Constraints on the Stellar Upper Mass Limit from Simulations of UV Disk Ablation

AbstractThis contribution presents recent advances in identifying the stellar upper mass limit using simulations of UV radiative feedback during the star formation process. Generally, due to computational costs and a focus on au to parsec scales, simulations of massive star formation do not trace the flow of material to distances closer than a few au from the forming star. However, UV line-acceleration acts directly on accreting material in the sub-au circumstellar region, thereby efficiently ablating the surface layers off the protostellar disk. For stars on the order of a few hundred solar masses, this disk destruction rate exceeds the accretion rate, destroying the disk faster than it is replenished, and setting a maximum stellar mass as a function of metallicity that can be attained by single star formation channels.