Comments on the Evolution of Massive Stars

¹ Department of Physics, American University of Beirut, PO Box 11-236, Beirut, Lebanon,
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Kinard Laboratory of Physics, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-09789, USA

Corresponding authors: meid@aub.edu.lb ; tlihsin@clemson.edu ; mbradle@clemson.edu

Abstract

We describe in a brief form present results we have obtained from a careful and up to date study of the evolution of massive stars including their advanced evolutionary phases beyond the oxygen burning phase. We describe the effects of mass loss, treatment of convection in inhomogeneous stellar layers and the rate of the ¹²C(α, γ)¹⁶O reaction on the properties of stellar models in the interesting case of a 25 M_๏ star of solar-like initial metallicity.