Two New Wolf-Rayet Stars and a Luminous Blue Variable Star in the Quintuplet (AFGL 2004) near the Galactic Center

As part of an 1800 pc2 survey of the Galactic center region in the lines of He I (2.058 mu m), Br gamma (2.166 mu m), and the He II/C IV complex (3.09 mu m), we have found two new Wolf-Rayet stars, a WN9 and a WC9, near the Galactic center. K-band spectra of both stars show broad helium emission lines, and the WC9 shows broad carbon emission lines. A third emission-line star in the region has a spectrum and luminosity similar to a luminous blue variable (LBV). The stars are within 2 pc, in projection, of the Quintuplet cluster (AFGL 2004) and are probably members of this cluster on the basis of their proximity and expected ages. All three stars are evolved descendants of massive main-sequence stars having Minitial >~ 50 M⊙ (WC9), >~ 20 M⊙ (WN9), and >~ 40 M⊙ (LBV candidate). The LBV candidate has a luminosity of L ~ 106.3 L⊙, comparable to that of eta Carinae (L = 106.5 L⊙), one of the most luminous stars in the local group of galaxies. A total of five emission-line stars are now known to reside in the Quintuplet, and they collectively produce NLyc ~ 1049 photons s-1. The new LBV candidate generates enough ionizing photons to account for the "Pistol" H II region (G0.15-0.05), while the nearby "Sickle" (G0.18-0.04) may be ionized by a population of O stars accompanying the five emission-line stars.