2020MNRAS.494.5230G

We evolve stellar models with zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) mass of M_ZAMS >= 18 M_☉ under the assumption that they experience an enhanced mass-loss rate when crossing the instability strip at high luminosities and conclude that most of them end as type Ibc supernovae (SNe Ibc) or dust-obscured SNe II. We explore what level of enhanced mass-loss rate during the instability strip would be necessary to explain the 'red supergiant problem'. This problem refers to the dearth of observed core-collapse supernovae progenitors with M_ZAMS >= 18 M_☉. Namely, we examine what enhanced mass-loss rate could make it possible for all these stars actually to explode as core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). We find that the mass-loss rate should increase by a factor of at least about 10. We reach this conclusion by analysing the hydrogen mass in the stellar envelope and the optical depth of the dusty wind at the explosion, and crudely estimate that under our assumptions only about a fifth of these stars explode as unobscured SNe II and SNe IIb. About 10-15 per cent end as obscured SNe II that are infrared-bright but visibly very faint, and the rest, about 65-70 per cent, end as SNe Ibc. However, the statistical uncertainties are still too significant to decide whether many stars with M_ZAMS >= 18 M_☉ do not explode as expected in the neutrino driven explosion mechanism, or whether all of them explode as CCSNe, as expected by the jittering jets explosion mechanism.