Related papers: Physics and evolution of the most massive stars in…

The evolution of massive stars even on the main sequence is not yet well understood. Due to the steep mass-luminosity relation, massive main sequence stars become very luminous. This brings their envelopes very close to the Eddington limit.…

The proximity to the Eddington luminosity has been attributed as the cause of several observed effects in massive stars. Computationally, if the luminosity carried through radiation exceeds the local Eddington luminosity in the low-density…

(Abridged) Stars more massive than $20-30M_{\odot}$ are so luminous that the radiation force on the cooler, more opaque outer layers can balance or exceed the force of gravity. These near or super-Eddington outer envelopes represent a long…

We have determined the location of the line-opacity modified Eddington limit for stars in the LMC using the most recent atmosphere models combined with a precise mapping to the HR Diagram through up-to-date stellar evolution calculations.…

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…

Very massive stars (VMS) play a fundamental role in astrophysics due to their winds and supernovae (SN), and their role as massive black hole (BH) progenitors. However, their origin and evolution remain a significant challenge. Recent…

Very massive stars (VMS) dominate the physics of young clusters due to their ionising radiation and extreme stellar winds. It is these winds that determine their lifepaths until expiration. Observations in the Arches cluster show that VMS…

The 30 Doradus (30 Dor) nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the brightest HII region in the Local Group and a prototype starburst similar to those found in high redshift galaxies. It is thus a stepping stone to understand the…

The most massive stars dominate the chemical enrichment, mechanical and radiative feedback, and energy budget of their host environments. Yet how massive stars initially form and how they evolve throughout their lives is ambiguous. The mass…

Recently it has been found that models of massive stars reach the Eddington limit in their interior, which leads to dilute extended envelopes. We perform a comparative study of the envelope properties of massive stars at different…

The most massive stars are thought to be hydrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet stars of late spectral subtype (WNh stars). In previous theoretical studies the enhanced mass loss of these stars has been attributed to their proximity to the Eddington…

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…

Stars with masses in excess of 100 Msun are observed in the Local Universe, but they remain rare objects. Because of the shape of the mass function, they are expected to be present only in the most massive and youngest clusters. They may…

We use contemporary evolutionary models for Very Massive Stars (VMS) to assess whether the Eddington limit constrains the upper stellar mass limit. We also consider the interplay between mass and age for the wind properties and spectral…

Eruptive mass loss in massive stars is known to occur, but the mechanism(s) are not yet well-understood. One proposed physical explanation appeals to opacity-driven super-Eddington luminosities in stellar envelopes. Here, we present a 1D…

We present a dense model grid with tailored input chemical composition appropriate for the Large Magellanic Cloud. We use a one-dimensional hydrodynamic stellar evolution code, which accounts for rotation, transport of angular momentum by…

In high metallicity environments the mass that black holes (BHs) can reach just after core-collapse widely depends on how much mass their progenitor stars lose via winds. On one hand new theoretical and observational insights suggest that…

Using observations obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we have studied the properties of the stellar populations in the central regions of 30 Dor, in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The…

One of the key questions in Astrophysics concerns the issue of whether there exists an upper-mass limit to stars, and if so, what physical mechanism sets this limit, which might also determine if the upper-mass limit is metallicity (Z)…

Context. Current implementations of mass loss for hot, massive stars in stellar evolution models include a sharp increase in mass loss when blue supergiants become cooler than Teff 20-22kK. This drastic mass-loss jump has been motivated by…