Rosslowe, C.K. and Crowther, P.A. (2018) A deep near-infrared spectroscopic survey of the Scutum-Crux arm for Wolf-Rayet stars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 473 (3). pp. 2853-2870. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
We present an NTT/SOFI spectroscopic survey of infrared selected Wolf-Rayet candidates in the Scutum-Crux spiral arm (298 < l < 340, |b| < 0.5). We obtained near-IR spectra of 127 candidates, revealing 17 Wolf-Rayet stars - a ~13% success rate - of which 16 are newly identified here. The majority of the new Wolf-Rayet stars are classified as narrow-lined WN5-7 stars, with 2 broad-lined WN4-6 stars and 3 WC6-8 stars. The new stars, with distances estimated from previous absolute magnitude calibrations, have no obvious association with the Scutum-Crux arm. Refined near-infrared (YHJK) classification criteria based on over a hundred Galactic and Magellanic Cloud WR stars, providing diagnostics for hydrogen in WN stars, plus the identification of WO stars and intermediate WN/C stars. Finally, we find that only a quarter of WR stars in the survey region are associated with star clusters and/or HII regions, with similar statistics found for Luminous Blue Variables in the Milky Way. The relative isolation of evolved massive stars is discussed, together with the significance of the co-location of LBVs and WR stars in young star clusters.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Oxford University Press. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | stars: emission-line; stars: Wolf-Rayet; stars: evolution; galaxy: stellar content; infrared: stars |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL ST/J001589/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 22 Sep 2017 11:34 |
Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2023 16:08 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/stx2103 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:120558 |