Very Massive Stars (VMS) in the Local Universe
Abstract
Recent studies have claimed the existence of very massive stars (VMS) up to 300 solar masses in the local Universe. As this finding may represent a paradigm shift for the canonical stellar upper-mass limit of 150 Msun, it is timely to discuss the status of the data, as well as the far-reaching implications of such objects. We held a Joint Discussion at the General Assembly in Beijing to discuss (i) the determination of the current masses of the most massive stars, (ii) the formation of VMS, (iii) their mass loss, and (iv) their evolution and final fate. The prime aim was to reach broad consensus between observers and theorists on how to identify and quantify the dominant physical processes.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1302.2021,
title = {Very Massive Stars (VMS) in the Local Universe},
author = {Jorick S. Vink and Alexander Heger and Mark R. Krumholz and Joachim Puls and S. Banerjee and N. Castro and K. -J. Chen and A. -N. Chene and P. A. Crowther and A. Daminelli and G. Grafener and J. H. Groh and W. -R. Hamann and S. Heap and A. Herrero and L. Kaper and F. Najarro and L. M. Oskinova and A. Roman-Lopes and A. Rosen and A. Sander and M. Shirazi and Y. Sugawara and F. Tramper and D. Vanbeveren and R. Voss and A. Wofford and Y. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1302.2021},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
29 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings Joint Discussion 2. To be published in Hightlights of Astronomy, ed. T. Montmerle