Effect of mass loss and wind on pre-supernova stellar models

Abstract

Mass loss is a very important phenomenon for the co-evolution of massive stars (M > 8Msun) and their environment, yet it is poorly understood. It plays an important role throughout the stellar evolution and it may have a deciding influence on the outcome of core collapse. Mass loss phenomena help in determining the final mass of the star as well as any changes to the angular momentum during its evolution processes, both of which are both key parameters that decide the outcome of the star's life. The physical phenomena that cause mass loss are complicated and are not yet completely understood. Thus most stellar evolution codes only use wind mass loss to calculate overall mass loss using parametric algorithms. We compare some wind mass loss algorithms and its effects on massive star evolution using the open-source stellar evolution code MESA. We use two hot phase (i.e. roughly the main sequence) algorithms and three cool phase (i.e. post-main-sequence) algorithms.