Mass loss and the Eddington parameter

Abstract

Mass loss through stellar winds plays a dominant role in the evolution of massive stars. Very massive stars (VMSs, $> 100 M_{\odot}$) display Wolf-Rayet spectral morphologies (WNh) whilst on the main-sequence. Bestenlehner (2020) extended the elegant and widely used stellar wind theory by Castor, Abbott & Klein (1975) from the optically thin (O star) to the optically thick main-sequence (WNh) wind regime. The new mass-loss description is able to explain the empirical mass-loss dependence on the Eddington parameter and is suitable for incorporation into stellar evolution models for massive and very massive stars. The prescription can be calibrated with the transition mass-loss rate defined in Vink & Gr\"afener (2012). Based on the stellar sample presented in Bestenlehner et al. (2014) we derive a mass-loss recipe for the Large Magellanic Cloud using the new theoretical mass-loss prescription of Bestenlehner (2020).