Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
I discuss the role played by short-duration eruptive mass loss in the evolution of very massive stars. Giant eruptions of Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) like the 19th century event of η Carinae can remove large quantities of mass almost instantaneously, making them significant in stellar evolution. They can potentially remove much more mass from the star than line-driven winds, especially if stellar winds are highly clumped such that previous estimates of O-star mass-loss rates need to be revised downward. When seen in other galaxies as “supernova impostors,” these LBV eruptions typically last for less than a decade, and they can remove of order 10 M⊙ as indicated by massive nebulae around LBVs. Such extreme mass-loss rates cannot be driven by radiation pressure on spectral lines, because the lines will completely saturate during the events. Instead, these outbursts must either be continuum-driven super-Eddington winds or outright hydrodynamic explosions, both of which are insensitive to metallicity. As such, this eruptive mode of mass loss could also play a pivotal role in the evolution and ultimate fate of massive metal-poor stars in the early universe. If they occur in these Population III stars, such eruptions would also profoundly affect the chemical yield and types of remnants from early supernovae and hypernovae thought to be the origin of long gamma-ray bursts.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.