Stars at the Eddington limit

Authors
Prof.
Norbert Langer
Date and time
6 Oct 2015 - 12:30 Europe/London
Address

Aula

Talk language
English
Slides language
English
Serie number
1
Description

It is often assumed that when stars reach their Eddington limit, strong outflows are initiated, and that this happens only for extreme stellar
masses. I will show that in realistic models of stars up to 500 Msun, the Eddington limit is not reached at the stellar surface. Instead, I will argue that the Eddington limit is exceeded inside the stellar envelope, in hydrogen-rich stars above about 1 ... 30 Msun, and in Wolf-Rayet stars above 7 Msun, with drastic effects for their structure and stability. I will discuss the observational evidence for this, and outline evolutionary consequences.

Type
Format