Publication Abstracts

Stothers and Chin 1993

Stothers, R.B., and C.-W. Chin, 1993: Dynamical instability as the cause of the massive outbursts in Eta Carinae and other luminous blue variables. Astrophys. J., 408, L85-L88, doi:10.1086/186837.

A new type of stellar envelope structure has been computationally discovered at very high stellar masses. The outer part of the envelope resembles a nearly detached, diffusely filled shell overlying an ultrahot surface of small radius. This structural anomaly is caused by a large iron bump occurring in the new opacities of Iglesias, Rogers, and Wilson. The new stellar models with normal metallicity encounter a strong ionization-induced dynaamical instability in the outer envelope as they rapidly transit the H-R diagram after the end of central hydrogen burning. Preliminary evolutionary and hydrodynamical calculations successfully mimic the most basic observed properties of Eta Carinae and other very luminous blue variables. The Humphreys-Davidson sloped line in the H-R diagram, however, seems to be unrelated to these variables, but is rather the observed terminus of the main-sequence phase of evolution if convective core overshooting is insignificant.

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BibTeX Citation

@article{st00700d,
  author={Stothers, R. B. and Chin, C.-W.},
  title={Dynamical instability as the cause of the massive outbursts in Eta Carinae and other luminous blue variables},
  year={1993},
  journal={Astrophysical Journal},
  volume={408},
  pages={L85--L88},
  doi={10.1086/186837},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - JOUR
ID  - st00700d
AU  - Stothers, R. B.
AU  - Chin, C.-W.
PY  - 1993
TI  - Dynamical instability as the cause of the massive outbursts in Eta Carinae and other luminous blue variables
JA  - Astrophys. J.
JO  - Astrophysical Journal
VL  - 408
SP  - L85
EP  - L88
DO  - 10.1086/186837
ER  -

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