The Eddington factor as the key to understand the winds of the most massive stars. Evidence for a Gamma-dependence of Wolf-Rayet type mass loss

Understand

The most massive stars are thought to be hydrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet stars of late spectral subtype (WNh stars).

• In previous theoretical studies the enhanced mass loss of these stars has been attributed to their proximity to the Eddington limit.
• Here we investigate observed trends in the mass-loss properties of such young, very massive stars.
• We derive theoretical mass-luminosity relations for very massive stars, based on a large grid of stellar structure models.