2022/11/17 by Driessen, F. A., Kee, N. D.
#FOS: Physical sciences #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2211.09849
The winds of hot, massive stars are variable from processes happening on both large and small spatial scales. A particular case of such wind variability is 'discrete-absorption components' (DACs) that manifest themselves as outward moving density features in UV resonance line spectra. Such DACs are believed to be caused by large-scale spiral-shaped density structures in the stellar wind. We consider novel 3-D radiation-hydrodynamic models of rotating hot star winds and study the emergence of co-rotating spiral structures due to a local (pseudo-)magnetic spot on the stellar surface. Subsequently, the hydrodynamic models are used to retrieve DAC spectral signatures in synthetic UV spectra created from a 3-D short characteristics radiative transfer code.