Threshold mass of the general relativistic instability for supermassive star cores

• Published in: arXiv.org 2024-08
• Main Authors: Shibata, Masaru, Fujibayashi, Sho, Jockel, Cédric, Kawaguchi, Kyohei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Angular momentum; Electron-positron pairs; Helium; Hydrogen; Metallicity; Relativistic effects; Rotation; Stability; Stellar evolution; Supermassive stars
• ISSN: 2331-8422

The dependence of the final fate of supermassive star (SMS) cores on their mass and angular momentum is studied with simple modeling. SMS cores in the hydrogen burning phase encounter the general relativistic instability during the stellar evolution if the mass is larger than \(\sim 3 \times 10^4M_\odot\). Spherical SMS cores in the helium burning phase encounter the general relativistic instability prior to the onset of the electron-positron pair instability if the mass is larger than \(\sim 1\times 10^4M_\odot\). For rapidly rotating SMS cores, these values for the threshold mass are enhanced by up to a factor of \(\sim 5\), and thus, for SMSs with mass smaller than \(\sim 10^4M_\odot\) the collapse is triggered by the pair-instability, irrespective of the rotation. After the onset of the general relativistic instability, SMS cores in the hydrogen burning phase with reasonable metallicity are likely to collapse to a black hole irrespective of the degree of rotation, whereas the SMS cores in the helium burning phase could explode via nuclear burning with no black hole formation, as previous works demonstrate.