We present the most comprehensive red supergiant (RSG) sample for the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) to date, including 1239 RSG candidates. The initial sample was derived based on a source catalog for the SMC with conservative ranking. Additional spectroscopic RSGs were retrieved from the literature, and RSG candidates were selected based on the inspection of Gaia and 2MASS color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). We estimate that there are in total ~1800 or more RSGs in the SMC. We purify the sample by studying the infrared CMDs and the variability of the objects, though there is still an ambiguity between asymptotic giant branch stars (AGBs) and RSGs at the red end of our sample. One heavily obscured target was identified based on multiple near-IR (NIR) and mid-IR (MIR) CMDs. The investigation of color-color diagrams (CCDs) shows that there are fewer RSGs candidates (~4%) showing PAH emission features compared to the Milky Way and LMC (~15%). The MIR variability of RSG sample increases with luminosity. We separate the RSG sample into two subsamples (risky and safe), and identify one M5e AGB star in the risky subsample based on simultaneous inspection of variabilities, luminosities, and colors. The degeneracy of mass loss rate (MLR), variability, and luminosity of the RSG sample is discussed, indicating that most of the targets with high variability are also the bright ones with high MLR. Some targets show excessive dust emission, which may be related to previous episodic mass loss events. We also roughly estimate the total gas and dust budget produced by entire RSG population as ~1.9^+2.4^_-1.1_x10^-6^M_{sun}_/yr in the most conservative case, according to the derived MLR from IRAC1-IRAC4 color. Based on the MIST models, we derive a linear relation between T_eff_ and observed J-Ks color with reddening correction for the RSG sample. By using a constant bolometric correction and this relation, the Geneva evolutionary model is compared with our RSG sample, showing a good agreement and a lower initial mass limit of ~7M_{sun}_ for the RSG population. Finally, we compare the RSG sample in the SMC and the LMC. Despite the incompleteness of LMC sample in the faint end, the result indicates that the LMC sample always shows redder color (except for the IRAC1-IRAC2 and WISE1-WISE2 colors due to CO absorption) and higher variability than the SMC sample, which is likely due to a positive relation between MLR, variability and the metallicity.
By cross-correlating the results of two recent large-scale surveys, the general properties of a well-defined sample of semiregular variable stars have been determined. ISOGAL mid-infrared photometry (7 and 15{mu}m and MACHO V and R light curves are assembled for approximately 300 stars in the Baade's windows of low extinction toward the Galactic bulge. These stars are mainly giants of late M spectral type, evolving along the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). They are found to possess a wide and continuous distribution of pulsation periods and to obey an approximate logP-M_bol_ relation or set of such relations.
For decades ever since the early detection in the 1990s of the emission spectral features of crystalline silicates in oxygen-rich evolved stars, there is a long-standing debate on whether the crystallinity of the silicate dust correlates with the stellar mass-loss rate. To investigate the relation between the silicate crystallinities and the mass-loss rates of evolved stars, we carry out a detailed analysis of 28 nearby oxygen-rich stars. We derive the mass-loss rates of these sources by modelling their spectral energy distributions from the optical to the far-infrared. Unlike previous studies in which the silicate crystallinity was often measured in terms of the crystalline-to-amorphous silicate mass ratio, we characterize the silicate crystallinities of these sources with the flux ratios of the emission features of crystalline silicates to that of amorphous silicates. This does not require the knowledge of the silicate dust temperatures, which are the major source of uncertainties in estimating the crystalline-to-amorphous silicate mass ratio. With a Pearson correlation coefficient of ~-0.24, we find that the silicate crystallinities and the mass-loss rates of these sources are not correlated. This supports the earlier findings that the dust shells of low mass-loss rate stars can contain a significant fraction of crystalline silicates without showing the characteristic features in their emission spectra.
We present a set of evolutionary tracks for central stars of planetary nebulae in the range from 0.53 to 0.94M_{sun}_. These models are based on extensive stellar evolution calculations for initial masses between 1 and 7M_{sun}_ which have been carried out all the way from the main sequence through the AGB towards the stage of white dwarfs.
New grids of stellar evolutionary models covering the range of 0.8 to 120 solar masses have been computed for metallicites Z=0.020 and Z=0.001. The models use the new opacities by Rogers and Iglesias (1992ApJS...79..507R) and by Kurucz (1991) at low T. The consequent changes in the solar helium content, in the mixing length ratio and in the overshooting parameter are taken into account after careful calibrations. Important physical ingredients as the nuclear reaction rates and the neutrino loss rates have been updated. The ionization of the main heavy elements is calculated in details. Results of the models are given in a compact way at corresponding evolutionary stages in each model. In addition to the tables, we shortly present some general results on the tracks in the HR diagrams, the lifetimes in the H-, He-, C-burning phases, and on massive and WR stars.
The effects of rotation on stellar evolution are particularly important at low metallicity, when mass loss by stellar winds diminishes and the surface enrichment due to rotational mixing becomes relatively more pronounced than at high metallicities. Here we investigate the impact of rotation and metallicity on stellar evolution. Using a similar physics as in our previous large grids of models at Z=0.002 and Z=0.014, we compute stellar evolution models with the Geneva code for rotating and non-rotating stars with initial masses (Mini) between 1.7 and 120M_{sun}_ and Z=0.0004 (1/35 solar). This is comparable to the metallicities of the most metal poor galaxies observed so far, such as I Zw 18. Concerning massive stars, both rotating and non-rotating models spend most of their core-helium burning phase with an effective temperature higher than 8000K. Stars become red supergiants only at the end of their lifetimes, and few RSGs are expected. Our models predict very few to no classical Wolf-Rayet stars as a results of weak stellar winds at low metallicity. The most massive stars end their lifetimes as luminous blue supergiants or luminous blue variables, a feature that is not predicted by models with higher metallicities. Interestingly, due to the behavior of the intermediate convective zone, the mass domain of stars producing pair-instability supernovae is smaller at Z=0.0004 than at Z=0.002. We find that during the main sequence phase, the ratio between nitrogen and carbon abundances (N/C) remains unchanged for non-rotating models. However, N/C increases by factors of 10-20 in rotating models at the end of the MS. Cepheids coming from stars with Mini>4-6M_{sun}_ are beyond the core helium burning phase and spend little time in the instability strip. Since they would evolve towards cooler effective temperatures, these Cepheids should show an increase of the pulsation period as a function of age.
We study the impact of a subsolar metallicity on various properties of non-rotating and rotating stars, such as surface velocities and abundances, lifetimes, evolutionary tracks, and evolutionary scenarios. We provide a grid of single star models covering a mass range of 0.8 to 120M_{sun_} with an initial metallicity Z=0.002 with and without rotation. We discuss the impact of a change in the metallicity by comparing the current tracks with models computed with exactly the same physical ingredients but with a metallicity Z=0.014 (solar). We show that the width of the main-sequence (MS) band in the upper part of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD), for luminosity above log(L/L_{sun}_)>5.5, is very sensitive to rotational mixing. Strong mixing significantly reduces the MS width. Here for the first time over the whole mass range, we confirm that surface enrichments are stronger at low metallicity provided that comparisons are made for equivalent initial mass, rotation, and evolutionary stage. We show that the enhancement factor due to a lowering of the metallicity (all other factors kept constant) increases when the initial mass decreases. Present models predict an upper luminosity for the red supergiants (RSG) of log (L/L_{sun}_) around 5.5 at Z=0.002 in agreement with the observed upper limit of RSG in the Small Magellanic Cloud. We show that models using shear diffusion coefficient, which is calibrated to reproduce the surface enrichments observed for MS B-type stars at Z=0.014, can also reproduce the stronger enrichments observed at low metallicity. In the framework of the present models, we discuss the factors governing the timescale of the first crossing of the Hertzsprung gap after the MS phase. We show that any process favouring a deep localisation of the H-burning shell (steep gradient at the border of the H-burning convective core, low CNO content), and/or the low opacity of the H-rich envelope favour a blue position in the HRD for the whole, or at least a significant fraction, of the core He-burning phase.
Many topical astrophysical research areas, such as the properties of planet host stars, the nature of the progenitors of different types of supernovae and gamma ray bursts, and the evolution of galaxies, require complete and homogeneous sets of stellar models at different metallicities in order to be studied during the whole of cosmic history. We present here a first set of models for solar metallicity, where the effects of rotation are accounted for in a homogeneous way. We computed a grid of 48 different stellar evolutionary tracks, both rotating and non-rotating, at Z=0.014, spanning a wide mass range from 0.8 to 120M_{sun}_. For each of the stellar masses considered, electronic tables provide data for 400 stages along the evolutionary track and at each stage, a set of 43 physical data are given. These grids thus provide an extensive and detailed data basis for comparisons with the observations. The rotating models start on the ZAMS with a rotation rate v_ini_/v_crit_=0.4. The evolution is computed until the end of the central carbon-burning phase, the early AGB phase, or the core helium-flash for, respectively, the massive, intermediate, and both low and very low mass stars. The initial abundances are those deduced by Asplund et collaborators, which best fit the observed abundances of massive stars in the solar neighbourhood. We update both the opacities and nuclear reaction rates, and introduce new prescriptions for the mass-loss rates as stars approach the Eddington and/or the critical velocity. We account for both atomic diffusion and magnetic braking in our low-mass star models. The present rotating models provide a good description of the average evolution of non-interacting stars. In particular, they reproduce the observed MS width, the positions of the red giant and supergiant stars in the HR diagram, the observed surface compositions and rotational velocities. Very interestingly, the enhancement of the mass loss during the RSG stage, when the luminosity becomes supra-Eddington in some outer layers, help models above 15-20 Msun to lose a significant part of their hydrogen envelope and evolve back into the blue part of the HR diagram. This result has interesting consequences for the blue to red supergiant ratio, the minimum mass for stars to become WR stars, and the maximum initial mass of stars that explode as type II-P supernovae.
We observed the proto brown dwarf candidate SSTB213 J041757 with the Submillimeter Array to search for CO molecular outflow emission from the source. Our CO maps do not show any outflow emission from the proto brown dwarf candidate. The non-detection implies that the molecular outflows from the source are weak; deeper observations are therefore needed to probe the outflows from the source.
Mass loss processes are a key uncertainty in the evolution of massive stars. They determine the amount of mass and angular momentum retained by the star, thus influencing its evolution and presupernova structure. Because of the high complexity of the physical processes driving mass loss, stellar evolution calculations must employ parametric algorithms, and usually only include wind mass loss. We carried out an extensive parameter study of wind mass loss and its effects on massive star evolution using the open-source stellar evolution code MESA. We provide a systematic comparison of wind mass loss algorithms for solar-metallicity, nonrotating, single stars in the initial mass range of 15M_{sun}_ to 35M_{sun}_. We consider combinations drawn from two hot phase (i.e., roughly the main sequence) algorithms, three cool phase (i.e., post-main-sequence) algorithms, and two Wolf-Rayet mass loss algorithms. We discuss separately the effects of mass loss in each of these phases. In addition, we consider linear wind efficiency scale factors of 1, 0.33, and 0.1 to account for suggested reductions in mass loss rates due to wind inhomogeneities. We find that the initial to final mass mapping for each zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) mass has a ~50% uncertainty if all algorithm combinations and wind efficiencies are considered. The ad-hoc efficiency scale factor dominates this uncertainty. While the final total mass and internal structure of our models vary tremendously with mass loss treatment, final luminosity and effective temperature are much less sensitive for stars with ZAMS mass <=30M_{sun}_. This indicates that uncertainty in wind mass loss does not negatively affect estimates of the ZAMS mass of most single-star supernova progenitors from pre-explosion observations. Our results furthermore show that the internal structure of presupernova stars is sensitive to variations in both main sequence and post main-sequence mass loss. The compactness parameter {xi}{prop.to}M/R(M) has been identified as a proxy for the "explodability" of a given presupernova model. We find that {xi} varies by as much as 30% for models of the same ZAMS mass evolved with different wind efficiencies and mass loss algorithm combinations. This suggests that the details of the mass loss treatment might bias the outcome of detailed core-collapse supernova calculations and the predictions for neutron star and black hole formation.
