Isolated Wolf-Rayet Stars and O Supergiants in the Galactic Center Region Identified via Paschen-alpha Excess

TL;DR

This study identifies 19 new massive evolved stars near the Galactic center using Paschen-alpha excess, expanding the known Wolf-Rayet and O supergiant populations and providing insights into their distribution and properties.

Contribution

It reports the discovery of 19 new hot, evolved massive stars in the Galactic center, including Wolf-Rayet and O supergiants, using Paschen-alpha excess detection with HST, and analyzes their distribution and characteristics.

Findings

Total Wolf-Rayet stars in GCR now 92.

Sample of WN stars near completion in surveyed area.

Wolf-Rayet subtype distribution reflects metallicity effects.

Abstract

We report the discovery of 19 hot, evolved, massive stars near the Galactic center region (GCR). These objects were selected for spectroscopy owing to their detection as strong sources of Paschen-alpha emission-line excess, following a narrowband imaging survey of the central 0.65 x 0.25 degress (l, b) around Sgr A* with the Hubble Space Telescope. Discoveries include 5 carbon-type (WC) and 6 nitrogen-type (WN) Wolf-Rayet stars, 6 O supergiants, and 2 B supergiants. Two of the O supergiants have X-ray counterparts, the properties of which are broadly consistent with colliding-wind binaries and solitary O stars. The infrared photometry of 17 stars is consistent with the Galactic center distance, but 2 of them are located in the foreground. Several WC stars exhibit a relatively large infrared excesses, which is possibly the signature of thermal emission from hot dust. Most of the stars appear scattered throughout the GCR, with no relation to the three known massive young clusters; several others lie near the Arches and Quintuplet clusters and may have originated within one of these systems. The results of this work bring the total sample of Wolf-Rayet stars in the GCR to 92. All sources of strong P-alpha excess have been identified in the area surveyed with HST, which implies that the sample of WN stars in this region is near completion, and is dominated by late (WNL) types. The current WC sample, although probably not complete, is almost exclusively dominated by late (WCL) types. The observed Wolf-Rayet subtype distribution in the GCR is a reflection of the intrinsic rarity of early subtypes (WNE and WCE) in the inner Galaxy, an effect that is driven by metallicity.