English

The First Dynamical Mass Determination of a Nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet Star using a Combined Visual and Spectroscopic Orbit

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2021-02-17 v1

Abstract

We present the first visual orbit for the nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet binary, WR 133 (WN5o + O9I) based on observations made with the CHARA Array and the MIRC-X combiner. This orbit represents the first visual orbit for a WN star and only the third Wolf-Rayet star with a visual orbit. The orbit has a period of 112.8 d, a moderate eccentricity of 0.36, and a separation of aa= 0.79 mas on the sky. We combine the visual orbit with an SB2 orbit and Gaia parallax to find that the derived masses of the component stars are MWRM_{\rm WR} = 9.3±1.6M9.3\pm1.6 M_\odot and MOM_{\rm O} = 22.6±3.2M22.6\pm 3.2 M_\odot, with the large errors owing to the nearly face-on geometry of the system combined with errors in the spectroscopic parameters. We also derive an orbital parallax that is identical to the {\it Gaia}-determined distance. We present a preliminary spectral analysis and atmosphere models of the component stars, and find the mass-loss rate in agreement with polarization variability and our orbit. However, the derived masses are low compared to the spectral types and spectral model. Given the close binary nature, we suspect that WR 133 should have formed through binary interactions, and represents an ideal target for testing evolutionary models given its membership in the cluster NGC 6871.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.04232,
  title  = {The First Dynamical Mass Determination of a Nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet Star using a Combined Visual and Spectroscopic Orbit},
  author = {Noel D. Richardson and Laura Lee and Gail Schaefer and Tomer Shenar and Andreas A. C. Sander and Grant M. Hill and Andrew G. Fullard and John D. Monnier and Narsireddy Anugu and Claire L Davies and Tyler Gardner and Cyprien Lanthermann and Stefan Kraus and Benjamin R. Setterholm},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.04232},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Accepted to ApJ Letters