The Maximum Black Hole Mass at Solar Metallicity

We analyse the current knowledge and uncertainties in detailed stellar evolution and wind modelling to evaluate the mass of the most massive stellar black hole (BH) at solar metallicity. Contrary to common expectations that it is the most massive stars that produce the most massive BHs, we find that...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2024-07
Main Authors: Vink, Jorick S, Sabhahit, Gautham N, Higgins, Erin R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Evaporation rate
Massive stars
Metallicity
Stellar evolution
Uncertainty analysis
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We analyse the current knowledge and uncertainties in detailed stellar evolution and wind modelling to evaluate the mass of the most massive stellar black hole (BH) at solar metallicity. Contrary to common expectations that it is the most massive stars that produce the most massive BHs, we find that the maximum \(M_{\rm BH}^{\rm Max} \simeq 30 \pm 10\,M_{\odot}\) is found in the canonical intermediate range between \(M_{\rm ZAMS} \simeq 30\) and \(50\,M_{\odot}\) instead. The prime reason for this seemingly counter-intuitive finding is that very massive stars (VMS) have increasingly high mass-loss rates, leading to substantial mass evaporation before they expire as stars, ending as lighter BHs than their canonical O-star counterparts.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2407.07204