Hydrodynamics of stellar winds

driven by spectral-line scattering






Achim Feldmeier Uni Potsdam








Momentum transfer from photons to ions

via scattering in spectral lines




(c) Philip Gibbs
LightMill animation by Torsten Hiddessen












Line driven winds


are accelerated by photon momentum The heating is minimal




Which objects?


Photospheres 10-50 kK
strong UV field
O stars accretion disks:
stars to quasars





Why study winds from massive stars?


influence on stellar evolution

winds trigger star formation






Stellar Wind



Recent interests in line driven hydrodynamics


Shocks from line driven instability

Owocki et al. 1988 ApJ

Wind compressed disks

Bjorkman & Cassinelli 1993 ApJ

Disk inhibition

Owocki et al. 1996 ApJ

Corotating interaction regions

Cranmer & Owocki 1996 ApJ

High-mass X-ray binaries

Blondin et al. 1990 ApJ

Quasar winds

Murray et al. 1995 ApJ

Disk winds

Feldmeier & Drew 2000 MNRAS










Line force causes new wave type






Abbott waves (1980):

a radiative wave mode














SSF:
Abbott waves and

1A. DE-SHADOWING INSTABILITY














long scale limit: Abbott waves (1980 ApJ)
short scale limit: instability (Carlberg 1980 ApJ)
Bridging law from exact (!) ABS

Owocki & Rybicki (1984 ApJ)
Unstable waves from 2nd order SOB

Feldmeier (1998 A&A)



Wind structure from numerical hydrodynamics









Owocki, Castor & Rybicki, 1988 ApJ

SSF
with S=0








Feldmeier, 1995 A&A

SSF

  • Broad rarefactions regions of thin gas
  • accelerated to large speeds
  • Very dense shells
  • stop fast gas through reverse shock













1B. X-RAYS
AND CLOUDS





wind shocks as

X-ray sources in the wind


Lucy & White 1980 ApJ
Lucy 1982 ApJ






First problem


Thermal instability
(Langer 1981 ApJ): cooling zone collapse

Change cooling function at low T (F. 1994 Diss)





Second problem



density too small. Not enough X-rays

(Hillier et al. 1994 A&A)
solution: we propose (SSF)

fast & dense cloudlets collide with shells

(Feldmeier et al. 1997 A&A)




Wind model for zeta Ori, including energy transfer



single wind location emitting X-rays
X-ray spectrum, compared to ROSAT data




Cloud-shell collisions











SSF





Cassinelli et al. 2001 ApJ:

``... zeta Pup and other OB stars. Wind-shock models developed by Lucy & White (1980), Feldmeier et al. (1997a) and others consistently failed to predict the high levels of X-ray emission observed in the brightest O stars.''












2. DISK WINDS



Winds from accretion disks in Protostars, Cataclysmic Variables, and Quasars


Shlosman et al. 1985. Disk radiation launches quasar wind. Central engine shielded by absorption in disk atmosphere.

Murray et al. 1995. Central engine shielded by hitchhiking gas.




DISK WIND MOVIE

Results agree well with semi-analytical model
(Feldmeier & Shlosman 1999a,b ApJ)










Traditionally: disk winds magnetically driven (YSOs; quasars?) Here: radiation driven (CVs; quasars?) try now: combination









Hour-glass model of
poloidal field amplification

Norman and Pudritz 1986 ApJ




after Blandford & Payne 1982 MNRAS


We find that Zeus-MHD+SOB favors another scenario first suggested by Contopoulos 1995 ApJ
Here, strong toroidal magnetic fields occur.
Wind is launched via Lorentz force along vertical gradients of toroidal field. By contrast, B&P82 launichg via centrifugal force along poloidal field.


Vortex sheet
in poloidal
magnetic
field

unit arrow
(top right) =
0.5 Gauss






A poloidal-toroidal interaction


Vortex sheet in poloidal field

Poloidal eddies carry toroidal field to large height

Lorentz force (toroidal field) drives enhanced mass loss











3. ABBOTT WAVES AND RUNAWAY





Time-averaged SSF solutions, or
Steady, stable SOB solutions


Question




Why does the wind adopt the critical solution
out of an infinite solution variety?






Castor et al. 1975 ApJ,
Abbott 1980 ApJ:
shallow solutions do not reach infinity
Steep solutions do not reach photosphere
-> mixed sS or critical




Artificial convergence to sS CAK solution:

1. outflow boundary conditions
2. NO Abbott time step

(Feldmeier, Shlosman & Hamann 2002 ApJ)

SOB







Abbott wave runaway



Strange Abbott wave dispersion:
  • Positive v-slopes propagate inwards
  • Negative v-slopes propagate outwards
-> systematic wind acceleration: runaway

(Feldmeier & Shlosman 2000, 2002 ApJ)









SOB




Runaway of shallow solution











The critical wind is stable






Perturbation amplitude of 5% creates Abbott waves



The same perturbation at 15% amplitude causes runaway


SOB




A perturbation below the critical point causes
stationary overloaded solution














Summary


1. Wind instability and X-ray emission
2. Accretion disk winds: with B field
3. Abbott waves and wind runaway