminosities there is a rapid transition to higher mass loss rates that approximates and overlaps the de Jager curve. We recommend that instead of using a linear relation or single curve, the empirical mass loss rate -- luminosity relation is better represented by a broad band. Interestingly, the transition to much higher mass loss rates at about 10^5 Lsun corresponds approximately to an initial mass of 18 --20 Msun which is close to the upper limit for RSGs becoming Type II SNe.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal

References in corpus (35)

• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• Grids of stellar models with rotation - I. Models from 0.8 to 120 Msun at solar metallicity (Z = 0.014)
• GLIMPSE: I. A SIRTF Legacy Project to Map the Inner Galaxy
• Progenitors of core-collapse supernovae
• The Infrared Astronomical Mission AKARI
• Observational constraints on the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae : the case for missing high mass stars
• Self-similarity and scaling behavior of IR emission from radiatively heated dust: I. Theory
• An empirical formula for the mass-loss rates of dust-enshrouded red supergiants and oxygen-rich Asymptotic Giant Branch stars
• The mass-loss rates of red supergiants and the de Jager prescription
• A massive cluster of Red Supergiants at the base of the Scutum-Crux arm
• A new mass-loss rate prescription for red supergiants
• Discovery of an Extraordinarily Massive Cluster of Red Supergiants
• The temperatures of Red Supergiants
• The Initial Masses of the Red Supergiant Progenitors to Type-II Supernovae
• Probing the mass-loss history of AGB and red supergiant stars from CO rotational line profiles I. Theoretical model -- Mass-loss history unravelled in VY CMa
• The cool supergiant population of the massive young star cluster RSGC1
• A third red supergiant rich cluster in the Scutum-Crux Arm
• The evolution of Red Supergiants to supernova in the LMC cluster NGC 2100
• Seed particle formation for silicate dust condensation by SiO nucleation
• Searching for Cool Dust in the Mid-to-Far Infrared: the Mass Loss Histories of The Hypergiants $\mu$ Cep, VY CMa, IRC+10420, and $\rho$ Cas
• Red supergiants around the obscured open cluster Stephenson 2
• M33's Variable A -- A Hypergiant Star More Than 35 Years in Eruption
• The Morphology of IRC +10420's Circumstellar Ejecta
• NGC 7419 as a template for red supergiant clusters
• SiO maser emission from red supergiants across the Galaxy: I. Targets in massive star clusters
• The distances to star-clusters hosting Red Supergiants: $\chi$ Per, NGC 7419, and Westerlund 1
• The Discovery of a Massive Cluster of Red Supergiants with GLIMPSE
• NGC 7419: A young open cluster with a number of very young intermediate mass pre-MS stars
• Optical/near-infrared observations of the Fried Egg Nebula: Multiple shell ejections on a 100 yr timescale from a massive yellow hypergiant
• Adaptive Optics Imaging of VY Canis Majoris at 2 - 5 micron with LBT/LMIRCam
• Multi-wavelength study of a young open cluster NGC 7419
• Searching for Cool Dust: II. Infrared Imaging of the OH/IR Supergiants, NML Cyg, VX Sgr, S Per and the Normal Red Supergiants RS Per and T Per
• The Role of Dust in Models of Population Synthesis
• Discovery of a young and massive stellar cluster: Spectrophotometric near-infrared study of Masgomas-1
• The population of M-type supergiants in the starburst cluster Stephenson 2

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Type II supernovae from the Carnegie Supernova Project-I. II. Physical parameter distributions from hydrodynamical modelling
• Evolved Massive Stars at Low-metallicity V. Mass-Loss Rate of Red Supergiant Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Episodic Gaseous Outflows and Mass Loss from Red Supergiants
• Explosion Imminent: the appearance of Red Supergiants at the point of core-collapse
• The Mass-Loss History of the Red Hypergiant VY CMa
• Establishing a mass-loss rate relation for red supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Formation pathway for lonely stripped-envelope supernova progenitors: implications for Cassiopeia A
• New infrared spectral indices of luminous cold stars: from early K to M-types
• Yellow Supergiants and Post-Red Supergiant Evolution in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Red Supergiant Mass Loss and Mass-Loss Rates
• Red Supergiant Candidates for Multimessenger Monitoring of the Next Galactic Supernova
• PION: Simulating bow shocks and circumstellar nebulae
• Inferring CSM Properties of Type II SNe Using a Magnitude-Limited ZTF Sample
• Critical Metallicity of Cool Supergiant Formation. I. Effects on Stellar Mass Loss and Feedback
• Investigating the metallicity dependence of the mass-loss rate relation of red supergiants
• Episodic mass loss in the very luminous red supergiant [W60] B90 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Tracing a decade of activity towards a yellow hypergiant. The spectral and spatial morphology of IRC+10420 at au scales
• Searching for Galactic Red Supergiants with Gaia RVS Spectra
• Red Supergiants -- The Other Side of the H-R Diagram
• The Red and Yellow Hypergiants
• Stellar evolution through the Red Supergiant phase
• Red Supergiants in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
• Locating Red Supergiants in the Galaxy NGC 6822
• The Properties of Fast Yellow Pulsating Supergiants: FYPS Point the Way to Missing Red Supergiants
• The extreme scarcity of dust-enshrouded red supergiants: consequences for producing stripped stars via winds
• Variable Stars in M31 Stellar Clusters from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury