Studying Large and Small Scale Wind Asymmetries with Spectroscopy and Polarimetry
Abstract
In this paper, I review observational evidence from spectroscopy and polarimetry for the presence of small and large scale structure in the winds of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. Clumping is known to be ubiquitous in the winds of these stars and many of its characteristics can be deduced from spectroscopic time-series and polarisation lightcurves. Conversely, a much smaller fraction of WR stars have been shown to harbour larger scale structures in their wind (∼ 1/5) while they are thought to be present is the winds of most of their O-star ancestors. The reason for this difference is still unknown.
- Publication:
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Wolf-Rayet Stars
- Pub Date:
- 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015wrs..conf...79S