The effects of rotation on massive star spectroscopic observables

TL;DR

This study investigates how the 3D deformation caused by rapid rotation in massive stars affects spectroscopic measurements, revealing significant biases that can impact the interpretation of stellar properties.

Contribution

The paper introduces a grid of synthetic spectra accounting for 3D geometry of rotating stars, quantifying biases in temperature, helium abundance, and rotation rates when neglecting these effects.

Findings

3D geometry significantly alters measured stellar parameters.

Temperature measurements can vary by up to 10% with inclination.

Helium abundance can be underestimated by as much as 60%.

Abstract

Rotation is ubiquitous among massive stars. With rotation comes a deformation to the surface geometry, which in turn leads to alterations in the distribution of parameters across the surface including surface gravity, temperature and ionization balance of surface elements. Often, these 3D effects are neglected when analyzing spectra of rapidly rotating massive stars. We aim to determine whether neglecting the 3D deformations resulting from rapid rotation has an impact on the final spectroscopic observables, and if so to what degree. Using the SPAMMS code, we generate a grid of synthetic spectra that account for the 3D geometry of rapidly rotating stars and compare them to synthetic spectra generated assuming spherical geometry. Using equivalent width and full width half maximum measurements as proxies, we determine how the measured temperature, helium abundance and projected rotation rates of individual lines in different ionization states vary with rotation rate and inclination. We find that the 3D geometry can have a significant impact on the measured parameters. We show that the temperature is highly dependent on both the rotation rate and the inclination, and that the same system viewed at different inclinations can have measured temperatures that differ by as much as 10\%. We also find that the helium abundance can be underestimated by as much as 60\%, and that lines in different ionization states can have measurable differences in rotation rates. We demonstrate that these differences in rotation rates can be seen in observed data and show that this could allow for an inclination independent measurement of the rotational velocity. Our results indicate that neglecting the 3D effects of rotation can cause significant biases in the measured spectroscopic parameters, and that in many cases, the measured values are more than 3$\sigma$ away from the true values.