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We present the evolution of a 25 M☉ star model having solar chemical composition from the pre-main-sequence phase up to the onset of the iron core collapse. This evolution has been obtained with the latest version (release 4.0) of our hydrostatic evolutionary code FRANEC, and hence it is totally homogeneous with all of our stellar evolutions concerning low- and intermediate-mass stars. A network including 149 nuclear species has been fully coupled to the equations describing the temporal variations of the physical quantities. No quasi-nuclear statistical equilibrium approximation has been adopted up to 4 × 109 K. All of the evolutionary properties of the stellar model are discussed in detail. Whenever possible, comparisons with similar evolutions available in the literature have been performed. An iron core mass smaller than the values recently quoted in the literature for the same mass and solar chemical composition has been obtained (MFe = 1.513 M☉).
Chieffi et al. (Sat,) studied this question.