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Context.In addition to being spectacular objects, very massive stars (VMSs) are suspected to have a tremendous impact on their environment and on cosmic evolution in general. The nucleosynthesis both during their advanced stages and their final explosion may contribute greatly to the overall enrichment of the Universe. Their resulting supernovae are candidates for the most superluminous events possible and their extreme conditions also lead to very important radiative and mechanical feedback effects, from local to cosmic scale. Aims.We explore the impact of rotation and metallicity on the evolution of VMSs over cosmic time. Methods.With the recent implementation of an equation of state in the GENEC stellar evolution code, which is appropriate for describing the conditions in the central regions of very massive stars in their advanced phases, we present new results on VMS evolution from Population III to solar metallicity. Results.Low-metallicity VMS models are highly sensitive to rotation, while the evolution of higher-metallicity models is dominated by mass-loss effects. The mass loss strongly affects their surface velocity evolution, breaking quickly at high metallicity while reaching the critical velocity for low-metallicity models. Comparison to observed VMSs in the LMC shows that the mass-loss prescriptions used for these models are compatible with observed mass-loss rates. In our framework for modeling rotation, our models of VMS need a high initial velocity in order to reproduce the observed surface velocities. The surface enrichment of these VMSs is difficult to explain with only one initial composition, and could suggest multiple populations in the R136 cluster. At a metallicity typical of R136, only our non- or slowly rotating VMS models may produce pair-instability supernovae. The most massive black holes that can be formed are less massive than about 60M_⊙. Conclusions.Direct observational constraints on VMS are still scarce. Future observational campaigns will hopefully gather more pieces of information to guide the theoretical modeling of these objects, whose impacts can be very important. VMS tables are available at the CDS. 

Context. The 26 Al short-lived radioactive nuclide is the source of the observed galactic diffuse γ -ray emission at 1.8 MeV. While different sources of 26 Al have been explored, such as asymptotic giant branch stars, massive stellar winds, and supernovae, the contribution of very massive stars has not been studied so far. Aims. We study the contribution of the stellar wind of very massive stars, here, stars with initial masses between 150 and 300 M ⊙ , to the enrichment in 26 Al of the galactic interstellar medium. Methods. We studied the production of 26 Al by studying rotating and non-rotating very massive stellar models with initial masses between 150 and 300 M ⊙ for metallicities Z  = 0.006, 0.014, and 0.020. We compared this result to a simple Milky Way model and took the metallicity and the star formation rate gradients into account. Results. We obtain that very massive stars in the Z  = 0.006 − 0.020 metallicity range might be very significant contributors to the 26 Al enrichment of the interstellar medium. Typically, the contribution of the winds of massive stars to the total quantity of 26 Al in the Galaxy increases by 150% when very massive stars are considered. Conclusions. Despite their rarity, very massive stars might be important contributors to 26 Al and might overall be very important actors for nucleosynthesis in the Galaxy. 

ABSTRACT We present a grid of stellar models at supersolar metallicity (Z = 0.020) extending the previous grids of Geneva models at solar and sub-solar metallicities. A metallicity of Z = 0.020 was chosen to match that of the inner Galactic disc. A modest increase of 43 per cent (= 0.02/0.014) in metallicity compared to solar models means that the models evolve similarly to solar models but with slightly larger mass-loss. Mass-loss limits the final total masses of the supersolar models to 35 M⊙ even for stars with initial masses much larger than 100 M⊙. Mass-loss is strong enough in stars above 20 M⊙ for rotating stars (25 M⊙ for non-rotating stars) to remove the entire hydrogen-rich envelope. Our models thus predict SNII below 20 M⊙ for rotating stars (25 M⊙ for non-rotating stars) and SNIb (possibly SNIc) above that. We computed both isochrones and synthetic clusters to compare our supersolar models to the Westerlund 1 (Wd1) massive young cluster. A synthetic cluster combining rotating and non-rotating models with an age spread between log10(age/yr) = 6.7 and 7.0 is able to reproduce qualitatively the observed populations of WR, RSG, and YSG stars in Wd1, in particular their simultaneous presence at $$\log _{10}(L/\mathit {\mathrm{ L}}_{\odot })$$ = 5–5.5. The quantitative agreement is imperfect and we discuss the likely causes: synthetic cluster parameters, binary interactions, mass-loss and their related uncertainties. In particular, mass-loss in the cool part of the HRD plays a key role. 

ABSTRACT In this work, we investigate the impact of uncertainties due to convective boundary mixing (CBM), commonly called ‘overshoot’, namely the boundary location and the amount of mixing at the convective boundary, on stellar structure and evolution. For this we calculated two grids of stellar evolution models with the MESA code, each with the Ledoux and the Schwarzschild boundary criterion, and vary the amount of CBM. We calculate each grid with the initial masses of 15, 20, and $$25\, \rm {M}_\odot$$. We present the stellar structure of the models during the hydrogen and helium burning phases. In the latter, we examine the impact on the nucleosynthesis. We find a broadening of the main sequence with more CBM, which is more in agreement with observations. Furthermore, during the core hydrogen burning phase there is a convergence of the convective boundary location due to CBM. The uncertainties of the intermediate convective zone remove this convergence. The behaviour of this convective zone strongly affects the surface evolution of the model, i.e. how fast it evolves redwards. The amount of CBM impacts the size of the convective cores and the nucleosynthesis, e.g. the 12C to 16O ratio and the weak s-process. Lastly, we determine the uncertainty that the range of parameter values investigated introduces and we find differences of up to $$70{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ for the core masses and the total mass of the star. 

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. The evolution was computed until the end of the central carbon-burning 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.