Related papers: The Limiting Stellar Initial Mass for Black Hole F…
The characteristics of black-hole X-ray binaries can be used to obtain information about their evolutionary history and the process of black-hole formation. In this paper I focus on systems with donor masses lower than the inferred…
WR 20a is the most massive close-in binary known in our Galaxy. It is composed of two $\approx$80 M$_\odot$ Wolf-Rayet stars with a short period of $\approx$3.7 days in the open cluster Westerlund 2. As such, WR 20a presents us with a…
After a review of the many effects of metallicity on the evolution of rotating and non-rotating stars, we discuss the consequences of a high metallicity on massive star populations and on stellar nucleosynthesis. The most striking effect of…
The mass loss mechanism of red supergiant stars is not well understood, even though it has crucial consequences for their stellar evolution and the appearance of supernovae that occur upon core-collapse. We argue that outgoing shock waves…
Our current understanding of the stellar initial mass function and massive star evolution suggests that young globular clusters may have formed hundreds to thousands of stellar-mass black holes, the remnants of stars with initial masses…
Using Eggleton's stellar evolution code, we carry out 150 runs of Pop I binary evolution calculations, with the initial primary mass between 1 and 8 solar masses the initial mass ratio between 1.1 and 4, and the onset of Roche lobe overflow…
The fate of massive stars with initial masses >8M$_\odot$ depends largely on the mass-loss rate (\mdot ) in the end stages of their lives. Red supergiants (RSGs) are the direct progenitors to Type II-P core collapse supernovae (SN), but…
Core collapse is a prominent evolutionary stage of self-gravitating systems. In an idealised collisionless approximation, the region around the cluster core evolves in a self-similar way prior to the core collapse. Thus, its radial density…
The present paper reviews massive star (initial mass smaller than 120 M0) and very massive star (initial mass larger than 120 M0) evolution. I will focus on evolutionary facts and questions that may critically affect predictions of…
We launch a fully relativistic study of the formation of supermassive black holes via the collapse of supermassive stars. Here we initiate our investigation by analyzing the secular evolution of supermassive stars up to the onset of…
Stellar evolution theory predicts a "gap" in the black hole birth function caused by the pair instability. Presupernova stars that have a core mass below some limiting value, Mlo, after all pulsational activity is finished, collapse to…
We study the collapse of rapidly rotating supermassive stars that may have formed in the early Universe. By self-consistently simulating the dynamics from the onset of collapse using three-dimensional general-relativistic hydrodynamics with…
We present N-body simulations of intermediate-mass (3000-4000 Msun) young star clusters (SCs) with three different metallicities (Z=0.01, 0.1 and 1 Zsun), including metal-dependent stellar evolution recipes and binary evolution. Following…
Observations indicate that intermediate mass stars, binary stars, and stellar remnants often host planets; a complete explanation of these systems requires an understanding of how planetary orbits evolve as their central stars lose mass.…
In discussing open question in the field of massive stars, I consider their evolution from birth to death. After touching upon massive star formation, which may be bi-modal and not lead to a zero-age main sequence at the highest masses, I…
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 density structure surrounding the iron core of a massive star when it dies is known to have a major effect on whether or not the star explodes. Here we repeat previous surveys of presupernova evolution with some important corrections to…
The groundbreaking detection of gravitational waves produced by the inspiralling and coalescence of the black hole (BH) binary GW150914 confirms the existence of "heavy" stellar-mass BHs with masses >25 Msun. Initial modelling of the system…
We assess the variance of supernova(SN)-like explosions associated with the core collapse of rotating massive stars into a black hole-accretion disc system under changes in the progenitor structure. Our model of the central engine evolves…
The mass function for black holes and neutron stars at birth is explored for mass-losing helium stars. These should resemble, more closely than similar studies of single hydrogen-rich stars, the results of evolution in close binary systems.…