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Register a new userFirst visual orbit for the prototypical colliding-wind binary WR 140
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Wolf-Rayet stars represent one of the final stages of massive stellar evolution. Relatively little is known about this short-lived phase and we currently lack reliable mass, distance, and binarity determinations for a representative sample. Here we report the first visual orbit for WR 140(=HD193793), a WC7+O5 binary system known for its periodic dust production episodes triggered by intense colliding winds near periastron passage. The IOTA and CHARA interferometers resolved the pair of stars in each year from 2003--2009, covering most of the highly-eccentric, 7.9 year orbit. Combining our results with the recent improved double-line spectroscopic orbit of Fahed et al. (2011), we find the WR 140 system is located at a distance of 1.67 +/- 0.03 kpc, composed of a WR star with M_WR = 14.9 +/- 0.5 Msun and an O star with M_O = 35.9 +/- 1.3 Msun. Our precision orbit yields key parameters with uncertainties times 6 smaller than previous work and paves the way for detailed modeling of the system. Our newly measured flux ratios at the near-infrared H and Ks bands allow an SED decomposition and analysis of the component evolutionary states.
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We present updated orbital elements for the Wolf-Rayet (WR) binary WR,140 (HD,193793; WC7pd + O5.5fc). The new orbital elements were derived using previously published measurements along with {color{black}160} new radial velocity measurements across the 2016 periastron passage of WR 140. Additionally, four new measurements of the orbital astrometry were collected with the CHARA Array. With these measurements, we derive stellar masses of $M_{rm WR} = 10.31pm0.45 M_odot$ and $M_{rm O} = 29.27pm1.14 M_{odot}$. We also include a discussion of the evolutionary history of this system from the Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis (BPASS) model grid to show that this WR star likely formed primarily through mass loss in the stellar winds, with only a moderate amount of mass lost or transferred through binary interactions.
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 results from a global view on the colliding-wind binary WR 147. We analysed new optical spectra of WR 147 obtained with Gran Telescopio CANARIAS and archive spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope by making use of modern atmosphere models accounting for optically thin clumping. We adopted a grid-modelling approach to derive some basic physical characteristics of both stellar components in WR 147. For the currently accepted distance of 630 pc to WR 147, the values of mass-loss rate derived from modelling its optical spectra are in acceptable correspondence with that from modelling its X-ray emission. However, they give a lower radio flux than observed. A plausible solution for this problem could be if the volume filling factor at large distances from the star (radio-formation region) is smaller than close to the star (optical-formation region). Adopting this, the model can match well both optical and thermal radio emission from WR 147. The global view on the colliding-wind binary WR 147 thus shows that its observational properties in different spectral domains can be explained in a self-consistent physical picture.
Observations of the WC9+OB system WR 65 in the infrared show variations of its dust emission consistent with a period near 4.8~yr, suggesting formation in a colliding-wind binary (CWB) having an elliptical orbit. If we adopt the IR maximum as zero phase, the times of X-ray maximum count and minimum extinction to the hard component measured by Oskinova & Hamann fall at phases 0.4--0.5, when the separation of the WC9 and OB stars is greatest. We consider WR 65 in the context of other WC8-9+OB stars showing dust emission.
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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