Stellar and wind parameters of massive stars from spectral analysis

Abstract

The only way to deduce information from stars is to decode the radiation it emits in an appropriate way. Spectroscopy can solve this and derive many properties of stars. In this work we seek to derive simultaneously the stellar and wind characteristics of a wide range of massive stars. Our stellar properties encompass the effective temperature, the surface gravity, the stellar radius, the micro-turbulence velocity, the rotational velocity and the Si abundance. For wind properties we consider the mass-loss rate, the terminal velocity and the line–force parameters α, k and δ (from the line–driven wind theory). To model the data we use the radiative transport code Fastwind considering the newest hydrodynamical solutions derived with Hydwind code, which needs stellar and line–force parameters to obtain a wind solution. A grid of spectral models of massive stars is created and together with the observed spectra their physical properties are determined through spectral line fittings. These fittings provide an estimation about the line–force parameters, whose theoretical calculations are extremely complex. Furthermore, we expect to confirm that the hydrodynamical solutions obtained with a value of δ slightly larger than ~ 0.25, called δ-slow solutions, describe quite reliable the radiation line-driven winds of A and late B supergiant stars and at the same time explain disagreements between observational data and theoretical models for the Wind–Momentum Luminosity Relationship (WLR).