Boundary Condition with Mass Loss: The Radiatively-Driven Wind Model

Extract

A brief summary of the current status of radiatively driven wind models for early-type stars is given. A critique of these models is made both on theoretical and observational grounds, and it is concluded that a pure radiatively driven wind is probably not a realistic approximation for 0-star winds. It is argued that probably the wind structure must have an initial high-temperature (“coronal”) region through which the trans-sonic flow takes place, followed by radiative accelerations to very high terminal velocities. Full details of the discussion can be found in Stellar Atmospheres, 2nd Edition, by D. Mihalas, to be published by W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, in Fall 1977.