Wolf-Rayet Populations at High Metallicity
| dc.creator | Crowther, P. A. | |
| dc.date | 2006-08-03 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T07:19:17Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T07:19:17Z | |
| dc.description | Observed properties of Wolf-Rayet stars at high metallicity are reviewed. Wolf-Rayet stars are more common at higher metallicity, as a result of stronger mass-loss during earlier evolutionary phases with late WC subtypes signatures of solar metallicity or higher. Similar numbers of early (WC4-7) and late (WC8-9) stars are observed in the Solar neighbourhood, whilst late subtypes dominate at higher metallicities, such as Westerlund 1 in the inner Milky Way and in M83. The observed trend to later WC subtype within metal-rich environments is intimately linked to a metallicity dependence of WR stars, in the sense that strong winds preferentially favour late subtypes. This has relevance to (a) the upper mass limit in metal-rich galaxies such as NGC 3049, due to softer ionizing fluxes from WR stars at high metallicity; (b) evolutionary models including a WR metallicity dependence provide a better match to the observed N(WC)/N(WN) ratio. The latter conclusion partially rests upon the assumption of constant line luminosities for WR stars, yet observations and theoretical atmospheric models reveal higher line fluxes at high metallicity. | |
| dc.description | 10 pages, 7 figures, Review paper to appear in proc "Metal Rich Universe" (ed. G. Israelian). CUP style file included | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608076 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608076 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/114569 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | Wolf-Rayet Populations at High Metallicity | |
| dc.type | text |