Monday, April 21, 2025 at 3:30 pm

JILA auditorium

Sally Oey , University of Michigan

"Field stars and their kinematics as a probe of massive star evolution and binary populations"

Abstract:

Field massive stars are more easily identified and studied than those in crowded cluster environments. While some massive stars may form in relative isolation, most are ejected from clusters via dynamical processes and supernova kicks in binary systems. Since both mechanisms are driven by binarity in the massive star population, field stars and their kinematics probe the effects of binarity, which can strongly influence stellar evolution by the transfer of mass and angular momentum. Our group has carried out spectroscopic surveys of OB and OBe stars in the SMC, including radial velocity monitoring, and our program also features studies of Gaia proper motions of various classes of massive stars in the SMC and LMC. I will give an overview of what we are learning about massive star evolution and binarity from this work.

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