We demonstrate observational evidence for the occurrence of convectively driven internal gravity waves (IGW) in young massive O-type stars observed with high-precision CoRoT space photometry. This evidence results from a comparison between velocity spectra based on 2D hydrodynamical simulations of IGW in a differentially-rotating massive star and the observed spectra.We also show that the velocity spectra caused by IGW may lead to detectable line-profile variability and explain the occurrence of macroturbulence in the observed line profiles of OB stars. Our findings provide predictions that can readily be tested by including a sample of bright slowly and rapidly rotating OB-type stars in the scientific programme of the K2 mission accompanied by high-precision spectroscopy and their confrontation with multi-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of IGW for various masses and ages.
@article{arxiv.1505.06648,
title = {Observational signatures of convectively driven waves in massive stars},
author = {C. Aerts and T. M. Rogers},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.06648},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters