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arXiv · 1505.06648

Observational signatures of convectively driven waves in massive stars

C. Aerts·T. M. Rogers
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Abstract

We demonstrate observational evidence for the occurrence of convectively driven internal gravity waves (IGW) in young massive O-type stars observed with high-precision CoRoT space photometry. This evidence results from a comparison between velocity spectra based on 2D hydrodynamical simulations of IGW in a differentially-rotating massive star and the observed spectra.We also show that the velocity spectra caused by IGW may lead to detectable line-profile variability and explain the occurrence of macroturbulence in the observed line profiles of OB stars. Our findings provide predictions that can readily be tested by including a sample of bright slowly and rapidly rotating OB-type stars in the scientific programme of the K2 mission accompanied by high-precision spectroscopy and their confrontation with multi-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of IGW for various masses and ages.

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C. Aerts, T. M. Rogers. 2015-05-25. Observational signatures of convectively driven waves in massive stars. https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.06648

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