Emission profile variability in hot star winds

A pseudo–3D method based on radiation hydrodynamics simulations

¹ N&S Sterrenkunde Universiteit Utrecht, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
² Bartol Research Institute of the University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA e-mail: owocki@bartol.udel.edu

Corresponding author: L. Dessart, l.dessart@phys.uu.nl

Received: 9 November 2001
Accepted: 18 December 2001

Abstract

We present theoretical calculations of emission line profile variability based on hot star wind structure calculated numerically using radiation hydrodynamics simulations. A principal goal is to examine how well short-time-scale variations observed in wind emission lines can be modelled by wind structure arising from small-scale instabilities intrinsic to the line-driving of these winds. The simulations here use a new implementation of the Smooth Source Function formalism for line-driving within a one-dimensional (1D) operation of the standard hydrodynamics code ZEUS–2D. As in previous wind instability simulations, the restriction to 1D is necessitated by the computational costs of non–local integrations needed for the line-driving force; but we find that naive application of such simulations within an explicit assumption of spherically symmetric structure leads to an unobserved strong concentration of profile variability toward the line wings. We thus introduce a new “patch method” for mimicking a full 3D wind structure by collecting random sequences of 1D simulations to represent the structure evolution along radial rays that extend over a selectable patch-size of solid angle. We provide illustrative results for a selection of patch sizes applied to a simulation with standard assumptions that govern the details of instability-generated wind structure, and show in particular that a typical model with a patch size of about can qualitatively reproduce the fundamental properties of observed profile variations. We conclude with a discussion of prospects for extending the simulation method to optically thick winds of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, and for thereby applying our “patch method” to dynamical modelling of the extensive variability observed in wind emission lines from these WR stars.