Related papers: The transition mass-loss rate: Calibrating the rol…
Massive stars lose a large fraction of their mass to radiation-driven winds throughout their entire life. These outflows impact both the life and death of these stars and their surroundings. Theoretical mass-loss rates of hot, massive stars…
Mass loss is a key process in the evolution of massive stars, and must be understood quantitatively to be successfully included in broader astrophysical applications. In this review, we discuss various aspects of radiation driven mass loss,…
Our understanding of massive star evolution is in flux, due to recent upheavals in our view of mass loss, and observations of a high binary fraction among O-type stars. Mass-loss rates for standard metallicity-dependent winds of hot stars…
Massive stars have strong stellar winds that direct their evolution through the upper Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and determine the black hole mass function. Secondly, wind strength dictates the atmospheric structure that sets the ionising…
Stellar evolution models of massive stars are very sensitive to the adopted mass-loss scheme. The magnitude and evolution of mass-loss rates significantly affect the main sequence evolution, and the properties of post-main sequence objects,…
Mass loss through stellar winds plays a dominant role in the evolution of massive stars. In particular the mass-loss rates of very massive stars (VMSs, $> 100\,M_{\odot}$) are highly uncertain. Such stars display Wolf-Rayet spectral…
I discuss observational evidence -- independent of the direct spectral diagnostics of stellar winds themselves -- suggesting that mass-loss rates for O stars need to be revised downward by roughly a factor of three or more, in line with…
[Abridged] Context: Radiation-driven mass loss plays a key role in the life-cycles of massive stars. However, basic predictions of such mass loss still suffer from significant quantitative uncertainties. Aims: We develop new…
The winds of massive stars remove a significant fraction of their mass, strongly impacting their evolution. As a star evolves, the rate at which it loses mass changes. In stellar evolution codes, different mass-loss recipes are employed for…
We discuss the role of mass loss for the evolution of the most massive stars, highlighting the role of the predicted bi-stability jump that might be relevant for the evolution of rotational velocities during or just after the main sequence.…
CONTEXT: The mass loss of He-burning stars, which are partially or completely stripped of their outer hydrogen envelope, is a catalyst of the cosmic matter cycle and decisive ingredient of massive star evolution. Yet, its theoretical…
The stellar winds of massive stars show large changes in mass-loss rates and terminal velocities during their evolution from O-star through the Luminous Blue Variable phase to the Wolf-Rayet phase. The luminosity remains approximately…
[Abridged] We present a comprehensive study of the metallicity dependence of the mass-loss rates in stationary stellar winds of hot massive stars. Assuming a power-law dependence of mass loss on metallicity, Mdot \propto Z^{m}, and adopting…
The evolution and fate of very massive stars (VMS) is tightly connected to their mass-loss properties. Their initial and final masses differ significantly as a result of mass loss. VMS have strong stellar winds and extremely high ionising…
Mass loss through stellar winds plays a dominant role in the evolution of massive stars. Very massive stars (VMSs, $> 100 M_{\odot}$) display Wolf-Rayet spectral morphologies (WNh) whilst on the main-sequence. Bestenlehner (2020) extended…
Most stars will experience episodes of substantial mass loss at some point in their lives. For very massive stars, mass loss dominates their evolution, although the mass loss rates are not known exactly, particularly once the star has left…
Some studies have claimed a universal stellar upper-mass limit of 150 Msun. A factor that is often overlooked is that there might be a difference between the current and initial masses of the most massive stars, as a result of mass loss. We…
We review potential mass-loss mechanisms in the various evolutionary stages of massive stars, from the well-known line-driven winds of O-stars and BA-supergiants to the less-understood winds from Red Supergiants. We discuss optically thick…
Some studies have claimed the existence of a stellar upper-mass limit of 150 Msun. A factor that is often overlooked concerns the issue that there might be a significant difference between the present-day and the initial mass of the most…
We review recent developments regarding radiation driven mass loss from OB-stars. We first summarize the fundamental theoretical predictions, and then compare these to observational results (including the VLT-FLAMES survey of massive…