HD 144941: the most extreme helium-strong star

Since its discovery about 50 yr ago, HD 144941 has generally been classified as a peculiar member of the extreme helium (EHe) supergiant stars, a very rare class of low-mass hydrogen-deficient stars. We report the detection of a strong longitudinal magnetic field based on spectropolarimetry with FORS2 on the ESO VLT with surface-averaged longitudinal field strengths as large as −9 kG. This is further constrained by the detection of Zeeman splitting of spectral lines to a field strength of at least 15 kG, explaining the recent finding of surface spots for this star. The quantitative analysis of the stellar atmosphere based on a hybrid non-local thermodynamic equilibrium approach and new optical spectra yields an effective temperature of 22 000 ± 500 K, a logarithmic surface gravity of 4.20 ± 0.10, and a surface helium fraction of 0.950 ± 0.002 by number. While the metal abundances are about a factor of 10 sub-solar in absolute number, the metal-to-hydrogen ratios are typical of massive early-type stars, indicating that helium fallback in a weak, fractionated stellar wind in the presence of a magnetic field took place - the canonical mechanism for the formation of the helium-strong phenomenon. Both the spectroscopic and the Gaia EDR3 parallax imply HD 144941 to be a luminous massive star. Kinematically, we argue that HD 144941 has reached its high Galactic latitude as a runaway star. We conclude that instead of being a comparatively high-gravity low-mass EHe star, HD 144941 is by far the most extreme member of the magnetic massive helium-strong stars, with almost all atmospheric hydrogen substituted by helium.