The Brightest Stars

1: The Upper Boundaries of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram.- 1.1. Preamble.- 1.2. The Most Luminous Stars.- 1.3. Gravitational Acceleration Versus Radiation Forces.- 1.4. Inclusion of the Mass-Luminosity Relation.- 1.5. The Effective Value of the Acceleration of Gravity; Influence of Radiation Pressure.- 1.6. Influence of Rotation and of Turbulent Motions.- 1.7. ‘Boundaries’ to the Hertzsprung—Russell Diagram.- 1.8. Terminology Related to Extended Atmospheres.- 2: The Main Observational Characteristics of the Most Luminous Stars.- 2.1. Spectral and Luminosity Classification.- 2.2. Absolute Magnitude and Luminosity Criteria.- 2.3. The Effective Temperature Scale and the Bolometric Correction.- 2.4. Masses of Massive Stars.- 2.5. Radii of Luminous Stars.- 2.6. geff-Values in Extreme Objects.- 2.7. The Distribution of Light over the Surface of Supergiants.- 2.8. Magnetic Fields of Luminous Stars.- 2.9. Turbulent Velocities.- 2.10. Rotational Velocities in Atmospheres of Bright Stars.- 2.11. Polarization of Light of Stars with Extended Atmospheres.- 3: Spectral Characteristics and Stellar Parameters for the Main Groups of Luminous Stars; Some Prototypes.- 3.1. O- and Bright B-Stars.- 3.2. The Of and Oef Stars.- 3.3. The Most Luminous Galactic Star.- 3.4. The Wolf-Rayet Stars.- 3.5. The P Cygni Stars, and P Cygni Profiles.- 3.6. The Oe, Be-, and Shell-Type Stars.- 3.7. The CNO-Stars (or: OBCN Stars).- 3.8. The Super-Supergiants (Hypergiants).- 3.9. The Most Luminous Extragalactic Star..- 3.10. G- and K-Type Supergiants; Zeta Aurigae Stars.- 3.11. The Coolest of the Bright Stars.- 3.12. The Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae.- 4: The Evolution of Massive Stars.- 4.1. The First Phases of the Evolution of Massive Stars.- 4.2. The Main Sequence; Life Times, Stability.- 4.3. Post-Main-Sequence Evolution of Massive Stars.- 4.4. Convection and Semi-Convection.- 4.5. The Influence of Mass-Loss on the Evolution of Massive Stars.- 4.6. Stellar Abundances and Nuclear Reactions; the Influence of Thermal Pulses.- 4.7. The Mira Stars.- 4.8. The Carbon Burning and Later Phases.- 4.9. Supernovae.- 4.10. Evolution of Close Massive Binaries.- 4.10.1. The Roche Surface.- 4.10.2. Evolution of Close Binary Stars; the Conservative Case.- 4.10.3. Evolution of Close Binaries in the Non-Conservative Case.- 4.10.4. The Last Phases of Binary Star Evolution.- 4.11. The Origin of Wolf—Rayet Stars.- 4.12. The Origin of X-Ray Binaries; Mass Transfer onto a Compact Companion.- 4.13. Stellar Rotation and Evolution.- 5: The Structure of Very Tenuous Stellar Atmospheres.- 5.1. Atmospheric Models; Radiative or Convective Equilibrium.- 5.2. The Assumption of Plane-Parallel Atmospheric Layers.- 5.3. Models of Very Tenuous Atmospheres; the Plane-Parallel Case.- 5.4. Models of Extended and Spherical Stellar Atmospheres; the Static Case.- 5.5. Expanding Spherical Stellar Atmospheres; Introduction.- 5.6. The Radiation Force on Outer Stellar Layers.- 5.7. Radiation-Driven Expanding Atmospheres; the Subsonic Region.- 5.8. Line-Driven Stellar Winds.- 5.9. Model Envelopes of Early-Type Stars with Line-Driven Stellar Winds.- 5.10. Convection in Supergiant Atmospheres.- 6: Chromospheres, Coronae, Gas and Dust Around Luminous Stars.- 6.0. Generalities.- 6.1. What is a Stellar ‘Chromosphere’?.- 6.2. Conditions for the Occurrence of Emission Lines; Chromospheric Indicators.- 6.3. Observations in Some Chromospheric Indicators.- 6.4. Properties of Chromospheres and ‘Warm Envelopes’ in Various Types of Stars as Derived from Spectral Investigations.- 6.5. Outward Increase of the Source Function or the Temperature in Near-Photospheric Layers.- 6.6. Chromospheric and Coronal Heating — the Solar Case.- 6.7. Wave Modes in a Stellar Photosphere.- 6.8. The Generation of Mechanical Fluxes in Stellar Photospheres.- 6.9. Comparison of Predicted and ‘Observed’ Stellar Mechanical Fluxes.- 6.10. The Computation of Stellar Coronal Parameters.- 6.10.1. Historical and General Remarks.- 6.10.2. The Non-Magnetic Approach.- 6.10.3. The Role of Magnetic Fields in Coronal Heating.- 6.11. The Observation of Coronae of Luminous Stars.- 6.12. Circumstellar Gas — (a) Circumstellar Spectral Lines.- 6.13. Circumstellar Gas — (b) Thermal Microwave and Infrared Emission from Bright Stars.- 6.14. Circumstellar Gas — (c) Maser Effects.- 6.15. Circumstellar Dust.- 6.16. Circumstellar Gas and Dust: the Red Supergiant VY CMa.- 6.17. Circumstellar Gas and Dust: the Object ? Carinae.- 7: Mass-Loss from Bright Stars.- 7.1. Outline.- 7.2. Observational Indicators and General Properties of Mass-Flow.- 7.3. The Expected Shape of Spectral Lines in an Expanding Atmosphere; Some Well-Studied Cases.- 7.4. Summary of Observationally-Determined Values for Mass-Loss.- ? Carinae.- P Cygni.- Wolf—Rayet Stars.- O- and Bright B-Type Stars.- A-Type Supergiants.- F-, G-, K-Type Supergiants.- Late-Type Giants and Supergiants.- Summary of Mass Flux Data; Comprehensive Representations.- 7.5. Stellar Mass-Flux Theory Based on Fluctuation Theory.- 7.6. The Mechanisms of Supergiant Mass-Loss.- 7.7. Expanding Dust Shells.- 8: Variability of Supergiant Atmospheres.- 8.1. Introduction; History.- 8.2. Brightness Variations.- 8.3. Colour Variability.- 8.4. Spectrum Variations.- 8.5. Variability of Stellar Winds.- 8.6. Supergiant Atmospheric Pulsations.- 8.7. Causes of Long-Period Variability.- 9: Stars of Transient Extreme Brightness; Novae, Supernovae.- 9.1. Introduction.- 9.2. Types, Light-Curves, and Absolute Magnitudes.- 9.3. Pre- and Post-Novae; Novae as binaries; are Classical Novae Recurrent?.- 9.4. The Main Observational Parameters of Novae.- 9.5. Line Spectra; Description and Analysis; Abundances; ‘Coronal’ lines; X-Ray Emission and X-Ray Novae.- 9.6. The Continuous Spectra; Dust Shells.- 9.7. Rapid Brightness Fluctuations of Novae.- 9.8. Morphology of Novae Envelopes and Surrounding Nebulosities.- 9.9. Theories and Models on the Development of the Photospheres of Novae.- 9.10. The Origin of the Nova Instability.- 9.11. Supernovae; Types, Lightcurves, and Energies.- 9.12. The Continuous Spectra of Supernovae.- 9.13. Line Spectra of Type I Supernovae.- 9.14. Structural and Dynamical Models of Type I Supernovae.- 9.15. Type II Supernovae; Line Spectra, Light Curves, Scenario of Events.- 9.16. High Energy Photon and Particle Emissions from Supernovae.- 9.17. Supernova Remnants.- 9.18. Supernova Remnants in the Large Magellanic Cloud.- 9.19. The Interaction of Supernova Ejecta with the Interstellar Medium.- References.- Symbols and Notations.- Alphabetic List of Stars.- Objects by Name.- Supernovae (By Year of Appearance).