Abstract

Hot massive stars present strong stellar winds that are driven by absorption, scattering and reemission of photons by the ions of the atmosphere (line-driven winds). A better comprehension of this phenomenon, and a more accurate calculation of hydrodynamics and radiative acceleration is required to reduce the number of free parameters in spectral fitting, to determine accurate wind parameters such as mass-loss rates and velocity profiles. We use the non-LTE model-atmosphere code CMFGEN to numerically solve the radiative transfer equation in the stellar atmosphere and to calculate the radiative acceleration grad(r). Under the assumption that the radiative acceleration depends only on the radial coordinate, we solve analytically the equation of motion by means of the Lambert W-function. An iterative procedure between the solution of the radiative transfer and the equation of motion is executed in order to obtain a final self-consistent velocity field that is no longer based on any β-law. We apply the Lambert-procedure to three O supergiant stars (ζ-Puppis, HD 165763 and α-Cam) and discuss the Lambert-solutions for the velocity profiles. It is found that, even without recalculation of the mass-loss rate, the Lambert-procedure allows the calculation of consistent velocity profiles that reduce the number of free parameters when a spectral fitting using CMFGEN is performed. Synthetic spectra calculated from our Lambert-solutions show significant differences compared to the initial βlaw CMFGEN models. The results indicate the importance of consistent velocity profile calculation in the CMFGEN code and its usage in a fitting procedure and interpretation of observed spectra.