The impact of rotation on the line profiles of Wolf-Rayet stars
Abstract
Context. Massive Wolf-Rayet stars are recognized today to be in a very common, but short, evolutionary phase of massive stars. While our understanding of Wolf-Rayet stars has increased dramatically over the past decades, it remains unclear whether rapid rotators are among them. There are various indications that rapidly rotating Wolf-Rayet stars should exist. Unfortunately, due to their expanding atmospheres, rotational velocities of Wolf-Rayet stars are very difficult to measure. However, recently observed spectra of several Wolf-Rayet stars reveal peculiarly broad and round emission lines. Could these spectra imply rapid rotation?
Aims: In this work, we model the effects of rotation on the atmospheres of Wolf-Rayet stars. We further investigate whether the peculiar spectra of five Wolf-Rayet stars may be explained with the help of stellar rotation, infer appropriate rotation parameters, and discuss the implications of our results.
Methods: We make use of the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) non-LTE model atmosphere code. Since the observed spectra of Wolf-Rayet stars are mainly formed in their expanding atmospheres, rotation must be accounted for with a 3D integration scheme of the formal integral. For this purpose, we assume a rotational velocity field consisting of an inner co-rotating domain and an outer domain, where the angular momentum is conserved.
Results: We find that rotation can reproduce the unique spectra analyzed here. However, the inferred rotational velocities at the stellar surface are large (~200 km s-1), and the inferred co-rotation radii (~10R∗) suggest the existence of very strong photospheric magnetic fields (~20 kG).
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- February 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/201322496
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1401.2159
- Bibcode:
- 2014A&A...562A.118S
- Keywords:
-
- stars: Wolf-Rayet;
- Magellanic Clouds;
- stars: magnetic field;
- stars: massive;
- gamma-ray burst: general;
- stars: rotation;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201322496