We have discovered periodic variations in the light curves of two hot DQ stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, SDSS J220029.08-074121.5 and SDSS J234843.30-094245.3. These are the second and third variables detected among the hot DQs and confirm the existence of a new class of variable white dwarf stars. The amplitudes of the variations are one half as large as those detected in the first discovered variable, SDSS J142625.71+575218.3, and required high signal-to-noise photometry to detect. The pulse shapes of the stars are not like those of known white dwarf pulsators but are similar to the first hot DQ variable, SDSS J142625.71+575218.3.
This review covers hot cores in the context of high-mass star formation. After giving an overview of chemical processes and diversity during high-mass star formation, it reviews the `warm envelope' phase which probably precedes the formation of hot cores. Some recent determinations of the cosmic-ray ionization rate are discussed, as well as recent evidence for hot cores around low-mass stars. Routes for future hot core research are outlined.
We describe our NLTE codes which allow the computation of synthetic spectra of hot stars and accretion disks. They can be combined to compute ionizing fluxes from the hot component in symbiotic stars.
The theoretical discription of a hot star interior is obtained. It explains the distribution of stars over their masses, mass-radius-temperature and mass-luminosity dependencies. The theory of the apsidal rotation of binary stars and the spectrum of solar oscillation is considered. All obrained theoretical predictions are in a good agreement with the known measurement data, which confirms the validity of this consideration.
We have applied grids of NLTE high gravity model atmospheres and optically thick accretion disk models for the first time to archival IUE and FUSE spectra of the S-type symbiotic variable EG And taken at superior spectroscopic conjunction when Rayleigh scattering should be minimal and the hot component is viewed in front of the red giant. For EG And's widely accepted, published hot component mass, orbital inclination and distance from the Hipparcos parallax, we find that hot, high gravity, NLTE photosphere model fits to the IUE spectra yield distances from the best-fitting models which agree w…
95% of all stars end their lives as white dwarfs. About 20% of the hot post-AGB stars are hydrogen deficient. Most of these are the result of a late helium-shell flash, but the evolutionary status of a fraction of about 10-20% of the hottest hydrogen-deficient stars, namely four O(He) stars, is as yet unexplained. They could be the long-searched hot successors of RCrB stars, which have not been identified up to now. If this turns out to be true, then a third post-AGB evolutionary sequence is revealed, which is probably the result of a double degenerate merging process. More generally, understa…
We describe our method to construct line blanketed NLTE model atmospheres for hot stars. We employ the Accelerated Lambda Iteration and use statistical methods to deal with metal line blanketing.
Globular clusters are ideal laboratories to study the evolution of low-mass stars. In this work we concentrate on three types of hot stars observed in globular clusters: horizontal branch stars, UV bright stars, and white dwarfs. After providing some historical background and information on gaps and blue tails we discuss extensively hot horizontal branch stars in metal-poor globular clusters, esp. their abundance anomalies and the consequences for the determination of their atmospheric parameters and evolutionary status. Hot horizontal branch stars in metal-rich globular clusters are found to …
UV observations of some massive globular clusters uncovered a significant population of very hot stars below the hot end of the horizontal branch (HB), the so-called blue hook stars. This feature might be explained either as results of the late hot flasher scenario where stars experience the helium flash while on the white dwarf cooling curve or by the progeny of the helium-enriched sub-population recently postulated to exist in some clusters. Moderately high resolution spectra of stars at the hot end of the blue HB in omega Cen were analysed for atmospheric parameters and abundances using LTE…
We have performed soft X-ray spectroscopy of two hot white dwarfs with the Chandra observatory using the Low Energy Transmission Grating. The first target is the hot DA white dwarf LB1919 (Teff=69000 K). This star is representative of a small group of hot DAs whose metallicities lie well below predictions from radiative levitation theory. The Chandra spectrum shows a rich absorption line spectrum which may allow to find the origin of the low-metallicity nature of these DAs. The second target is PG1520+525, a very hot non-pulsating PG1159 star. We find that it is hotter (Teff=150 000 K) than th…
omega Cen contains the largest population of very hot horizontal branch (HB) stars known in a globular cluster. Recent UV observations (Whitney et al. 1998; D'Cruz et al. 2000) show a significant population of hot stars below the zero-age horizontal branch (``blue hook'' stars), which cannot be explained by canonical stellar evolution. Stars which suffer unusually large mass loss on the red giant branch and thus experience the helium core flash while descending the white dwarf cooling curve could populate this region. Theory predicts that these ``late hot flashers'' should show higher temperat…
The Gaia satellite will be launched at the end of 2011. It will observe at least 1 billion stars, and among them several million emission line stars and hot stars. Gaia will provide parallaxes for each star and spectra for stars till V magnitude equal to 17. After a general description of Gaia, we present the codes and methods, which are currently developed by our team. They will provide automatically the astrophysical parameters and spectral classification for the hot and emission line stars in the Milky Way and other close Local Group galaxies such as the Magellanic Clouds.
We present abundance measurements, based on high-resolution optical spectroscopic data obtained with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph mounted on Kueyen (Very Large Telescope UT2), for ten stars in the extended blue horizontal branch of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 1904 (M79). In agreement with previous findings for other clusters, we obtain normal abundances for stars cooler than Teff ~ 11,000 K and largely anomalous abundances for hotter stars: large He depletions, and overabundances of Fe, Ti, Cr, P and Mn. The abundances of Mg, Si and Ca are roughly normal, in the hot st…
Stars with very large mass loss on the red-giant branch can undergo the helium flash while descending the white-dwarf cooling curve. Under these conditions the flash convection zone will mix the hydrogen envelope with the hot helium- burning core. Such ``flash-mixed'' stars will arrive on the extreme horizontal branch (EHB) with helium- and carbon-rich envelopes and will lie at higher temperatures than the hottest canonical (i.e., unmixed) EHB stars. Flash mixing provides a new evolutionary channel for populating the hot end of the EHB and may explain the origin of the high gravity, helium-ric…
We present results from the first extensive study of convection zones in the envelopes of hot massive stars, which are caused by opacity peaks associated with iron and helium ionization. These convective regions can be located very close to the stellar surface. Recent observations of microturbulence in massive stars from the VLT-Flames survey are in good agreement with our predictions concerning the occurrence and the strength of sub-surface convection in hot stars. We argue further that convection close to the surface may trigger clumping at the base of the stellar wind of massive stars.
We describe the early results of an investigation into the spectral characteristics of the hottest Am stars (A0 - A2) in an attempt to link the HgMn and Am classes of chemical peculiarity. A limited sample of hot-Am stars was searched for the presence of lines from the very heavy elements platinum and mercury, as well as a search for lines from the rare-earth elements in HgMn stars. Our analysis of the strong optical platinum and mercury lines in the spectrum of the HgMn star HR 7775 has detected isotopic shifts that are different from those found at ultraviolet wavelengths and, in the case of…
Recent UV observations of the globular cluster NGC2808 (Brown et al. 2001) show a significant population of hot stars fainter than the zero-age horizontal branch (``blue hook'' stars), which cannot be explained by canonical stellar evolution. Their results suggest that stars which experience unusually large mass loss on the red giant branch and which subsequently undergo the helium core flash while descending the white dwarf cooling curve could populate this region. Theory predicts that these ``late hot flashers'' should show higher temperatures than the hottest canonical horizontal branch (HB…
Infrared observations of hot massive stars and their environments provide a detailed picture of mass loss histories, dust formation, and dynamical interactions with the local stellar medium that can be unique to the thermal regime. We have acquired new infrared spectroscopy and imaging with the sensitive instruments onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope in guaranteed and open time programs comprised of some of the best known examples of hot stars with circumstellar nebulae, supplementing with unpublished Infrared Space Observatory spectroscopy. Here we present highlights of our work on the envir…
We describe X-ray production in the atmospheres of hot, early-type stars in the framework of a ``stochastic shock model''. The extended envelope of a star is assumed to possess numerous X-ray emitting ``hot'' zones that are produced by shocks and embedded in the ambient ``cold'' medium in dynamical equilibrium. It is shown that the apparent lack of X-ray variability on short (order of hours) timescales do not contradict a shock model for X-ray production. The character of the X-ray variability is found to depend on the frequency with which hot zones are generated, the cool wind opacity to X-ra…
KPD0005+5106 is the hottest known helium-rich white dwarf. We have identified NeVIII lines in UV and optical spectra and conclude that it is significantly hotter than previously thought, namely Teff=200,000 K instead of 120,000 K. This is a possible explanation for the observed hard X-ray emission as being of photospheric origin. Concerning its evolutionary state, we suggest that KPD0005+5106 is not a descendant of a PG1159 star but more probably related to the O(He) stars and RCrB stars.
During the last three decades, evidence has mounted that star and planet formation is not an isolated process, but is influenced by current and previous generations of stars. Although cool stars form in a range of environments, from isolated globules to rich embedded clusters, the influences of other stars on cool star and planet formation may be most significant in embedded clusters, where hundreds to thousands of cool stars form in close proximity to OB stars. At the cool stars 14 meeting, a splinter session was convened to discuss the role of environment in the formation of cool stars and p…
We monitored the chromospheric activity in the Ca II H & K lines of 13 solar-type stars (including the Sun); 8 of them over three years at the CFHT and 5 in a single run at the VLT. Ten of the 13 targets have close planetary companions. All of the stars observed at the CFHT show long-term (months to years) changes in H & K intensity levels. Four stars display short-term (days) cyclical activity. For two, HD 73256 and kappa^1 Ceti, the activity is likely associated with an active region rotating with the star, however, the flaring in excess of the rotational modulation may be associated with a …
We have obtained Hubble Space Telescope UV spectra of the white dwarf in GW Lib, the only known non-radially pulsating white dwarf in a cataclysmic variable, and the first known DAZQ variable. The UV light curve reveals large amplitude (10%) pulsationsin the UV with the same periods (646, 376 and 237 s) as those seen at optical wavelengths, but the mean spectrum fits with an average white dwarf temperature (14,700K for a 0.6M_{odot} white dwarf) that is too hot to be in the normal instability strip for ZZ Ceti stars. A better fit is achieved with a dual temperature model (with 63% of the white…
We present preliminary results of a our search for close (period P < 10 days) binary systems among hot (Teff > 20000 K) horizontal branch stars in globular clusters M80 and NGC5986. We measured radial velocity variations of 11 targets in M80 and 5 in NGC5986, spectroscopically observed at medium resolution (R=4100) during four nights at VLT-FORS2. We found one close binary candidate in M80, showing statistically significative radial velocity variations, and no clear evidence in NGC5986. These results confirm the lack of close binaries among hot horizontal branch stars in globular clusters, as …
We discuss whether the hypothesis that "all (or most) subdwarfs are in close binaries" is supported by the frequently reported observations of photometrically or spectroscopically composite character of many hot subdwarf stars. By way of a possible counter-argument, we focus on resolved companions (optical pairs) of hot subdwarf stars. On a statistical basis, many of these are physically associated with the hot subdwarfs, i.e. are common proper motion pairs. These resolved pairs make a several percent contribution to the catalog of hot subdwarf stars per decade in projected separation. If they…
Interstellar C IV absorption line studies of the hot gaseous halo of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) have been hindered by non-ideal selections of early-type probe stars in regions where C+3 can be produced locally via photoionization, fast stellar winds, or supernovae. To observe stars outside such regions, precise spectral classifications of OB stars in the field are needed. Therefore, we have obtained medium-dispersion spectra of 42 early-type stars in the LMC that are distributed outside superbubbles or supergiant shells. The spectral classification of these stars is presented in this pap…
We consider hot accretion onto a rapidly spinning neutron star (or any other compact object with a surface). A radiative hot settling flow has been discovered at low accretion rates in the early work by Medvedev & Narayan (2001) and analytical solution has been presented. It was shown later that this flow can match external medium smoothly, thus enforcing its physical feasibility. Here we complete the study of the global structure of such hot accretion by presenting the analytical solution for the boundary later, which forms between the bulk of the flow and the stellar surface. We confirm our …
High-resolution UV spectra, obtained with HST and FUSE, enable us to analyse hot hydrogen-rich central stars in detail. Up to now, optical hydrogen and helium lines have been used to derive temperature and surface gravity. Those lines, however, are rather insensitive; in particular, neutral helium lines have completely vanished in the hottest central stars. Therefore, we have concentrated on ionization balances of metals, which have a rich line spectrum in the UV, to establish a new temperature scale for our sample. Furthermore, we have determined abundances of light metals, which had been poo…
During the evolution of first stars, the CNO elements may emerge on their surfaces due to the mixing processes. Consequently, these stars may have winds driven purely by CNO elements. We study the properties of such stellar winds and discuss their influence on the surrounding environment. For this purpose, we used our own NLTE models and tested which stellar parameters of the first stars at different evolutionary stages result in CNO winds. If such winds are possible, we calculate their hydrodynamic structure and predict their parameters. We show that, while the studied stars do not have any w…
We discuss three different observational diagnostics related to disks around hot stars: absorption line determinations of rotational velocities of Be stars; polarization diagnostics of circumstellar disks; and X-ray line diagnostics of one specific magnetized hot star, $θ^1$ Ori C. Some common themes that emerge from these studies include (a) the benefits of having a specific physical model as a framework for interpreting diagnostic data; (b) the importance of combining several different types of observational diagnostics of the same objects; and (c) that while there is often the need to reint…
Utilizing the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) All-Sky Data Release Catalog, we have retrieved useful near-IR J, H, and Ks magnitudes for more than 800 hot subdwarfs (sdO and sdB stars) drawn from the "Catalogue of Spectroscopically Identified Hot Subdwarfs" (Kilkenny, Heber, & Drilling 1988, 1992). This sample size greatly exceeds previous studies of hot subdwarfs. We find that, of the hot subdwarfs in Kilkenny et al., ~40% in a magnitude limited sample have colors that are consistent with the presence of an unresolved late type (FGK) companion. Binary stars are over-represented in a magnitu…
We predict mass-loss rates for the late evolutionary phases of low-mass stars, with special emphasis on the consequences for the morphology of the Horizontal Branch (HB). We show that the computed rates, as predicted by the most plausible mechanism of radiation pressure on spectral lines, are too low to produce EHB/sdB stars. This invalidates the scenario recently outlined by Yong et al. (2000) to create these objects by mass loss on the HB. We argue, however, that mass loss plays a role in the distribution of rotational velocities of hot HB stars, and may -- together with the enhancement of h…
The effect of photon frequency redistribution by line branching on mass-loss rates for hot luminous stars is investigated. Monte Carlo simulations are carried out for a range of OB-star models which show that previous mass-loss calculations which neglect non-resonance line scattering overestimate mass-loss rates for luminous O stars by ~20 per cent. For luminous B stars the effect is somewhat larger, typically ~50 per cent. A Wolf-Rayet star model is used to investigate line branching in the strong wind limit. In this case the effect of line branching is much greater, giving mass-loss rates th…
We report the first discovery of argon in hot evolved stars and white dwarfs. We have identified the ArVII 1063.55A line in some of the hottest known (Teff=95000-110000 K) central stars of planetary nebulae and (pre-) white dwarfs of various spectral type. We determine the argon abundance and compare it to theoretical predictions from stellar evolution theory as well as from diffusion calculations. We analyze high-resolution spectra taken with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer. We use non-LTE line-blanketed model atmospheres and perform line-formation calculations to compute synthetic…
Utilizing the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Second Incremental Data Release Catalog, we have retrieved near-IR magnitudes for several hundred hot subdwarfs (sdO and sdB stars) drawn from the "Catalogue of Spectroscopically Identified Hot Subdwarfs" (Kilkenny, Heber, & Drilling 1988, 1992). This sample size greatly exceeds that of previous studies of hot subdwarfs. Examining 2MASS photometry alone or in combination with visual photometry (Johnson BV or Stromgren uvby) available in the literature, we show that it is possible to identify hot subdwarf stars that exhibit atypically red IR color…
Blue horizontal branch and UV bright stars in several globular clusters are analysed spectroscopically and the results are compared with predictions of stellar evolutionary theory. We find that the distribution of temperatures and surface gravities of the blue HB stars may be explained by the effects of deep mixing. The masses derived for these stars are too low unless one uses the long distance scale for globular clusters. First results on blue HB stars in metal rich clusters are presented. Analyses of hot UV bright stars in globular clusters uncovered a lack of genuine post-asymptotic giant …
Spectral analysis by means of Non-LTE model-atmosphere techniques has arrived at a high level of sophistication: fully line-blanketed model atmospheres which consider opacities of all elements from H to Ni allow the reliable determination of photospheric parameters of hot, compact stars. Such models provide a crucial test of stellar evolutionary theory: recent abundance determinations of trace elements like, e.g., F, Ne, Mg, P, S, Ar, Fe, and Ni are suited to investigate on AGB nucleosynthesis. E.g., the strong Fe depletion found in hydrogen-deficient post-AGB stars is a clear indication of an…
Using adaptive optics at the Gemini North telescope we have obtained a K-band spectrum of the star near the center of the luminous Galactic center bowshock IRS8, as well as a spectrum of the bowshock itself. The stellar spectrum contains emission and absorption lines characteristic of an O5-O6 giant or supergiant. The wind from such a star is fully capable of producing the observed bowshock. However, both the early spectral type and the apparently young age of the star, if it is single, mark it as unique among hot stars within one parsec of the center.
I present the results of radiation-driven mass-loss predictions for hot stars of all mass. Mass loss is an important aspect for the evolution of massive stars, the rotational properties of the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts, and is essential in assessing whether the most massive stars explode as pair-instability supernovae, or avoid them due to mass loss. As a result, the rate of mass loss is critical for our understanding of the chemical enrichment of the Universe. Of particular interest is the question whether luminous blue variables are the direct progenitors of some supernovae. Although t…
We have discovered lines of highly ionized fluorine (Fv and Fvi) in the far-UV spectra of extremely hot (Teff=85,000--150,000 K) post-AGB stars. Our sample comprises H-rich central stars of planetary nebulae as well as H-deficient PG1159 stars. We performed non-LTE calculations and find strong F overabundances (up to 10**-4 by mass, i.e., 250 times solar) in a number of PG1159 stars, while F is essentially solar in the H-rich stars. Since PG1159 stars are believed to exhibit intershell matter of the preceding AGB phase on their surface, their chemical analyses allow for a direct insight into n…
AIMS: The cluster of hot stars observed in orbit around the central black hole of M31 has been interpreted as a 200 Myr starburst. The formation of a population of young stars in close proximity to a massive black hole presents a difficult challenge to star formation theory. We point out that in a high stellar density environment, the course of stellar evolution is modified by frequent collisions and mergers. METHODS: Blue stragglers, which are the results of mergers in globular clusters, occupy the same position in the color-magnitude diagram as the observed hot stars in M31. For confirmation…
If a supermassive black hole resides in the centers of galaxies, there are several effects expected to be observed. It is likely that accretion disks are around the supermassive black hole. Stellar interactions with the accretion flows around the supermassive black hole play a role in that an flying-by star may cool a hot accretion disk as a result of Comptonization. It is shown that the Comptonization of the stellar emission will take place in a hot accretion disk such as the ADAFs around the supermassive black hole and become a relatively important source of the accretion disk cooling when t…
Atmospheric parameters (Teff, log g and log(He/H)) are derived for 42 hot horizontal branch (HB) stars in the globular cluster NGC 6752. For 19 stars MgII and FeII lines are detected indicating an iron enrichment by a factor 50 on average with respect to the cluster abundance whereas the magnesium abundances are consistent with the cluster metallicity. This finding adds to the growing evidence that radiative levitation plays a significant role in determining the physical parameters of blue HB stars. Indeed, we find that iron enrichment can explain part, but not all, of the problem of anomalous…
The hydrogen-deficiency in extremely hot post-AGB stars of spectral class PG1159 is probably caused by a (very) late helium-shell flash or a AGB final thermal pulse that consumes the hydrogen envelope, exposing the usually-hidden intershell region. Thus, the photospheric element abundances of these stars allow to draw conclusions about details of nuclear burning and mixing processes in the precursor AGB stars. We compare predicted element abundances to those determined by quantitative spectral analyses performed with advanced non-LTE model atmospheres. A good qualitative and quantitative agree…
We report the discovery of a new planet candidate orbiting the subgiant star HD118203 with a period of P=6.1335 days. The best Keplerian solution yields an eccentricity e=0.31 and a minimum mass m2sin(i)=2.1MJup for the planet. This star has been observed with the ELODIE fiber-fed spectrograph as one of the targets in our planet-search programme biased toward high-metallicity stars, on-going since March 2004 at the Haute-Provence Observatory. An analysis of the spectroscopic line profiles using line bisectors revealed no correlation between the radial velocities and the line-bisector orientati…
We present XMM-Newton observations of the young (~2-5 Myr) cluster around the hot (O9.5V) star sigma Orionis AB, aimed at obtaining a high resolution RGS spectrum of the hot star as well as EPIC imaging data for the whole field. We show that the RGS spectrum of sigma Ori AB may be contaminated by weaker nearby sources which required the development of a suitable procedure to extract a clean RGS spectrum and to determine the thermal structure and wind properties of the hot star. We also report on the detection of a flare from the B2Vp star sigma Ori E and we discuss whether the flare originated…
New constraints on the large-scale wind structures responsible for discrete absorption components are obtained from far-ultraviolet time-series observations of O supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Spectroscopic analyses with the intention of the interpretation of the UV-spectra of the brightest stars as individuals - supernovae - or as components of star-forming regions - massive O stars - provide a powerful tool with great astrophysical potential for the determination of extragalactic distances and of the chemical composition of star-forming galaxies even at high redshifts. The perspectives of already initiated work with the new generation of tools for quantitative UV-spectroscopy of Hot Stars that have been developed during the last two decades are presented and the status of the cont…
This thesis discusses the influence of magnetic fields on the instability of line-driven winds in O-stars and Wolf-Rayet stars. This combination is an important concept to understand the strong, observed winds from Wolf-Rayet stars. In the second part of the thesis a model is derived which describes the wind outside the equatorial plane. This model allows to use the simple approach of an ordinary differential equation instead of a 2-dim. partial differential equation.
It is now well established that stellar winds of hot stars are fragmentary and that the X-ray emission from stellar winds has a strong contribution from shocks in winds. Chandra high spectral resolution observations of line profiles of O and B stars have shown numerous properties that had not been expected. Here we suggest explanations by considering the X-rays as arising from bow shocks that occur where the stellar wind impacts on spherical clumps in the winds. We use an accurate and stable numerical hydrodynamical code to obtain steady-state physical conditions for the temperature and densit…
We study dynamical aspects of circumstellar environment around massive zero-metallicity first stars. For this purpose we apply our NLTE wind models. We show that the hydrogen-helium stellar wind from stationary massive first generation (Population III) stars (driven either by the line (bound-bound) or continuum (bound-free and free-free) transitions) is unlikely. The possibility of expulsion of chemically homogeneous wind and the role of minor isotopes are also discussed. Finally, we estimate the importance of hydrogen and helium lines for shutting off the initial accretion onto first stars an…
Stationary, spherical accretion onto an unmagnetized neutron star is here reconsidered on the wake of the seminal paper by Zel'dovich \& Shakura (1969). It is found that new ``hot'' solutions may exist for a wide range of luminosities. These solutions are characterized by a high temperature, $10^{9}÷10^{11}$ K, and arise from a stationary equilibrium model where the dominant radiative mechanisms are multiple Compton scattering and bremsstrahlung emission. For low luminosities, $\mincir 10^{-2} \ L_{E}$, only the ``cold'' (à la Zel'dovich and Shakura) solution is present.
We present a new model atmosphere analysis of nine central stars of planetary nebulae. This study is based on a new generation of realistic stellar model atmospheres for hot stars; state-of-the-art, hydrodynamically consistent, spherically symmetric model atmospheres that have been shown to correctly reproduce the observed UV spectra of massive Population I O-type stars. The information provided by the wind features (terminal velocity, mass loss rate) permits to derive the physical size of each central star, from which we can derive the stellar luminosity, mass and distance, without having to …
Resonance lines that are sensitive to the Hanle effect are prominent in the UV spectra of early-type stars. To understand the differences from the solar application of the Hanle effect, we focus on the formation of P-Cygni lines both as a scattering process, and as one that allows a spectral isolation of sectors in the wind. Some complications occuring in the solar case are found to be absent for the Hanle effect for hot stars. Rocket observations from the Far Ultraviolet SpectroPolarimeter (FUSP) experiment should allow for a determination of fields in the dynamically interesting range from 1…
We discuss the possibility that the sources for gamma ray bursts are hot neutron stars at cosmological distance scales. The temperature of such stars would be $T \sim 1 \MeV$. Such hot stars can produce an electromagnetic blast wave provided that the ratio of baryon and photon numbers $N_{B}/N_γ \le 10^{-6}$. The typical time scale for such blasts, the total luminosity, and correlation of gamma ray energy with time of arrival are shown to be roughly consistent with observation. The spectrum of photons also appears to be consistent with known data.
Structure of cold and hot dense matter at subnuclear densities is investigated by quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) simulations. Obtained phase diagrams show that the density of the phase boundaries between the different nuclear structures decreases with increasing temperature due to the thermal expansion of nuclear matter region.
We consider the thermal emission of photons and electron-positron pairs from the bare quark surface of a hot strange star. The radiation of high-energy (> 20 MeV) equilibrium photons prevails at the surface temperature T_S > 5 x 10^{10} K, while below this temperature, 8 x 10^8 < T_S < 5 x 10^{10} K, emission of electron-positron pairs created by the Coulomb barrier at the quark surface dominates. The thermal luminosity of a hot strange star in both photons and pairs is estimated.
