The Slow Merger of Massive Stars

Abstract

We study the complete merger of two massive stars inside a common envelope and the subsequent evolution of the merger product, a rapidly rotating massive supergiant. Three qualitatively different types of mergers have been identified and investigated in detail, and the post-merger evolution has been followed to the immediate presupernova stage. The "quiet merger" case does not lead to significant changes in composition, and the star remains a red supergiant. In the case of a "moderate merger", the star may become a blue supergiant and end its evolution as a blue supergiant, depending on the core to total mass ratio (as may be appropriate for the progenitor of SN 1987A). In the case of the most effective "explosive merger", the merger product stays a red giant. In last two cases, the He abundance in the envelope is increased drastically , but significant s-processing is mainly expected in the "explosive merger" case.