On The Disappearance Of O I In Some High-Luminosity Cool Stars

Far UV spectra and flux measurements of cool giant and supergiant stars, focusing on the O I (UV 2) and S I/Si II fluxes and their dependence on stellar parameters are presented. The de-reddened O I surface fluxes vary by factors of several hundred over the 11 stars in the sample and, at a given luminosity, decrease with decreasing effective temperature. No flux at all is detected in the three M supergiants observed to date. In contrast, the S I/Si II blend near 1810 angstrom is clearly detected in all the stars. Its strength generally increases with luminosity, but has little effective temperature dependence. Possible explanations for the behavior of O I include changes in the intensities of Lyman alpha and beta which excite the lines of S I and O I, respectively, as well as scattering and/or absorption of the O I flux in a dense, circumstellar gas shell.