New theoretical mass-loss rates of O and B stars
1
Astronomical Institute, Utrecht University,
PO Box 80000, NL-3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands
We have calculated mass-loss rates for a grid of wind models covering
a wide range of stellar parameters and have derived a mass-loss recipe
for two ranges of effective temperature at either side of the
bi-stability jump around spectral type B1. For a large sample of O
stars, it is shown that there is now good agreement between these new
theoretical mass-loss rates that take multiple scattering into
account and observations. Agreement between the observed and new
theoretical wind momenta increases confidence in the possibility to
derive distances to luminous stars in distant stellar systems using
the Wind momentum Luminosity Relation. For the winds of the B stars
there is an inconsistency in the literature between various mass-loss
rate determinations from observations by different methods. One group
of
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determinations of B stars does follow the new theoretical
relation, while another group does not. The lack of agreement between
the observed mass-loss rates derived by different methods may point to
systematic errors in mass-loss determinations from observations for B
stars. We show that our