The structure of the winds from Wolf-Rayet stars as determined from observations of the infrared continua

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Density Distribution, Hot Stars, Infrared Astronomy, Infrared Spectra, Stellar Models, Stellar Winds, Wolf-Rayet Stars, Black Body Radiation, Electron Scattering, Spectral Energy Distribution, Stellar Spectrophotometry

Scientific paper

An attempt is made to derive the density structure of Wolf-Rayet winds from infrared observations. Free-free emission from gas in radiative equilibrium is assumed to be the source of the infrared excess, and the density distribution is approximated by piecewise power laws. Wolf-Rayet stars that exhibit a 'turnover' in the infrared spectrum require models with a steep density drop at several stellar radii; this implies a rapid acceleration of the flow at large distances from the stellar core. Models have been constructed to fit the infrared excess of HD 50896, a slightly reddened WN5 star. They indicate that the extended density region has an electron-scattering optical depth of at least 0.7 and is at nearly constant velocity or decelerating. A possible alternative to these models is one which combines a coronal zone in an accelerating wind.

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