The nature and consequences of clumping in hot, massive star winds


Jon O. Sundqvist(1), Stanley P. Owocki(1), and Joachim Puls(2)

1 - University of Delaware, Bartol Research Institute, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA; 2 - Universitaetssternwarte Muenchen, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 Muenchen

This review describes the evidence for small scale structure, `clumping', in the radiation line-driven winds of hot, massive stars. In particular, we focus on examining to what extent simulations of the strong instability inherent to line-driving can explain the multitude of observational evidence for wind clumping, as well as on how to properly account for extensive structures in density and velocity when interpreting the various wind diagnostics used to derive mass-loss rates.

Reference: Invited review to appear in "Four Decades of Research on Massive Stars" in honor of Tony Moffat, ASP Conf. Ser.
Status: Conference proceedings

Weblink: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.0485

Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures

Email: jon@bartol.udel.edu