Bibcode
Esteban, C.; Smith, L. J.; Vilchez, J. M.; Clegg, R. E. S.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol.272, NO. 1/MAYI, P. 299, 1993
Advertised on:
5
1993
Journal
Citations
80
Refereed citations
61
Description
We derive effective temperatures, luminosities and related parameters
for a sample of eight Wolf-Rayet stars - seven WN stars and a WO star -
by computing elaborate photoionization models of their surrounding ring
nebulae. The most recent non-LTE WR model atmospheres are used for the
input stellar ionizing flux distributions. The photoionization models
have been constructed to match all possible observational data, such as
shell diameters, radio fluxes and stellar optical continuum magnitudes.
The fitting process uses planetary-nebula-type methods, and involves
matching the main emission line ratios measured from ring nebulae
observations reported in earlier papers in this series. All but one
nebula (RCW 104) are modelled as hollow spheres surrounded by optically
thin ionized shells.
The derived effective temperatures T* range from 57000- 71000
K for the WN4-5 stars and <30 000-42 000 K for the WN6-8 stars with
reasonable correlations between temperature and stellar radius
R* and spectral subtype. The luminosities are broadly similar
between WN subtypes and span a small range of 1.2-5.0 105
Lsun. We compare our derived stellar parameters with those
obtained using other techniques, notably recent stellar emission line
modelling. We find excellent agreement for the hot early WN stars,
indicating that the non-LTE WR flux distributions are essentially
correct, particularly in the crucial far-UV region. For the cooler late
WN stars, we find lower temperatures and that the model flux
distributions produce too much nebular ionization. We suggest that these
discrepancies arise because of the lack of line-blanketing in the WR
atmospheres. For the WO 1 central star of G 2.4+1.4, showing strong
nebular He II 4686 Å emission, we derive a temperature of 105000
K, somewhat less than previous estimates. We compare the positions of
our eight WR stars on the HR diagram with the evolutionary tracks of
Maeder (1990) for solar metallicity. In common with previous workers, we
find an initial mass range of 25-40 Msun, below that expected
for the majority of WR stars.
We also derive various nebular parameters including gas mass, ionization
parameter U and optical depths. We find that the nebulae span a
remarkably small range in U, from 0.7-2.6 1O-3, which is also
typical of giant extragalactic H II regions. This uniformity in U
appears to support the idea that stellar winds cause the ionizing flux
and the shell gas density to scale closely with each other.