• DOI:10.1007/978-1-4614-2275-4_12
• Corpus ID: 15653833

Instability & Mass Loss near the Eddington Limit

@inproceedings{Owocki2012InstabilityM,
  title={Instability \& Mass Loss near the Eddington Limit},
  author={Stanley P. Owocki and N. J. Shaviv},
  year={2012}
}

• S. Owocki, N. Shaviv
• Published 2012
• Physics, Geology

We review the physics of continuum-driven mass loss and its likely role in η Carinae and LBVs. Unlike a line-driven wind, which is inherently limited by self-shadowing, continuum driving can in principle lead to mass-loss rates up to the “photon-tiring” limit, for which the entire luminosity is expended in lifting the outflow. We discuss how instabilities near the Eddington limit give rise to a clumped atmosphere, and how the associated “porosity” can regulate a continuum-driven flow. We also summarize recent time-dependent simulations in which a mass flow stagnates because it exceeds the tiring limit, leading to complex time-dependent inflow and outflow regions. Porosity-regulated continuum driving in super-Eddington epochs can probably explain the large, near tiring-limit mass loss inferred for LBV giant eruptions. However, while these extreme flows can persist over dynamically long periods, they cannot be sustained for an evolutionary timescale; so ultimately it is stellar structure and evolution that sets the overall mass loss.