THE THEORETICAL CORRELATION BETWEEN UV DISCRETE ABSORPTION COMPONENTS AND THE POLARIZATION OF EJECTED BLOBS IN THE WINDS OF EARLY-TYPE STARS

A simplified version of the random blob ejection model of Underhill & Fahey is presented, in which we consider the ejected material to be a localized mass enhancement flowing with the stellar wind. Model results are presented for one particular choice of the radial velocity law for the stellar wind. The model basically predicts that (i) a star should appear more variable polarimetrically than in the UV, (ii) variability should occur on the outflow time-scale, (iii) for each event the polarization position angle must always change in the same directional sense, and (iv) the longer the ejecta remain in absorption the less likely it is that the ejecta will be detectable polarimetrically. The predicted polarimetric and apparent velocities of the UV discrete absorption line variations are qualitatively compared with the observations of selected W-, O- and B-type stars. It is found that the stars WR 40 and P Cyg are likely candidates for random localized enhanced mass ejection.