Related papers: Ultraviolet Spectropolarimetry with Polstar: Massi…
Massive protostars attain high luminosities as they are actively accreting and the radiation pressure exerted on the gas in the star's atmosphere may launch isotropic high-velocity winds. These winds will collide with the surrounding gas…
The process of mass-exchange between the components of High Mass X-ray Binary (HMXB) systems with neutron stars undergoing wind-fed accretion is discussed. The X-ray luminosity of these systems allows us to evaluate the mass capture rate by…
I discuss some of the important aspects of the phenomena of colliding winds in massive binary star systems with a particular focus on WR140.
Although rare, massive stars, being the main sources of ionizing radiation, chemical enrichment and mechanical energy in the Galaxy, are the most important objects of the stellar population. This review presents the many different aspects…
Clumping in the winds of massive stars may significantly reduce empirical mass-loss rates, and which in turn may have a large impact on our understanding of massive star evolution. Here, we investigate wind-clumping through the linear…
We present theoretical X-ray line profiles from a range of model colliding wind systems. In particular, we investigate the effects of varying the stellar mass-loss rates, the wind speeds, and the viewing orientation. We find that a wide…
Massive stars play a major role in the evolution of their host galaxies, and serve as important probes of the distant Universe. It has been established that the majority of massive stars reside in close binaries and will interact with their…
Context. Colliding winds in massive binaries are able to accelerate particles up to relativistic speeds as the result of the interaction between the winds of the different stellar components. HD 167971 exhibits this phenomenology which…
A major outstanding problem in stellar astrophysics lies in understanding the wind generation mechanism by which evolved giants lose mass. Phase-resolved observations of eclipsing symbiotic binary systems, containing a mass-losing giant and…
One of the main properties of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars is a very intense outflow of gas. No less than 40\% \ of WR stars belong to binary systems. Young massive O and B stars are the secondary components of such systems. OB stars also have an…
In this paper we propose and examine a physical mechanism which can lead to the generation of noise in the mass accretion rate of low mass X-ray binaries on time-scales comparable to the orbital period of the system. We consider modulations…
Massive stars play an important role in explaining the cosmic ray spectrum below the knee, possibly even up to the ankle, i.e. up to energies of 1e15 eV or 1e18.5 eV, respectively. In particular, Supernova Remnants are discussed as one of…
X-ray emission is ubiquitous among massive stars. In the last decade, X-ray observations revolutionized our perception of stellar winds but opened a Pandora's box of urgent problems. X-rays penetrating stellar winds suffer mainly continuum…
Hot stars are the main source of ionization of the interstellar medium and its enrichment due to heavy elements. Constraining the physical conditions of their environments is crucial to understand how these stars evolve and their impact on…
Important insights into the formation, structure, evolution and environment of all types of stars can be obtained through the measurement of their winds and possible magnetospheres. However, this has hardly been done up to now mainly…
Many open questions remain about massive stars, for example about their evolution, their wind, and their maximum mass at formation. These issues could be ideally adressed by the Pollux UV spectropolarimeter onboard LUVOIR. Here we present…
Abundance anomalies observed in globular cluster stars indicate pollution with material processed by hydrogen burning. Two main sources have been suggested: asymptotic giant branch stars and massive stars rotating near the break-up limit.…
About ten percent of all OB stars show strong, large-scale surface magnetic fields. The interaction of the magnetic field and the wind is believed to be the cause for the X-ray emission shown by these objects. We therefore run numerical…
A large fraction of stars in binary systems are expected to undergo mass and angular momentum exchange at some point in their evolution, which can drastically alter the chemical and dynamical properties and fates of the systems. Interaction…
Compression of the stellar winds from rapidly rotating hot stars is described by the wind compression model. However, it was also shown that rapid rotation leads to rotational distortion of the stellar surface, resulting in the appearance…