Grids of evolutionary models for the upper part of the HR diagram. Mass loss and the turning of some red supergiants into WR stars.
Abstract
Results concerning evolutionary tracks in the HR diagram and associated lifetimes are given for three sets of models in the 9-120 solar mass range from the MS to the end of the carbon-burning phase. The conditions of mass loss rates and luminosity for the turning of RSG into WR stars are examined, and for mass loss rates in the observed range, the turning may occur for initial masses of not less than 30 solar masses. The numerical models show that, for example, an increase of mass loss rates by a factor of 2 in the MS and RSG stages, increases the average lifetime in the WR stage by a factor of 17. This extreme sensitivity is considered to be responsible for the strong anticorrelation of RSG and WR stars in the Galaxy, the LMC and SMC.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- October 1981
- Bibcode:
- 1981A&A...102..401M
- Keywords:
-
- Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram;
- Red Giant Stars;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Stellar Mass Ejection;
- Stellar Models;
- Wolf-Rayet Stars;
- Blue Stars;
- Mass To Light Ratios;
- Stellar Luminosity;
- Stellar Structure;
- Supergiant Stars;
- Astrophysics