Clumping in the Winds of Wolf-Rayet Stars

TL;DR

This study investigates the origin of wind clumping in the hottest Wolf-Rayet stars by analyzing spectral variability, finding low variability levels that challenge existing models and suggest sub-surface convection as a potential driver.

Contribution

It extends spectral variability measurements to the hottest WR stars, providing new insights into the possible mechanisms behind wind clumping, especially the role of sub-surface convection zones.

Findings

Low spectral variability in extreme WR stars.

Faster winds show lower variability, contradicting pure Line Deshadowing Instability predictions.

Results support sub-surface convection zones as a potential clumping driver.

Abstract

We attempt to determine the driver for clumping in hot-star winds by extending the measure of the spectral variability level of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars to by far the hottest known among them, the WN2 star WR 2 and the WO2 stars WR 102 and WR 142. These three stars have T* = 140 kK and 200 kK, the last two being well above the bulk of WR stars with T* ~ 40-120 kK. This full temperature range for WR stars is much broader than that of their O-star progenitors (~30-50 kK), so is better suited to look for any temperature dependence of wind clumping. We have obtained multiple observations with high signal-to-noise, moderate-resolution spectroscopy in search of smallscale variability in the strong emission lines from the dense winds of these three extreme stars, and find a very low-level of variability in both stars. Temperature and terminal velocity are correlated, so faster winds show a lower variability, though this trend goes against any predictions made involving Line Deshadowing Instability (LDI) only, implying that instabilities intrinsic to LDI are not the main source of wind clumping. Instead, it could be taken as support for the suggestion that clumps are caused by a sub-surface convection zone (SSCZ) at T ~ 170 kK, since such an SSCZ would have little opportunity to operate under the hydrostatic surface of these hottest WR stars. It is still possible, however, that an SSCZ-related driver could interact with nonlinear line instability effects to enhance or possibly even produce clumps.