Instability of LBV-stars against radial oscillations

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonlinear radial oscillations in LBV stars, revealing their instability due to radiation pressure effects, with oscillation periods matching observed microvariability, and showing these are not driven by the kappa-mechanism.

Contribution

It demonstrates that LBV stars are unstable against radial oscillations caused by radiation pressure effects, providing hydrodynamical models that match observed variability periods.

Findings

Stars exhibit instability with amplitude growth comparable to dynamical timescales.

Radial oscillations manifest as nonlinear running waves with velocities of hundreds of km/s.

Oscillation periods align with observed LBV microvariability periods.

Abstract

In this study we consider the nonlinear radial oscillations exciting in LBV--stars with effective temperatures 1.5e4 K <= Teff <= 3e4 K, bolometric luminosities 1.2e6 L_odot <= L <= 1.9e6 L_odot and masses 35.7 M_odot <= M <= 49.1 M_odot. Hydrodynamic computations were carried out with initial conditions obtained from evolutionary sequences of population I stars (X=0.7, Z=0.02) with initial masses from 70M_odot to 90 M_odot. All hydrodynamical models show instability against radial oscillations with amplitude growth time comparable with dynamical time scale of the star. Radial oscillations exist in the form of nonlinear running waves propagating from the boundary of the compact core to the upper boundary of the hydrodynamical model. The velocity amplitude of outer layers is of several hundreds of km/s while the bolometric light amplitude does not exceed 0.2 mag. Stellar oscillations are not driven by the kappa-mechanism and are due to the instability of the gas with adiabatic exponent close to the critical value Gamma_1 = 4/3 due to the large contribution of radiation in the total pressure. The range of the light variation periods (6 day <= P <= 31 day) of hydrodynamical models agrees with periods of microvariability observed in LBV--stars.