Related papers: The Neutron Star and Black Hole Initial Mass Funct…
Stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars represent extremes in gravity, density, and magnetic fields. They therefore serve as key objects in the study of multiple frontiers of physics. In addition, their origin (mainly in core-collapse…
Hydrodynamic simulations of the merger of stellar mass black hole - neutron star binaries (BH/NS) are compared with mergers of binary neutron stars (NS/NS). The simulations are Newtonian, but take into account the emission and backreaction…
It is known that the mass distribution of the known neutron stars (NSs) exhibits a bimodal pattern. The origin of this distribution remains a subject of debate. We constructed a super-Eddington accretion model for accreting neutron stars…
Observational identification of black holes as members of binary systems requires the knowledge of the upper limit on the gravitational mass of a neutron star. We use modern equations of state for neutron star matter, fitted to experimental…
A number of recent studies have proposed that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) of early type galaxies varies systematically as a function of galaxy mass, with higher mass galaxies having bottom heavy IMFs. These bottom heavy IMFs…
Growing theoretical evidence suggests that the first generation of stars may have been quite massive (~100-300 solar masses). If they retain their high mass until death, such stars will, after about 3Myr, make pair-instability supernovae.…
If the neutrino luminosity from the proto-neutron star formed during a massive star core collapse exceeds a critical threshold, a supernova (SN) results. Using spherical quasi-static evolutionary sequences for hundreds of progenitors over a…
We conduct one dimensional (1D) stellar evolution simulations of non-rotating stars with initial masses in the range of $11-48 M_\odot$ to the time of core collapse and, using a criterion on the specific angular momentum fluctuations in the…
Knowledge of the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae is a fundamental component in understanding the explosions. The recent progress in finding such stars is reviewed. The minimum initial mass that can produce a supernova has converged…
Population III stars, born from the primordial gas in the Universe, lose a negligible fraction of their mass via stellar winds and possibly follow a top-heavy mass function. Hence, they have often been regarded as the ideal progenitors of…
Our knowledge of the birth mass function of neutron stars and black holes is based on observations of binary systems but the binary evolution likely affects the final mass of the compact object. Gravitational microlensing allows us to…
We discuss masses of stellar black holes found in binary systems and errors in their determination. The observed mass distribution has a broad shape within the range $4-16 M_\odot$ without visible concentration to some preferred value. On…
We study the evolution of a low mass x-ray binary coupling a binary stellar evolution code with a general relativistic code that describes the behavior of the neutron star. We assume the neutron star to be low--magnetized (B~10^8 G). In the…
Recently (Brown \& Bethe 1994) it was suggested that most stars with main sequence mass in the range of about $18 - 30 M_{\odot}$ explode, returning matter to the Galaxy, and then go into low-mass ($\geq 1.5 M_{\odot}$) black holes. Even…
Population III (Pop.$~$III) stars are expected to be massive and to undergo minimal mass loss due to their lack of metals, making them ideal progenitors of black holes and neutron stars. Here, we investigate the formation and properties of…
Oxygen to iron abundance ratios of metal-poor stars provide information on nucleosynthesis yields from massive stars which end in Type II supernova explosions. Using a standard model of chemical evolution of the Galaxy we have reproduced…
Neutron stars inspiralling into a stellar envelope can accrete at rates vastly exceeding the Eddington limit if the flow develops pressures high enough to allow neutrinos to radiate the released gravitational energy. It has been suggested…
Six of the eight double neutron stars known in the Galactic disk have low orbital eccentricities (< 0.27) indicating that their second-born neutron stars received only very small velocity kicks at birth. This is similar to the case of the…
The determination of neutron star masses is reviewed in light of a new measurement of 1.97 M$_\odot$ for PSR J1614-2230 and an estimate of 2.4 M$_\odot$ for the black widow pulsar. Using a simple analytic model related to the so-called…
We have simulated the collapse and evolution of the core of a solar-metallicity 40-M$_{\odot}$ star and find that it explodes vigorously by the neutrino mechanism. This despite its very high "compactness". Within $\sim$1.5 seconds of…