English

Melnick 33Na: a very massive colliding wind binary system in 30 Doradus

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2021-12-15 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

We present spectroscopic analysis of the luminous X-ray source Melnick 33Na (Mk 33Na, HSH95 16) in the LMC 30 Doradus region (Tarantula Nebula), utilising new time-series VLT/UVES spectroscopy. We confirm Mk 33Na as a double-lined O-type spectroscopic binary with a mass ratio q=0.63±0.02q = 0.63 \pm 0.02, e=0.33±0.01e = 0.33 \pm 0.01 and orbital period of 18.3±0.118.3 \pm 0.1 days, supporting the favoured period from X-ray observations obtained via the Tarantula -- Revealed by X-rays (T-ReX) survey. Disentangled spectra of each component provide spectral types of OC2.5 If* and O4 V for the primary and secondary respectively - unusually for an O supergiant the primary exhibits strong CIV 4658 emission and weak NV 4603-20, justifying the OC classification. Spectroscopic analysis favours extreme physical properties for the primary (Teff=50T_{\rm eff} = 50 kK, logL/L=6.15\log L/L_{\odot} = 6.15) with system components of M1=83±19MM_{1} = 83 \pm 19 M_{\odot} and M2=48±11MM_{2} = 48 \pm 11 M_{\odot} obtained from evolutionary models, which can be reconciled with results from our orbital analysis (e.g. M1sin3i=20.0±1.2MM_{1} \sin^3 i = 20.0 \pm 1.2 M_{\odot}) if the system inclination is 38\sim 38^{\circ} and it has an age of 0.9 to 1.6 Myr. This establishes Mk 33Na as one of the highest mass binary systems in the LMC, alongside other X-ray luminous early-type binaries Mk34 (WN5h+WN5h), R144 (WN5/6h+WN6/7h) and especially R139 (O6.5\,Iafc+O6\,Iaf).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2112.00022,
  title  = {Melnick 33Na: a very massive colliding wind binary system in 30 Doradus},
  author = {Joachim M. Bestenlehner and Paul A. Crowther and Patrick S. Broos and Andrew M. T. Pollock and Leisa K. Townsley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.00022},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 16 pages and 14 figures plus supplementary material

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