Abstract
In this chapter, after a brief introduction and overview of stellar evolution, we discuss the evolution and nucleosynthesis of very massive stars (VMS: \(M > 100\,M_{\odot }\)) in the context of recent stellar evolution model calculations. This chapter covers the following aspects: general properties, evolution of surface properties, late central evolution, and nucleosynthesis including their dependence on metallicity, mass loss and rotation. Since very massive stars have very large convective cores during the main-sequence phase, their evolution is not so much affected by rotational mixing, but more by mass loss through stellar winds. Their evolution is never far from a homogeneous evolution even without rotational mixing. All VMS at metallicities close to solar end their life as WC(-WO) type Wolf-Rayet stars. Due to very important mass loss through stellar winds, these stars may have luminosities during the advanced phases of their evolution similar to stars with initial masses between 60 and 120 \(M_{\odot }\). A distinctive feature which may be used to disentangle Wolf-Rayet stars originating from VMS from those originating from lower initial masses is the enhanced abundances of neon and magnesium at the surface of WC stars. At solar metallicity, mass loss is so strong that even if a star is born with several hundred solar masses, it will end its life with less than 50 \(M_{\odot }\) (using current mass loss prescriptions). At the metallicity of the LMC and lower, on the other hand, mass loss is weaker and might enable stars to undergo pair-instability supernovae.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The models have been evolved beyond the end of core He-burning and usually until oxygen burning, thus very close to the end of their life (see Yusof et al. 2013, for full details)
- 3.
Note that for lower-mass massive stars (\(\lesssim 50\,M_{\odot }\)), the CO core mass alone is not sufficient to predict the fate of the star and other factors like compactness, rotation and the central carbon abundance at the end of helium burning also play a role (see e.g. Chieffi and Limongi 2013).
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks his collaborators at the University of Keele (C. Georgy), Geneva (G. Meynet, A. Maeder and Sylvia Ekström) and Malaysia (N. Yusof and H. Kassim) for their significant contributions to the results presented in this chapter. R. Hirschi acknowledges support from the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan and from the Eurogenesis EUROCORE programme. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013)/ERC Grant Agreement n. 306901.
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Hirschi, R. (2015). Evolution and Nucleosynthesis of Very Massive Stars. In: Vink, J. (eds) Very Massive Stars in the Local Universe. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 412. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09596-7_6
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