My research initially focused on the study of massive stars. I have investigated the importance of mass loss and duplicity in stellar evolution (Eldridge & Tout, 2004; Eldridge & Vink, 2006; Eldridge, Izzard & Tout, 2008). I have actively collaborated with many astronomers to model progenitors of core-collapse supernovae and compare my models with observations (e.g. Eldridge et al. 2007, Pastorello et al., 2007; Mattila et al., 2008; Stancliffe & Eldridge, 2009,Fraser et al., in prep). I have also written a review on supernova progenitors (Eldridge, 2008) for the Royal Society. This work culminated in accurately identifying the progenitors of type IIP supernovae as red supergiants (Smartt et al., 2009).

An offshoot of my research played a key role in understanding the evolution of stars near the minimum mass for a core-collapse supernovae. I showed that these super-AGB stars are unlikely to be the supernova progenitors as previously suspected (Eldridge, Mattila & Smartt, 2007). Recently there have been more observed supernova progenitors near this minimum mass with luminosities less than those expected from stellar models. By varying the model physics I have shown that the luminosities are achievable but only by varying uncertain physics within the stellar models, such as increasing the carbon burning rate (Fraser et al., in prep). Continue Reading…