Classical Wolf-Rayet ( WR ) stars are at a crucial evolutionary stage for constraining the fates of massive stars .
The feedback of these hot , hydrogen-depleted stars dominates their surrounding by tremendous injections of ionizing radiation and kinetic energy .
The strength of a WR wind decides the eventual mass of its remnant , likely a massive black hole .
However , despite their major influence and importance for gravitational wave detection statistics , WR winds are particularly poorly understood .
In this paper , we introduce the first set of hydrodynamically consistent stellar atmosphere models for classical WR stars of both the carbon ( C ) and nitrogen ( N ) sequence , i.e .
WC and WN stars , as a function of stellar luminosity-to-mass ratio ( or Eddington Gamma ) , and metallicity .
We demonstrate the inapplicability of the CAK wind theory for classical WR stars and confirm earlier findings that their winds are launched at the ( hot ) iron ( Fe ) opacity peak .
For \log Z / Z _ { \odot } > -2 , Fe is also the main accelerator throughout the wind .
Contrasting previous claims of a sharp lower mass-loss limit for WR stars , we obtain a smooth transition to optically thin winds .
Furthermore , we find a strong dependence of the mass-loss rates on Eddington \Gamma , both at solar and sub-solar metallicity .
Increases in WC carbon and oxygen abundances turn out to slightly reduce the predicted mass-loss rates .
Calculations at subsolar metallicities indicate that below the metallicity of the SMC , WR mass-loss rates decrease much faster than previously assumed , potentially allowing for high black hole masses even in the local universe .