We present the initial-final mass relation ( IFMR ) based on the self-consistent analysis of Sirius B and 79 white dwarfs from 13 star clusters .
We have also acquired additional signal on eight white dwarfs previously analyzed in the NGC 2099 cluster field , four of which are consistent with membership .
These reobserved white dwarfs have masses ranging from 0.72 to 0.97 M _ { \odot } , with initial masses from 3.0 to 3.65 M _ { \odot } , where the IFMR has an important change in slope that these new data help to observationally confirm .
In total , this directly measured IFMR has small scatter ( \sigma = 0.06 M _ { \odot } ) and spans from progenitors of 0.85 to 7.5 M _ { \odot } .
Applying two different stellar evolutionary models to infer two different sets of white dwarf progenitor masses shows that when the same model is also used to derive the cluster ages , the resulting IFMR has weak sensitivity to the adopted model at all but the highest initial masses ( > 5.5 M _ { \odot } ) .
The non-linearity of the IFMR is also clearly observed with moderate slopes at lower masses ( 0.08 M _ { final } /M _ { initial } ) and higher masses ( 0.11 M _ { final } /M _ { initial } ) that are broken up by a steep slope ( 0.19 M _ { final } /M _ { initial } ) between progenitors from 2.85 to 3.6 M _ { \odot } .
This IFMR shows total stellar mass loss ranges from 33 % of M _ { initial } at 0.83 M _ { \odot } to 83 % of M _ { initial } at 7.5 M _ { \odot } .
Testing this total mass loss for dependence on progenitor metallicity , however , finds no detectable sensitivity across the moderate range of –0.15 < [ Fe/H ] < +0.15 .