Super-Eddington Stellar Winds Driven by Near-Surface Energy Deposition

Understand

We develop analytic and numerical models of the properties of super-Eddington stellar winds, motivated by phases in stellar evolution when super-Eddington energy deposition (via, e.g., unstable fusion, wave heating, or a binary companion) heats a region near the stellar surface.

• This appears to occur in luminous blue variables (LBVs), Type IIn supernovae progenitors, classical novae, and X-ray bursts.
• We show that when the wind kinetic power exceeds Eddington, the photons are trapped and behave like a fluid.
• Convection does not play a significant role in the wind energy transport.