| |
 |
| Paper: |
Binary Frequency Among the Magellanic Cloud WNL Population: Preliminary Results |
| Volume: |
367, Massive Stars in Interactive Binaries |
| Page: |
45 |
| Authors: |
Schnurr, O.; St-Louis, N.; Moffat, A.F.J.; Morrell, N.I. |
| Abstract: |
We present preliminary results of an intense spectroscopic survey of all known 47 WNL stars in the LMC. We find eight binaries, 2 of which are newly discovered. Although by design our study should be able to reveal binaries with periods up to ~150d, seven binaries have periods shorter than 5 days. One star, BAT99-119, seems to be a ~113d-binary with a highly eccentric orbit, but requires more analysis. Our study confirms earlier findings that binarity is not a pre-requisite at low ambient metallicities for lower-mass O stars to reach the Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase, but that other formation channels (e.g., rotation) can explain the observed properties of WR stars, most readily the high amount of residual hydrogen in the stellar wind of almost all WNL and many WNE stars. |
|
|
|
|
|
