Effects of Metallicity on the Rotational Velocities of Massive Stars

Abstract

Recent theoretical predictions for low-metallicity massive stars predictthat these stars should have drastically reduced equatorial winds (massloss) while on the main sequence, and so should retain most of theirangular momentum. Observations of both the Be/(B+Be) ratio and theblue-to-red supergiant ratio appear to have a metallicity dependencethat may be caused by high rotational velocities. We have analyzed 39archival Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS),high-resolution, ultraviolet spectra of O-type stars in the MagellanicClouds to determine their projected rotational velocities Vsini. Ourmethodology is based on a previous study of the projected rotationalvelocities of Galactic O-type stars using International UltravioletExplorer (IUE) short-wavelength prime (SWP) camera high-dispersionspectra, which resulted in a catalog of Vsini values for 177 O-typestars. Here we present complementary Vsini values for 21 LargeMagellanic Cloud and 22 Small Magellanic Cloud O-type stars based onSTIS and IUE UV spectroscopy. The distribution of Vsini values forO-type stars in the Magellanic Clouds is compared to that of GalacticO-type stars. Despite the theoretical predictions and indirectobservational evidence for high rotation, the O-type stars in theMagellanic Clouds do not appear to rotate faster than their Galacticcounterparts.