English

New hydrodynamic solutions for line-driven winds of hot massive stars using Lambert $W$-function

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2022-03-07 v2

Abstract

Hot massive stars present strong stellar winds that are driven by absorption, scattering and re\-emission of photons by the ions of the atmosphere (\textit{line-driven winds}). A better comprehension of this phenomenon, and a more accurate calculation of hydrodynamics and radiative acceleration is required to reduce the number of free parameters in spectral fitting, to determine accurate wind parameters such as mass-loss rates and velocity profiles. We use the non-LTE model-atmosphere code CMFGEN to numerically solve the radiative transfer equation in the stellar atmosphere and to calculate the radiative acceleration grad(r)g_\text{rad}(r). Under the assumption that the radiative acceleration depends only on the radial coordinate, we solve analytically the equation of motion by means of the Lambert WW-function. An iterative procedure between the solution of the radiative transfer and the equation of motion is executed in order to obtain a final self-consistent velocity field that is no longer based on any β\beta-law. We apply the Lambert-procedure to three O supergiant stars (ζ\zeta-Puppis, HD~165763 and α\alpha-Cam) and discuss the Lambert-solutions for the velocity profiles. It is found that, even without recalculation of the mass-loss rate, the Lambert-procedure allows the calculation of consistent velocity profiles that reduce the number of free parameters when a spectral fitting using CMFGEN is performed. Synthetic spectra calculated from our Lambert-solutions show significant differences compared to the initial β\beta-law CMFGEN models. The results indicate the importance of consistent velocity profile calculation in the CMFGEN code and its usage in a fitting procedure and interpretation of observed spectra.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2106.15060,
  title  = {New hydrodynamic solutions for line-driven winds of hot massive stars using Lambert $W$-function},
  author = {Alex C. Gormaz-Matamala and Michel Curé and D. John Hillier and Francisco Najarro and Brankica Kubátová and Jiří Kubát},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.15060},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

Published in the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), in 13 October 2021

R2 v1 2026-06-24T03:41:49.404Z