English

Metallicity Dependent Wolf-Rayet Winds

Astrophysics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

Observational and theoretical evidence in support of metallicity dependent winds for Wolf-Rayet stars is considered. Well known differences in Wolf-Rayet subtype distributions in the Milky Way, LMC and SMC may be attributed to the sensitivity of subtypes to wind density. Implications for Wolf-Rayet stars at low metallicity include a hardening of ionizing flux distributions, an increased WR population due to reduced optical line fluxes, plus support for the role of single WR stars as Gamma Ray Burst progenitors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0606580,
  title  = {Metallicity Dependent Wolf-Rayet Winds},
  author = {Paul A. Crowther},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0606580},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

9 pages, 7 figures, contributed paper to appear in "Massive Stars: From Pop III and GRBs to the Milky Way" (STScI May 2006 Symp, ed. M.Livio), includes CUP style file