Radiative wind from a luminous star cluster

We reexamine the steady spherical wind from distributed sources, such as star clusters and a galactic center, taking into account the radiative force from distributed sources and mass reduction via orbital motions. We consider a cold dusty wind, an isothermal gaseous flow, and a nonisothermal general one without/with a central mass and a stagnation radius for various powers of source distributions. We perform singular point analysis for each case, and obtain a transonic solution, if one exists. We find that thermally driven outflows can emerge in limited situations, such that the source distribution is rather steep in the isothermal flow. On the other hand, under the appropriate conditions radiatively driven winds can easily be produced. Radiative cluster winds without a central mass could emerge from newly born star clusters or neutron star clusters, whereas those with a central mass could appear from active galactic nuclei. Radiative cluster winds would also operate in first star clusters.

Hot subdwarf wind models with accurate abundances

Context. Hot subdwarfs are helium burning objects in late stages of their evolution. These subluminous stars can develop winds driven by light absorption in the lines of heavier elements. The wind strength depends on chemical composition which can significantly vary from star to star. Aims. We aim to understand the influence of metallicity on the strength of the winds of the hot hydrogen-rich subdwarfs HD 49798 and BD+18° 2647. Methods. We used high-resolution UV and optical spectra to derive stellar parameters and abundances using the TLUSTY and SYNSPEC codes. For derived stellar parameters, we predicted wind structure (including mass-loss rates and terminal velocities) with our METUJE code. Results. We derived effective temperature Teff = 45 900 K and mass M = 1.46 M⊙ for HD 49798 and Teff = 73 000 K and M = 0.38 M⊙ for BD+18° 2647. The derived surface abundances can be interpreted as a result of interplay between stellar evolution and diffusion. The subdwarf HD 49798 has a strong wind that does not allow for chemical separation and consequently the star shows solar chemical composition modified by hydrogen burning. On the other hand, we did not find any wind in BD+18° 2647 and its abundances are therefore most likely affected by radiative diffusion. Accurate abundances do not lead to a significant modification of wind mass-loss rate for HD 49798, because the increase of the contribution of iron and nickel to the radiative force is compensated by the decrease of the radiative force due to other elements. The resulting wind mass-loss rate Ṁ = 2.1 × 10−9 M⊙ yr−1 predicts an X-ray light curve during the eclipse which closely agrees with observations. On the other hand, the absence of the wind in BD+18° 2647 for accurate abundances is a result of its peculiar chemical composition. Conclusions. Wind models with accurate abundances provide more reliable wind parameters, but the influence of abundances on the wind parameters is limited in many cases.

Wind inhibition in HMXBs: the effect of clumping and implications for X-ray luminosity

Winds of hot stars are driven by the radiative force due to absorption of light in the lines of heavier elements. Consequently, the mass-loss rate and the wind velocity depend on the ionization state of the wind. As a result of this, there is a feedback between the ionizing X-ray source and the stellar wind in HMXBs powered by wind accretion. We study the influence of the small-scale wind structure (clumping) on this feedback using our NLTE hydrodynamical wind models. We find that clumping weakens the effect of X-ray irradiation. Moreover, we show that the observed X-ray luminosities of HMXBs can not be explained by wind accretion scenario without introducing the X-ray feedback. Taking into account the feedback, the observed and estimated X-ray luminosities nicely agree. We identify two cases of X-ray feedback with low and high X-ray luminosities that can explain the dichotomy between SFXTs and sgXBs.

Hot star wind mass-loss rate predictions at low metallicity

Hot star winds are driven by the radiative force due to light absorption in lines of heavier elements. Therefore, the amount of mass lost by the star per unit of time, i.e., the mass-loss rate, is sensitive to metallicity. We provide mass-loss rate predictions for O stars with mass fraction of heavier elements 0.2 <Z/Z⊙ ≤ 1. Our predictions are based on global model atmospheres. The models allow us to predict wind terminal velocity and the mass-loss rate just from basic global stellar parameters. We provide a formula that fits the mass-loss rate predicted by our models as a function of stellar luminosity and metallicity. On average, the mass-loss rate scales with metallicity as (Z/Z⊙)0.59. The predicted mass-loss rates agree with mass-loss rates derived from ultraviolet wind line profiles. At low metallicity, the rotational mixing affects the wind mass-loss rates. We study the influence of magnetic line blanketing.

Wind inhibition by X-ray irradiation in high-mass X-ray binaries

Winds of hot massive stars are driven radiatively by light absorption in the lines of heavier elements. Therefore, the radiative force depends on the wind ionization. That is the reason why the accretion powered X-ray emission of high-mass X-ray binaries influences the radiative force and may even lead to wind inhibition. We model the effect of X-ray irradiation on the stellar wind in high-mass X-ray binaries. The influence of X-rays is given by the X-ray luminosity, by the optical depth between a given point and the X-ray source, and by the distance to the X-ray source. The influence of X-rays is stronger for higher X-ray luminosities and in closer proximity of the X-ray source. There is a forbidden area in the diagrams of X-ray luminosity vs. the optical depth parameter. The observations agree with theoretical predictions, because all wind-powered high-mass X-ray binary primaries lie outside the forbidden area. The positions of real binaries in the diagram indicate that their X-ray luminosities are self-regulated.