Wind-compressed Disk Model Research Articles

The Structure of the Homunculus. III. Forming a Disk and Bipolar Lobes in a Rotating Surface Explosion

We present a semi-analytic model for shaping the nebula around eta Carinae that accounts for the simultaneous production of bipolar lobes and an equatorial disk through a rotating surface explosion. Material is launched normal to the surface of an oblate rotating star with an initial kick velocity that scales approximately with the local escape speed. Thereafter, ejecta follow ballistic orbital trajectories, feeling only a central force corresponding to a radiatively reduced gravity. Our model is conceptually similar to the wind-compressed disk model of Bjorkman & Cassinelli, but we modify it to an explosion instead of a steady line-driven wind, we include a rotationally-distorted star, and we treat the dynamics somewhat differently. Continuum-driving avoids the disk inhibition that normally operates in line-driven winds. Our model provides a simple method by which rotating hot stars can simultaneously produce intrinsically bipolar and equatorial mass ejections, without an aspherical environment or magnetic fields. Although motivated by eta Carinae, the model may have generic application to other LBVs, B[e] stars, or SN1987A's nebula. When near-Eddington radiative driving is less influential, our model generalizes to produce bipolar morphologies without disks, as seen in many PNe.

Inhibition of Wind-Compressed Disk Inhibition in Optically Thick Winds

There are three important effects in optically thin line-driven winds that have been shown to inhibit the equatorial compression inherent in the wind-compressed disk model:1) gravity darkening, which concentrates the driving flux over the poles,2) stellar oblateness, which rotates the flux vectors poleward, and3) nonisotropic opacity, which rotates the force vectors poleward.The first two of these effects tend to yield fairly spherical winds, while the last one actually reverses the wind compression and should generate prolate winds. This poster argues that this third mechanism is not present for multiline scattering in Wolf-Rayet winds. Hence, it is argued that rotating optically thick line-driven winds should have a more spherical UV photosphere, especially for CAK α ≅ 2/3. However, owing to flux migration from polar to equatorial regions, such winds should have an even more prolate optical photosphere.

Ionization Structure and Mass Loss for Rapidly-Rotating Near Main-Sequence B Stars

AbstractUsing the wind-compressed disk model to determine the density and velocity of a rapidly rotating wind, we calculate the 2-D ionization structure and corresponding line profiles. We find that previous estimates of the mass-loss rate based on spherically symmetric models may be a factor of 5–10 too small.

The Formation and Structure of Circumstellar Disks

AbstractSeveral theories have been proposed to explain the origin of Be star disks. Among them are Wind-Compressed Disks, accretion disks, decretion disks, and “explosive” ejections. In reviewing these mechanisms, I first concentrate on the current status of the Wind-Compressed Disk model. In particular, I discuss how non-radial forces may prevent disk formation and then discuss various physical effects that may restore the disk. Second, I examine the observational evidence and what it tells us about the structure of the disk. Of particular interest is evidence in favor of Keplerian disks. Finally, I discuss theories for Keplerian disk formation and some of the constraints such theories must satisfy.

Wind-Compressed Disks

AbstractWe discuss the wind-compressed disk (WCD) model and its ability to produce disks in the outflows from rapidly rotating stars. In particular, we discuss the recently discovered non-radial force components that may inhibit the formation of the disk and present preliminary investigations of the ionization distribution and associated line profiles in the WCD model.

Using Spectropolarimetry to Determine Envelope Geometry and Test Variability Models for Hot Star Circumstellar Envelopes

AbstractA survey and monitoring of the spectropolarimetric characteristics of hot stars over the entire visible wavelength range has been carried out over the past 8 years using the HPOL instrument at the Pine Bluff Observatory. Data from these projects is being used to derive physical characteristics of circumstellar envelopes. Quantitative modeling of the polarization, in combination with optical interferometry, has shown that the circumstellar disks of classical Be stars are geometrically thin, consistent with either the wind-compressed disk model or with hydrostatically supported Keplerian disks. Furthermore, spectropolarimetric variability, which is significant in a large fraction of the hot stars observed, provides information about changes occuring in the circumstellar envelope. For example, polarimetric changes provide a critical test of the one-armed density wave models proposed to explain observed V/R variations.

Evidence for a disk in the wind of HD 93521: UV line profiles from an axisymmetric model

Recently it has been suggested (Massa 1992; Howarth & Reid 1993), from the C IV ultraviolet resonance line profile of HD 93521, that there is a high-speed component in the polar outflow from the star as well as a low-speed component in the equatorial regions. In this paper we present theoretical calculations of the line profiles that would be produced by such a model. We find from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) observations of HD 93521 that the observed C IV profile can be produced if the star has an inclination angle very close to 90 deg and if the star is surrounded by a thin disk, whose half-width is approximately 3 deg in latitude. The geometry of this disk is similar to what one would expect from the wind-compressed disk model of Bjorkman & Cassinelli, so this star may provide an ideal observational test of that model. In addition to the C IV resonance line, we examine both the Si IV and N V resonance lines. The Si IV line exhibits low-velocity absorption that is similar to that seen in the C IV line, but the emission is much weaker. On the other hand, the N V line has weaker absorption and much stronger emission than the C IV line. N V is a higher ionization state than C IV, so it is likely that N V is one stage above the dominant state, N IV. Apart from fitting individual line profiles, we also examine the differences between the two Hubble Space Telescope observations of HD 93521. We find evidence for a pair of narrow absorption components, seen at low velocity, as well as evidence for a discrete emission feature in the blueshifted absorption cores of the lines. This blueshifted emission at low velocity can cause what instead appears to be an interstella absorption line. Without multiple observations that can reveal the temporary emission, one must be very careful when determining interstellar column densities to stars like HD 93521.

The Wind-Compressed Disk Model

We discuss the effects of rotation on the structure of radiatively-driven winds. When the centrifugal support is large, there is a region, at low latitudes near the surface of the star, where the acceleration of gravity is larger than the radiative acceleration. Within this region, the fluid streamlines “fall” toward the equator. If the rotation rate is large, this region is big enough that the fluid from the northern hemisphere collides with that from the southern hemisphere. This produces standing shocks above and below the equator. Between the shocks, there is a dense equatorial disk that is confined by the ram pressure of the wind. A portion of the flow that enters the disk proceeds outward along the equator, but the inner portion accretes onto the stellar surface. Thus there is simultaneous outflow and infall in the equatorial disk. The wind-compressed disk forms only if the star is rotating faster than a threshold value, which depends on the ratio of wind terminal speed to stellar escape speed. The spectral type dependence of the disk formation threshold may explain the frequency distribution of Be stars. Observational tests of the wind-compressed disk model indicate that, although the geometry of the disk agrees with observations of Be stars, the density is a factor of 100 too small to produce the IR excess, Hα emission, and optical polarization, if current estimates of the mass-loss rates are used. However, recent calculations of the ionization balance in the wind indicate that the mass-loss rates of Be stars may be significantly underestimated.