Red supergiants in M31, M33, SMC and LMC

Mass loss in red supergiants (RSGs) is generally recognized to be episodic, but mass-loss prescriptions fail to reflect this. Evolutionary models show that the total amount of mass lost in this phase determines if these stars evolve to warmer temperatures before undergoing core collapse. The current Geneva evolutionary models mimic episodic mass loss by enhancing the quiescent prescription rates whenever the star's outer layers exceed the Eddington luminosity by a large factor. This results in a 20M_{sun} model undergoing 10x more mass loss than it would otherwise, but has little effect on models of lower mass. We can test the validity of this approach observationally by measuring the proportion of high-luminosity RSGs to that predicted by the models. To do this, we use our recent luminosity-limited census of RSGs in M31 and M33, making modest improvements to membership, and adopting extinctions based on the recent panchromatic M31 and M33 Hubble surveys. We then compare the proportions of the highest luminosity RSGs found to that predicted by published Geneva models, as well as to a special set of models computed without the enhanced rates. We find good agreement with the models which include the supra-Eddington enhanced mass loss. The models with lower mass-loss rates predict a larger fraction of high-luminosity RSGs than observed, and thus can be ruled out. We also use these improved data to confirm that the upper luminosity limit of RSGs is logL/L{sun}_~5.4, regardless of metallicity, using our improved data on M31 and M33 plus previous results on the Magellanic Clouds.

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/942/69/table2 (Red supergiants (RSGs) in M31)

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/942/69/table3 (RSGs in M33)

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/942/69/table4 (RSGs in the SMC)

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/942/69/table5 (RSGs in the LMC)

Identifier
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/942/69
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/942/69
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/942/69
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/942/69
Provenance
Creator Massey P.; Neugent K.F.; Ekstrom S.; Georgy C.; Meynet G.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2024
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Exoplanet Astronomy; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy