Rationale
Program
SOC
Contributions

IAU XXVII General Assembly

Joint Discussion 13: Eta Carinae in the Context of the Most Massive Stars

Rio de Janeiro, 13-14 August 2009

SOC chairs:
Augusto Damineli (Brasil),
Theodore R. Gull (USA)

SOC members:
John Hillier (USA),
Gloria Koenigsberger (Mexico),
Georges Meynet (Switzerland),
Nidia Morrell (Chile),
Atsuo T. Okazaki (Japan),
Stanley P. Owocki (USA),
Andy M.T. Pollock (Spain),
Nathan Smith (USA),
Christiaan L. Sterken (Belgium),
Nicole St Louis (Canada),
Karel A. van der Hucht (Netherlands),
Roberto Viotti (Italy),
Gerd Weigelt (Germany)

Principal topics:
  • the 2009 Eta Car event: monitoring campaigns in X-rays, spectroscopy, radio, interferometry
  • origin of the bipolar shape of the Homunculus: rotation vs. binary orbit
  • the Eta Car ejecta: insight into the central star/system
  • the 2009 WR 140 periastron passage: X-rays and other monitoring campaigns
  • HD 5980: similarities and differences to Eta Car and WR 140
  • models of the wind-wind collision in Eta Car and other massive-star ` binaries: hydrodynamics, shock and plasma physics
  • tidal flows and periastron passage events
  • physical parameters of massive binary systems
  • evolution of massive binaries: stellar mergers, systems near Eddington limit, supernova progenitors
  • mass-loss regimes: giant eruptions, S Doradus instabilities, line-driven winds
  • the role of rotation in massive stars: mass-loss
  • the omega-gamma limit
  • atomic and molecular physics in Eta Car ejecta

Editors:
Augusto Damineli, Theodore R. Gull, & Nielsen Krister

Contact: jd13@astro.iag.usp.br