2009/03/05 by Ben Davies, Davies, Ben
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0903.0979
8 pages, 3 figures. Review article to appear in the proceedings of "Hot and Cool: bridging the gaps in massive star evolution" - updated reference list
arxiv created 2009/03/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
Young Massive Clusters (YMCs) represent ideal testbeds in which to study massive stellar evolution as they contain large, coeval, chemically homogeneous, samples of massive stars. By studying YMCs with a range of ages (and hence turn-off masses), we can investigate the post main-sequence evolution of massive stars as a function of initial mass. Recent discoveries of YMCs over a range of ages within our own Galaxy - where we can successfully resolve individual stars - offers the unprecedented opportunity to test our ideas of massive stellar evolution. Here, I review some of the recent works in this field, and describe how we can use YMCs to investigate several topics, including (a) the evolutionary state of H-rich Wolf-Rayet stars; (b) the influence of binarity on stellar evolution in dense clusters; and (c) Red Supergiants and the post-supernova remnants they leave behind.