Mass loss and fate of the most massive stars

Abstract

AbstractThe fate of massive stars up to 300M⊙ is highly uncertain. Do these objects produce pair-instability explosions, or normal Type Ic supernovae? In order to address these questions, we need to know their mass-loss rates during their lives. Here we present mass-loss predictions for very massive stars (VMS) in the range of 60-300M⊙. We use a novel method that simultaneously predicts the wind terminal velocities v∞ and mass-loss rate Ṁ as a function of the stellar parameters: (i) luminosity/mass Γ, (ii) metallicity Z, and (iii) effective temperature Teff. Using our results, we evaluate the likely outcomes for the most massive stars.