Issue |
A&A
Volume 544, August 2012
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A67 | |
Number of page(s) | 30 | |
Section | Stellar atmospheres | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201118594 | |
Published online | 27 July 2012 |
Properties of Galactic early-type O-supergiants
A combined FUV-UV and optical analysis ⋆,⋆⋆
1 Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Université d’Aix-Marseille & CNRS, UMR7326, 38 rue F. Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille Cedex 13, France
e-mail: Jean-Claude.Bouret@oamp.fr
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
3 Laboratoire J.-L. Lagrange, UMR 7293, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
4 Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Received: 6 December 2011
Accepted: 3 May 2012
Aims. We aim to constrain the properties and evolutionary status of early and mid-spectral type supergiants (from O4 to O7.5). These posses the highest mass-loss rates among the O stars, and exhibit conspicuous wind profiles.
Methods. Using the non-LTE wind code cmfgen we simultaneously analyzed the FUV-UV and optical spectral range to determine the photospheric properties and wind parameters. We derived effective temperatures, luminosities, surface gravities, surface abundances, mass-loss rates, wind terminal velocities, and clumping filling factors.
Results. The supergiants define a very clear evolutionary sequence, in terms of ages and masses, from younger and more massive stars to older stars with lower initial masses. O4 supergiants cluster around the 3 Myr isochrone and are more massive than 60 M⊙, while the O5 to O7.5 stars have masses in the range 50−40 M⊙ and are 4 ± 0.3 Myr old. The surface chemical composition is typical of evolved O supergiants (nitrogen-rich, carbon- and oxygen-poor). While the observed ranges of carbon and nitrogen mass-fractions are compatible with those expected from evolutionary models for the measured stellar masses, the N/C ratios as a function of age are inconsistent with the theoretical predictions for the four earliest (O4 spectral type) stars of the sample. We question the efficiency of rotational mixing as a function of age for these stars and suggest that another mechanism may be needed to explain the observed abundance patterns. Mass-loss rates derived with clumped-models range within a factor of three of the theoretical mass-loss rates. The corresponding volume-filling factors associated with small-scale clumping are 0.05 ± 0.02. Clumping is found to start close to the photosphere for all but three stars, two of which are fast rotators.
Key words: stars: early-type / stars: atmospheres / stars: winds, outflows / stars: fundamental parameters / stars: evolution
Based on observations made with the NASA-CNES-CSA Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) and by the NASA-ESA-SERC International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), and retrieved from the Multimission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (MAST). Based on observations collected with the ELODIE spectrograph on the 1.93-m telescope (Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France). Based on observations collected with the FEROS instrument on the ESO 2.2 m telescope, program 074.D-0300 and 075.D-0061.
Appendix A is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
© ESO, 2012
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