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On the formation of wind bow-shocks around OB runaway stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Lex Kaper ,
Fernando Comerón  and
Orly Barziv
Lex Kaper
Affiliation:
Astronomical Institute, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, NL-1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Fernando Comerón
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl Schwarzschild Str. 2, D-85748, Garching bei München, Germany
Orly Barziv
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl Schwarzschild Str. 2, D-85748, Garching bei München, Germany

Abstract

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The interaction of the stellar wind of a supersonically moving massive star with its surrounding interstellar medium can result in the formation of an observable bow-shock. Recent studies at optical and infrared wavelengths indicate the presence of wind bow-shocks around several OB runaways, including the high-mass X-ray binary system Vela X-1. A large fraction of runaway stars do not seem to form wind bow-shocks. Obviously, when the local sound speed is high (∼ 100 km s−1), as is the case e.g., inside a hot superbubble, the (subsonic) space velocity would not be sufficient to form a bow-shock. Two-dimensional time-dependent hydrodynamical simulations indicate that the bow-shock is generally unstable; for certain combinations of ISM and wind parameters a bow-shock is not formed at all. The runaway nature of Wolf-Rayet stars in relation to the formation of wind bow-shocks is also discussed.

Type
Part 3. Interaction of Wolf-Rayet stars and other hot massive stars with their environment: colliding winds and ring nebulae
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 193: Wolf-Rayet Phenomena in Massive Stars and Starburst Galaxies , 1999 , pp. 316 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999 

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