The NLTE Analyses of Carbon Emission Lines in the Atmospheres of O and B type Stars

Abstract

We present a model atom for C I - C II - C III - C IV using the most up-to-date atomic data and evaluated the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) line formation in classical 1D atmospheric models of O-B-type stars. Our models predict the emission lines of C II 9903~Å and 18535~Å to appear at effective temperature \Teff~$\ge$~17\,500~K, those of C II 6151~Å and 6461~Å to appear at \Teff~$>$~25\,000~K, and those of C III 5695, 6728--44, 9701--17~Å to appear at \Teff~$\ge$~35\,000~K (log~$g$=4.0). Emission occurs in the lines of minority species, where the photoionization-recombination mechanism provides a depopulation of the lower levels to a greater extent than the upper levels. For C II 9903 and 18535~Å, the upper levels are mainly populated from C III reservoir through the Rydberg states. For C III 5695 and 6728--44~Å, the lower levels are depopulated due to photon losses in UV transitions at 885, 1308, and 1426--28~Å which become optically thin in the photosphere. We analysed the lines of C I, C II, C III, and C IV for twenty-two O-B-type stars with temperature range between 15\,800 $\le$~\Teff~$\le$ 38\,000~K. Abundances from emission lines of C I, C II and C III are in agreement with those from absorption ones for most of the stars. We obtained log~${\epsilon }_{\mathrm{C}}$=8.36$\pm$0.08 from twenty B-type stars, that is in line with the present-day Cosmic Abundance Standard. The obtained carbon abundances in 15~Mon and HD~42088 from emission and absorption lines are 8.27$\pm$0.11 and 8.31$\pm$0.11, respectively.

22 pages, 11 figures

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• Extended theoretical transition data in C I - IV
• The NGC 346 massive star census: Nitrogen abundances for apparently single, narrow lined, hydrogen core burning B-type stars
• Direct observation of the radial magnetic field gradient in HD58260 from spectropolarimetry of NLTE lines in emission