Convective-core overshooting and the final fate of massive stars

Understand

Massive stars can explode in powerful supernovae (SNe) forming neutron stars but they may also collapse directly into black holes (BHs).

• Understanding and predicting their final fate is increasingly important, e.g, in the context of gravitational-wave astronomy.
• The interior mixing of stars in general and convective boundary mixing remain some of the largest uncertainties in their evolution.
• Here, we investigate the influence of convective boundary mixing on the pre-SN structure and explosion properties of massive stars.