Evolution of Massive Population III Stars

While the evolution of massive stars in the local Universe is dominated by mass-loss, the evolution of massive Population III stars should be dominated by rotation. An important effect of rotation is rotationally-induced chemical mixing that can dramatically change the stellar structure and the nucleosynthesis. This has significant consequences in the predicted explosion types of Population III stars

Explosion and nucleosynthesis of low redshift pair instability supernovae

Both recent observations and stellar evolution models suggest that pair-instability supernovae (PISNe) could occur in the local Universe, at metallicities below Z_Sun/3. Previous PISN models were mostly produced at very low metallicities in the context of the early Universe. We present new PISNe models at a metallicity of Z=0.001, which are relevant for the local Universe. We take the self-consistent stellar evolutionary models of pair-instability progenitors with initial masses of 150 and 250 solar masses at metallicity of Z=0.001 by Langer et al. (2007) and follow the evolution of these models through the supernova explosions, using a hydrodynamics stellar evolution code with an extensive nuclear network including 200 isotopes. Both models explode as PISNe without leaving a compact stellar remnant. Our models produce a nucleosynthetic pattern that is generally similar to that of Population III PISN models, which is mainly characterized by the production of large amounts of alpha-elements and a strong deficiency of the odd-charged elements. However, the odd-even effect in our models is significantly weaker than that found in Population III models. The comparison with the nucleosynthetic yields from core-collapse supernovae at a similar metallicity (Z=0.002) indicates that PISNe could have strongly influenced the chemical evolution below Z=0.002, assuming a standard initial mass function. The odd-even effect is predicted to be most prominent for the intermediate mass elements between silicon and calcium. With future observations of chemical abundances in Population II stars, our result can be used to constrain the number of PISNe that occurred during the past evolution of our Galaxy.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysic

Evolution of massive stars with pulsation-driven superwinds during the RSG phase

Pulsations driven by partial ionization of hydrogen in the envelope are often considered important for driving winds from red supergiants (RSGs). In particular, it has been suggested by some authors that the pulsation growth rate in a RSG can be high enough to trigger an unusually strong wind (or a super-wind), when the luminosity to mass ratio becomes sufficiently large. Using both hydrostatic and hydrodynamic stellar evolution models with initial masses ranging from 15 to 40 \Msun, we investigate 1) how the pulsation growth rate depends on the global parameters of supergiant stars, and 2) what would be the consequences of a pulsation-driven super-wind, if it occurred, for the late stages of massive star evolution. We suggest that such a super-wind history would be marked by a runaway increase, followed by a sudden decrease, of the winds mass loss rate. The impact on the late evolution of massive stars would be substantial, with stars losing a huge fraction of their H-envelope even with a significantly lower initial mass than previously predicted. This might explain the observed lack of Type II-P supernova progenitors having initial mass higher than about 17 \Msun. We also discuss possible implications for a subset of Type IIn supernovae

Stabilization of helium shell burning by rotation in accreting white dwarfs

The currently favored scenario for the progenitor evolution of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) presumes that white dwarfs in close binary systems grow to the Chandrasekhar limit via mass accretion from their non-degenerate companions. However, the accreted hydrogen and/or helium usually participate thermally unstable or even violent nuclear reactions in a geometrically confined region, due to the compactness of the white dwarf. Since shell flashes induced by the thermal instability might induce significant loss of mass, efficient mass increase of white dwarfs by hydrogen and/or helium accretion has been seriously questioned. A good understanding of the stability of thermonuclear shell sources is therefore crucial in order to investigate the evolution of accreting white dwarfs as SNe Ia progenitors. Here, we present a quantitative criterion for the thermal stability of thermonuclear shell sources, and discuss the effects of rotation on the stability of helium shell burning in helium accreting CO white dwarfs with Mdot \approx 10^{-7} ... 10^{-6} Msun/yr. In particular, we show that, if the effects of rotation are properly considered, helium shell sources are significantly stabilized, which might increase the likelihood for accreting white dwarfs to grow to the Chandrasekhar limit.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, To appear in the conference proceedings of `Interacting Binaries: Accretion, Evolution & Outcomes' (Cefalu, July 4-10 2004