The Impact of Realistic Red Supergiant Mass Loss on Stellar Evolution

Abstract

Accurate mass-loss rates are essential for meaningful stellar evolutionary models. For massive single stars with initial masses between 8 and 30 M ⊙ the implementation of cool supergiant mass loss in stellar models strongly affects the resulting evolution, and the most commonly used prescription for these cool-star phases is that of de Jager. Recently, we published a new M ̇ prescription calibrated to RSGs with initial masses between 10 and 25 M ⊙ , which unlike previous prescriptions does not overestimate M ̇ for the most massive stars. Here, we carry out a comparative study to the MESA-MIST models, in which we test the effect of altering mass loss by recomputing the evolution of stars with masses 12–27 M ⊙ with the new M ̇ -prescription implemented. We show that while the evolutionary tracks in the HR diagram of the stars do not change appreciably, the mass of the H-rich envelope at core collapse is drastically increased compared to models using the de Jager prescription. This increased envelope mass would have a strong impact on the Type II-P SN lightcurve, and would not allow stars under 30 M ⊙ to evolve back to the blue and explode as H-poor SN. We also predict that the amount of H-envelope around single stars at explosion should be correlated with initial mass, and we discuss the prospects of using this as a method of determining progenitor masses from supernova light curves.