LUMINOUS BLUE VARIABLE STARS IN THE TWO EXTREMELY METAL-DEFICIENT BLUE COMPACT DWARF GALAXIES DDO 68 AND PHL 293B

We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of two luminous blue variable (LBV) stars in two extremely metal-deficient blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxies, DDO 68 with 12 + log (O/H) = 7.15 and PHL 293B with 12 + log (O/H) = 7.72. These two BCDs are the lowest-metallicity galaxies where LBV stars have been detected, allowing the study of the LBV phenomenon in the extremely low metallicity regime, and shedding light of the evolution of the first generation of massive stars born from primordial gas. We find that the strong outburst of the LBV star in DDO 68 occurred sometime between 2007 February and 2008 January. We have compared the properties of the broad-line emission in low-metallicity LBVs with those in higher-metallicity LBVs. We find that, for the LBV star in DDO 68, broad emission with a P Cygni profile is seen in both H and He I emission lines. On the other hand, for the LBV star in PHL 293B, P Cygni profiles are detected only in H lines. For both LBVs, no heavy element emission line such as Fe II was detected. The H alpha luminosities of LBV stars in both galaxies are comparable to the one obtained for the LBV star in NGC 2363 (Mrk 71), which has a higher metallicity 12 + log (O/H) = 7.89. On the other hand, the terminal velocities of the stellar winds in both low-metallicity LBVs are high, similar to 800 km s(-1), a factor of similar to 4 higher than the terminal velocities of the winds in high-metallicity LBVs. This suggests that stellar winds at low metallicity are driven by a different mechanism than the high-metallicity winds.