Very Massive Stars in the Local Universe
  Recent studies suggest the existence of very massive stars (VMS) up to 300
solar masses in the local Universe. As this finding may represent a paradigm
shift for the canonical stellar upper-mass limit of 150 solar masses, it is
timely to evaluate the physics specific to VMS, which is currently missing. For
this reason, we decided to construct a book entailing both a discussion of the
accuracy of VMS masses (Martins), as well as the physics of VMS formation
(Krumholz), mass loss (Vink), instabilities (Owocki), evolution (Hirschi), and
fate (theory -- Woosley & Heger; observations -- Smith).
