Related papers: The MiMeS Project: First Results
Supermassive primordial stars are expected to form in a small fraction of massive protogalaxies in the early universe, and are generally conceived of as the progenitors of the seeds of supermassive black holes (BHs). Supermassive stars with…
Understanding how massive stars die as supernovae is a crucial question in modern astrophysics. Supernovae are powerful stellar explosions and key drivers in the cosmic baryonic cycles by injecting their explosion energy and heavy elements…
Massive stars are a major source of chemical elements in the cosmos, ejecting freshly produced nuclei through winds and core-collapse supernova explosions into the interstellar medium. Among the material ejected, long lived radioisotopes,…
The densities in the cores of the neutron stars (NSs) can reach several times that of the nuclear saturation density. The exact nature of matter at these densities is still virtually unknown. We consider a number of proposed,…
We present a model for the formation of massive ($M > 10 M_\odot$) stars through accretion-induced collisions in the cores of embedded dense stellar clusters. This model circumvents the problem of accreting onto a star whose luminosity is…
Massive stars are among the most important objects in the Universe and many (most?) of them are formed in binaries. A selection of observational and theoretical facts that illustrate the importance of binaries and the evolution of massive…
Massive stars are the engines of the Cosmos, shaping their environments and driving galaxy evolution across cosmic time. Yet, this general textbook picture faces many challenges when trying to turn abstract insights into quantitative…
Feedback from massive stars plays an important role in the formation of star clusters. Whether a very massive star is born early or late in the cluster formation timeline has profound implications for the star cluster formation and assembly…
We use a gaseous model and a semi-analytical approach to study the evolution of a super-massive central gaseous object (a super-massive star, (SMS from now on) in an AGN and its evolution by interactions with the surrounding stellar system.…
Supermassive stars have been proposed as the progenitors of the massive ($\sim 10^{9}\,\rm{M}_{\odot}$) quasars observed at $z\sim7$. Prospects for directly detecting supermassive stars with next-generation facilities depend critically on…
Recent studies suggest that the initial mass function (IMF) of the first stars was likely to be extremely top-heavy, unlike what is observed at present. We propose a scenario to generate fragmentation to lower masses once the first massive…
We present the initial results of the Large Impact of magnetic Fields on the Evolution of hot stars (LIFE) project. The focus of this project is the search for magnetic fields in evolved OBA giants and supergiants with visual magnitudes…
In this contribution we present the properties of the most massive stars known by the end of 2013. We start with a summary of historical claims for stars with masses in excess of several hundreds, even thousands of solar masses. We then…
We investigate the ab-initio formation of super-massive stars in a pristine atomic cooling halo. The halo is extracted from a larger self-consistent parent simulation. The halo remains metal-free and star formation is suppressed due to a…
Massive stars form in clusters within self-gravitating molecular clouds. The size scale of these clusters is sufficiently large that non-thermal, or turbulent, motions of the gas must be taken into account when considering their formation.…
The formation of massive stars in close binary systems is complicated due to their high radiation pressure, the crowded environment and the expected minimum separation for fragmentation being many times greater than the orbital separation.…
Recently discovered massive $\alpha$-enriched (MAE) stars have surface chemistry consistent with members of the older thick disk Milky Way population but high masses ($\sim$ 1.5 - 3 M$_{\odot}$) that suggest these stars are young. The…
We give a brief overview of where we stand with respect to some old and new questions bearing on how massive stars evolve and end their lifetime. We focus on the following key points that are further discussed by other contributions during…
Massive stars like company. Here, we provide a brief overview of progresses made over the last 5 years by a number of medium and large surveys. These results provide new insights on the observed and intrinsic multiplicity properties of main…
The first stars are believed to have formed a few hundred million years after the big bang in so-called dark matter minihalos with masses ~10^6 M_sun. Their radiation lit up the Universe for the first time, and the supernova explosions that…