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One of the key phases of stellar evolution that remains poorly understood isstellar death. We lack a predictive model for how a star of a given massexplodes and what kind of remnant it leaves behind (i.e. the initial-final massrelation, IFMR). Progress has been limited due to the difficulty in finding andweighing black holes and neutron stars in large numbers. Technological advancesthat allow for sub-milliarcsecond astrometry in crowded fields have opened anew window for finding black holes and neutron stars: astrometric gravitationallensing. Finding and weighing a sample of compact objects with astrometricmicrolensing will allow us to place some of the first constraints on thepresent-day mass function of isolated black holes and neutron stars, theirmultiplicity, and their kick velocities. All of these are fundamental inputsinto understanding the death phase of stellar evolution, improving supernovaemodels, and interpreting LIGO detections in an astrophysical context. Toachieve these goals, we require large area surveys, such as the WFIRSTexoplanet microlensing survey, to photometrically identify long-duration (>120day), un-blended microlensing events as candidate compact objects. We alsorequire high-precision astrometric follow-up monitoring using extremely largetelescopes, equipped with adaptive optics, such as TMT and GMT.

Astro2020: From Stars to Compact Objects: The Initial-Final Mass Relation