3233991
doi
10.5281/zenodo.3233991
oai:zenodo.org:3233991
user-eslab53
Crowther, Paul A.
University of Sheffield
Unlocking Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars with Gaia DR2
Rate, Gemma
University of Sheffield
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
<p>Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars represent the final evolutionary stage of the most massive O stars and can reveal much about<br>
massive star origins and fates. We can study their formation and frequency of binary interaction, by measuring<br>
the fraction in clusters and associations and identifying runaways far from the Galactic plane. Additionally, their<br>
absolute magnitudes and luminosities remain poorly constrained in the Milky Way. Accurate distances to individual<br>
stars are required to improve our knowledge of WR stars. Past work relied upon absolute magnitude calibrations<br>
to find distances, with large associated uncertainties. Parallaxes give more precise results and Gaia DR2 (Gaia<br>
Collaboration et al., 2018) expands the number of WR stars with parallaxes from one star to several hundred. Here<br>
we have calculated new distances to 382 WR stars using DR2 astrometry. We also calculate absolute magnitudes for<br>
stars with distances. 184 are plausible, confirming these stars have reliable distances. Recalculated luminosities are<br>
found to be lower than expected, potentially indicating binary interaction or requiring improved single star models.<br>
We confirm only a small proportion (13%) of WR stars are definitely members of clusters or associations, implying<br>
many WR stars may form in relatively sparse environments. We also search for runaways by applying a vertical<br>
cutoff distance of 156pc from the Galactic midplane. 31 stars (8%) exceed this distance and so are likely runaways.<br>
The low fraction of binary companions, combined with the low frequency of clusters and association membership,<br>
leads us to conclude that supernovae from close binary companions are the dominant source of runaways.</p>
<p> </p>
Zenodo
2019-05-28
info:eu-repo/semantics/conferencePaper
3233990
user-eslab53
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https://zenodo.org/records/3233991/files/eslab53_Rate.pdf
public
10.5281/zenodo.3233990
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doi