Near-Infrared Keck Interferometer and IOTA Closure Phase Observations of Wolf-Rayet stars

We present first results from observations of a small sample of IR-bright Wolf-Rayet stars with the Keck Interferometer in the near-infrared, and with the IONIC beam three-telescope beam combiner at the Infrared and Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) observatory. The former results were obtained as part of shared-risk observations in commissioning the Keck Interferometer and form a subset of a high-resolution study of dust around Wolf-Rayet stars using multiple interferometers in progress in our group. The latter results are the first closure phase observations of these stars in the near-infrared in a separated telescope interferometer. Earlier aperture-masking observations with the Keck-I telescope provide strong evidence that dust-formation in late-type WC stars are a result of wind-wind collision in short-period binaries. Our program with the Keck interferometer seeks to further examine this paradigm at much higher resolution. We have spatially resolved the binary in the prototypical dusty WC type star WR 140. WR 137, another episodic dust-producing star, has been partially resolved for the first time, providing the first direct clue to its possible binary nature. We also include WN stars in our sample to investigate circumstellar dust in this other main sub-type of WRs. We have been unable to resolve any of these, indicating a lack of extended dust. Complementary observations using the MIDI instrument on the VLTI in the mid-infrared are presented in another contribution to this workshop.