Speaker
Description
Massive stars that end their lives as core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) undergo intense mass loss, binary interaction, and eruptive activity during their late evolutionary stages. These processes strongly influence the pre-supernova structure of the progenitor, the circumstellar medium, and potentially the explosion mechanism itself. In many interacting systems, accretion onto a companion star or compact object can lead to the launching of jets, which may play a major role in shaping the outflows and the observational properties of the system. I will present 3D hydrodynamical simulations of interacting massive binary systems that include detailed treatments of stellar winds, orbital motion, clumpy outflows, accretion flows, and jet launching. The simulations explore the physical conditions under which wind collisions lead to accretion onto the companion star, and derive new relations between the mass accretion rate, the wind momentum ratio, and the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton accretion rate. I will discuss how accretion-powered jets affect the circumstellar environment and may influence the final stages of massive stars prior to collapse. In addition, I will present simulations of giant eruptions in luminous blue variables (LBVs), including mass transfer and accretion onto a companion star during eruptive episodes. These results support scenarios in which binary interaction and jets are key ingredients in producing major eruptive transients and in shaping the progenitors of CCSNe. Finally, I will show stellar evolution calculations demonstrating the consequences of extreme mass loss and rapid mass accretion on the structure and evolution of massive stars approaching core collapse.