The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey

Context. The origin of massive runaway stars is an important unsolved problem in astrophysics. Two main scenarios have been proposed, namely: dynamical ejection or release from a binary at the first core collapse. However, their relative contribution remains heavily debated. Aims. Taking advantage of two large spectroscopic campaigns towards massive stars in 30 Doradus, we aim to provide observational constraints on the properties of the O-type runaway population in the most massive active star-forming region in the Local Group. Methods. We used radial velocity measurements of the O-type star populations in 30 Doradus obtained by the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey and the Tarantula Massive Binary Monitoring to identify single and binary O-type runaways. Here, we discuss the rotational properties of the detected runaways and qualitatively compare the observations with expectations of ejection scenarios. Results. We identified 23 single and one binary O-type runaway objects, most of them located outside the main star-forming regions in 30 Doradus. We find an overabundance of rapid rotators (ve sin i > 200 km s−1) among the runaway population, thus providing an explanation for the observed overabundance of rapidly rotating stars in the 30 Doradus field. Considerations of the projected rotation rates and runaway line-of-sight velocities reveal a conspicuous absence of rapidly rotating (ve sin i > 210 km s−1), fast-moving (vlos > 60 km s−1) runaway stars in our sample, strongly suggesting the presence of two different populations of runaway stars: a population of rapidly spinning but slowly moving runaway stars and a population of fast-moving but slowly rotating ones. These are detected with a ratio close to 2:1 in our sample. Conclusions. We argue that slowly moving but rapidly spinning runaway stars result from binary ejections, while rapidly moving but slowly spinning runaways could result from dynamical ejections. Given that detection biases will more strongly impact the slow-moving runaway population, our results suggest that the binary evolution scenario dominates the current massive runaway star population in 30 Doradus

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey. XXIX. Massive star formation in the local 30 Doradus starburst

The 30 Doradus (30 Dor) nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the brightest HII region in the Local Group and a prototype starburst similar to those found in high redshift galaxies. It is thus a stepping stone to understand the complex formation processes of stars in starburst regions across the Universe. Here, we have studied the formation history of massive stars in 30 Dor using masses and ages derived for 452 mainly OB stars from the spectroscopic VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey (VFTS). We find that stars of all ages and masses are scattered throughout 30 Dor. This is remarkable because it implies that massive stars either moved large distances or formed independently over the whole field of view in relative isolation. We find that both channels contribute to the 30 Dor massive star population. Massive star formation rapidly accelerated about 8 Myr ago, first forming stars in the field before giving birth to the stellar populations in NGC 2060 and NGC 2070. The R136 star cluster in NGC 2070 formed last and, since then, about 1 Myr ago, star formation seems to be diminished with some continuing in the surroundings of R136. Massive stars within a projected distance of 8 pc of R136 are not coeval but show an age range of up to 6 Myr. Our mass distributions are well populated up to 200 M⊙. The inferred IMF is shallower than a Salpeter-like IMF and appears to be the same across 30 Dor. By comparing our sample of stars to stellar models in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, we find evidence for missing physics in the models above log L/L⊙ = 6 that is likely connected to enhanced wind mass loss for stars approaching the Eddington limit. Our work highlights the key information about the formation, evolution and final fates of massive stars encapsulated in the stellar content of 30 Dor, and sets a new benchmark for theories of massive star formation in giant molecular clouds

Response to Comment on "An excess of massive stars in the local 30 Doradus starburst".

Farr and Mandel reanalyze our data, finding initial mass function slopes for high-mass stars in 30 Doradus that agree with our results. However, their reanalysis appears to underpredict the observed number of massive stars. Their technique results in more precise slopes than in our work, strengthening our conclusion that there is an excess of massive stars (>30 solar masses) in 30 Doradus

Properties of massive stars in the Tarantula Nebula

This thesis presents the quantitative analysis of massive O-type stars in the Tarantula Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The data have been collected in the context of VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey (VFTS), an ESO Large Programme that has obtained multi-epoch optical spectroscopy of 800 OB-type stars using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. My thesis studies around 330 O-type stars in the VFTS. The first part of the thesis focusses on the stellar rotational properties of spectroscopic single and binary O-type stars in the Tarantula Nebula. The distribution of spin rates of massive stars is important because it is the fingerprint of their formation process, which it is not well understood, and an important ingredient for their evolution. In the second part of the thesis, the focus shifts to properties of O-type giants, bright giants, and supergiants in the VFTS. Using quantitative spectroscopy, we constrain the stellar and wind parameters, and the surface abundances of the objects in our sample. We then confront these observational constraints to the predictions of theories of the evolution of massive stars

On the possibility that the most massive stars result from binary mergers

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey is an ESO Large Program from which we have obtained multi-epoch optical spectroscopy of over 800 massive stars in the 30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. This unprecedented dataset is being used to address outstanding questions in how massive stars evolve from the early main sequence to their deaths as core collapse supernovae. Here we focus on the rotation properties of the population of presumably single O stars and use binary population synthesis predictions to show that the rapid rotators among this population likely are post-interaction binaries. The same type of population synthesis can be used to study the mass function of massive young clusters. We argue – on the basis of predictions for the Arches and Quintuplet clusters – that a sizable fraction of the very massive WNh stars in 30 Doradus may also have such a binary interaction history. We single out the WNh star discovered in the VFTS, VFTS 682, and discuss its properties

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SIGLETIB: D.Dt.F./AC 1000 (22,57) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman