067— \u3ci\u3eChiafalo v. Washington\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eColorado Department of State v. Bacca\u3c/i\u3e and the Obsolescence of the Electoral College

Every four years, the United States uses an electoral college to select its the next president and vice-president. Each state is allocated a number of Electors based on the number of representatives they have in Congress. In the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s 2019 term, the Court decided on two cases regarding a state\u27s ability to punish faithless Electors, or presidential Electors who vote contrary to their state\u27s popular vote. In Chiafalo v. Washington and Colorado Department of State v. Baca, the Court ruled that states have the constitutional authority to punish faithless Electors, explaining that presidential Electors lack the discretion expressed by the Electors in Washington and Colorado. Both the ability to punish Electors, and curb their voting behavior, along with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the role of presidential Electors provide arguably the strongest evidence of the Electoral College’s obsolescence. An in-depth analysis of not only the Court’s decision, but also the arguments of the Electors and the states, will be examined to provide a better understanding of the contentious nature of the role presidential Electors play and argue for a reformation of the electoral college, particularly to a national popular vote

The 'red supergiant problem': the upper luminosity boundary of Type II supernova progenitors

By comparing the properties of red supergiant (RSG) supernova (SN) progenitors to those of field RSGs, it has been claimed that there is an absence of progenitors with luminosities L above log (L/L⊙) > 5.2. This is in tension with the empirical upper luminosity limit of RSGs at log (L/L⊙) = 5.5, a result known as the ‘RSG problem’. This has been interpreted as an evidence for an upper mass threshold for the formation of black holes. In this paper, we compare the observed luminosities of RSG SN progenitors with the observed RSG L-distribution in the Magellanic Clouds. Our results indicate that the absence of bright SN II-P/L progenitors in this sample can be explained at least in part by the steepness of the L-distribution and a small sample size, and that the statistical significance of the RSG problem is between 1σ and 2σ . Secondly, we model the luminosity distribution of II-P/L progenitors as a simple power law with an upper and lower cut-off, and find an upper luminosity limit of log(Lhi/L⊙)=5.20+0.17−0.11 (68 per cent confidence), though this increases to ∼5.3 if one fixes the power-law slope to be that expected from theoretical arguments. Again, the results point to the significance of the RSG problem being within ∼2σ. Under the assumption that all progenitors are the result of single-star evolution, this corresponds to an upper mass limit for the parent distribution of Mhi=19.2M⊙⁠, ±1.3M⊙(systematic)⁠, +4.5−2.3M⊙ (random; 68 per cent confidence limits)

The evolution of Red Supergiant mass-loss rates

The fate of massive stars with initial masses >8M$_\odot$ depends largely on the mass-loss rate (\mdot ) in the end stages of their lives. Red supergiants (RSGs) are the direct progenitors to Type II-P core collapse supernovae (SN), but there is uncertainty regarding the scale and impact of any mass-loss during this phase. Here we used near and mid-IR photometry and the radiative transfer code DUSTY to determine luminosity and \mdot\ values for the RSGs in two Galactic clusters (NGC 7419 and $\chi$ Per) where the RSGs are all of similar initial mass ($M_{\rm initial}$$\sim$16M$_\odot$), allowing us to study how \mdot\ changes with time along an evolutionary sequence. We find a clear, tight correlation between luminosity and \mdot\ suggesting the scatter seen in studies of field stars is caused by stars of similar luminosity being of different initial masses. From our results we estimate how much mass a 16M$_\odot$ star would lose during the RSG phase, finding a star of this mass would lose a total of 0.61$^{+0.92}_{-0.31}$M$_\odot$. This is much less than expected for \mdot\ prescriptions currently used in evolutionary models

The evolution of red supergiants to supernovae

With red supergiants (RSGs) predicted to end their lives as Type IIP core collapse supernova (CCSN), their behaviour before explosion needs to be fully understood. Mass loss rates govern RSG evolution towards SN and have strong implications on the appearance of the resulting explosion. To study how the mass-loss rates change with the evolution of the star, we have measured the amount of circumstellar material around 19 RSGs in a coeval cluster. Our study has shown that mass loss rates ramp up throughout the lifetime of an RSG, with more evolved stars having mass loss rates a factor of 40 higher than early stage RSGs. Interestingly, we have also found evidence for an increase in circumstellar extinction throughout the RSG lifetime, meaning the most evolved stars are most severely affected. We find that, were the most evolved RSGs in NGC2100 to go SN, this extra extinction would cause the progenitor's initial mass to be underestimated by up to 9M$_\odot$

The Initial Masses of the Red Supergiant Progenitors to Type-II Supernovae

There are a growing number of nearby SNe for which the progenitor star is detected in archival pre-explosion imaging. From these images it is possible to measure the progenitor's brightness a few years before explosion, and ultimately estimate its initial mass. Previous work has shown that II-P and II-L supernovae (SNe) have Red Supergiant (RSG) progenitors, and that the range of initial masses for these progenitors seems to be limited to $<$17M$_\odot$. This is in contrast with the cutoff of 25-30M$_\odot$ predicted by evolutionary models, a result which is termed the 'Red Supergiant Problem'. Here we investigate one particular source of systematic error present in converting pre-explosion photometry into an initial mass, that of the bolometric correction (BC) used to convert a single-band flux into a bolometric luminosity. We show, using star clusters, that RSGs evolve to later spectral types as they approach SN, which in turn causes the BC to become larger. Failure to account for this results in a systematic underestimate of a star's luminosity, and hence its initial mass. Using our empirically motivated BCs we reappraise the II-P and II-L SNe that have their progenitors detected in pre-explosion imaging. Fitting an initial mass function to these updated masses results in an increased upper mass cutoff of $M_{\rm hi}$=$19.0^{+2.5}_{-1.3}$M$_\odot$, with a 95% upper confidence limit of $<$27M$_\odot$. Accounting for finite sample size effects and systematic uncertainties in the mass-luminosity relationship raises the cutoff to $M_{\rm hi}$=25M$_\odot$ ($<$33M$_\odot$, 95% confidence). We therefore conclude that there is currently no strong evidence for `missing' high mass progenitors to core-collapse SNe

The extreme scarcity of dust-enshrouded red supergiants: consequences for producing stripped stars via winds

Quiescent mass-loss during the red supergiant (RSG) phase has been shown to be far lower than prescriptions typically employed in single-star evolutionary models. Importantly, RSG winds are too weak to drive the production of Wolf-Rayets (WRs) and stripped-envelope supernovae (SE-SNe) at initial masses of roughly 20--40$M_{\odot}$. If single-stars are to make WRs and SE-SNe, this shifts the burden of mass-loss to rare dust-enshrouded RSGs (DE-RSGs), objects claimed to represent a short-lived high mass-loss phase. Here, we take a fresh look at the purported DE-RSGs. By modeling the mid-IR excesses of the full sample of RSGs in the LMC, we find that only one RSG has both a high mass-loss rate (\mdot $\ge$ 10$^{-4}$ $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$) and a high optical circumstellar dust extinction (7.92 mag). This one RSG is WOH G64, and it is the only one of the 14 originally proposed DE-RSGs that is actually dust enshrouded. The rest appear to be either normal RSGs without strong infrared-excess, or lower-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. Only one additional object in the full catalog of RSGs (not previously identified as a DE-RSG) shows strong mid-IR excess. We conclude that if DE-RSGs do represent a pre-SN phase of enhanced \mdot\ in single-stars, it is extremely short-lived, only capable of removing $\leq$2\msun\ of material. This rules out the single-star post-RSG pathway for the production of WRs, LBVs, and SE-SN. Single-star models should not employ \mdot-prescriptions based on these extreme objects for any significant fraction of the RSG phase.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Accepted with minor revision to Ap

THE PROGENITORS OF TYPE IIP SUPERNOVAE

Mass-loss prior to core collapse is arguably the most important factor affecting the evolution of a massive star across the Hertzsprung-Russel (HR) diagram, making it the key to understanding what mass-range of stars produce supernova (SN), and how these explosions will appear. It is thought that most of the mass-loss occurs during the red supergiant (RSG) phase, when strong winds dictate the onward evolutionary path of the star and potentially remove the entire H-rich envelope. Uncertainty in the driving mechanism for RSG winds means the mass-loss rate (\mdot) cannot be determined from first principles, and instead, stellar evolution models rely on empirical recipes to inform their calculations. At present, the most commonly used \mdot-prescription comes from a literature study, whereby many measurements of mass-loss were compiled. The sample sizes are small ($<$10 stars), highly heterogeneous in terms of mass and metallicity, and have very uncertain distances from observations and analysis techniques that at best provide order-of-magnitude estimates compared to what is possible today. The relation itself contains large internal scatter, which could be the difference between a star losing its entire H-envelope, or none of it at all. More modern efforts to update the RSG mass-loss rate prescription rely on samples which suffer from statistical biases, for example by selecting objects based on mid-IR brightness or circumstellar maser emission, and hence are inevitably biased towards higher mass-loss rate objects. It is the aim of this thesis to overhaul our understanding of RSG mass-loss. By selecting RSGs in clusters, where the initial mass and metallicity are known, I will be able to observe how mass-loss changes as the star approaches SN and compare this to what is currently implemented in stellar evolutionary models. Ultimately, I will measure \mdot\ values and luminosities for RSGs in 5 different clusters of varying ages, thus targeting RSGs of different initial masses. I will then combine these mass-loss rate-luminosity relations to derive a new initial mass-dependent mass-loss rate, which can be implemented into stellar evolutionary models

The distances to star-clusters hosting Red Supergiants: χχ Per, NGC 7419, and Westerlund 1

Galactic, young massive star clusters are approximately coeval aggregates of stars, close enough to resolve the individual stars, massive enough to have produced large numbers of massive stars, and young enough for these stars to be in a pre-supernova state. As such these objects represent powerful natural laboratories in which to study the evolution of massive stars. To be used in this way, it is crucial that accurate and precise distances are known, since this affects both the inferred luminosities of the cluster members and the age estimate for the cluster itself. Here we present distance estimates for three star clusters rich in Red Supergiants ($\chi$ Per, NGC 7419 and Westerlund 1) based on their average astrometric parallaxes $\bar{\pi}$ in Gaia Data Release 2, where the measurement of $\bar{\pi}$ is obtained from a proper-motion screened sample of spectroscopically-confirmed cluster members. We determine distances of $d=2.25^{+0.16}_{-0.14}$kpc, $d=3.00^{+0.35}_{-0.29}$kpc, and $d=3.87^{+0.95}_{-0.64}$kpc for the three clusters respectively. We find that the dominant source of error is that in Gaia's zero-point parallax offset $\pi_{\rm ZP}$, and we argue that more precise distances cannot be determined without an improved characterization of this quantity