Pulsational Pair-instability Supernovae. I. Pre-collapse Evolution and Pulsational Mass Ejection

We calculate the evolution of massive stars, which undergo pulsational pair-instability (PPI) when the O-rich core is formed. The evolution from the main sequence through the onset of PPI is calculated for stars with initial masses of 80-140 M and metallicities of Z = 10−3−1.0 Z . Because of mass lo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2019-12, Vol.887 (1), p.72
Main Authors: Leung, Shing-Chi, Nomoto, Ken'ichi, Blinnikov, Sergei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
Black holes
Circumstellar matter
Collapse
Cores
Disruption
Ejection
Evolution
Instability
Iron
Light curve
Massive stars
Mathematical analysis
Nuclear fusion
Pair production
Pulsation
Stability
Stellar envelopes
Stellar evolution
Stellar mass loss
Supernova
Supernovae
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We calculate the evolution of massive stars, which undergo pulsational pair-instability (PPI) when the O-rich core is formed. The evolution from the main sequence through the onset of PPI is calculated for stars with initial masses of 80-140 M and metallicities of Z = 10−3−1.0 Z . Because of mass loss, Z ≤ 0.5 Z is necessary for stars to form He cores massive enough (i.e., mass >40 M ) to undergo PPI. The hydrodynamical phase of evolution from PPI through the beginning of Fe-core collapse is calculated for He cores with masses of 40−62 M and Z = 0. During PPI, electron-positron pair production causes a rapid contraction of the O-rich core, which triggers explosive O-burning and a pulsation of the core. We study the mass dependence of the pulsation dynamics, thermodynamics, and nucleosynthesis. The pulsations are stronger for more massive He cores and result in a large amount of mass ejection such as 3-13 M for 40−62 M He cores. These He cores eventually undergo Fe-core collapse. The 64 M He core undergoes complete disruption and becomes a pair-instability supernova. The H-free circumstellar matter ejected around these He cores is massive enough to explain the observed light curve of Type I (H-free) superluminous supernovae with circumstellar interaction. We also note that the mass ejection sets the maximum mass of black holes (BHs) to be ∼50 M , which is consistent with the masses of BHs recently detected by VIRGO and aLIGO.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ab4fe5