Open AccessNon‐spherical evolution of the line‐driven wind instability
Author(s) -
Gomez E. L.,
Williams R. J. R.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06864.x
Subject(s) - physics , instability , sobolev space , variable (mathematics) , line (geometry) , spectral line , astrophysics , stability (learning theory) , stars , circular symmetry , radiation , classical mechanics , computational physics , mechanics , astronomy , mathematical analysis , optics , geometry , mathematics , machine learning , computer science
In this paper, we study the structure and stability of line‐driven winds using numerical hydrodynamic simulations. We calculate the radiation force from an explicit non‐local solution of the radiation transfer equation, rather than a Sobolev approximation, without restricting the flow to one‐dimensional symmetry. We find that the solutions that result have complex and highly variable structures, including dense condensations, which we compare with observed variable absorption features in the spectra of early‐type stars.