Partial Stellar Explosions -- Ejected Mass and Minimal Energy

Understand

Many massive stars appear to undergo enhanced mass loss during late stages of their evolution.

• In some cases, the ejected mass likely originates from non-terminal explosive outbursts, rather than continuous winds.
• Here we study the dependence of the ejecta mass, $m_{\rm ej}$, on the energy budget $E$ of an explosion deep within the star, using both analytical arguments and numerical hydrodynamics simulations.
• Focusing on polytropic stellar models, we find that for explosion energies smaller than the stellar binding energy, the ejected mass scales as $m_{\rm ej} \propto E^{\varepsilon_{m}}$, where $\varepsilon_m = 2.4-3.0$ depending on the polytropic index.