TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sander, Andreas Alexander Christoph
A1  - Shenar, Tomer
A1  - Hainich, Rainer
A1  - Gimenez-Garcia, Ana
A1  - Todt, Helge Tobias
A1  - Hamann, Wolf-Rainer
T1  - On the consistent treatment of the quasi-hydrostatic layers in hot star atmospheres
T2  - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal
N2  - Context. Spectroscopic analysis remains the most common method to derive masses of massive stars, the most fundamental stellar parameter. While binary orbits and stellar pulsations can provide much sharper constraints on the stellar mass, these methods are only rarely applicable to massive stars. Unfortunately, spectroscopic masses of massive stars heavily depend on the detailed physics of model atmospheres.
 Aims. We demonstrate the impact of a consistent treatment of the radiative pressure on inferred gravities and spectroscopic masses of massive stars. Specifically, we investigate the contribution of line and continuum transitions to the photospheric radiative pressure. We further explore the effect of model parameters, e.g., abundances, on the deduced spectroscopic mass. Lastly, we compare our results with the plane-parallel TLUSTY code, commonly used for the analysis of massive stars with photospheric spectra.
 Methods. We calculate a small set of O-star models with the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) code using different approaches for the quasi-hydrostatic part. These models allow us to quantify the effect of accounting for the radiative pressure consistently. We further use PoWR models to show how the Doppler widths of line profiles and abundances of elements such as iron affect the radiative pressure, and, as a consequence, the derived spectroscopic masses.
 Results. Our study implies that errors on the order of a factor of two in the inferred spectroscopic mass are to be expected when neglecting the contribution of line and continuum transitions to the radiative acceleration in the photosphere. Usage of implausible microturbulent velocities, or the neglect of important opacity sources such as Fe, may result in errors of approximately 50% in the spectroscopic mass. A comparison with TLUSTY model atmospheres reveals a very good agreement with PoWR at the limit of low mass-loss rates.
KW  - stars: early-type
KW  - stars: mass-loss
KW  - stars: winds, outflows
KW  - stars: atmospheres
KW  - stars: fundamental parameters
KW  - stars: massive
Y1  - 2015
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/38965
SN  - 0004-6361
SN  - 1432-0746
VL  - 577
PB  - EDP Sciences
CY  - Les Ulis
ER  -