Published in

American Astronomical Society, Astronomical Journal, 6(120), p. 3201-3217, 2000

DOI: 10.1086/316858

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Wind Inhomogeneities in Wolf-Rayet Stars. IV. Using Clumps to Probe the Wind Structure in the WC8 Star HD 192103

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We present the most intensive, high-quality spectroscopic monitoring of optical Wolf-Rayet emission lines ever obtained. The Wolf-Rayet star HD 192103 (=WR 135; subtype WC8) was observed in the 5650–5840 Å regime alternately from both the William Herschel Telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The final data consist of a series of 197 spectra spread over 64 hr, each with a resolving power λ/Δλ 20,000 and a signal-to-noise ratio in the continuum 450 per 3 pixel resolution element. We clearly and unambiguously identify stochastic, structured patterns of intrinsic variability at the 1%–2% level of the line flux in the broad C III λ5696 emission line. The λ5801/12 doublet emission is also found to be variable at the 0.2%–0.5% level of the line flux. We find a correlation between the variability patterns observed in C III and C IV, which suggests a significant overlap in the emission volumes of these transitions, although C IV is known to arise somewhat closer to the star. We attempt to reproduce the observed line profile variation patterns using a simple phenomenological model, which assumes the wind to be fully clumped. With a minimal set of assumptions, we are able to reproduce both the shape and the variability in the C III λ5696 emission profile. We show that the variability pattern provides constraints on the radial extent of WR 135's wind where C III is produced, as well as on the local wind acceleration rate. However, our simple clump model does not reproduce the lower variability in the C IV doublet unless we assume the C IV emission to occur in a much larger volume than C III, implying that significant C IV emission occurs farther out in the wind than C III. We suggest that while some C IV emission might occur farther out, possibly because of reionization from shocks, a more likely explanation is that wind clumping significantly increases with distance from the star, leading to larger variability levels in C III, formed farther out than most of C IV. Alternatively, optical depth effects and/or local ionization gradients within clumps could conspire to attenuate clumping effects in the C IV emission line while enhancing them in the C III line.