Massive Black Holes Regulated by Luminous Blue Variable Mass Loss and Magnetic Fields

Groh, J. H.; Farrell, Eoin; Meynet, Georges; Smith, Nathan; Murphy, Laura Bennett; Allan, Andrew; Georgy, Cyril; Ekstroem, Sylvia

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aba2c8

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…This is a result of the strong dependence of mass-loss from radiative-driven winds on metallicity (Vink, de Koter & Lamers 2001). For solar metallicity stars, the time-averaged mass-loss rate during the LBV phase and the presence of surface magnetic fields are important factors that determine the final BH mass of massive stars, which can range from 35 to 71 M for an 85 M star (Groh et al 2020). At low metallicity, mass-loss by stellar winds during the mainsequence phase becomes very low.…”

Section: Lower Mass-loss During the Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is GW190521 the merger of black holes from the first stellar generations?

Farrell

Groh

Hirschi

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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GW190521 challenges our understanding of the late-stage evolution of massive stars and the effects of the pair instability in particular. We discuss the possibility that stars at low or zero metallicity could retain most of their hydrogen envelope until the pre-supernova stage, avoid the pulsational pair-instability regime, and produce a black hole with a mass in the mass gap by fallback. We present a series of new stellar evolution models at zero and low metallicity computed with the geneva and mesa stellar evolution codes and compare to existing grids of models. Models with a metallicity in the range 0–0.0004 have three properties that favour higher black hole (BH) masses. These are (i) lower mass-loss rates during the post main sequence phase, (ii) a more compact star disfavouring binary interaction, and (iii) possible H–He shell interactions which lower the CO core mass. We conclude that it is possible that GW190521 may be the merger of black holes produced directly by massive stars from the first stellar generations. Our models indicate BH masses up to 70–75 M⊙. Uncertainties related to convective mixing, mass loss, H–He shell interactions, and pair-instability pulsations may increase this limit to ∼85 M⊙.

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Section: Lower Mass-loss During the Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is GW190521 the merger of black holes from the first stellar generations?

Farrell

Groh

Hirschi

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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“…The BH 'obesity' measured by LIGO/VIRGO therefore supported the assumption that the gravitational wave event occurred in a part of the Universe still pristine in its enrichment with heavy elements ("metallicity"), lowering stellar wind mass loss [31]. This 'pristine' solution was widely accepted until the announcement of the formation of a heavy black hole of order 70 solar masses in LB-1 in the Milky Way [20], spurring stellar evolution theorists to avoid heavy mass loss in the Milky Way [5,15], either by arbitrarily lowering the mass-loss rates of VMS -seemingly contradicting VMS mass-loss calibrations [33] -or by invoking the presence of a strong dipolar magnetic field that could quench the wind [27]. While magnetic fields in some 5-10% of massive OB stars do indeed exist, no fields have yet been detected in VMS [4].…”

mentioning

confidence: 87%

Forming an “Impossible” 85 solar mass Black Hole

Higgins

Sander

Sabhahit

2020

Preprint

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At the end of its life, a very massive star is expected to collapse into a black hole. The masses of these black holes are pivotal for our understanding of the evolution and fate of these stars, as well as for galaxy evolution and the build-up of black hole masses through Cosmic time. The recent detection of an 85 solar mass black hole from the gravitational wave event GW 190521 appears to present a fundamental problem as to how such heavy black holes exist above the approximately 50 solar mass pair-instability limit where stars are expected to be blown to pieces with no remnant left. Here we show that for stellar models at reduced heavy element content, 90-100 solar mass stars can produce core masses sufficiently small to remain below the fundamental pair-instability limit, yet at the same time lose an amount of mass small enough to end up in an 85 solar mass black hole. A key point is that the amount of mass-loss scales with the host galaxy heavy element fraction, and not with the total amount of element enrichment that occurs naturally during the life of massive stars. Our study shows how our Universe is capable of producing heavy black holes, which are important seeds for the production of supermassive black holes that regulate the evolution of galaxies. Our evolutionary channel to the formation of an 85 solar mass black hole is of fundamental relevance for the manner in which metals are released in the outflows and explosions of the most massive stars, which is shown to be a strong function of Cosmic time.

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“…The question of the formation of the most massive black holes has received some attention recently in particular following the gravitational wave detection GW190521 (Abbott et al 2020;Groh et al 2020;Farrell et al 2021). On the left panel of Fig.…”

Section: Core Massesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grids of stellar models with rotation VI: Models from 0.8 to 120 $M_\odot$ at a metallicity Z = 0.006

Eggenberger,

Ekström,

Georgy

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Context. Grids of stellar models, computed with the same physical ingredients, allow one to study the impact of a given physics on a broad range of initial conditions and they are a key ingredient for modeling the evolution of galaxies. Aims. We present here a grid of single star models for masses between 0.8 and 120 M , with and without rotation for a mass fraction of heavy element Z=0.006, representative of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Methods. We used the GENeva stellar Evolution Code (GENEC). The evolution was computed until the end of the central carbonburning phase, the early asymptotic giant branch phase, or the core helium-flash for massive, intermediate, and low mass stars, respectively.Results. The outputs of the present stellar models are well framed by the outputs of the two grids obtained by our group for metallicities above and below the one considered here. The models of the present work provide a good fit to the nitrogen surface enrichments observed during the main sequence for stars in the LMC with initial masses around 15 M . They also reproduce the slope of the luminosity function of red supergiants of the LMC well, which is a feature that is sensitive to the time-averaged mass loss rate over the red supergiant phase. The most massive black hole that can be formed from the present models at Z=0.006 is around 55 M . No model in the range of mass considered will enter into the pair-instability supernova regime, while the minimal mass to enter the region of pair pulsation instability is around 60 M for the rotating models and 85 M for the nonrotating ones. Conclusions. The present models are of particular interest for comparisons with observations in the LMC and also in the outer regions of the Milky Way. We provide public access to numerical tables that can be used for computing interpolated tracks and for population synthesis studies.

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Massive Black Holes Regulated by Luminous Blue Variable Mass Loss and Magnetic Fields

Cited by 22 publications

References 57 publications

Is GW190521 the merger of black holes from the first stellar generations?

Is GW190521 the merger of black holes from the first stellar generations?

Forming an “Impossible” 85 solar mass Black Hole

Grids of stellar models with rotation VI: Models from 0.8 to 120 $M_\odot$ at a metallicity Z = 0.006

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