In this short review we present the recent progresses in modelling fast rotating stars in two dimensions. We thus give a brief description of the features of the public domain code ESTER that can compute self-consistently the structure and the large-scale flows (differential rotation and meridional circulation) of an axisymmetric stellar model of a (fast) rotating early-type main sequence star. We illustrate these modelling with the recent results obtained on Altair, a nearby extremely fast rotator. We then discuss the various way mixing takes place in the stably stratified radiative envelope of early-type stars, and especially in massive ones where the radiative winds add a new source of large-scale flows, which are shown to be strongly anisotropic and very difficult to represent in one dimension.

UV wind line variability in OB stars appears to be universal. We review the evidence that the variability is due to large, dense, optically thick structures rooted in or near the photosphere. Using repeated observations and a simple model we translate observed profile variations into optical depth variations and, consequently, variations in measured mass loss rates. Although global rates may be stable, measured rates vary. Consequently, profile variations infer how mass loss rates determined from UV wind lines vary. These variations quantify the intrinsic error inherent in any mass loss rate derived from a single observation. These derived rates can differ by factors of 3 or more. Our results also imply that rates from non-simultaneous observations (such as UV and ground based data) need not agree. Finally, we use our results to examine the nature of the structures responsible for the variability.

While we have growing numbers of massive star observations, it remains unclear how efficient the key physical processes such as mass loss, convection and rotation are, or indeed how they impact each other. We reconcile this with detailed stellar evolution models, yet these models have their own drawbacks with necessary assumptions for 3-dimensional processes like rotation which need to be adapted into 1-dimensional models. The implementation of empirical mass-loss prescriptions in stellar evolution codes can lead to the extrapolation of base rates to unconstrained evolutionary stages leading to a range of uncertain fates. In short, there remain many free parameters and physical processes which need to be calibrated in order to align our theory better with upcoming observations. We have tested various processes such as mass loss and internal mixing, including rotational mixing and convective overshooting, against multiple observational constraints such as using eclipsing binaries, the Humphreys-Davidson limit, and the final masses of Wolf-Rayet stars, across a range of metallicities. In fact, we developed a method of disentangling the effects of mixing and mass loss in the ‘Mass-Luminosity Plane’ allowing direct calibration of these processes. In all cases, it is important to note that a combined appreciation for both stellar winds and internal mixing are important to reproduce observations.

In this paper, we give a brief description of the Polstar instrument, an ultraviolet (UV) spectropolarimetric, Midex-class mission proposed to NASA to study the winds of massive stars as well as interstellar medium and protoplanetary discs topics.

We present Color Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs) created by using our database of 43,340 synthetic CMFGEN spectra. For each calculated spectra we measure the absolute flux by Johnson and Gaia photometry filters and build synthetic CMDs.

The wealth of information obtained about massive stars from observations at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths has been fundamental to understand their structure and the mechanisms regulating their evolution. There are however, important aspects that have not yet been addressed due to the lack of data and the relevant instrumentation such as the role of binarity and magnetic fields or the impact of low metallicity in the evolution of massive stars. There are plans to develop UV spectropolarimeters, UV monitors and very efficient telescopes with high collecting surfaces that will revolutionize the field. In this contribution, a short update on the current and foreseen UV instrumentation is provided.

Hot, massive stars are known to host unstable, radiation-driven outflowing winds, giving rise to dense clumps of material which severely affect the diagnostic techniques used to derive wind properties of massive stars. Most of the current diagnostic models account for wind inhomogeneities by assuming a one-component medium consisting of optically thin clumps, and maintaining a smooth velocity-field. However, this neglects important light-leakage effects through porous channels in-between the clumps. These light-leakage effects have recently been incorporated in the stellar atmosphere modelling code FASTWIND, and here we will present quantitative mass-loss results from a combined Ultraviolet-Optical wind analysis of O-supergiants in the Galaxy. Using a genetic-algorithm fitting-approach, we systematically investigate the impact the wind physics has on derived stellar and wind parameters, and how this depends on metallicity and spectral type. We compare our findings with earlier results (which do not take into account such light-leakage effects), to standard mass-loss rates usually included in evolution model studies of massive stars, and with theoretical predictions of clumping properties. We will also present the first systematic empirical constraints on the new wind parameters, associated with light-leakage, and compare these with theoretical predictions.

I describe (i) our recent updates on first star formation, with particular emphasis on their binaries, (ii) formation of low-metallicity stars and the transition of their initial mass functions with metal enrichment, and finally (iii) formation of supermassive stars from slightly metal-enriched gas by the newly found super-competitive accretion channel.

Despite the important role mass loss in the red supergiant phase plays in controlling stellar evolution and massive stars’ final supernova fates, a theoretical explanation of the mechanism driving this mass loss has been elusive. In this contribution we present a recent breakthrough [Kee et∼al., 2021] showing that turbulent pressure alone is sufficient to markedly extend the atmospheres of red supergiants and allow a wind to be launched. The resulting theory provides a fully analytic prescription for red supergiant mass-loss rates. Moreover, the theoretical mass-loss rates computed from observationally inferred turbulent velocities are in overall good agreement with observationally inferred red supergiant mass loss. A particularly interesting aspect of this theory is that it is not sensitive to metallicity, providing important implications for stellar evolution and the so-called “red-supergiant problem” for supernova progenitors in various environments.

Very metal-poor massive stars hold the key to interpret high-redshift star-forming galaxies and the early reionization epoch, but also contemporary events such as gravitational waves. To study these objects in resolved environments, we need to resort to dwarf irregular galaxies far from the potential wells of M31 and the Milky Way, and therefore distant. While the archives, recently boosted by the ULLYSES and XSHOOTU programs, store a healthy dataset of massive stars in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds, the number of observed targets with poorer metal content than the SMC (1/5 Zȯ) is dramatically small. This paper reviews the state of observations of very metal-poor massive stars, assessing what can be realistically learned about their physics and evolution with current instrumentation, and arguing whether or not near-future facilities can remedy the gaps in the knowledge that remain.

Rotation plays an important role in the structure and evolution of massive stars. It leads to deviation from spherical symmetry for very fast rotating stars, mixing in otherwise unmixed radiative regions and generally increased mass loss. In addition, magnetic fields interact with rotation and lead to significant transport of angular momentum. In this article, we review the various rotational and magnetic instabilities present in massive stars and their implementation in one-dimensional stellar evolution codes. We then focus on their impact on the evolution of single rotating stars. Finally, we compare rotating models to observations and discuss ways to disentangle between various uncertainties.

Low metallicity (Z) massive stars are among the main feedback agents in the early Universe and in present-day blue dwarf galaxies. The nearby star-forming SMC galaxy offers conditions which resemble those at redshift z∼2 i.e. where modern galaxies formed and star formation peaked. Here we present the recent results about the nature of the eclipsing O-type binary in the SMC, AzV 476, to gain insights on the properties of massive stars and binaries at earlier cosmic epochs. We find that the primary has surprisingly low mass while being much brighter and hotter than the secondary. To place the measured stellar properties in the evolutionary context we modeled the system and confirm that AzV 476 is a post-interaction binary with the primary already being core helium (He) burning, while still having a hydrogen-rich (H-rich) envelope. These results constrain massive binary evolutionary scenarios and guide the searches of stripped stars in low-Z environments.

Luminous Blue Variable stars (LBVs) are rare and enigmatic. Often cited as evolutionary stages in the single-star evolution, the idea that binary evolution produces the LBV state was already considered, 30 years ago.

It is now commonly accepted that a significant part of massive stars are born in multiple systems. One aspect that also emerged is that massive stars have on average at least two companions, i.e. they are triples. This immediately implies that a number of LBVs should have evolved as part of multiple systems.

While some LBVs are confirmed as binaries, different methods were used to derive their multiplicity, with different results. We report on a systematic search for multiplicity using spectroscopy, interferometry in a sample of 20 LBVs. Spectroscopy provides us with a bias-corrected binary fraction of $\[62_{ - 24}^{ + 38}\]$%, and a percentage of 50–70% is found from interferometry. This has a high impact on the way that these objects might be formed.

The temperature independent part of the Humphreys-Davidson (HD) limit sets the boundary for evolutionary channels of massive stars that either end their lives as red supergiants (RSGs) or as the hotter blue supergiants (BSGs) and Wolf-Rayet stars. Recent downward revision of most luminous RSGs the Galaxy below log(L / L⊙) ≈ 5.5, more in line with the Magellanic Clouds, might hint towards a metallicity (Z)-independent HD limit. We present MESA single star models in the 15-40 M⊙ range and study the different Z-dependent processes that could potentially affect the location of the upper luminosity limit of RSGs.

Since massive stars form preferentially as members of close binary systems, we use dense grids of detailed binary evolution models to explore how binary evolution shapes the main-sequence morphology of young star clusters. We propose that binary mergers might be the origin of the blue main sequence stars in young star clusters. Our results imply that stars may either form by accretion, or through a binary merger, and that both paths lead to distinctly different spins, magnetic fields, and stellar mass distributions.

In this contribution, we explore the question on the formation of multiple massive stellar systems via disk fragmentation with the help of the highest-resolution simulations to date of a fragmenting disk in the context of massive star formation. The simulations start from a collapsing cloud of 200 solar masses, followed by the formation of an accretion disk that develops spiral arms and fragments. Due to the high resolution of our grid, we are able to self-consistently form the fragments without the need for a subgrid module such as sink particles. We track the formed fragments into the first stages of companion formation, which allows us to give an estimate of the multiplicity of the final system due to disk fragmentation. We find in total around ∼6 fragments, some at orbits of ∼ 1000 au, and some close (possibly spectroscopic) companions.

MWC 656 has been reported as classical Be star with a black hole companion. Revisited spectral variability properties render this unlikely, with a hot subdwarf more probable.

Exploring the low-mass end of the companion mass function around massive stars is of crucial importance to constrain massive star formation theories. We present a high-contrast imaging study of 20 O- and early B-type stars in the Scorpius OB1 association. From the analysis of VLT/SPHERE data, we identify a total of 789 sources. The data probe the brown dwarf regime around massive stars, resulting in the discovery of large-separation multiple systems with mass-ratios as low as 0.001 (comparable to Jupiter-Sun mass-ratio).

One significant difficulty in reliable quantification of the rates of mass-loss from hot, massive stars lies in uncertainties associated with quantifying temporal and spatial variability within stellar winds. The consequences of low-metallicity conditions for wind structure also merit continued investigation. We present initial results from ULLYSES data with the aim of identifying structure within the stellar winds of early B type supergiants with sub-solar metallicities in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. We demonstrate how single-epoch ULLYSES data can be used to investigate significant wind structure for these stars.