WOLF-RAYET STAR VARIABILITY AND WIND INHOMOGENEITIES

The wind structure diagnostic possibilities offered by combined study of photo-, spectro-, and polari-metric variability are discussed using data from the Montreal group. These demand the presence in the wind of localised density in homogeneities and in particular of large 'blobs' denser than the 'mean' wind and put bounds on the size, mass, and density of individual blobs and their distributions, with implications for theories of blob formation. Blobs responsible for polarimetric variability must be present at the stellar surface rather than forming in the wind, and the relation of this to spectrometric indications that blobs are only detectable at several stellar radii is discussed.