Most massive stars and their clumped winds

DOI

The star cluster R136 inside the Large Magellanic Cloud hosts a rich population of massive stars, including the most massive stars known. The strong stellar winds of these very luminous stars impact their evolution and the surrounding environment. We currently lack detailed knowledge of the wind structure that is needed to quantify this impact. To observationally constrain the stellar and wind properties of the massive stars in R136, in particular the wind-structure parameters related to wind clumping. We simultaneously analyse optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy of 53 O-type and 3 WNh-stars using the Fastwind model atmosphere code and a genetic algorithm. The models account for optically thick clumps and effects related to porosity and velocity- porosity, as well as a non-void interclump medium. We obtain stellar parameters, surface abundances, mass-loss rates, terminal velocities and clumping characteristics and compare these to theoretical predictions and evolutionary models. The clumping properties include the density of the interclump medium and the velocity-porosity of the wind. For the first time, these characteristics are systematically measured for a wide range of effective temperatures and luminosities. We confirm a cluster age of 1.0-2.5Myr and derive an initial stellar mass of >=250M_{sun}_ for the most massive star in our sample, R136a1. The winds of our sample stars are highly clumped, with an average clumping factor of fcl=29+/-15. We find tentative trends in the wind-structure parameters as a function of mass-loss rate, suggesting that the winds of stars with higher mass-loss rates are less clumped. We compare several theoretical predictions to the observed mass-loss rates and terminal velocities and find that none satisfactorily reproduces both quantities. The prescription of Krticka & Kubat matches best the observed mass-loss rates.

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/663/A36/sources (List of studied source)

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.36630036
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/663/A36
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/663/A36
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/663/A36
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/663/A36
Provenance
Creator Brands S.A.; de Koter A.; Bestenlehner J.M.; Crowther P.A.; Sundqvsit J.O.,Puls J.; Caballero-Nieves S.M.; Abdul-Masih M.; Driessen F.A.; Garcia M.,Geen S.; Graefener G.; Hawcroft C.; Kaper L.; Keszthelyi Z.; Langer N.,Sana H.; Schneider R.N.; Shenar T.; Vink J.S.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2022
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy