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Register a new userThe massive binary HD 152218 revisited: A new colliding wind system in NGC 6231
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We present the results of an optical and X-ray monitoring campaign on the short-period massive SB2 binary HD 152218. Combining our HiRes spectroscopic data with previous observations, we unveil the contradictions between the published orbital solutions. In particular, we solve the aliasing on the period and derive a value close to 5.604 d. Our eccentricity e = 0.259 +/- 0.006 is slightly lower than previously admitted. We show that HD 152218 is probably undergoing a relatively rapid apsidal motion of about 3deg/yr and we confirm the O9IV + O9.7V classification. We derive minimal masses of 15.82 +/- 0.26 Msol operator and 12.00 +/- 0.19 Msol operator and constrain the radius of the components to R1 = 10.3 +/- 1.3 Rsol and R2 = 7.8 +/- 1.7 Rsol. We also report the results of an XMM-Newton monitoring of the HD 152218 X-ray emission throughout its orbital motion. The averaged X-ray spectrum is relatively soft and it is well reproduced by a 2-T optically thin thermal plasma model with component temperatures about 0.3 and 0.7 keV. The system presents an increase of its X-ray flux by about 30% near apastron compared to periastron, which is interpreted as the signature of an ongoing wind-wind interaction process occurring within the wind acceleration region.
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Radio observations are an effective tool to discover particle acceleration regions in colliding-wind binaries, through detection of synchrotron radiation; these regions are natural laboratories for the study of relativistic particles. Wind-collision region (WCR) models can reproduce the radio continuum spectra of massive binaries that contain both thermal and non-thermal radio emission; however, key constraints for models come from high-resolution imaging. Only five WCRs have been resolved to date at radio frequencies at milliarcsec (mas) angular scales. The source HD 93129A, prototype of the very few known O2 I stars, is a promising target for study: recently, a second massive, early-type star about 50 mas away was discovered, and a non-thermal radio source detected in the region. Preliminary long-baseline array data suggest that a significant fraction of the radio emission from the system comes from a putative WCR. We sought evidence that HD 93129A is a massive binary system with colliding stellar winds that produce non-thermal radiation, through spatially resolved images of the radio emitting regions. We completed observations with the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA) to resolve the system at mas angular resolutions and reduced archival Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) data to derive the total radio emission. We also compiled optical astrometric data of the system in a homogeneous way. We reduced historical Hubble Space Telescope data and obtained absolute and relative astrometry with milliarcsec accuracy. The astrometric analysis leads us to conclude that the two stars in HD 93129A form a gravitationally bound system. The LBA data reveal an extended arc-shaped non-thermal source between the two stars, indicative of a WCR. The wind momentum-rate ratio of the two stellar winds is estimated. The ATCA data show a point source with a change in flux level ...
The binary stellar system HD 93129A is one of the most massive known binaries in our Galaxy. This system presents non-thermal emission in the radio band, which can be used to infer its physical conditions and predict its emission in the high-energy band. We intend to constrain some of the unknown parameters of HD 93129A through modelling the non-thermal emitter, and also to analyse the detectability of this source in hard X-rays and $gamma$-rays. We develop a broadband radiative model for the wind-collision region taking into account the evolution of the accelerated particles streaming along the shocked region, the emission by different radiative processes, and the attenuation of the emission propagating through the local matter and radiation fields. From the analysis of the radio emission, we find that the binary HD~93129A is more likely to have a low inclination and a high eccentricity. The minimum energy of the non-thermal electrons seems to be between $sim 20 - 100$MeV, depending on the intensity of the magnetic field in the wind-collision region. The latter can be in the range $sim 20 - 1500$ mG. Our model is able to reproduce the observed radio emission, and predicts that the non-thermal radiation from HD~93129A will increase in the near future. With instruments such as textit{NuSTAR}, textit{Fermi}, and CTA, it will be possible to constrain the relativistic particle content of the source, and other parameters such as the magnetic field strength in the wind collision zone, which in turn can be used to obtain upper-limits of the magnetic field on the surface of the very massive stars, thereby inferring whether magnetic field amplification is taking place in the particle acceleration region.
We report the discovery of variability in the X-ray emission from the Wolf-Rayet type star WR 65. Using archival Chandra data spanning over 5 yr we detect changes of the X-ray flux by a factor of 3 accompanied by changes in the X-ray spectra. We believe that this X-ray emission originates from wind-wind collision in a massive binary system. The observed changes can be explained by the variations in the emission measure of the hot plasma, and by the different absorption column along the binary orbit. The X-ray spectra of WR 65 display prominent emission features at wavelengths corresponding to the lines of strongly ionized Fe, Ca, Ar, S, Si, and Mg. WR 65 is a carbon rich WC9d star that is a persistent dust maker. This is the first investigation of any X-ray spectrum for a star of this spectral type. There are indications that the dust and the complex geometry of the colliding wind region are pivotal in explaining the X-ray properties of WR 65.
The eccentric WR+O binary system WR 140 produces dust for a few months at intervals of 7.94 yrs coincident with periastron passage. We present the first resolved images of this dust shell, at binary phases ~0.039 and ~0.055, using aperture masking techniques on the Keck-I telescope to achieve diffraction-limited resolution. Proper motions of approximately 1.1 milliarcsecond per day were detected, implying a distance ~1.5 kpc from the known wind speed. The dust plume observed is not as simple as the ``pinwheel nebulae seen around other WR colliding wind binaries, indicating the orbital plane is highly inclined to our line-of-sight and/or the dust formation is very clumpy. Follow-up imaging in the mid-infrared and with adaptive optics is urgently required to track the dust motion further, necessary for unambiguously determining the orbital geometry which we only partially constrain here. With full knowledge of the orbital elements, these infrared images can be used to reconstruct the dust distribution along the colliding wind interface, providing a unique tool for probing the post-shock physical conditions of violent astrophysical flows.
We present the detection of the first candidate colliding-wind binary (CWB) in M33, located in the giant H II region NGC 604. The source was first identified in archival {it Chandra} imaging as a relatively soft X-ray point source, with the likely primary star determined from precise astrometric alignment between archival {it Hubble Space Telescope} and {it Chandra} imaging. The candidate primary star in the CWB is classified for the first time in this work as a carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet star with a likely O star companion based on spectroscopy obtained from Gemini-North. We model the X-ray spectrum using {it Chandra} and {it XMM-Newton} observations, and find the CWB is well-fit as a $sim$ 1 keV thermal plasma with a median unabsorbed luminosity in the 0.5--2.0 keV band of $L_{rm X}$ $sim$ 3 $times$ 10$^{35}$ erg s$^{-1}$, making this source among the brightest of CWBs observed to date. We present a long term light curve for the candidate CWB from archival {it Chandra} and {it XMM-Newton} observations, and discuss the constraints placed on the binary by this light curve, as well as the X-ray luminosity at maximum. Finally, we compare this candidate CWB in M33 to other well-studied, bright CWBs in the Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds, such as $eta$ Car.
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