Mass Loss from Metal-Poor Stars

Abstract

It is essential to consider the effect of mass loss to understand the distribution of supergiant stars in the HR diagram. This research concerns the evolution of massive stars with X=0.700 and Z=0.001 during the phases up to central He-exhaustion with the inclusion of mass loss. Such low value of Z has been chosen in order to allow a comparison with the supergiant stars of SMC. The rate of mass loss is formulated as in Chiosi, Nasi and Sreenivasan (1978). More specifically, in the range of high effective temperatures, we adopt the mass-loss rate relationship for radiation pressure driven wind of Castor, Abbott and Klein (1975), whereas in the range of low effective temperatures we assume the mass loss rate to be driven by the acoustic flux mechanism of Fusi Pecci and Renzini (1975).