Related papers: X-ray diagnostics of massive star winds

Context. Current implementations of mass loss for hot, massive stars in stellar evolution models include a sharp increase in mass loss when blue supergiants become cooler than Teff 20-22kK. This drastic mass-loss jump has been motivated by…

We report the discovery of weak yet hard X-ray emission from the Wolf-Rayet (WR) star WR142 with the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. Being of spectral subtype WO2, WR142 is a massive star in a very advanced evolutionary stage, short before its…

We discuss the determination of fundamental parameters of `normal' hot, massive OB-type stars, namely temperatures, luminosities, masses, gravities and surface abundances. We also present methods used to derive properties of stellar winds…

Although the environments of star and planet formation are thermodynamically cold, substantial X-ray emission from 10-100 MK plasmas is present. In low mass pre-main sequence stars, X-rays are produced by violent magnetic reconnection…

Mass loss rates for the tenuous, hot winds of cool stars are extremely difficult to measure, yet they are a crucial ingredient in the stars' rotational evolution. We present a new method for measuring these mass loss rates in young,…

We explore the possibility that neutron stars accreting from the winds of main-sequence stellar companions account for a significant fraction of low-luminosity, hard X-ray sources (L_X <~ 10^35 ergs/s; 1-10 keV) in the Galaxy. This work was…

Fast line-driven stellar winds play an important role in the evolution of planetary nebulae. We provide global hot star wind models of central stars of planetary nebulae. The models predict wind structure including the mass-loss rates,…

Massive stars lose a significant fraction of mass during their evolution. However, the corresponding mass-loss rates are rather uncertain. To improve this, we calculated global line-driven wind models for Galactic B supergiants. Our models…

The mass loss from Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars is of fundamental importance for the final fate of massive stars and their chemical yields. Its Z-dependence is discussed in relation to the formation of long-duration Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and the…

The Balmer lines of four A Ia - supergiants (spectral type A0 to A3) and fourteen B Ia and Ib - supergiants (spectral type B0 to B3) in the solar neighbourhood are analyzed by means of NLTE unified model atmospheres to determine the…

Observational implications are derived for two standard models of supernovae-driven galactic winds: a freely expanding steady-state wind and a wind sourced by a self-similarly expanding superbubble including thermal heat conduction. It is…

We consider the consequences of appreciable line optical depth for the profile shape of X-ray emission lines formed in stellar winds. The hot gas is thought to arise in distributed wind shocks, and the line formation is predominantly via…

Context. Radiation-driven mass loss is key to our understanding of massive-star evolution. However, for low-luminosity O-type stars there are big discrepancies between theoretically predicted and empirically derived mass-loss rates (called…

Reliable predictions of mass-loss rates are important for massive-star evolution computations. We aim to provide predictions for mass-loss rates and wind-momentum rates of O-type stars, carefully studying the behaviour of these winds as…

I discuss the X-ray observations of Be stars, and how their properties compare to non-emission B stars. I focus on several specific stars that show high flux levels and variability but also report on several interesting survey results. The…

We present a new method for using measured X-ray emission line fluxes from O stars to determine the shock-heating rate due to instabilities in their radiation-driven winds. The high densities of these winds means that their embedded shocks…

Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars comprise a class of stars whose spectra are dominated by strong, broad emission lines that are associated with copious mass loss. In the massive-star regime, roughly 90% of the known WR stars are thought to have…

We present a stacking analysis of 2.61 Msec of archival Chandra observations of stellar wind bow shocks. We place an upper limit on the X-ray luminosity of IR-detected bow shocks of $<2\times10^{29}$ erg s$^{-1}$, a more stringent…

We calculate NLTE models of stellar winds of hot compact stars (central stars of planetary nebulae and subdwarf stars). The studied range of subdwarf parameters is selected to cover a large part of these stars. The models predict the wind…

Massive runaway stars produce bow shocks through the interaction of their winds with the interstellar medium, with the prospect for particle acceleration by the shocks. These objects are consequently candidates for non-thermal emission. Our…