On the modeling of outflowing envelopes of massive evolved stars at arbitrary optical depths

Abstract

Mass loss due to outflow is one factor introducing uncertainty into our understanding of the evolution of massive stars. There is a need of a theory, that would make it possible to take into account mass loss in the process of evolutionary computations in a self-consistent way. It is currently clear that the role of outflow is extremely important for stellar evolution, but quantitative conclusions about mass-loss rates remain uncertain. The evolution of stars with masses M ≥ 15 M⊙ is accompanied by mass loss at rates reaching 10–4-10–6 M⊙ yr–1. This strongly influences the evolution of such stars in the supergiant stage.