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Rotation rates of massive stars in the Magellanic Clouds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2011

Laura R. Penny  and
Douglas R. Gies
Laura R. Penny
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA email: pennyl@cofc.edu
Douglas R. Gies
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA email: gies@phy-astr.gsu.edu
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Abstract

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We present the results of our survey of the projected rotational velocities of 161 O-type stars in the Magellanic Clouds from archival FUSE observations. The evolved and unevolved samples from each environment are compared through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to determine if the distribution of equatorial rotational velocities is metallicity dependent for these massive objects. Stellar interior models predict that massive stars with SMC metallicity will have significantly reduced angular momentum loss on the main sequence compared to their Galactic counterparts. Our statistical results find some support for this prediction but also show that even at Galactic metallicity, evolved and unevolved massive stars have fairly similar fractions of stars with large V sin i. What is more compelling are the few evolved objects in the Magellanic Clouds with rotational velocities that approach or even exceed those predicted from the evolutionary models.

Keywords

stars: rotationstars: early-typestars: evolutionultraviolet: stars
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S272: Active OB stars: structure, evolution, mass loss, and critical limits , July 2010 , pp. 38 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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