The drastic impact of Eddington-limit induced mass ejections on massive star populations

Abstract

Massive stars are the key engines of the Universe. However, their evolution and thus their ionizing feedback are still not fully understood. One of the largest gaps in current stellar evolution calculations is the lack of a model for the mass ejections that occur when the stars reach the Eddington limit, such as during an Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) phase. We aim to remedy this situation by providing a physically motivated and empirically calibrated method applicable in any 1D stellar evolution code to approximate the effect of such mass loss on stellar evolution. We employ the 1D stellar evolution code MESA, in which we implement a new mass-loss prescription that is acting when stellar models inflate too much when reaching the Eddington limit. Synthetic massive-star stellar populations using calculated grids of single-star models with this mass loss prescription are compared with the observed populations in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. In combination with already computed grids of binary evolution models, we investigate the impact of binarity on our predictions. Our single-star models reproduce key features of the observed stellar populations, namely (i) the absence of stars located beyond the Humphreys-Davidson limit, (ii) an upper limit of RSG luminosities, (iii) the faintest observed single WR stars, (iv) the absolute number of O-stars, WRs, and RSGs, (v) WO stars in low metallicity environments, and (vi) the positions of LBV stars in the HRD. Our binary population explains at the same time the 70% binary fraction of O-stars and the 40% binary fraction of WR stars. However, our synthetic population also has caveats, such as an overproduction of bright H-free WN stars. Our results show that the effect of Eddington-limit induced mass ejections on the structure and evolution of massive stars can remove tension between predicted and observed massive star populations.

arXiv comment14 Pages + 5 Pages in the Appendix, 12 Figures, 1 Table

References in corpus (114)

• On the variation of the Initial Mass Function
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Giant Planets, Oscillations, Rotation, and Massive Stars
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Binaries, Pulsations, and Explosions
• MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST). I: Solar-Scaled Models
• Binary interaction dominates the evolution of massive stars
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Pulsating Variable Stars, Rotation, Convective Boundaries, and Energy Conservation
• Mass-loss predictions for O and B stars as a function of metallicity
• Galaxies on FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments): Stellar Feedback Explains Cosmologically Inefficient Star Formation
• Presupernova Evolution of Rotating Massive Stars I: Numerical Method and Evolution of the Internal Stellar Structure
• Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars
• Rotating Massive Main-Sequence Stars I: Grids of Evolutionary Models and Isochrones
• Southern Massive Stars at High Angular Resolution: Observational Campaign and Companion Detection
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Time-Dependent Convection, Energy Conservation, Automatic Differentiation, and Infrastructure
• Presupernova evolution and explosive nucleosynthesis of rotating massive stars in the metallicity range -3 <=[Fe/H]<= 0
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey VIII. Multiplicity properties of the O-type star population
• The Star Formation History of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Grids of stellar models with rotation - III. Models from 0.8 to 120 Msun at a metallicity Z = 0.002
• The empirical metallicity dependence of the mass-loss rate of O- and early B-type stars
• An excess of massive stars in the local 30 Doradus starburst
• Evolution of massive stars with pulsation-driven superwinds during the RSG phase
• Observational constraints on the origin of the elements. IV: The standard composition of the Sun
• The Wolf-Rayet stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud: A comprehensive analysis of the WN class
• The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: atmospheric parameters and rotational velocity distributions for B-type stars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Stellar and Wind Properties of LMC WC4 stars - A metallicity dependence for Wolf-Rayet mass-loss rates
• Stellar envelope inflation near the Eddington limit. Implications for the radii of Wolf-Rayet stars and luminous blue variables
• The Eddington factor as the key to understand the winds of the most massive stars. Evidence for a Gamma-dependence of Wolf-Rayet type mass loss
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey XXII. Multiplicity properties of the B-type stars
• The evolution of rotating very massive stars with LMC composition
• Massive main sequence stars evolving at the Eddington limit
• Luminous Blue Variables and superluminous supernovae from binary mergers
• Local Radiation Hydrodynamic Simulations of Massive Star Envelopes at the Iron Opacity Peak
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey - XI. A census of the hot luminous stars and their feedback in 30 Doradus
• Understanding B-type Supergiants in the Low Metallicity Environment of the SMC
• Constraining mixing in massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Towards a better understanding of the evolution of Wolf-Rayet stars and Type Ib/Ic supernova progenitors
• Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud: I. Analysis of the single WN stars
• Structure and evolution of high-mass stellar mergers
• The VMC survey - XXXI. The spatially resolved star formation history of the main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Testing massive star evolution, star-formation history and feedback at low metallicity : Spectroscopic analysis of OB stars in the SMC Wing
• The luminosities of cool supergiants in the Magellanic Clouds, and the Humphreys-Davidson limit revisited
• Yellow and Red Supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Understanding B-type supergiants in the low metallicity environment of the SMC II
• Why binary interaction does not necessarily dominate the formation of Wolf-Rayet stars at low metallicity
• Core-halo Structure of Chemically Homogeneous Massive Star and Bending of Zero-Age Main-Sequence
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey III: A very massive star in apparent isolation from the massive cluster R136
• Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud: II. Analysis of the binaries
• Massive stars at low metallicity: Evolution and surface abundances of O dwarfs in the SMC
• Quantitative studies of the Far-UV, UV and optical spectra of late O and early B-type supergiants in the Magellanic Clouds
• The very massive binary NGC3603-A1
• Three Dimensional Radiation Hydrodynamic Simulations of Massive Star Envelopes
• The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey XXI. Stellar spin rates of O-type spectroscopic binaries
• Massive donors in interacting binaries: effect of metallicity
• The metallicity dependence of envelope inflation in massive stars
• Stellar mergers as the origin of the blue main-sequence band in young star clusters
• Yellow Supergiants in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC): Putting Current Evolutionary Theory to the Test
• On the Social Traits of Luminous Blue Variables
• A Modern Search for Wolf-Rayet Stars in the Magellanic Clouds. IV. A Final Census
• Massive stars on the verge of exploding: the properties of oxygen sequence Wolf-Rayet stars
• Partial-envelope stripping and nuclear-timescale mass transfer from evolved supergiants at low metallicity
• Evolution and Mass Loss of Cool Ageing Stars: a Daedalean Story
• Stellar population of the superbubble N206 in the LMC II. Parameters of the OB and WR stars, and the total massive star feedback
• Analytic, dust-independent mass-loss rates for red supergiant winds initiated by turbulent pressure
• X-Shooting ULLYSES: massive stars at low metallicity. I. Project Description
• Effects of winds on the leftover hydrogen in massive stars following Roche lobe overflow
• A census of massive stars in NGC 346. Stellar parameters and rotational velocities
• Evolved Massive Stars at Low-metallicity V. Mass-Loss Rate of Red Supergiant Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud as testbed for massive star evolution
• LMC Blue Supergiant Stars and the Calibration of the Flux-weighted Gravity--Luminosity Relationship
• Mass loss and the Eddington parameter: a new mass-loss recipe for hot and massive stars
• Pre-collapse Properties of Superluminous Supernovae and Long Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitor Models
• Wind-envelope interaction as the origin of the slow cyclic brightness variations of luminous blue variables
• The spectroscopic Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of hot massive stars in the SMC
• Rejuvenated accretors have less bound envelopes: Impact of Roche lobe overflow on subsequent common envelope events
• The excess of cool supergiants from contemporary stellar evolution models defies the metallicity-independent Humphreys-Davidson limit
• A synthetic population of Wolf-Rayet stars in the LMC based on detailed single and binary star evolution models
• Blue supergiant progenitor models of Type II supernovae
• Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM): a spectroscopic VLT monitoring survey of massive stars in the SMC
• A theoretical investigation of the Humphreys-Davidson limit at high and low metallicity
• ALMA detection of CO rotational line emission in red supergiant stars of the massive young star cluster RSGC1 -- Determination of a new mass-loss rate prescription for red supergiants
• Stellar wind properties of the nearly complete sample of O stars in the low metallicity young star cluster NGC346 in the SMC galaxy
• Massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud : Evolution, rotation and surface abundances
• Establishing a mass-loss rate relation for red supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Evolutionary tracks, ejecta, and ionizing photons from intermediate-mass to very massive stars with PARSEC
• WO-Type Wolf-Rayet Stars: the Last Hurrah of Massive Star Evolution
• Revisiting the Modified Eddington Limit for Massive Stars
• A dearth of young and bright massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Dynamically inflated wind models of classical Wolf-Rayet stars
• A partially stripped massive star in a Be binary at low metallicity: A missing link towards Be X-ray binaries and double neutron star mergers
• How common is LBV S Dor variability at low metallicity?
• An absence of binary companions to Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud: implications for mass loss and black hole masses at low metallicity
• Red Supergiants in M31: The Humphreys-Davidson limit at high metallicity
• The spectroscopic properties of the nebulae around seven Galactic and LMC Wolf-Rayet stars
• On the nature of WO stars: a quantitative analysis of the WO3 star DR1 in IC 1613
• X-Shooting ULLYSES: Massive Stars at low metallicity VIII. Stellar and wind parameters of newly revealed stripped stars in Be binaries
• The effect of mass loss in models of red supergiants in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• A high fraction of close massive binary stars at low metallicity
• The Wolf-Rayet binaries of the nitrogen sequence in the Large Magellanic Cloud: spectroscopy, orbital analysis, formation, and evolution
• Pulsations as a Driver for LBV Variability
• Enhanced Rotational Mixing in the Radiative Zones of Massive Stars
• Boron depletion in Galactic early B-type stars reveals two different main sequence star populations
• Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM): The multiplicity properties and evolution of BAF-type supergiants
• Spectroscopic and evolutionary analyses of the binary system AzV 14 outline paths toward the WR stage at low metallicity
• Investigating 39 Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars with VLTI/GRAVITY: Uncovering A Long Period Binary Desert
• Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM): Enhanced multiplicity of early B-type dwarfs and giants at $Z=0.2{\mathrm{Z}}_{\odot }$
• A low-metallicity massive contact binary undergoing slow Case A mass transfer: A detailed spectroscopic and orbital analysis of SSN 7 in NGC 346 in the SMC
• An interferometric study of B star multiplicity
• Luminous Blue Variables
• Supernovae from stellar mergers and accretors of binary mass transfer: Implications for Type IIP, 1987A-like and interacting supernovae
• Catching a grown-up starfish planetary nebula II. Plasma analysis and central star properties of PC 22
• Spindown of massive main sequence stars in the Milky Way
• X-Shooting ULLYSES: Massive Stars at Low Metallicity X. Physical Parameters and Feedback of Massive Stars in the LMC N11 B Star-Forming Region
• X-Shooting ULLYSES: Massive stars at low metallicity. XIII. Putting the bi-stability jump to the test in the LMC