Pulsations and Hydrodynamics of Luminous Blue Variable Stars

Abstract The Luminous Blue Variable stars exhibit behavior ranging from light curve 'microvariations' on timescales of tens of days, to ‘outbursts’ accompanied by mass loss of ~10−3 Msun occurring decades apart, to ‘giant eruptions’ such as seen in Eta Carinae, ejecting one or more solar masses and recurring on timescales of centuries. Here we review the work of the Los Alamos group since 1993, to investigate pulsations and instabilities in massive stars using linear pulsation models and non-linear hydrodynamic models. The models predict pulsational variability that may be associated with the microvariations. We show using a nonlinear pulsation hydrodynamics code with a time-dependent convection treatment, that in some circumstances the Eddington limit is exceeded periodically in the pulsation driving region of the stellar envelope, accelerating the outer layers, and perhaps initiating mass loss or the LBV outbursts. We discuss how pulsations and mass loss may be responsible for the location of the Humphreys-Davidson Limit in the H-R diagram. The ‘giant eruptions’, however, must involve much deeper regions in the stellar core to cause such large amounts of mass to be ejected. We review and suggest some possible explanations, including mixing from gravity modes, secular instabilities, the epsilon mechanism, or the SASI instability as proposed for Type II supernovae. We outline future work and required stellar modeling capabilities to investigate these possibilities.