Stellar evolution models predict that rotation induces the mixing of chemical species, with the subsequent surface abundance anomalies relative to single non-rotating models, even during the main sequence (MS) evolution. The lack of measurable nitrogen surface enrichment in MS rotating stars, such as Be stars, has been interpreted as being in conflict with evolutionary models (e.g. Lennon et al. 2005; Hunter et al. 2008). In order to have an insight on the kind of ambient we do or we do not expect to find enriched rotating stars, we use our new population synthesis code, to produce synthetic intermediate-mass stellar populations fully accounting for stellar rotation effects, and study their evolution in time.

A new radiation-driven wind solution called δ-slow was found by Curé et al. (2011) and it predicts a mass-loss rate and terminal velocity slower than the fast solution (m-CAK, Pauldrach et al. 1986). In this work, we present our first synthetic spectra based on the δ-slow solution for the wind of B supergiant (BSG) stars. We use the output of our hydrodynamical code HYDWIND as input in the radiative transport code FASTWIND (Puls et al. 2005). In order to obtain stellar and wind parameters, we try to reproduce the observed Hα, Hβ, Hγ, Hδ, Hei 4471, Hei 6678 and Heii 4686 lines. The synthetic profiles obtained with the new hydrodynamical solutions are in good agreement with the observations and could give us clues about the parameters involved in the radiation force.

Massive stars play a key role in environments with very different metallicities. To interpret the role of massive stars in these systems we have to know their properties at different metallicities. The Local Group offers an excellent laboratory to this aim.

Passages of comet-like bodies through the atmosphere/chromosphere of massive stars at velocities more than 600 km/s will be accompanied, due to aerodynamic effects as crushing and flattening, by impulse generation of hot plasma within a relatively very thin layer near the stellar surface/photosphere as well as “blast” shock wave, i.e., impact-generated photospheric stellar/solar flares. Observational manifestations of such high-temperature phenomena will be eruption of the explosive layer's hot plasma, on materials of the star and “exploding” comet nuclei, into the circumstellar environment and variable anomalies in chemical abundances of metal atoms/ions like Fe, Si etc. Interferometric and spectroscopic observations/monitoring of young massive stars with dense protoplanetary discs are of interest for massive stars physics/evolution, including identification of mechanisms for massive stars variability.

The main objective of this work is to improve our understanding of young fast-rotating stars evolving from the Herbig Ae/Be class to the Vega-like one. We observed with the VEGA instrument on CHARA one object so-called 51 Oph that is probably in such an evolutionary phase, allowing us to measure a mean stellar radius for the first time for this star and to show that the Hα emission was produced in a Keplerian rotating disc. However, additional observations are needed to improve our (u,v) plan coverage in order to measure the flattening of this close-to-critically rotating star and to probe the inner region of its circumstellar gaseous disc. These studies will help to disentangle the gas and dust emission around this late young star and will finally improve our understanding of the planet formation conditions in the inner regions of protoplanetary discs.

We report the results of our study of the fast line profile variability (LPV) (hours – few days) in the spectra of bright OB and WR stars. All spectra were obtained with 6-m and 1-m telescope of Russian Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and 1.8-m telescope of Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory, Korea (BOAO). We detected both the stochastic LPV, connected with the formation of small-scale structures in the stellar wind and the regular LPV induced by the large-scale structures in the wind.

We investigate the physical properties of large-scale wind structures around massive hot stars with radiatively-driven winds. We observe Discrete Absorption Components (DACs) in optical He i P Cygni lines of the LBV binary MWC 314 (Porb = 60.8 d). The DACs are observed during orbital phases when the primary is in front of the secondary star. They appear at wind velocities between −100 km s−1 and −600 km s−1 in the P Cyg profiles of Hei λ5875, λ6678, and λ4471, signaling high-temperature expanding wind regions of enhanced density and variable outflow velocity. The DACs can result from wave propagation linked to the orbital motion near the low-velocity wind base. The He i lines indicate DAC formation close to the primary's surface in high-temperature wind regions in front of its orbit, or in dynamical wind regions confined between the binary stars. We observed the DACs with Mercator-HERMES on 5 Sep 2009, 5 May 2012, and 6 May 2014 when the primary is in front of the secondary star. XMM-Newton observations of 6 May 2014 significantly detected MWC 314 in X-rays at an average rate of ~0.015 cts s−1.

Using own and literature data for a large sample of O stars in the Milky Way, we investigate the correspondence between their spectroscopic and evolutionary masses, and try to put constraints on various parameters that might influence the estimates of these two quantities.

We present the results of investigation of most luminous stars belonging to the Cyg OB2 association using quantitative analysis of high-resolution spectra. Physical parameters derived using the cmfgen and tlusty atmospheric codes allow us to estimate the mass and age of these stars.

Near-IR photometry of η Car since 1972 revealed a long-term trend towards hotter temperatures and a cycloidal behavior of its near-IR colors around periastron passages. Both effects are likely triggered by the companion. We used VLTI AMBER observations from 2004–2014 to investigate η Car's variabilities in the near-IR.

There are a number of stochastic effects that must be considered when comparing models to observations of starburst clusters: the IMF is never fully populated; the stars can never be strictly coeval; stars rotate and their photometric properties depend on orientation; a significant fraction of massive stars are in interacting binaries; and the extinction varies from star to star. The probability distributions of each of these effects are not a priori known, but must be extracted from the observations. Markov Chain Monte-Carlo methods appear to provide the best statistical approach. Here I present an example of stochastic age effects upon the upper mass limit of the IMF of the Arches cluster as derived from near-IR photometry.

We present a spectroscopic and photometric study of the interacting binary and Double Period Variable HD 170582 based on the analysis of the ASAS V-band light curve and our high-resolution spectra mostly obtained with CHIRON spectrograph at the 1.5m CTIO telescope.

Here we investigate whether the inability of the Geneva evolutionary models to predict a large enough WC/WN ratio at high metallicities (while succeeding at lower metallicities) is due to their single star nature. We hypothesize that Roche-lobe overflow in close binary systems may produce a greater number of WC stars at higher metallicities. But, this would suggest that the frequency of close massive binaries is metallicity dependent. We now present our results based on observations of ~100 Wolf-Rayet binaries in the varying metallicity environments of M31 and M33.

Fundamental parameters of 26 well-studied sharp-lined single early B-type stars in OB associations and in the field within a distance of ≤400 pc from the Sun are compared to high-precision data from detached eclipsing binaries (DEBs). Fundamental parameters are derived from accurate and precise atmospheric parameters determined earlier by us from non-LTE analyses of high-quality spectra, utilising the new Geneva stellar evolution models in the mass-range ~6 to 18 M⊙ at metallicity Z = 0.014. Evolutionary masses, radii and luminosities are determined to better than typically 5%, 10%, and 20% uncertainty, respectively, facilitating the mass-radius and mass-luminosity relationships to be recovered for single core hydrogen-burning objects with a similar precision as derived from DEBs. Good agreement between evolutionary and spectroscopic masses is found. Absolute visual and bolometric magnitudes are derived to typically ~0.15-0.20 mag uncertainty. Metallicities are constrained to better than 15-20% uncertainty and tight constraints on evolutionary ages of the stars are provided. The spectroscopic distances and ages of individual sample stars agree with independently derived values for the host OB associations. The accuracy and precision achieved in the determination of fundamental stellar parameters from the quantitative spectroscopy of single early B-type stars comes close (within a factor 2-4) to data derived from DEBs.

We continue to search for O-type subdwarf companions in binary systems containing Be primaries. We were not able to confirm an sdO object in π Aqr and HR 2142, even though optical and UV observations suggest their presence. Some possible reasons are enumerated.

Be star phenomenology is strongly associated with their viscous circumstellar disks. Recently, models became available for the temporal evolution of these disks when subject to variable mass ejection rates. In this contribution we will discuss how these dynamical disk models, modeled with the radiative transfer code HDUST, can be used for constraining fundamental disk parameters, such as the α viscosity parameter, and we will report on an ongoing effort to model light curves of a large number of stars.

The Westerlund 1 Galactic cluster hosts an eclectic mix of coeval massive stars. At a modest distance of 4–5 kpc, it offers a unique opportunity to study the resolved stellar content of a young (~5 Myr) high mass (5·104M⊙) star cluster. With the aim of testing single-star evolutionary predictions, and revealing any signatures of binary evolution, we discuss on-going analyses of NTT/SOFI near-IR spectroscopy of Wolf-Rayet stars in Westerlund 1. We find that late WN stars are H-poor compared to their counterparts in the Milky Way field, and nearly all are less luminous than predicted by single-star Geneva isochrones at the age of Westerlund 1.

At present, it is well established that previously accepted mass-loss rates (Ṁ) of luminous OB stars may be overestimated when clumping is neglected. Our Herschel/PACS Far-Infrared (Far-IR) observations of a set of OB stars allow us to improve our knowledge of clumping stratification, constraining clumping properties in intermediate wind regions. In this work, better sampled clumping structure estimates are provided for ι Ori, ε Ori and ξ Per as well as an initial estimate of the clumping properties of the wind from τ Sco. These observations will allow us to obtain reliable mass-loss rates and improve our understanding of the wind physics.

In the framework of the Gaia-ESO survey we have determined the fundamental parameters of a large number of B-type stars in the Galactic, young open cluster NGC 3293. The determination of the stellar parameters is based on medium-resolution spectra obtained with FLAMES/GIRAFFE at ESO-VLT. As a second step, we adopted the accurate parameters to determine the chemical abundances of these hot stars. We present a comparison of our results with those obtained by the 'VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars' (Evans et al. 2005). Our study increases the number of objects analysed and provides an extended view of this cluster.

We produced a model grid of rotating main and post-main sequence stars with the Geneva Stellar Evolution Code (GENEC). The initial chemical composition is tailored to compare with observations of early OB type stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the grid covers stellar masses in the range of 7 ≤ M/M⊙ ≤ 15 and initial velocity between 0 km s−1 ≤ v sin(i) ≤ 300 km s−1. The model grid has been used to determine the changes in the surface Nitrogen abundances during the star evolution and the results have been compared with observations.