Massive Star Mergers: Induced Mixing and Nucleosynthesis

Abstract

We study the nucleosynthesis and the induced mixing during the merging of massive stars inside a common envelope. The systems of interest are close binaries, initially consisting of a massive red supergiant and a main-sequence companion of a few solar masses. We apply parameterized results based on hydrodynamical simulations to model the stream-core interaction and the response of the star in a standard stellar-evolution code. Preliminary results are presented illustrating the possibility of unusual nucleosynthesis and post-merging dredge-up which can cause composition anomalies in the supergiant's envelope.

4 pages. To be published in Ap&SS

Cited by in corpus (7)

• The quest for blue supergiants: binary merger models for the evolution of the progenitor of SN 1987A
• A New Look at the Evolution of Wolf-Rayet Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae
• Pre-supernova evolution and final fate of stellar mergers and accretors of binary mass transfer
• Simulating the formation of $\eta$ Carinae's surrounding nebula through unstable triple evolution and stellar merger-induced eruption
• Explosions of blue supergiants from binary mergers for SN 1987A
• Intermediate Luminosity Optical Transients (ILOTs) from merging giants
• A method for statistical research on binary stars using radial velocities