The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey


Vink, Jorick S.; Evans, C. J.; Bestenlehner, J.; McEvoy, C.; Ramirez-Agudelo, O.; Sana, H.; Schneider, F.; VFTS

Armagh Observatory

We present a number of notable results from the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey (VFTS), an ESO Large Program during which we obtained multi-epoch medium-resolution optical spectroscopy of a very large sample of over 800 massive stars in the 30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This unprecedented data-set has enabled us to address some key questions regarding atmospheres and winds, as well as the evolution of (very) massive stars. Here we focus on O-type runaways, the width of the main sequence, and the mass-loss rates for (very) massive stars. We also provide indications for the presence of a top-heavy initial mass function (IMF) in 30 Dor.

Reference: 2017, IAUS 329: "The Lives and Death-Throes of Massive Stars", eds. Eldridge, J.J.,Bray, J.C., McClelland, L.A.S., Xiao, L.
Status: Conference proceedings

Weblink: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017arXiv171011220V

Comments: 7 Figures, 8 pages. Invited talk.

Email: jsv@arm.ac.uk