On the bipolarity of Wolf–Rayet nebulae

Abstract

ABSTRACT Wolf–Rayet stars are amongst the rarest but also most intriguing massive stars. Their extreme stellar winds induce famous multiwavelength circumstellar gas nebulae of various morphologies, spanning from circles and rings to bipolar shapes. This study is devoted to the investigation of the formation of young, asymmetric Wolf–Rayet gas nebulae and we present a 2.5-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamical toy model for the simulation of Wolf–Rayet gas nebulae generated by wind–wind interaction. Our method accounts for stellar wind asymmetries, rotation, magnetization, evolution, and mixing of materials. It is found that the morphology of the Wolf–Rayet nebulae of blue supergiant ancestors is tightly related to the wind geometry and to the stellar phase transition time interval, generating either a broadened peanut-like or a collimated jet-like gas nebula. Radiative transfer calculations of our Wolf–Rayet nebulae for dust infrared emission at $24\, \mu \rm m$ show that the projected diffuse emission can appear as oblate, bipolar, ellipsoidal, or ring structures. Important projection effects are at work in shaping observed Wolf–Rayet nebulae. This might call a revision of the various classifications of Wolf–Rayet shells, which are mostly based on their observed shape. Particularly, our models question the possibility of producing pre-Wolf–Rayet wind asymmetries, responsible for bipolar nebulae like NGC 6888, within the single red supergiant evolution channel scenario. We propose that bipolar Wolf–Rayet nebulae can only be formed within the red supergiant scenario by multiple/merged massive stellar systems, or by single high-mass stars undergoing additional, e.g. blue supergiant, evolutionary stages prior to the Wolf–Rayet phase.