TY  - CHAP
A1  - Vink, J. S.
A1  - Benaglia, P.
A1  - Davies, B.
A1  - de Koter, A.
A1  - Oudmaijer, R. D.
T1  - Advances in mass-loss predictions
N2  - We present the results of Monte Carlo mass-loss predictions for massive stars covering a wide range of stellar parameters. We critically test our predictions against a range of observed massloss rates – in light of the recent discussions on wind clumping. We also present a model to compute the clumping-induced polarimetric variability of hot stars and we compare this with observations of Luminous Blue Variables, for which polarimetric variability is larger than for O and Wolf-Rayet stars. Luminous Blue Variables comprise an ideal testbed for studies of wind clumping and wind geometry, as well as for wind strength calculations, and we propose they may be direct supernova progenitors.
Y1  - 2007
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-17948
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Romero, G. E.
A1  - Owocki, S. P.
A1  - Araudo, A. T.
A1  - Townsend, R. H. D.
A1  - Benaglia, P.
T1  - Using gamma-rays to probe the clumped structure of stellar winds
N2  - Gamma-rays can be produced by the interaction of a relativistic jet and the matter of the stellar wind in the subclass of massive X-ray binaries known as “microquasars”. The relativistic jet is ejected from the surroundings of the compact object and interacts with cold protons from the stellar wind, producing pions that then quickly decay into gamma-rays. Since the resulting gamma-ray emissivity depends on the target density, the detection of rapid variability in microquasars with GLAST and the new generation of Cherenkov imaging arrays could be used to probe the clumped structure of the stellar wind. In particular, we show here that the relative fluctuation in gamma rays may scale with the square root of the ratio of porosity length to binary separation, $\sqrt{h/a}$, implying for example a ca. 10% variation in gamma ray emission for a quite moderate porosity, h/a ∼ 0.01.
Y1  - 2007
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-18210
ER  -