Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:36:45.572Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Wolf-Rayet stars: recent advances and persisting problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2024

Tomer Shenar*
Affiliation:
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, Science Park 904, 1098 XH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars comprise a class of stars whose spectra are dominated by strong, broad emission lines that are associated with copious mass loss. In the massive-star regime, roughly 90% of the known WR stars are thought to have evolved off the main sequence. Dubbed classical WR (cWR) stars, these hydrogen-depleted objects represent a crucial evolutionary phase preceding core collapse into black holes, and offer a unique window into hot-star wind physics. Their formation is thought to be rooted in either intrinsic mass-loss or binary interactions. Results obtained from analyses using contemporary model atmospheres still fail to reconcile the derived properties of WR stars with predictions from stellar evolution. Importantly, stellar evolution models cannot reproduce the the bulk of cWR stars, a problem that becomes especially severe at subsolar metallicity. Next-generation model atmospheres and upcoming observational campaigns to hunt for undetected companions promise a venue for progress.

Type
Contributed Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

References

Aguilera-Dena, D. R., Langer, N., Antoniadis, J., Pauli, D., Dessart, L., Vigna-Gómez, A., Gräfener, G., & Yoon, S.-C. 2022, A&A, 661, A60 Google Scholar
Bartzakos, P., Moffat, A. F. J., & Niemela, V. S. 2001, MNRAS, 324, 18 Google Scholar
Beasor, E. R., Davies, B., Smith, N., van Loon, J. T., Gehrz, R. D., & Figer, D. F. 2020, MNRAS, 492, 5994 Google Scholar
Beasor, E. R., & Smith, N. 2022, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:2205.02207 Google Scholar
Björklund, R., Sundqvist, J. O., Puls, J., & Najarro, F. 2020, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:2008.06066 Google Scholar
Breysacher, J., Azzopardi, M., & Testor, G. 1999, A&AS, 137, 117 Google Scholar
Castor, J. I., Abbott, D. C., & Klein, R. I. 1975, ApJ, 195, 157 Google Scholar
Conti, P. 1976, in Proc. 20th Colloq. Int. Astrophys., Univ. Liege, 193Google Scholar
Crowther, P. A. 2007, ARA&A, 45, 177 Google Scholar
Crowther, P. A., Hillier, D. J., Evans, C. J., Fullerton, A. W., De Marco, O., & Willis, A. J. 2002, ApJ, 579, 774 Google Scholar
Davies, B., Crowther, P. A., & Beasor, E. R. 2018, MNRAS, 478, 3138 Google Scholar
de Koter, A., Heap, S. R., & Hubeny, I. 1997, ApJ, 477, 792 Google Scholar
Dsilva, K., Shenar, T., Sana, H., & Marchant, P. 2020, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:2006.13957 Google Scholar
Dsilva, K., Shenar, T., Sana, H., & Marchant,. 2022, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:2204.12518 Google Scholar
Eggenberger, P., et al. 2021, A&A, 652, A137 Google Scholar
Ekström, S., et al. 2012, A&A, 537, A146 Google Scholar
Eldridge, J. J., & Stanway, E. R. 2009, MNRAS, 400, 1019 Google Scholar
Eldridge, J. J., Stanway, E. R., Xiao, L., McClelland, L. A. S., Taylor, G., Ng, M., Greis, S. M. L., & Bray, J. C. 2017, PASA, 34, e058 Google Scholar
Foellmi, C., Moffat, A. F. J., & Guerrero, M. A. 2003 a, MNRAS, 338, 360 Google Scholar
Foellmi, C., Moffat, A. F. J., & Guerrero, M. A. 2003 b, MNRAS, 338, 1025 Google Scholar
Fullerton, A. W., Massa, D. L., & Prinja, R. K. 2006, ApJ, 637, 1025 Google Scholar
Gilkis, A., Shenar, T., Ramachandran, V., Jermyn, A. S., Mahy, L., Oskinova, L. M., Arcavi, I., & Sana, H. 2021, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:2102.03102 Google Scholar
Gómez-González, V. M. A., Mayya, Y. D., Toalá, J. A., Arthur, S. J., Zaragoza-Cardiel, J., & Guerrero, M. A. 2021, MNRAS, 500, 2076 Google Scholar
Gräfener, G., & Hamann, W. R. 2005, A&A, 432, 633 Google Scholar
Gräfener, G., Owocki, S. P., & Vink, J. S. 2012, A&A, 538, A40 Google Scholar
Grassitelli, L., Chené, A. N., Sanyal, D., Langer, N., St-Louis, N., Bestenlehner, J. M., & Fossati, L. 2016, A&A, 590, A12 Google Scholar
Hadfield, L. J., & Crowther, P. A. 2006, MNRAS, 368, 1822 Google Scholar
Hainich, R., Pasemann, D., Todt, H., Shenar, T., Sander, A., & Hamann, W. R. 2015, A&A, 581, A21 Google Scholar
Hainich, R., et al. 2014, A&A, 565, A27 Google Scholar
Hamann, W. R., & Gräfener, G. 2004, A&A, 427, 697 Google Scholar
Hamann, W. R., Gräfener, G., & Liermann, A. 2006, A&A, 457, 1015 Google Scholar
Hamann, W. R., et al. 2019, A&A, 625, A57 Google Scholar
Higgins, E. R., & Vink, J. S. 2019, A&A, 622, A50 Google Scholar
Hillier, D. J. 1991, A&A, 247, 455 Google Scholar
Humphreys, R. M. 1978, ApJS, 38, 309 Google Scholar
Humphreys, R. M., Weis, K., Davidson, K., & Gordon, M. S. 2016, ApJ, 825, 64 Google Scholar
Hunter, I., et al. 2008, ApJL, 676, L29 Google Scholar
Justham, S., Podsiadlowski, P., & Vink, J. S. 2014, ApJ, 796, 121 Google Scholar
Kehrig, C., et al. 2013, MNRAS, 432, 2731 Google Scholar
Kobulnicky, H. A., et al. 2014, ApJS, 213, 34 Google Scholar
Krtička, J., & Kubát, J. 2017, A&A, 606, A31Google Scholar
Lépine, S., & Moffat, A. F. J. 1999, ApJ, 514, 909 Google Scholar
Maeder, A. 1987, A&A, 178, 159 Google Scholar
Mahy, L., et al. 2022, A&A, 657, A4 Google Scholar
Meynet, G., & Maeder, A. 2003, A&A, 404, 975 Google Scholar
Moens, N., Poniatowski, L. G., Hennicker, L., Sundqvist, J. O., El Mellah, I., & Kee, N. D. 2022, arXiv e-prints, arXiv:2203.01108 Google Scholar
Neugent, K., & Massey, P. 2019, Galaxies, 7, 74 Google Scholar
Neugent, K. F., & Massey, P. 2014, ApJ, 789, 10 Google Scholar
Neugent, K. F., Massey, P., & Morrell, N. 2018, ApJ, 863, 181 Google Scholar
Neugent, K. F., Massey, P., Skiff, B., & Meynet, G. 2012, ApJ, 749, 177 Google Scholar
Paczyński, B. 1967, Acta Astronomica, 17, 355Google Scholar
Paxton, B., Bildsten, L., Dotter, A., Herwig, F., Lesaffre, P., & Timmes, F. 2011, ApJS, 192, 3 Google Scholar
Petrovic, J., Pols, O., & Langer, N. 2006, A&A, 450, 219 Google Scholar
Poniatowski, L. G., et al. 2021, A&A, 647, A151 Google Scholar
Puls, J., Markova, N., Scuderi, S., Stanghellini, C., Taranova, O. G., Burnley, A. W., & Howarth, I. D. 2006, A&A, 454, 625 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramachandran, V., et al. 2019, A&A, 625, A104 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rauw, G., et al. 2004, A&A, 420, L9 Google Scholar
Ro, S., & Matzner, C. D. 2016, ApJ, 821, 109 Google Scholar
Rosslowe, C. K., & Crowther, P. A. 2015, MNRAS, 447, 2322 Google Scholar
Sabhahit, G. N., Vink, J. S., Higgins, E. R., & Sander, A. A. C. 2021, MNRAS, 506, 4473 Google Scholar
Sana, H., et al. 2012, Science, 337, 444 Google Scholar
Sander, A. A. C., Vink, J. S., & Hamann, W. R. 2020, MNRAS, 491, 4406 Google Scholar
Schneider, F. R. N., et al. 2018, A&A, 618, A73 Google Scholar
Schnurr, O., Casoli, J., Chené, A. N., Moffat, A. F. J., & St-Louis, N. 2008, MNRAS, 389, L38 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schootemeijer, A., & Langer, N. 2018, A&A, 611, A75 Google Scholar
Shenar, T., Gilkis, A., Vink, J. S., Sana, H., & Sander, A. A. C. 2020 a, A&A, 634, A79 Google Scholar
Shenar, T., et al. 2016, A&A, 591, A22 Google Scholar
Shenar, T., 2019, A&A, 627, A151 Google Scholar
Shenar, T., 2020 b, A&A, 639, L6Google Scholar
Shenar, T., 2021, A&A, 650, A147 Google Scholar
Smith, N., & Tombleson, R. 2015, MNRAS, 447, 598 Google Scholar
Toonen, S., Portegies Zwart, S., Hamers, A. S., & Bandopadhyay, D. 2020, A&A, 640, A16 Google Scholar
Tramper, F., et al. 2015, A&A, 581, A110 Google Scholar
Urbaneja, M. A., Kudritzki, R. P., Gieren, W., Pietrzyński, G., Bresolin, F., & Przybilla, N. 2017, AJ, 154, 102 Google Scholar
van der Hucht, K. A. 2001, New A, 45, 135 Google Scholar
van Loon, J. T., Cioni, M. R. L., Zijlstra, A. A., & Loup, C. 2005, A&A, 438, 273 Google Scholar
Vanbeveren, D., De Loore, C., & Van Rensbergen, W. 1998, A&A Rev., 9, 63 Google Scholar