Related papers: Wind suppression by X-rays in Cygnus X-3
We study the stellar and wind properties of a sample of Galactic O dwarfs to track the conditions under which weak winds (i.e mass loss rates lower than ~ 1e-8 Msol/yr) appear. The sample is composed of low and high luminosity dwarfs…
The long-term X-ray lightcurves of classical supergiant X-ray binaries and supergiant fast X-ray transients show relatively similar super-orbital modulations, which are still lacking a sound interpretation. We propose that these modulations…
The accretion of matter by compact objects can be inhibited by radiation pressure if the luminosity exceeds the critical value, known as the Eddington limit. Discovery of ultraluminous X-ray sources has shown that accretion can proceed even…
We review recent developments regarding radiation driven mass loss from OB-stars. We first summarize the fundamental theoretical predictions, and then compare these to observational results (including the VLT-FLAMES survey of massive…
In Supergiant X-ray binaries (SgXB), a compact object captures a fraction of the wind of an O/B supergiant on a close orbit. Proxies exist to evaluate the efficiency of mass and angular momentum accretion but they depend so dramatically on…
Gamma-ray binaries are systems containing a massive star and a compact object that have been detected up to TeV energies. The high energy emission could result from particle acceleration in the region where the stellar wind from the massive…
Cygnus X-3 is a unique microquasar in the Galaxy hosting a Wolf-Rayet companion orbiting a compact object that most likely is a low-mass black hole. The unique source properties are likely due to the interaction of the compact object with…
The X-ray binary system Cygnus X-3 (4U 2030+40, V1521 Cyg) is luminous but enigmatic owing to the high intervening absorption. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy uniquely probes the dynamics of the photoionized gas in the system. In this…
Supergiant X-ray Binaries (SgXB) host a compact object, often a neutron star (NS), orbiting an evolved O/B star. Mass transfer proceeds through the intense line-driven wind of the stellar donor, a fraction of which is captured by the…
We have recently argued that the high-mass X-ray binary Cygnus~X-3 can accelerate cosmic rays (CR) beyond PeV energies. Meanwhile, the LHAASO collaboration published the measurement of an orbitally modulated photon flux from Cygnus~X-3…
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…
Vela X-1 is the archetype of high-mass X-ray binaries, composed of a neutron star and a massive B supergiant. The supergiant is a source of a strong radiatively-driven stellar wind. The neutron star sweeps up this wind, and creates a huge…
We present mid-infrared spectrophotometric results obtained with the ISO on the peculiar X-ray binary Cygnus X-3 in quiescence, at orbital phases 0.83 to 1.04. The 2.4-12 microns continuum radiation observed with ISOPHOT-S can be explained…
We study the usage of the X-ray light curve, column density toward the hard X-ray source, and emission measure (density square times volume), of the massive binary system Eta Carinae to determine the orientation of its semi-major axis. The…
Blue shifted absorption lines from highly ionised iron are seen in some high inclination X-ray binary systems, indicating the presence of an equatorial disc wind. This launch mechanism is under debate, but thermal driving should be…
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…
The microquasar Cygnus X-3 was detected at high energies by the gamma-ray space telescopes AGILE and Fermi. The gamma-ray emission is transient, modulated with the orbital period and seems related to major radio flares, i.e. to the…
We compare the hot star wind models calculated assuming older solar abundance determination with models calculated using the recently published values derived from 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres. We show that the use of new abundances…
Analyzing the spectra from Wolf-Rayet stars requires adequate non-LTE modeling of their expanding atmosphere. The numerical schemes for solving the radiative transfer in the co-moving frame of reference have been developed by Mihalas and…
Mass-loss rates currently in use for hot, massive stars have recently been seriously questioned, mainly because of the effects of wind clumping. We investigate the impact of clumping on diagnostic ultraviolet resonance and optical…