Related papers: A WC/WO star exploding within an expanding carbon-…
The majority of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars represent the stripped cores of evolved massive stars who lost most of their hydrogen envelope. In low metallicity environments, such as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), stellar winds are weaker and…
The Wolf-Rayet (WR) nebula NGC3199 has been suggested to be a bow shock around its central star WR18, presumably a runaway star, because optical images of the nebula show a dominating arc of emission south-west of the star. We present the…
We model the late evolution and mass loss history of rapidly rotating Wolf-Rayet stars in the mass range $5\,\rm{M}_{\odot}\dots 100\,\rm{M}_{\odot}$. We find that quasi-chemically homogeneously evolving single stars computed with enhanced…
Using the latest stellar evolution models, theoretical stellar spectra, and a compilation of observed emission line strengths from Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, we construct evolutionary synthesis models for young starbursts. We explicitly…
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…
Massive stars undergo a violent death when the supply of nuclear fuel in their cores is exhausted, resulting in a catastrophic "core-collapse" supernova. Such events are usually only detected at least a few days after the star has exploded.…
Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are the most advanced stage in the evolution of the most massive stars. The strong feedback provided by these objects and their subsequent supernova (SN) explosions are decisive for a variety of astrophysical topics…
We discuss the properties of the progenitors of core collapse SNe, as they can be deduced from rotating stellar models of single stars. The type of the SN progenitor was determined from the surface abundances at the pre-SN stage. The type…
Supernovae (SNe), the catastrophic end of stars' lives, are among the most energetic phenomena in the universe. Mapping the aftermath of the explosions to the properties of pre-SN stars is challenging due to the lack of knowledge about the…
We report the results of a high-spatial-resoltion search for the progenitor of type Ic supernova SN 2004gt, using the newly commissioned Keck laser-guide star adaptive optics system (LGSAO) along with archival Hubble Space Telescope data.…
With their emission-line dominated spectra, the appearance of Wolf-Rayet stars is shaped by their strong stellar winds. Yet, the physical mechanisms behind their high mass loss have long remained enigmatic. While we know nowadays that…
Massive stars shape their surrounding medium through the force of their stellar winds, which collide with the circumstellar medium. Because the characteristics of these stellar winds vary over the course of the evolution of the star, the…
Early observations of supernovae (SNe) indicate that enhanced mass loss and pre-SN outbursts may occur in progenitors of many types of SNe. We investigate the role of energy transport via waves driven by vigorous convection during…
Although multidimensional simulations have investigated the processes of double WD mergers, post-merger evolution only focused on the carbon-oxygen (CO) WD or helium (He) WD merger remnants. In this work, we investigate for the first time…
Massive stars are powerful cosmic engines. In the phases immediately preceding core-collapse, massive stars in the Galaxy with $M_i \gtrsim 20$ $M_{\odot}$ may appear as classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. As the final contribution of a…
Mass loss from massive stars ($\ga 8 \msun$) can result in the formation of circumstellar wind blown cavities surrounding the star, bordered by a thin, dense, cold shell. When the star explodes as a core-collapse supernova (SN), the…
We investigate the fundamental properties of core-collapse Supernova (SN) progenitors from single stars at solar metallicity. We combine Geneva stellar evolutionary models with initial masses of Mini=20-120 Msun with atmospheric/wind models…
After a review of the many effects of metallicity on the evolution of rotating and non-rotating stars, we discuss the consequences of a high metallicity on massive star populations and on stellar nucleosynthesis. The most striking effect of…
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are manifestations of stars deficient of hydrogen and helium disrupting in a thermonuclear runaway. While explosions of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs are thought to account for the majority of events, part of the…
Aims: We study the distribution of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars and their subtypes with respect to their host galaxy light distribution. We thus want to investigate whether WR stars are potential progenitors of stripped-envelope core-collapse…