Spectroscopic analyses of hydrogen-rich WN 5-6 stars within the young star clusters NGC 3603 and R136 are presented, using archival Hubble Space Telescope and Very Large Telescope spectroscopy, and high spatial resolution near-IR photometry, including Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) imaging of R136. We derive high stellar temperatures for the WN stars in NGC 3603 (T * ∼ 42 ± 2 kK) and R136 (T * ∼ 53 ± 3 kK) plus clumping-corrected mass-loss rates of 2-5 × 10 −5 M yr −1 which closely agree with theoretical predictions from Vink et al. These stars make a disproportionate contribution to the global ionizing and mechanical wind power budget of their host clusters. Indeed, R136a1 alone supplies ∼7 per cent of the ionizing flux of the entire 30 Doradus region. Comparisons with stellar models calculated for the main-sequence evolution of 85-500 M accounting for rotation suggest ages of ∼1.5 Myr and initial masses in the range 105-170 M for three systems in NGC 3603, plus 165-320 M for four stars in R136. Our high stellar masses are supported by consistent spectroscopic and dynamical mass determinations for the components of NGC 3603A1. We consider the predicted X-ray luminosity of the R136 stars if they were close, colliding wind binaries. R136c is consistent with a colliding wind binary system. However, short period, colliding wind systems are excluded for R136a WN stars if mass ratios are of order unity. Widely separated systems would have been expected to harden owing to early dynamical encounters with other massive stars within such a high-density environment. From simulated star clusters, whose constituents are randomly sampled from the Kroupa initial mass function, both NGC 3603 and R136 are consistent with an tentative upper mass limit of ∼300 M . The Arches cluster is either too old to be used to diagnose the upper mass limit, exhibits a deficiency of very massive stars, or more likely stellar masses have been underestimated -initial masses for the most luminous stars in the Arches cluster approach 200 M according to contemporary stellar and photometric results. The potential for stars greatly exceeding 150 M within metal-poor galaxies suggests that such pair-instability supernovae could occur within the local universe, as has been claimed for SN 2007bi.

Multiplicity is one of the most fundamental observable properties of massive O-type stars and offers a promising way to discriminate between massive star formation theories. Nevertheless, companions at separations between 1 and 100 milli-arcsec (mas) remain mostly unknown due to intrinsic observational limitations. At a typical distance of 2 kpc, this corresponds to projected physical separations of 2-200 AU. The Southern MAssive Stars at High angular resolution survey (smash+) was designed to fill this gap by providing the first systematic interferometric survey of Galactic massive stars. We observed 117 O-type stars with VLTI/PIONIER and 162 O-type stars with NACO/SAM, respectively probing the separation ranges 1-45 and 30-250 mas and brightness contrasts of ∆H < 4 and ∆H < 5. Taking advantage of NACO's field-of-view, we further uniformly searched for visual companions in an 8 -radius down to ∆H = 8. This paper describes the observations and data analysis, reports the discovery of almost 200 new companions in the separation range from 1 mas to 8 and presents the catalog of detections, including the first resolved measurements of over a dozen known long-period spectroscopic binaries.Excluding known runaway stars for which no companions are detected, 96 objects in our main sample (δ < 0 • ; H < 7.5) were observed both with PIONIER and NACO/SAM. The fraction of these stars with at least one resolved companion within 200 mas is 0.53. Accounting for known but unresolved spectroscopic or eclipsing companions, the multiplicity fraction at separation ρ < 8 increases to f m = 0.91 ± 0.03. The fraction of luminosity class V stars that have a bound companion reaches 100% at 30 mas while their average number of physically connected companions within 8 is f c = 2.2 ± 0.3. This demonstrates that massive stars form nearly exclusively in multiple systems. The nine non-thermal radio emitters observed by smash+ are all resolved, including the newly discovered pairs HD 168112 and CPD−47 • 2963. This lends strong support to the universality of the wind-wind collision scenario to explain the non-thermal emission from O-type stars.

Context. Massive stars, although being important building blocks of galaxies, are still not fully understood. This especially holds true for Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars with their strong mass loss, whose spectral analysis requires adequate model atmospheres. Aims. Following our comprehensive studies of the WR stars in the Milky Way, we now present spectroscopic analyses of almost all known WN stars in the LMC. Methods. For the quantitative analysis of the wind-dominated emission-line spectra, we employ the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) model atmosphere code. By fitting synthetic spectra to the observed spectral energy distribution and the available spectra (ultraviolet and optical), we obtain the physical properties of 107 stars. Results. We present the fundamental stellar and wind parameters for an almost complete sample of WN stars in the LMC. Among those stars that are putatively single, two different groups can be clearly distinguished. While 12% of our sample are more luminous than 10 6 L and contain a significant amount of hydrogen, 88% of the WN stars, with little or no hydrogen, populate the luminosity range between log (L/L ) = 5.3 ... 5.8. Conclusions. While the few extremely luminous stars (log (L/L ) > 6), if indeed single stars, descended directly from the main sequence at very high initial masses, the bulk of WN stars have gone through the red-supergiant phase. According to their luminosities in the range of log (L/L ) = 5.3 ... 5.8, these stars originate from initial masses between 20 and 40 M . This mass range is similar to the one found in the Galaxy, i.e. the expected metallicity dependence of the evolution is not seen. Current stellar evolution tracks, even when accounting for rotationally induced mixing, still partly fail to reproduce the observed ranges of luminosities and initial masses. Moreover, stellar radii are generally larger and effective temperatures correspondingly lower than predicted from stellar evolution models, probably due to subphotospheric inflation.

There is observational evidence that supports the existence of Very Massive Stars (VMS) in the local universe. First, very massive stars (M ini 320 M ) have been observed in the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC). Second, there are observed SNe that bear the characteristics of Pair Creation Supernovae (PCSNe , also referred to as pair-instability SN) which have very massive stars as progenitors. The most promising candidate to date is SN2007bi. In order to investigate the evolution and fate of nearby very massive stars, we calculated a new grid of models for such objects, for solar, LMC and SMC metallicities, which covers the initial mass range from 120 to 500 M . Both rotating and non-rotating models were calculated using the Geneva stellar evolution code and evolved until at least the end of helium burning and for most models until oxygen burning. Since very massive stars have very large convective cores during the Main-Sequence phase, their evolution is not so much affected by rotational mixing, but more by mass loss through stellar winds. Their evolution is never far from a homogeneous evolution even without rotational mixing. All the VMS, at all the metallicities studied here, end their life as WC(WO) type Wolf-Rayet stars. Due to very important mass losses through stellar winds, these stars may have luminosities during the advanced phases of their evolution similar to stars with initial masses between 60 and 120 M . A distinctive feature which may be used to disentangle Wolf-Rayet stars originating from VMS from those originating from lower initial masses would be the enhanced abundances of Ne and Mg at the surface of WC stars. This feature is however not always apparent depending on the history of mass loss. At solar metallicity, none of our models is expected to explode as a PCSN. At the metallicity of the LMC, only stars more massive than 300 M are expected to explode as PCSNe. At the SMC metallicity, the mass range for the PCSN progenitors is much larger and comprises stars with initial masses between about 100 and 290 M . All VMS stars in the metallicity range studied here produce either a type Ib or a type Ic SN but not a type II SN. We estimate that the progenitor of SN2007bi, assuming a SMC metallicity, had an initial mass between 160 and 175 M . None of models presented in this grid produce GRBs or magnetars. They lose too much angular momentum by mass loss or avoid the formation of a BH by producing a completely disruptive PCSN.

We report the results of an intense, spectroscopic survey of all 41 late‐type, nitrogen‐rich Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) observable with ground‐based telescopes. This survey concludes the decade‐long effort of the Montréal Massive Star Group to monitor every known WR star in the Magellanic Clouds except for the six crowded WNL stars in R136, which will be discussed elsewhere. The focus of our survey was to monitor the so‐called WNL stars for radial velocity (RV) variability in order to identify the short‐ to intermediate‐period (P≲ 200 d) binaries among them. Our results are in line with results of previous studies of other WR subtypes, and show that the binary frequency among LMC WNL stars is statistically consistent with that of WNL stars in the Milky Way. We have identified four previously unknown binaries, bringing the total number of known WNL binaries in the LMC to nine. Since it is very likely that none but one of the binaries is classical, helium‐burning WNL star, but rather superluminous, hence extremely massive, hydrogen‐burning object, our study has dramatically increased the number of known binaries harbouring such objects, and thus paved the way to determine their masses through model‐independent, Keplerian orbits. It is expected that some of the stars in our binaries will be among the most massive known. With the binary status of each WR star now known, we also studied the photometric and X‐ray properties of our program stars using archival MACHO photometry as well as Chandra and ROSAT data. We find that one of our presumably single WNL stars is among the X‐ray brightest WR sources known. We also identify a binary candidate from its RV variability and X‐ray luminosity which harbours the most luminous WR star known in the Local Group.

Using Very Large Telescope/Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observation in the Near-Infrared (VLT/SINFONI), we have obtained repeated adaptive-optics assisted, near-infrared spectroscopy of the three central WN6ha stars in the core of the very young (∼1 Myr), massive and dense Galactic cluster NGC 3603. One of these stars, NGC 3603-A1, is a known 3.77 d, double-eclipsing binary, while another one, NGC 3603-C, is one of the brightest X-ray sources among all known Galactic WR stars, which usually is a strong indication for binarity. Our study reveals that star C is indeed an 8.9-d binary, although only the WN6ha component is visible in our spectra; therefore, we temporarily classify star C as an SB1 system. A1, on the other hand, is found to consist of two emission-line stars of similar, but not necessarily of identical spectral type, which can be followed over most the orbit. Using radial velocities for both components and the previously known inclination angle of the system, we are able to derive absolute masses for both stars in A1. We find M 1 = (116 ± 31) M for the primary and M 2 = (89 ± 16) M for the secondary component of A1. While uncertainties are large, A1 is intrinsically half a magnitude brighter than WR20a, the current record holder with 83 and 82 M , respectively; therefore, it is likely that the primary in A1 is indeed the most massive star weighed so far.

Context. Massive Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars dominate the radiative and mechanical energy budget of galaxies and probe a critical phase in the evolution of massive stars prior to core collapse. It is not known whether core He-burning WR stars (classical WR; cWR) form predominantly through wind stripping (w-WR) or binary stripping (b-WR). Whereas spectroscopy of WR binaries has so-far largely been avoided because of its complexity, our study focuses on the 44 WR binaries and binary candidates of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC; metallicity Z ≈ 0.5 Z ), which were identified on the basis of radial velocity variations, composite spectra, or high X-ray luminosities. Aims. Relying on a diverse spectroscopic database, we aim to derive the physical and orbital parameters of our targets, confronting evolution models of evolved massive stars at subsolar metallicity and constraining the impact of binary interaction in forming these stars. Methods. Spectroscopy was performed using the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) code and cross-correlation techniques. Disentanglement was performed using the code Spectangular or the shift-and-add algorithm. Evolutionary status was interpreted using the Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis (BPASS) code, exploring binary interaction and chemically homogeneous evolution. Results. Among our sample, 28/44 objects show composite spectra and are analyzed as such. An additional five targets show periodically moving WR primaries but no detected companions (SB1); two (BAT99 99 and 112) are potential WR + compact-object candidates owing to their high X-ray luminosities. We cannot confirm the binary nature of the remaining 11 candidates. About two-thirds of the WN components in binaries are identified as cWR, and one-third as hydrogen-burning WR stars. We establish metallicity-dependent mass-loss recipes, which broadly agree with those recently derived for single WN stars, and in which so-called WN3/O3 stars are clear outliers. We estimate that 45±30% of the cWR stars in our sample have interacted with a companion via mass transfer. However, only ≈12±7% of the cWR stars in our sample naively appear to have formed purely owing to stripping via a companion (12% b-WR). Assuming that apparently single WR stars truly formed as single stars, this comprises ≈ 4% of the whole LMC WN population, which is about ten times less than expected. No obvious differences in the properties of single and binary WN stars, whose luminosities extend down to log L≈5.2 [L ], are apparent. With the exception of a few systems (BAT99 19, 49, and 103), the equatorial rotational velocities of the OB-type companions are moderate (v eq 250 km s −1 ) and challenge standard formalisms of angular-momentum accretion. For most objects, chemically homogeneous evolution can be rejected for the secondary, but not for the WR progenitor. Conclusions. No obvious dichotomy in the locations of apparently single and binary WN stars on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is apparent. According to commonly used stellar evolution models (BPASS, Geneva), most a...

We have carried out a narrow-band survey of the Local Group galaxy, M 33, in the HeII λ4686 emission line, to identify HeII nebulae in this galaxy. With spectroscopic follow-up observations, we confirm three of seven candidate objects, including identification of two new HeII nebulae, BCLMP651, HBW673. We also obtain spectra of associated ionizing stars for all the HII regions, identifying two new WN stars. We demonstrate that the ionizing source for the known HeII nebula, MA 1, is consistent with being the earlytype WN star MC8 (M 33-WR14), by carrying out a combined stellar and nebular analysis of MC8 and MA 1. We were unable to identify the helium ionizing sources for HBW 673 and BCLMP 651, which do not appear to be Wolf-Rayet stars. According to the [OIII]λ5007/Hβ vs.[NII]λ6584/Hα diagnostic diagram, excitation mechanisms apart from hot stellar continuum are needed to account for the nebular emission in HBW 673, which appears to have no stellar source at all.