| Issue |
A&A
Volume 688, August 2024
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | L10 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Letters to the Editor | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450655 | |
| Published online | 02 August 2024 | |
Letter to the Editor
The maximum black hole mass at solar metallicity
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, College Hill, BT61 9DG Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK
e-mail: jorick.vink@armagh.ac.uk
Received:
8
May 2024
Accepted:
10
July 2024
We analyse the current knowledge and uncertainties in detailed stellar evolution and wind modelling to evaluate the mass of the most massive stellar black hole (BH) at solar metallicity. Contrary to common expectations that it is the most massive stars that produce the most massive BHs, we find that the maximum MBHMax ≃ 30 ± 10 M⊙ is found in the canonical intermediate range between MZAMS ≃ 30 and 50 M⊙ instead. The prime reason for this seemingly counter-intuitive finding is that very massive stars (VMS) have increasingly high mass-loss rates that lead to substantial mass evaporation before they expire as stars and end as lighter BHs than their canonical O-star counterparts.
Key words: stars: evolution / stars: massive / stars: mass-loss / supergiants
© ESO 2024
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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