Mass Loss: Its Effect on the Evolution and Fate of High-Mass Stars

“Since massive stars have short lifetimes, their ultraviolet (UV) radiation (reprocessed in various forms) is the most observable tracer of star formation and is used to calculate the star formation rates (Kennicutt 1998, Kennicutt & Evans 2012).”

“Perhaps new open-source codes like MESA (Paxton et al. 2011) will facilitate this.”

“This single-star paradigm then permitted one to extend even further, to compute models for the collective radiative output of entire stellar populations as a function of age (e.g., codes like starburst99; Leitherer et al. 1999).”

“Later, estimates for the solar wind (Parker 1958) powered by hot gas pressure had such low mass-loss rates that winds would not matter much in stellar evolution.”

“Since massive stars have short lifetimes, their ultraviolet (UV) radiation (reprocessed in various forms) is the most observable tracer of star formation and is used to calculate the star formation rates (Kennicutt 1998, Kennicutt & Evans 2012).”

“They leave behind exotic corpses such as black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, magnetars, and all the bizarre high-energy phenomena that occur when compact objects remain bound in a binary system (e.g., Remillard & McClintock 2006).”

“The fact that GRB progenitors have shed most of their envelopes while still retaining a great deal of angular momentum (MacFadyen & Woosley 1999) would seem to strongly favor their origin in binary evolution with mass transfer to spin up the star, or even a merger.”

“…very massive, and they made the first SNe, the first stellar mass black holes, the first dust, ejected the first metals back into the ISM, enhanced or dominated reionization, and probably triggered the formation of the earliest generations of low-mass stars (Bromm & Larson 2004, Heger et al. 2003).”

“…from several young clusters suggest that, when corrected for obervational bias, the fraction of massive stars in binary systems whose orbital period is so short that the stars must exhange mass or merge is something like 3/4 (Kiminki & Kobulnicky 2012, Kobulnicky & Fryer 2007, Sana et al. 2012).”

“We note that the mass loss rate adopted in Sukhbold et al. (2016) is stronger than the common prescription in recent studies (e.g., Nugis & Lamers 2000; Smith 2014; Antoniadis et al. 2024).”

“…that this profile assumes that the mass loss starts directly at 4 years before the explosion (for our assumed CSM speed). in type Ibn supernovae (Smith 2014), and the merger scenario does provide a clear explanation in this case for why the mass-loss would only occur at an elevated rate for…”

“…role in the overall mass-loss evolution of massive stars (e.g., Humphreys & Davidson 1994; David-son & Humphreys 1997, 2012a; Groh et al. 2013; Smith 2014; Kashi et al. 2016; Davidson 2016; Jiang et al. 2018; Rizzo et al. 2023; Deman & Oey 2024; Cheng et al. 2024; Spejcher et al. 2025;…”

“…IIn SNe (Ofek et al. ∗ E-mail:jujia@ynao.ac.cn 2014; Fraser et al. 2013; Mauerhan et al. 2013a,b, 2014; Pastorello et al. 2013; Prieto et al. 2013; Smith 2014) as well as progenitors of Type IIp SNe that experience short-lived interactions with CSM (Dessart et al. 2017; Yaron et al. 2017;…”

“LBVs are massive evolved stars that exhibit extreme luminosities (∼105–106 L ), strong spectral variability ( ~Teff –7000 20,000 K), and eruptive mass loss as high as ∼1Me yr−1 on decade-long timescales(Smith 2014).”

“In particular, mass loss is a crucial parameter to understand the evolution of massive stars (Smith 2014).”

“For the less extreme cases (Eddington ratios of order a few) the eruptions may be explained by super-Eddington winds however it is unclear where the energy needed to drive the luminosity super-Eddington originates (Smith 2014).”

“The progenitors of these SNe IIn are likely special cases of evolved massive stars with pre-SN outbursts, and could include extreme red supergiants (RSGs), yellow hypergiants (YHGs), or luminous blue variables (LBVs; Smith 2014).”

“(2) Formation of clumps in stellar winds can lead to the overestimation of the mass-loss by a factor of 3 to 10 (Smith 2014).”

“…mass loss rate, but also the subsequent evolution of the donor star, determining how much mass it loses in different phases of its evolution, and how much it inflates during the AGB phase (see Willson (2000), and Smith (2014) for a review of uncertainties in the mass loss phase of AGB stars.”

“The presupernova mass loss from the star at position S was almost certainly clumpy (Hamann et al. 2008; Smith 2014).”

“In practice, models of massive star evolution have many uncertain aspects, such as the effect of rotation, treatment of binary stars and their evolution, mass loss, and so on (see for sample Smith (2014) for a review).”

“…T˙ZOs can be driven by the change in composition (and thus opacity) in the envelope due to the nuclear burning, the (notoriously uncertain, Smith 2014; Renzo et al. 2017; Beasor et al. 2020; Decin et al. 2024) mass-loss from the envelope, or the onset of dynamical instabilities (e.g.,…”

“…given the uncertainties in the mass-loss relations used by stellar evolution models in both the hot star phase and the RSG phase (see, e.g., [91,138]), the amount of stripping predicted for various mass-loss rate relations [129], the effect of binary interactions for RSGs with companions, and…”

“Considering the mass loss rate for O-type stars is approximately 10 − 7 − 10 − 4 M ⊙ yr − 1 (Fullerton et al. 2006) and ˙ M ∝ r 2 ¯ ρ v ∞ (see Smith (2014)), the resultant density range is forecast to be between 10 − 11 and 10 − 6 g cm − 3 .”

“Such extreme mass loss is common for luminous blue variables, which are known to be the progenitors of Type IIn SNe ( N. Smith 2014 ) .”

“1 M ⊙ of H-rich material (Smith 2014; Sravan et al. 2019; Bersten et al. 2018).”

“…include steady-state wind-driven mass loss ( N. Mauron & E. Josselin 2011 ) , enhanced mass loss through pulsational instabilities ( S.-C. Yoon & M. Cantiello 2010 ) , and eruptive mass-loss episodes ( N. Smith 2014 ) , each of which leaves a distinct imprint on the structure of the resulting CSM.”

“…setting the initial conditions for both their stellar structure and circumstellar environments prior to collapse and resulting in a similarly broad range of explosion energies, ejecta compositions, and observed luminosities ( A. Gal-Yam et al. 2014; N. Smith 2014; S. Wu & J. Fuller 2021 ) .”

“…responsible for removing hydrogen and/or helium from the progenitor to these stripped-envelope supernovae (SESNe) remains debated (see e.g., N. Smith 2014, for a review), but binary interaction is likely the main culprit (e.g., J. J. Eldridge et al. 2013; S.-C. Yoon et al. 2017; E. Za-partas…”

“For one, we show in Section 4.3 that LFBOTs occur in more metal-poor environments than SNe Ibc and SNe II, whose progenitors are thought to be stripped-envelope WR stars and red supergiants (RSGs), respectively (Smartt et al. 2009; Smith et al. 2011; Smith 2014; Smartt 2015).”

“The story of the lives of these stars will be influenced by their interactions with binary companions and how they lose mass through strong but steady winds or violent, but short-lived, eruptive episodes [2].”

“The main mechanisms that contribute to mass loss are pulsational-driven and radiation pressure line-driven stellar winds (Smith 2014).”

“It is also possible that the cavity was produced by strong stellar winds, given the typical mass-loss rates in O-stars being in the range of 10 − 7 –10 − 5 M ⊙ yr − 1 at velocities > 10 3 km s − 1 , and around 10 − 5 –10 − 4 M ⊙ yr − 1 for W-Rs ( N. Smith 2014 ) .”

“Mass loss can occur through various processes during the evolution of massive stars (see the review by Smith 2014): by line driven winds that operate mainly for hot massive stars at near solar metallicity, through the radiative acceleration due to the continuum radiation when the star luminosity is…”

“The measurements of mass loss rates for RSG stars using multiwavelength observations are still very uncertain (Smith 2014).”

“Two main mechanisms have been suggested to produce SE SNe: either binary mass transfer (e.g., Iben & Tutukov 1985; Yoon et al. 2010; Claeys et al. 2011; Dessart et al. 2012; Yoon 2015) or strong line-driven winds from massive Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars (e.g., Conti 1976; Groh et al. 2013; Smith 2014).”

“Thorough studies of using mesa exist up to stellar masses of 1000M (e.g., Paxton et al. 2011; Smith 2014), but only scarce numerical evolution, mostly with other numerical codes, exist for more massive stars.”

“Also, the driving mechanism(s) of the LBV activity, the role of this activity in the evolution of massive stars, and the initial masses of stars susceptible to this activity are still poorly understood and remain debated (e.g. Smith, Vink & de Koter 2004; Vink 2012; Smith 2014; Davidson 2020).”

“…with initial masses M & 40 M⊙ do not arrive at the RGB – they remain too hot for dust formation in a stellar wind – but they probably all eject large amounts of mass in short outburst events with accompanying intense dust formation as they become luminous blue variables (LBV) (Smith 2014, 2017).”

“…the hard HeII-ionizing regime of the SEDs because the ionizing emission rate of HeII-ionizing photons is very sensitive to the treatment of stellar winds, which is uncertain for hot stars (see Smith 2014, Sander et al. 2020, and in particular Götberg et al. 2017 for the effect for stripped stars).”

“These mass-loss rates significantly impact the evolution and end states (e.g., neutron stars versus black hole remnants) of massive O-and early B-type stars (Smith 2014).”

“Mass loss through stellar winds significantly influences stellar evolution and the compact objects that massive stars form (e.g., Smith 2014).”

“…2006ai, 2016egz, D. Hiramatsu et al. 2021; 2018gj, R. S. Teja et al. 2023; During the latest evolutionary stage, massive stars ( ≥ 8 M ⊙ ) undergo enhanced mass loss (10 − 2 –10 − 6 M ⊙ yr − 1 , N. Smith 2014), producing circumstellar material (CSM; A. Gal-Yam et al. 2014; V. Morozova et al. 2017).”

“The proposed mechanisms leading to H-envelope removal often involve a binary companion, stellar winds or eruptions, although the exact mechanism is an area of active research (see Smith 2014 for a review).”

“…stars, such as superasymptotic giant branch stars ( 8–10 M ⊙ ) , red supergiants ( RSGs; ∼ 17–40 M ⊙ ) , and yellow hypergiants, are only expected to produce enhanced winds up to 10 − 4 ∼ 10 − 3 M ⊙ yr − 1 , which is not as high as the majority of measured SN IIn mass-loss rates ( N. Smith 2014 ) .”

“Such enhanced mass loss toward the orbital plane of the binary sys-tem would take place when the Roche lobe is filled, and is suggested to be capable of efficiently stripping the H envelope (N. Smith 2014).”

“This mass loss is a key factor in determining the further evolution of the stars (Georgy et al. 2013, Smith 2014, Meynet et al. 2015, Georgy & Ekström 2015).”

“The widths from the Fe II 1.974 and 2.089 µm emission lines which are formed in the mid-outer wind and hence provide a reliable estimate of v∞ are ≈350 km s−1, suggesting a wind speed (∼ 175 km s−1) that is typical for LBVs (Smith 2014).”

“This creates a complex non-uniform density profile (Smith 2014), which could appear to an observer as clumpy.”

“Binary interaction can influence mass loss and enable additional massive-star evolutionary pathways beyond the single-star evolution framework (Smith 2014).”

“…single-star evolution (classified as main-sequence WR stars, or classical WRs which have evolved off the main-sequence through self stripping; Conti 1975; Smith 2014) or through binary interaction (through mass transfer or merging in binary or multiple systems; Paczynski 1967; Shenar et al. 2020).”

“This can occur either through strong stellar winds from an evolved single massive ( M ≥ 25 − 30 M ⊙ ) Wolf -– Rayet (WR) star (e.g., Crowther 2007; Smith 2014) or through a less massive star in a close binary system losing outer envelopes to a companion through accretion (e.g., Yoon et al. 2010; Dessart et al. 2011).”