# New Insights into the Puzzling P-Cygni Profiles of Magnetic Massive   Stars

**Authors:** Christiana Erba, Alexandre David-Uraz, Veronique Petit, Stanley P., Owocki

arXiv: 1702.08535 · 2017-11-15

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong magnetic fields in massive stars influence their stellar wind profiles, particularly the P-Cygni lines, using a Sobolev Exact Integration approach to interpret UV spectra.

## Contribution

It introduces a model to analyze the impact of magnetic fields on P-Cygni line formation, advancing understanding of magnetic effects on stellar wind diagnostics.

## Key findings

- Magnetic fields desaturate P-Cygni absorption troughs.
- Magnetic influence causes phase-dependent line profile variations.
- Further modeling needed to fully explain observed spectra.

## Abstract

Magnetic massive stars comprise approximately 10% of the total OB star population. Modern spectropolarimetry shows these stars host strong, stable, large-scale, often nearly dipolar surface magnetic fields of 1 kG or more. These global magnetic fields trap and deflect outflowing stellar wind material, forming an anisotropic magnetosphere that can be probed with wind-sensitive UV resonance lines. Recent HST UV spectra of NGC 1624-2, the most magnetic O star observed to date, show atypically unsaturated P-Cygni profiles in the Civ resonant doublet, as well as a distinct variation with rotational phase. We examine the effect of non-radial, magnetically-channeled wind outflow on P-Cygni line formation, using a Sobolev Exact Integration (SEI) approach for direct comparison with HST UV spectra of NGC 1624-2. We demonstrate that the addition of a magnetic field desaturates the absorption trough of the P-Cygni profiles, but further efforts are needed to fully account for the observed line profile variation. Our study thus provides a first step toward a broader understanding of how strong magnetic fields affect mass loss diagnostics from UV lines.

## Full text

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## Figures

3 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1702.08535/full.md

## References

18 references — full list in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1702.08535/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1702.08535