Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T12:47:37.896Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

X-Ray modeling of η Carinae & WR 140 from SPH simulations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2011

Christopher M. P. Russell
Affiliation:
Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA; email: crussell@udel.edu
Michael F. Corcoran
Affiliation:
GSFC/NASA, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Atsuo T. Okazaki
Affiliation:
Hokkai-Gakuen Univ., Sapporo, Japan
Thomas I. Madura
Affiliation:
Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA; email: crussell@udel.edu
Stanley P. Owocki
Affiliation:
Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA; email: crussell@udel.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The colliding wind binary (CWB) systems η Carinae and WR140 provide unique laboratories for X-ray astrophysics. Their wind-wind collisions produce hard X-rays that have been monitored extensively by several X-ray telescopes, including RXTE. To interpret these RXTE X-ray light curves, we apply 3D hydrodynamic simulations of the wind-wind collision using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). We find adiabatic simulations that account for the absorption of X-rays from an assumed point source of X-ray emission at the apex of the wind-collision shock cone can closely match the RXTE light curves of both η Car and WR140. This point-source model can also explain the early recovery of η Car's X-ray light curve from the 2009.0 minimum by a factor of 2-4 reduction in the mass loss rate of η Car. Our more recent models account for the extended emission and absorption along the full wind-wind interaction shock front. For WR140, the computed X-ray light curves again match the RXTE observations quite well. But for η Car, a hot, post-periastron bubble leads to an emission level that does not match the extended X-ray minimum observed by RXTE. Initial results from incorporating radiative cooling and radiative forces via an anti-gravity approach into the SPH code are also discussed.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Corcoran, M. F., Hamaguchi, K., Pittard, J. M., Russell, C. M. P. et al. 2010, ApJ, submittedGoogle Scholar
Mewe, R., Kaastra, J. S., & Liedahl, D.A. 1995, Legacy (HEASARC), 6, 16Google Scholar
Okazaki, A. T., Owocki, S. P., Russell, C. M. P., & Corcoran, M. F. 2008, MNRAS, 388, L39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, D. J. 2007, PASA, 24, 159CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Townsend, R. H. D. 2009, ApJS, 181, 391CrossRefGoogle Scholar