Related papers: X-rays, clumping and stellar wind structures
Observations with powerful X-ray telescopes, such as XMM-Newton and Chandra, significantly advance our understanding of massive stars. Nearly all early-type stars are X-ray sources. Studies of their X-ray emission provide important…
We investigate the connections between the magnetic fields and the X-ray emission from massive stars. Our study shows that the X-ray properties of known strongly magnetic stars are diverse: while some comply to the predictions of the…
X-ray spectroscopy is a sensitive probe of stellar winds. X-rays originate from optically thin shock-heated plasma deep inside the wind and propagate outwards throughout absorbing cool material. Recent analyses of the line ratios from…
Magnetically confined winds of early-type stars are expected to be sources of bright and hard X-rays. To clarify the systematics of the observed X-ray properties, we have analyzed a large series of Chandra and XMM observations,…
Nearly all types of massive stars with radiatively driven stellar winds are X-ray sources that can be observed by the presently operating powerful X-ray telescopes. In this review I briefly address recent advances in our understanding of…
The Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray telescopes have led to numerous advances in the study and understanding of astrophysical X-ray sources. Particularly important has been the much increased spectral resolution of modern X-ray instrumentation.…
Strong winds from massive stars are a topic of interest to a wide range of astrophysical fields. In High-Mass X-ray Binaries the presence of an accreting compact object on the one side allows to infer wind parameters from studies of the…
The clumping of massive star winds is an established paradigm, which is confirmed by multiple lines of evidence and is supported by stellar wind theory. We use the results from time-dependent hydrodynamical models of the instability in the…
Mass loss is a key process in the evolution of massive stars, and must be understood quantitatively to be successfully included in broader astrophysical applications. In this review, we discuss various aspects of radiation driven mass loss,…
It is commonly adopted that X-rays from O stars are produced deep inside the stellar wind, and transported outwards through the bulk of the expanding matter which attenuates the radiation and affects the shape of emission line profiles. The…
The clumping of massive star winds is an established paradigm confirmed by multiple lines of evidence and supported by stellar wind theory. The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between detailed models of inhomogeneous stellar…
Most types of massive stars display X-ray emission that is affected by the properties of their stellar winds. Single non-magnetic OB stars have an X-ray luminosity that scales with their bolometric luminosity and their emission is thought…
A decade of X-ray stellar observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton has led to significant advances in our understanding of the physical processes at work in hot (magnetized) plasmas in stars and their immediate environment, providing new…
X-rays give direct evidence of instabilities, time-variable structure, and shock heating in the winds of O stars. The observed broad X-ray emission lines provide information about the kinematics of shock-heated wind plasma, enabling us to…
It is commonly adopted that X-rays from O stars are produced deep inside the stellar wind, and transported outwards through the bulk of the expanding matter which attenuates the radiation and affects the shape of emission line profiles.…
This review describes the evidence for small-scale structure, `clumping', in the radiation line-driven winds of hot, massive stars. In particular, we focus on examining to what extent simulations of the strong instability inherent to…
It is now well established that stellar winds of hot stars are fragmentary and that the X-ray emission from stellar winds has a strong contribution from shocks in winds. Chandra high spectral resolution observations of line profiles of O…
Massive stars drive powerful, supersonic winds via the radiative momentum associated with the thermal UV emission from their photospheres. Shock phenomena are ubiquitous in these winds, heating them to millions, and sometimes tens of…
Mass loss governs the evolution of massive stars and shapes the stellar surroundings. To quantify the impact of the stellar winds we need to know the exact mass-loss rates; however, empirical constraints on the rates are hampered by limited…
Recent discoveries have confirmed the existence of a large population of X-ray sources fuelled by accretion from the stellar wind of an OB supergiant. Such systems are powerful laboratories to study many aspects of astrophysics. Over the…