Massive stars in metal-poor dwarf galaxies are often extreme rotators

We probe how common extremely rapid rotation is among massive stars in the early universe by measuring the OBe star fraction in nearby metal-poor dwarf galaxies. We apply a new method that uses broad-band photometry to measure the galaxy-wide OBe star fractions in the Magellanic Clouds and three mor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 2022-05, Vol.18 (S361), p.63-69
Main Authors: Schootemeijer, Abel, Lennon, Danny J., Garcia, Miriam, Langer, Norbert, Hastings, Ben, Schürmann, Christoph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contributed Paper
Datasets
Dwarf galaxies
Extreme values
Galactic rotation
Helium
Magellanic clouds
Massive stars
Metallicity
Space telescopes
Stars & galaxies
Universe
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Summary:We probe how common extremely rapid rotation is among massive stars in the early universe by measuring the OBe star fraction in nearby metal-poor dwarf galaxies. We apply a new method that uses broad-band photometry to measure the galaxy-wide OBe star fractions in the Magellanic Clouds and three more distant, more metal-poor dwarf galaxies. We find OBe star fractions of ∼20% in the Large Magallanic Cloud (0.5Zȯ), and ∼30% in the Small Magellanic Cloud (0.2Zȯ) as well as in the so-far unexplored metallicity range 0.1 Z/Zȯ < 0.2 occupied by the other three dwarf galaxies. Our results imply that extremely rapid rotation is common among massive stars in metal-poor environments such as the early universe.
ISSN:1743-9213
1743-9221
DOI:10.1017/S1743921322002538