Related papers: An Apparent Precessing Helical Outflow from a Mass…
Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are helium-burning, evolved massive stars which have had most of their hydrogen-rich outer layers removed either through stellar winds and/or binary stripping. Here we report on LMC173-1, a WN3+O binary located in the…
The theory of binary evolution predicts that many massive stars should lose their hydrogen-rich envelopes via interaction with a companion -- revealing hot helium stars with masses of $\sim$2--8M$_{\odot}$. However, only one candidate…
Classical Wolf-Rayet stars are descendants of massive OB-type stars that have lost their hydrogen-rich envelopes, and are in the final stages of stellar evolution, possibly exploding as type Ib/c supernovae. It is understood that the…
There is growing evidence that a treatment of binarity amongst OB stars is essential for a full theory of stellar evolution. However the binary properties of massive stars - frequency, mass ratio and orbital separation - are still poorly…
Massive stars play a major role in the evolution of their host galaxies, and serve as important probes of the distant Universe. It has been established that the majority of massive stars reside in close binaries and will interact with their…
Stars are generally spherical, yet their gaseous envelopes often appear non-spherical when ejected near the end of their lives. This quirk is most notable during the planetary nebula phase when these envelopes become ionized. Interactions…
The recent discovery of a gravitational wave from the merging of two black holes of about 30 solar masses each challenges our incomplete understanding of massive stars and their evolution. Critical ingredients comprise mass-loss, rotation,…
Carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are significant contributors of carbonaceous dust to the galactic environment, however the mechanisms and conditions for formation and subsequent evolution of dust around these stars remain open questions.…
Observations of heavy metal pollution in white dwarf stars indicate that metal-rich planetesimals are frequently scattered into star-grazing orbits, tidally disrupted, and accreted onto the white dwarf surface, offering direct insight into…
Massive stars that become stripped of their hydrogen envelope through binary interaction or winds can be observed either as Wolf-Rayet stars, if they have optically thick winds, or as transparent-wind stripped-envelope stars. We approximate…
Wolf-Rayet stars represent one of the final stages of massive stellar evolution. Relatively little is known about this short-lived phase and we currently lack reliable mass, distance, and binarity determinations for a representative sample.…
Massive WR stars are evolved massive stars characterized by strong mass-loss. Hypothetically, they can form either as single stars or as mass donors in close binaries. About 40% of the known WR stars are confirmed binaries, raising the…
The majority of core-collapse supernova (CCSN) progenitors are massive stars in multiple systems, and their evolution and final fate are affected by interactions with their companions. These interactions can explain the presence of…
We present a simple analytical method to describe the structure of a spherically expanding envelope with strong mass outflow. The structure is consistently connected to the hydrostatic stellar interior and provides an adequate description…
Helium accretion induced explosions in CO white dwarfs (WDs) are considered promising candidates for a number of observed types of stellar transients, including supernovae (SNe) of Type Ia and Type Iax. However, a clear favorite outcome has…
Massive stars in the red supergiant (RSG) phase are known to undergo strong mass loss through winds and observations indicate that a substantial part of this mass loss could be driven by localised and episodic outflows. Various mechanisms…
Since close WR+O binaries are the result of a strong interaction of both stars in massive close binary systems, they can be used to constrain the highly uncertain mass and angular momentum budget during the major mass transfer phase. We…
Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are luminous massive blue stars thought to be immediate precursors to the supernova terminating their brief lives. The existence of dust shells around such stars has been enigmatic since their discovery some 30 years…
We consider several protostellar systems where either a precessing jet or at least two misaligned jets have been observed. We assume that the precession of jets is caused by tidal interactions in noncoplanar binary systems. For Cep E, V1331…
A class of supernovae (SNe) termed `SN Ic-CSM' are characterized by late-time emergence of narrow emission lines of elements formed in the oxygen core of a massive star. A popular scenario is the interaction of the SN ejecta and O-rich…