J/ApJ/947/77ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/947/77doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.19470077CDSMassey P.Neugent K.F.Morrell N.I.2025-08-11T20:15:08Z2025-06-18T13:37:24ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frwolf-rayet-starsradial-velocityvisible-astronomyspectroscopymagellanic-cloudsThe WN3/O3 Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars were discovered as part of our survey for WRs in the Magellanic Clouds. The WN3/O3s show the emission lines of a high-excitation WN star and the absorption lines of a hot O-type star, but our prior work has shown that the absorption spectrum is intrinsic to the WR star. Their place in the evolution of massive stars remains unclear. Here we investigate the possibility that they are the products of binary evolution. Although these are not WN3+O3 V binaries, they could still harbor unseen companions. To address this possibility, we have conducted a multiyear radial velocity study of six of the nine known WN3/O3s. Our study finds no evidence of statistically significant radial velocity variations, and allows us to set stringent upper limits on the mass of any hypothetical companion star: for probable orbital inclinations, any companion with a period less than 100 days must have a mass <2M_{sun}_. For periods less than 10 days, any companion would have to have a mass <1M_{sun}_. We argue that scenarios where any such companion is a compact object are unlikely. The absorption lines indicate a normal projected rotational velocity, making it unlikely that these stars evolved with the aid of a companion star that has since merged. The modest rotation also suggests that these stars are not the result of homogenous evolution. Thus it is likely that these stars are a normal but short-lived stage in the evolution of massive stars.2023ApJ...947...77Mhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/947/77CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toIII/215 : 7th Catalog of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars (van der Hucht, 2001)J/ApJ/682/L117 : A spectroscopic orbit for Regulus (Gies+, 2008)J/ApJ/748/96 : Massive binaries in the LMC (Massey+, 2012)J/A+A/565/A27 : Wolf-Rayet stars in Large Magellanic Cloud (Hainich+, 2014)J/ApJ/789/139 : Three O-type binaries photometry in LMC (Morrell+, 2014)J/ApJ/789/10 : M33 WR and Of-type Stars (Neugent+, 2014)J/ApJ/863/181 : The fifth catalog of LMC Wolf-Rayet stars (Neugent+, 2018)J/MNRAS/493/1512 : Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars with Gaia DR2 I (Rate+, 2020)J/ApJ/922/177 : 2MASS red supergiants in the SMC (Massey+, 2021)J/AJ/163/171 : The EXPRES Stellar Signals Project. II. RVel (Zhao+, 2022)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/947/77https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/947/77http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/947/77https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/947/77https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/947/77http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/947/77GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/ApJ/947/77/table1 (WN3/O3 stars in this radial velocity study)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/947/77/table1?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/947/77/table1?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/947/77/table1?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true76.8055417-70.55941670.0055555555555555566/33054 33094 33097 33114 33121https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/ApJ/947/77?format=asciiOpticaldefaultJ/ApJ/947/77/table1WN3/O3 stars in this radial velocity studyrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintNameStar namemeta.id;meta.maincharprimaryRAJ2000Hour of right ascension (J2000)pos.eq.ra;meta.mainDEJ2000Degree of declination (J2000)pos.eq.dec;meta.mainVmag[15.8/16.7] V magnitudemagphot.mag;em.opt.VfloatB-V[-0.25/-0.12] B-V colour indexmagphot.color;em.opt.B;em.opt.VfloatVMag[-3.1/-2.3] Absolute V magnitudemagphys.magAbs;em.opt.VfloatNobs[9/13] Number of observationsmeta.number;obsintNsup[6/9] Number of spectra with S/N>100meta.number;obsintNrvNumber of RV measurements for this star (link to Table 3)meta.numberintnullableSimbadNameSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.idcharnullableJ/ApJ/947/77/table2Journal of observationsrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintNameStar namemeta.id;meta.maincharDateDate of observation (UT)'Y:M:D'time.epochnullableHJDHeliocentric Julian Datedtime.epochdoubleExpTimeExposure timestime.duration;obs.exposurecharS/N[50/195] Signal-to-noise ratio (1)stat.snrintIDDesignationmeta.id;obscharJ/ApJ/947/77/table3Radial Velocity MeasurementsNameWN3/O3 star in this radial velocity studymeta.id;meta.maincharPairCross Pair (1)meta.id;obscharrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintRVel1[-18/19] Radial Velocity, NV{lambda}4946km/sspect.dopplerVelocfloatRVel2[-46/32] Radial Velocity, NV+HeII{lambda}4603-4686km/sspect.dopplerVelocfloatRVel3[-23/25] Radial Velocity, H{delta}/HeII{lambda}4100km/sspect.dopplerVelocfloatRVel4[-53/43] Radial Velocity, H{gamma}/HeII{lambda}4339km/sspect.dopplerVelocfloatRVavg[-17/15] Mean, RVel1-4km/sspect.dopplerVelocfloats_RVavg[1.8/33]? Standard deviation, RVel1-4km/sstat.stdevfloatnullable