Critical rates of stellar mass loss
Abstract
Mass loss will cause a star to be overluminous for its mass (though less luminous than a star of its original mass) and, for moderate mass-loss rates, the luminosity decreases at the same rate as the mass contained in the convective core decreases causing the main sequence lifetime to remain unchanged. Mass loss can also expose layers where N-14 has been enhanced via the CNO tricycle and, in extreme cases, can produce a stripped helium core resembling a Wolf-Rayet Star. While many of these phenomena are more sensitive to the total mass removed than the formalism used to represent the mass loss, significant differences will result for the same average mass-loss rate depending on whether the mass was removed early or late. There appears to be a critical mass loss rate which depends on initial mass and separate those models which continue to evolve in a relatively normal (though subluminous) manner, and those models which evolve to a Wolf-Rayet configuration.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- September 1978
- Bibcode:
- 1978STIN...7910979D
- Keywords:
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- B Stars;
- Depletion;
- Mass Distribution;
- O Stars;
- Chemical Composition;
- Luminous Intensity;
- Mass Flow Rate;
- Stellar Models;
- Wolf-Rayet Stars;
- Astrophysics