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Stellar progenitors of black holes: insights from optical and infrared observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2017

I. F. Mirabel*
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics. CONICET - Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, Av. Cantilo S/N, 1428 Buenos Aires - Argentina email: [email protected] Laboratoire AIM-Paris-Saclay, CEA/DSM/Irfu CNRS, CEA-Saclay, pt courrier 131, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Here are reviewed the insights from observations at optical and infrared wavelengths for low mass limits above which stars do not seem to end as luminous supernovae. These insights are: (1) the absence in archived images of nearby galaxies of stellar progenitors of core-collapse supernovae above 16-18 M, (2) the identification of luminous-massive stars that quietly disappear without optically bright supernovae, (3) the absence in the nebular spectra of supernovae of type II-P of the nucleosynthetic products expected from progenitors above 20 M, (4) the absence in color magnitude diagrams of stars in the environment of historic core-collapse supernovae of stars with ⩾20 M. From the results in these different areas of observational astrophysics, and the recently confirmed dependence of black hole formation on metallicity and redshift of progenitors, it is concluded that a large fraction of massive stellar binaries in the universe end as binary black holes.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2017 

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