Convective core sizes in rotating massive stars: I. Constraints from solar metallicity OB field stars

Abstract

Spectroscopic studies of Galactic O and B stars show that many stars with masses above 8 M${}_{\odot }$ are observed in the HR diagram just beyond the Main-Sequence (MS) band predicted by stellar models computed with a moderate overshooting. This may be an indication that the convective core sizes in stars in the upper part of the HR diagram are larger than predicted by these models. Combining stellar evolution models and spectroscopic parameters derived for a large sample of Galactic O and B stars, including brand new information about their projected rotational velocities, we reexamine the question of the convective core size in MS massive stars. We confirm that for stars more massive than about 8 M${}_{\odot }$, the convective core size at the end of the MS phase increases more rapidly with the mass than in models computed with a constant step overshoot chosen to reproduce the main sequence width in the low mass range (around 2 M${}_{\odot }$). This conclusion is valid for both the cases of non-rotating models and rotating models either with a moderate or a strong angular momentum transport. The increase of the convective core mass with the mass obtained from the TAMS position is, however, larger than the one deduced from the surface velocity drop for masses above about 15 M${}_{\odot }$. Although observations available at the moment cannot decide what is the best choice between the core sizes given by the TAMS and the velocity drop, we discuss different methods to get out of this dilemma. At the moment, comparisons with eclipsing binaries seem to favor the solution given by the velocity drop. While we confirm the need for larger convective cores at higher masses, we find tensions in-between different methods for stars more massive than 15 M${}_{\odot }$. The use of single-aged stellar populations (non-interacting binaries or stellar clusters) would be a great asset to resolve this tension.

arXiv comment13 pages, 8 figures

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