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The First Determination of the Rotation Rates of Wolf-Rayet Stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2007

André-Nicolas Chené  and
Nicole St-Louis
André-Nicolas Chené
Affiliation:
Canadian Gemini Office, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, 5071, West Saanich Road, Victoria (BC), V9E 2E7, Canada email: andre-nicolas.chene@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Nicole St-Louis
Affiliation:
Département de Physique & Observatoire du mont Mégantic, Université de Montréal, C. P. 6128, succ. centre-ville, Montréal (Québec), H3C 3J7, Canada email: stlouis@astro.umontreal.ca
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Abstract

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The most recent stellar models have shown that the faster a massive star spins, the more its nuclear yields, mass-loss rate and lifetime are different from the standard model. One thus needs to know the rotation rate of massive stars to trace their evolutionary tracks adequately. In Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, the direct measurement of the rotational velocity is impossible, since their continuum emission is formed in the dense wind that hides the hydrostatic, stellar surface. Here, we present a technique to derive the rotation rates of WR stars from a periodic wind phenomenon, the corotating interaction regions (CIR). For five WR stars, a first estimate of the rotation rates has been deduced from the CIR periods.

Keywords

stars: Wolf-Rayet – stars: rotation – stars: windsoutflows
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 3 , Symposium S250: Massive Stars as Cosmic Engines , December 2007 , pp. 139 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

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