IDENTIFICATION OF EMISSION-LINE STARS IN 30-DORADUS USING HST OBSERVATIONS

Using broadband (F439W) and narrowband (F469N) Hubble Space Telescope archive images of the R136 central cluster of 30 Doradus, we have iden tified candidate Wolf-Rayet stars from the strength of their He II lam bda 4686 emission lines. The number ratio of Wolf-Rayet to O stars fou nd in our data is 0.11 +/- 0.03. Our results are more consistent with an instantaneous burst with an age of about 3 x 10(6) yr than with a c ontinuous star formation scenario. However, even in the starburst scen ario, evolutionary model predictions for low-metallicity stellar evolu tion agree with our observations only if we also assume enhanced mass loss and/or a relatively flat slope (Gamma > -1.35) for the initial ma ss function with an upper mass limit of more than 80 M(.).