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A. J. Onifer, K. G. Gayley (University of Iowa)
Wolf-Rayet winds are characterized by their large momentum fluxes, and simulations of radiation driving have been increasingly successful in modeling these winds. Simple analytic approaches that help understand the most critical processes for copious momentum deposition already exist in the effectively gray approximation, but these have not been extended to more realistic nongray opacities. With this in mind, we have developed a simplified theory for describing the interaction of the stellar flux with nongray wind opacity. We replace the detailed line list with a set of statistical parameters that are sensitive not only to the strength but also the wavelength distribution of lines, incorporating as a free parameter the rate of photon frequency redistribution. We label the resulting flux-weighted opacity the statistical Sobolev- Rosseland (SSR) mean, and explore how changing these various statistical parameters affects the flux/opacity interaction.
We wish to acknowledge NSF grant AST-0098155
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: ajo@astro.physics.uiowa.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.