Title: The evolution of red supergiants to supernovae,
Abstract: With red supergiants (RSGs) predicted to end their lives as Type IIP core
collapse supernova (CCSN), their behaviour before explosion needs to be fully
understood. Mass loss rates govern RSG evolution towards SN and have strong
implications on the appearance of the resulting explosion. To study how the
mass-loss rates change with the evolution of the star, we have measured the
amount of circumstellar material around 19 RSGs in a coeval cluster. Our study
has shown that mass loss rates ramp up throughout the lifetime of an RSG, with
more evolved stars having mass loss rates a factor of 40 higher than early
stage RSGs. Interestingly, we have also found evidence for an increase in
circumstellar extinction throughout the RSG lifetime, meaning the most evolved
stars are most severely affected. We find that, were the most evolved RSGs in
NGC2100 to go SN, this extra extinction would cause the progenitor's initial
mass to be underestimated by up to 9M$_\odot$.