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Paper: Spectroscopy and Interferometry of Luminous Blue Variables
Volume: 465, Four Decades of Massive Star Research - A Scientific Meeting in Honor of Anthony J. Moffat
Page: 160
Authors: Richardson, N. D.; Gies, D. R.; Morrison, N. D.; Schaefer, G.; ten Brummelaar, T.; Monnier, J. D.; Parks, J. R.
Abstract: We report on the preliminary results of a three-year monitoring campaign of Galactic and Magellanic luminous blue variables with both moderate and high resolution spectroscopy. We have collected more than 500 moderate-resolution spectra of 20 stars in the red portion of the optical spectrum, which includes the wind-sensitive transitions of Hα and He I at 5876 and 6678 Å. We summarize our detailed study of 15 years of high resolution Hα spectroscopy of the prototypical luminous blue variable, P Cygni. We report on the discovery of discrete absorption components in P Cygni's Hα profile, and we discuss their relationship to structure in the wind. These results are compared to our recent high resolution interferometric imaging of the H-band emitting region surrounding the star. We discuss recent observations of η Car, highlighting its unusual recovery from the previous periastron passage. Our results on HDE 326823 indicate that the star has a short period binary orbit, with Roche lobe overflow onto an unseen massive companion.
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