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arXiv · 2611.06650

The formation and evolution of Wolf-Rayet stars with temperature-dependent winds

Guy O. Flint·Avishai Gilkis·Tomer Shenar·Christopher A. Tout
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Abstract

Massive stars strongly influence their environments through their radiation, stellar winds and core-collapse supernovae, while their own evolution is strongly shaped by wind mass loss. Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are characterised by strong, optically thick winds, and the implementation of these winds remains an important uncertainty in stellar evolution models. Recent hydrodynamically consistent atmosphere calculations predict WR mass-loss rates that depend strongly on the temperature at the wind-launching region. We investigate the effects of incorporating these latest theoretical WR wind prescriptions into single and binary stellar evolution models at Milky Way, Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) metallicities. We find that the temperature dependence of the WR wind can significantly alter the evolution of stars near the threshold for WR formation. In particular, an implementation that transitions from a hydrogen rich WNL wind prescription to a classical WR wind driven by the hot iron opacity bump causes some SMC-metallicity models to spend an extended period at temperatures of approximately 70 to 90 kK. This produces a concentration of models in the temperature range occupied by most observed SMC WR stars, a feature that has previously been difficult to explain with stellar evolution models. Our results demonstrate that incorporating physically motivated, temperature dependent WR winds can improve the agreement between stellar evolution models and observed WR populations.

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Guy O. Flint, Avishai Gilkis, Tomer Shenar, Christopher A. Tout. 2026-11-04. The formation and evolution of Wolf-Rayet stars with temperature-dependent winds. https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06650

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