Related papers: Probing clumpy stellar winds with a neutron star
Contemporary radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the AGNs predicts presence of the hot and strong accretion disk wind, which gets unstable far from the central region and turns into gas clumps. These inner-wind and outer clumps may…
It has been proposed multiple times to use the neutron star (NS) in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) as an orbiting X-ray probe embedded in the wind-fed of its supergiant (SG) companion in order to constrain the stellar line-driven wind…
Small-scale inhomogeneities, or `clumping', in the winds of hot, massive stars are conventionally included in spectral analyses by assuming optically thin clumps. To reconcile investigations of different diagnostics using this microclumping…
In this paper we survey the theory of wind accretion in high mass X-ray binaries hosting a magnetic neutron star and a supergiant companion. We concentrate on the different types of interaction between the inflowing wind matter and the…
Thanks to the high sensitivity of the instruments on board the XMM-Newton and Chandra satellites, it has become possible to explore the properties of the X-ray emission from hot subdwarfs. The small but growing sample of hot subdwarfs…
Context: The INTEGRAL mission has led to the discovery of a new type of supergiant X-ray binaries (SGXBs), whose physical properties differ from those of previously known SGXBs. Those sources are in the course of being unveiled by means of…
We report results from an investigation at hard X-rays (above 18 keV) and soft X-rays (below 10 keV) of a sample of X-ray transients located on the Galactic plane and detected with the bursticity method, as reported in the latest 1,000…
The study of soft X-ray emission of 38 X-ray selected galaxy clusters observed by ROSAT PSPC indicates that the soft excess phenomenon may be a common occurrence in galaxy clusters. Excess soft X-ray radiation, above the contribution from…
In wind-powered X-ray binaries, the radiatively driven stellar wind from the primary may be inhibited by the X-ray irradiation. This creates the feedback that limits the X-ray luminosity of the compact secondary. Wind inhibition might be…
LS I +61 303 and LS 5039 are exceptionally rare examples of HMXBs with MeV-TeV emission, making them two of only five known or proposed "gamma-ray binaries". There has been disagreement within the literature over whether these systems are…
Swift is shedding new light on the phenomenon of Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXTs), a recently discovered class of High-Mass X-ray Binaries, whose optical counterparts are O or B supergiants, and whose X-ray outbursts are about 10000…
We have recently proposed that supercritical colliding wind binaries (SCWBs) are suitable scenarios for particle acceleration and nonthermal radiation. In these X-ray binary systems (XRBs), the wind from the companion star collides with the…
A significant fraction of high-mass X-ray binaries are supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs). The prime model for the physics governing their X-ray behaviour suggests that the winds of donor OB supergiants are magnetized. To investigate…
IGR J16479-4514 is a Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient (SFXT), a new class of High Mass X-ray Binaries, whose number is rapidly growing thanks to the observations of the Galactic plane performed with the INTEGRAL satellite. IGR J16479-4514…
Towards the end of their evolution hot massive stars develop strong stellar winds and appear as emission line stars, such as WR stars or LBVs. The quantitative description of the mass loss in these important pre-SN phases is hampered by…
Extreme helium stars are very rare low-mass supergiants in a late stage of evolution. They are probably contracting to become white dwarfs following a violent phase of evolution which caused them to become hydrogen-deficient giants,…
Supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs) are high mass X-ray binaries associated with OB supergiant companions and characterised by an X-ray flaring behaviour whose dynamical range reaches 5 orders of magnitude on timescales of a few…
In the past fifteen years a new generation of X-ray satellites led to the discovery of a subclass of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) with supergiant companions and a peculiar transient behaviour: supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs).…
Binary systems with an accreting compact object are a unique chance to investigate the strong, clumpy, line-driven winds of early type supergiants by using the compact object's X-rays to probe the wind structure. We analyze the…
The INTEGRAL satellite has revealed a major population of supergiant High Mass X-ray Binaries in our Galaxy, revolutionizing our understanding of binary systems and their evolution. This population, constituted of a compact object orbiting…