THEORY REVIEW - LINE-DRIVEN INSTABILITY AND OTHER CAUSES OF STRUCTURE AND VARIABILITY IN HOT-STAR WINDS

The winds of the hot, luminous, OB stars are driven by the line-scattering of the star's continuum radiation flux. Several kinds of observational evidence indicate that such winds are highly structured and variable. This paper will review possible theoretical causes of such wind structure. For relatively small-scale, stochastic variability, I review the role of the strong intrinsic instability of the line-driving process itself. For larger scale structure, I describe recent efforts to examine how disturbances from the underlying, rotating star can be translated outward into propagating features in the wind.