Evolution of the Convective Core Mass during the Main Sequence

TL;DR

This paper develops a semi-analytical model to predict how the convective core mass in massive stars evolves during the main sequence, accounting for various mass loss histories, and improves existing prediction methods.

Contribution

The authors introduce a universal relation-based semi-analytical framework for convective core mass evolution under mass loss, enhancing rapid stellar population modeling.

Findings

Universal relations between stellar properties under mass loss.

A semi-analytical model predicting core mass evolution.

Improved accuracy over existing methods.

Abstract

We construct a semi-analytical model that describes the convective core mass evolution of massive stars experiencing mass loss during the main-sequence stage. We first conduct a suite of 1D stellar evolution calculations to build insight into how convective core masses behave under idealized mass loss. Based on these simulations, we find several universal relations between global properties of the star that hold regardless of the mass loss history. By combining these relations, we construct a semi-analytic framework that can predict the convective core mass evolution for arbitrary mass loss histories and hence the helium core mass at the end of the main sequence. Our formulae improve upon existing methods for predicting the core mass in rapid population synthesis codes.