Wind-Clumping does not Depend on Ambient Metallicity: Wolf-Rayet Stars in the SMC

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The mass-loss rates of hot, massive, luminous stars are considered a decisive parameter in shaping their evolutionary tracks and influencing the interstellar medium on galactic scales. The small-scale structures (clumps) omnipresent in such winds may reduce empirical estimates of mass-loss rates by an evolutionarily significant factor of >=3. So far, there has been no direct observational evidence that the wind-clumping may persist at the same level in environments with a low ambient metallicity, where the wind-driving opacity is reduced. Here we report an unambiguous detection of small-scale inhomogeneities in the winds of three Population I Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Clouds, where metallicity is 1/5 Zsolar. The general properties of the detected clumps, such as their velocity dispersions, emissivities and average accelerations, closely match the corresponding characteristics of small-scale inhomogeneities in the winds of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars.

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