The Evolution, Influence, and Ultimate Fate of Massive Stars: Transient Phenomena and Stellar Astrophysics in the Era of Wide-Field Surveys

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An improved understanding of the lifecycle of massive stars benefits every subfield in astrophysics. Through their ionizing radiation, powerful stellar winds, nucleosynthesis, and deaths as supernova (SN) explosions, massive stars give birth to black holes and neutron stars, while stoking the dynamical and chemical evolution of the universe. Although the study of massive stars is one of the oldest subfields in astronomy, the recent advent of wide-field time-domain surveys has launched an upheaval in field of stellar evolution. By opening new regimes of the dynamic sky, we have uncovered new types of astronomical transients, challenging our views of the physical processes that occur during both the lives and explosive deaths of massive stars. The goal of my research program is to understand the life and death of massive stars, and their relation to the origin of unusual astronomical transients. Our fundamental approach is to combine multi-wavelength observations of transient phenomena with studies of resolved stellar populations, which will leverage the next generation of wide-field time-domain surveys and gravitational wave facilities as well as the advances in stellar astrophysics enabled by high-precision photometry and large-scale spectroscopic surveys. Sitting firmly at the intersection of fields poised for rapid progress, this program will lead the development of a comprehensive picture of the evolution, influence, and ultimate fate of massive stars. In particular, we focus on three primary Long-Term Research Objectives: (1) Multi-messenger Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics: My group will advance the burgeoning field of multi-messenger gravitational-wave astrophysics from individual objects to population studies. We will address questions such as total contribution of neutron star mergers to cosmic nucleosynthesis. (2) New Regimes of Transient Astronomy: My group will use the next generation of wide-field time domain surveys to fully map the phase space of transients, and conduct the multi-wavelength follow-up programs to determine the nature of newly discovered (but possibly prevalent) varieties of explosions. We will also use observations of SN to address pressing questions in stellar physics, such as the mechanism that drives explosive pre-SN mass loss, and the progenitors of SN explosions. (3) Stellar Astrophysics via Population Statistics: We will push the frontiers of spectroscopic, photometric, and time-resolved surveys of massive star populations in nearby galaxies. We will continue to develop new techniques to identify and characterize evolved massive stars in elusive phases. Using the first statistical samples of such objects, we will address fundamental questions---such as the role of eruptive mass loss in the evolution of massive stars, and the influence binary stars on the epoch of reionization.