Wind emission of OB supergiants and the influence of clumping

TL;DR

This paper investigates how wind clumping affects the continuum emission of OB supergiants, showing that clumping causes significant flux differences, especially in the near-IR, which can be used to diagnose wind structures.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of wind clumping on continuum emission and identifies near-IR observations as a key method for distinguishing wind structures in OB supergiants.

Findings

Clumped winds cause up to 30% flux differences in the near-IR.

Wind velocity distribution with  > 1.0 significantly influences continuum emission.

Near-IR continuum observations can discriminate between clumped and unclumped winds.

Abstract

The influence of the wind to the total continuum of OB supergiants is discussed. For wind velocity distributions with \beta > 1.0, the wind can have strong influence to the total continuum emission, even at optical wavelengths. Comparing the continuum emission of clumped and unclumped winds, especially for stars with high \beta values, delivers flux differences of up to 30% with maximum in the near-IR. Continuum observations at these wavelengths are therefore an ideal tool to discriminate between clumped and unclumped winds of OB supergiants.