EARLY AND MAIN SEQUENCE EVOLUTION OF STARS IN THE RANGE 0.5 TO 100 SOLAR MASSES

The evolutionary study previously carried out for the sun has been extended to stars of 0.5, 0.7, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 solar masses. The evolutionary calculations were started at the threshold of energy stability, carried through the approach to the main sequence, and (with the exception of the 100 solar-mass model) through the depletion of hydrogen on the main sequence. All models were observed to have a completely convective Hayashi phase. There was general agreement, in the appropriate mass range, with the evolutionary studies of Iben, the discrepancies apparently resulting from different opacities used in the calculations. Lines of equal evolutionary age in a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram constructed from these calculations do not agree with the observations of Walker, probably because of the neglect of mass loss and rotation in the early stellar evolutionary histories.