Initial conditions for reaching the critical velocity

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to determine the initial rotational velocities required on the ZAMS for single stars to reach the critical velocity, sometimes called the break-up velocity, during the Main-Sequence (MS) phase. Some useful relations between $Ω/Ω_{\rm crit}$, $\upsilon/\upsilon_{\rm crit}$ ($\upsilon$ is the velocity at the equator), the moments of inertia, the angular momenta, the kinetic energy in the rotation and various other basic physical quantities are obtained.

12 pages, 9 figures, in Active OB-stars: Laboratories for Stellar and Circumstellar Physics, S. Stefl, S. Owocki, A. Okazaki (eds), ASP Conf. Series