Very Massive Stars in the Local Universe


Jorick S. Vink (Ed.)

Armagh Observatory, Northern Ireland

Recent studies suggest the existence of very massive stars (VMS) up to 300 solar masses in the local Universe. As this finding may represent a paradigm shift for the canonical stellar upper-mass limit of 150 solar masses, it is timely to evaluate the physics specific to VMS, which is currently missing. For this reason, we decided to construct a book entailing both a discussion of the accuracy of VMS masses (Martins), as well as the physics of VMS formation (Krumholz), mass loss (Vink), instabilities (Owocki), evolution (Hirschi), and fate (theory -- Woosley & Heger; observations -- Smith).

Reference: Very Massive Stars in the Local Universe: , Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Volume 412. Springer 2015
Status: Other

Weblink: http://www.springer.com/astronomy/astrophysics+and+astroparticles/book/978-3-319-09595-0

Comments: Book (Springer). 8 Chapters.

Email: jsv@arm.ac.uk