Related papers: Wolf-Rayet Mass-Loss Limits Due to Frequency Redis…

CONTEXT: The mass loss of He-burning stars, which are partially or completely stripped of their outer hydrogen envelope, is a catalyst of the cosmic matter cycle and decisive ingredient of massive star evolution. Yet, its theoretical…

Spectroscopic observations have shown for decades that the Wolf-Rayet (WR) phenomenon is ubiquitous among stars with different initial masses. Although much effort to understand the winds from massive WR stars has been presented in the…

Stellar winds are a major source of uncertainty in understanding the life and deaths of massive stars. Across studies in the field, prescriptions for stellar winds differ substantially in both their physical assumptions and implementation,…

Towards the end of their evolution hot massive stars develop strong stellar winds and appear as emission line stars, such as WR stars or LBVs. The quantitative description of the mass loss in these important pre-SN phases is hampered by…

Massive star winds are structured both stochastically ("clumps") and often coherently (Co-rotation Interaction Regions, or CIRs). Evidence for CIRs threading the winds of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars arises from multiple diagnostics including…

The migration of profile sub-peaks identified in time-monitored optical emission lines of Wolf-Rayet star spectra provides a direct diagnostic of the dynamics of their stellar winds via a measured line-of-sight velocity change per unit…

With the advance of stellar atmosphere modelling during the last few years, large progress in the understanding of Wolf-Rayet (WR) mass loss has been achieved. In the present paper we review the most recent developments, including our own…

Wolf-Rayet stars have strong, hot winds, with mass-loss rates at least a factor of ten greater than their O-star progenitors, although their terminal wind speeds are similar. In this paper we use the technique of multiband linear…

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…

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…

We produce models of early WN, WC, and WO stars as a function of metallicity Z using an analytic CAK-type approach. At log(Z / Z_sun) >= -2 both WN and WC stars have the approximate dependence Mdot \propto Z^{0.5}. For a WN wind the…

Given their strong stellar winds, Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars exhibit emission line spectra that are predominantly formed in expanding atmospheric layers. The description of the wind velocity field $v(r)$ is therefore a crucial ingredient in the…

Using a code that employs a self-consistent method for computing the effects of photoionization on circumstellar gas dynamics, we model the formation of wind-driven nebulae around massive Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars. Our algorithm incorporates a…

High spectral resolution and long exposure times are providing unprecedented levels of data quality of massive stars at X-ray wavelengths. A key diagnostic of the X-ray emitting plasma are the fir lines for He-like triplets. In particular,…

We examine the properties of Wolf--Rayet (WR) stars predicted by models of rotating stars taking account of the new mass loss rates for O--type stars and WR stars (Vink et al. \cite{Vink00}, \cite{Vink01}; Nugis & Lamers \cite{NuLa00}) and…

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…

The study of Wolf-Rayet stars plays an important role in evolutionary theories of massive stars. Among these objects, ~ 20% are known to be in binary systems and can therefore be used for the mass determination of these stars. Most of these…

The presumed Wolf-Rayet star progenitors of Type Ib/c supernovae have fast, low density winds and the shock waves generated by the supernova interaction with the wind are not expected to be radiative at typical times of observation. The…

Vigorous mass loss in the classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase is important for the late evolution and final fate of massive stars. We develop spherically symmetric time-dependent and steady-state hydrodynamical models of the radiation-driven…

Some studies have claimed the existence of a stellar upper-mass limit of 150 Msun. A factor that is often overlooked concerns the issue that there might be a significant difference between the present-day and the initial mass of the most…