We present results of numerical simulations carried out with a two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics code in order to study the impact of massive stars on their surrounding interstellar medium. This first paper deals with the evolution of the circumstellar gas around an isolated 60 M star. The interaction of the photoionized H ii region with the stellar wind bubble forms a variety of interesting structures like shells, clouds, fingers, and spokes. These results demonstrate that complex structures found in H ii regions are not necessarily relics from the time before the gas became ionized but may result from dynamical processes during the course of the H ii region evolution. We have also analyzed the transfer and deposit of the stellar wind and radiation energy into the circumstellar medium until the star explodes as a supernova. Although the total mechanical wind energy supplied by the star is negligible compared to the accumulated energy of the Lyman continuum photons, the kinetic energy imparted to the circumstellar gas over the star's lifetime is 4 times higher than for a comparable windless simulation. Furthermore, the thermal energy of warm photoionized gas is lower by some 55%. Our results document the necessity to consider both ionizing radiation and stellar winds for an appropriate description of the interaction of OB stars with their circumstellar environment.

We continue our numerical analysis of the morphological and energetic influence of massive stars on their ambient interstellar medium for a 35 M ⊙ star that evolves from the main sequence through red supergiant and Wolf-Rayet phases, until it ultimately explodes as a supernova. We find that structure formation in the circumstellar gas during the early main-sequence evolution occurs as in the 60 M ⊙ case but is much less pronounced because of the lower mechanical wind luminosity of the star. Since on the other hand the shell-like structure of the H ii region is largely preserved, effects that rely on this symmetry become more important. At the end of the stellar lifetime 1% of the energy released as Lyman continuum radiation and stellar wind has been transferred to the circumstellar gas. From this fraction 10% is kinetic energy of bulk motion, 36% is thermal energy, and the remaining 54% is ionization energy of hydrogen. The sweeping up of the slow red supergiant wind by the fast Wolf-Rayet wind produces remarkable morphological structures and emission signatures, which are compared with

It is clear from stellar evolution and from observations of WR stars that massive stars are releasing metal-enriched gas through their stellar winds in the Wolf-Rayet phase. Although Hii region spectra serve as diagnostics to determine the present-day chemical composition of the interstellar medium, it is far from being understood to what extent the Hii gas is already contaminated by chemically processed stellar wind. Therefore, we analyzed our models of radiative and wind bubbles of an isolated 85 M star with solar metallicity (Kröger et al. 2006, A&A, in preparation) with respect to the chemical enrichment of the circumstellar Hii region. Plausibly, the hot stellar wind bubble (SWB) is enriched with 14 N during the WN phase and even much higher with 12 C and 16 O during the WC phase of the star. During the short period that the 85 M star spends in the WC stage enriched SWB material mixes with warm Hii gas of solar abundances and thus enhances the metallicity in the Hii region. However, at the end of the stellar lifetime the mass ratios of the traced elements N and O in the warm ionized gas are insignificantly higher than solar, whereas an enrichment of 22% above solar is found for C. Important issues from the presented study comprise a steeper radial gradient of C than O and a decreasing effect of self-enrichment for metal-poor galaxies.

From stellar evolution models and from observations of Wolf-Rayet stars it is known that massive stars are releasing metal-enriched gas in their Wolf-Rayet phase by means of strong stellar winds. Although Hii region spectra serve as diagnostics to determine the present-day chemical composition of the interstellar medium, it is not yet reliably explored to what extent the diagnostic Hii gas is already contaminated by chemically processed stellar wind matter. In a recent paper, we therefore analyzed our models of radiation-driven and wind-blown Hii bubbles around an isolated 85 M⊙ star with originally solar metallicity with respect to its chemical abundances. Although the hot stellar wind bubble (SWB) is enriched with 14 N during the WN phase and even much higher with 12 C and 16 O during the WC phase of the star, we found that at the end of the stellar lifetime the mass ratios of the traced elements N and O in the warm ionized gas are insignificantly higher than solar, whereas an enrichment of 22% above solar is found for C. The transport of enriched elements from the hot SWB to the cool gas occurs mainly by means of mixing of hot gas with cooler at the backside of the SWB shell.