Related papers: WR146 - observing the OB-type companion
Wolf-Rayet stars embody the final stable phase of the most massive stars immediately before their evolution is terminated in a supernova explosion. They are responsible for some of the most extreme and energetic phenomena in stellar…
Context: Recent gamma-ray observations of young star clusters revealed that stellar wind termination shocks accelerate particles, with the energy reservoir provided by the mechanical power of massive-star winds. Aims: Our goal is to…
Line-driven stellar winds are ubiquitous among hot massive stars. In some cases they can become so strong, that the whole star is cloaked by an optically thick wind. The strong outflow gives rise to large emission lines, defining the class…
Classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars mark an important stage in the late evolution of massive stars. As hydrogen-poor massive stars, these objects have lost their outer layers, while still losing further mass through strong winds indicated by…
We present an extended analysis of deep Chandra HETG observations of the WR+OB binary system WR 147 that was resolved into a double X-ray source (Zhekov & Park, 2010, ApJ, 709, L119). Our analysis of the profiles of strong emission lines…
Observations of the WC9+OB system WR 65 in the infrared show variations of its dust emission consistent with a period near 4.8~yr, suggesting formation in a colliding-wind binary (CWB) having an elliptical orbit. If we adopt the IR maximum…
With their emission-line dominated spectra, the appearance of Wolf-Rayet stars is shaped by their strong stellar winds. Yet, the physical mechanisms behind their high mass loss have long remained enigmatic. While we know nowadays that…
Aims: Non-thermal radio emission associated with massive stars is believed to arise from a wind-wind collision in a binary system. However, the evidence of binarity is still lacking in some cases, notably Cyg OB2 #9 Methods: For several…
Massive stars deeply influence their surroundings by their luminosity and the injection of kinetic energy. So far, they have mostly been studied with spatially unresolved observations, although evidence of geometrical complexity of their…
We report the discovery of weak yet hard X-ray emission from the Wolf-Rayet (WR) star WR142 with the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. Being of spectral subtype WO2, WR142 is a massive star in a very advanced evolutionary stage, short before its…
Recent results with the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) models have shown that Wolf-Rayet mass loss can be explained by radiative wind driving. An inspection of the galactic WR sample, however, reveals that a significant part of the observed WR…
The effects of nonequilibrium ionization are explicitly taken into account in a numerical model which describes colliding stellar winds (CSW) in massive binary sytems. This new model is used to analyze the most recent X-ray spectra of the…
The impact of FUSE upon the fundamental parameters of OB stars and Wolf-Rayet stars is reviewed. The stellar wind signatures available in the far-UV provide us with important additional diagnostics of effective temperature. Together with…
We present the results of a four-month, spectroscopic campaign of the Wolf-Rayet dust-making binary, WR137. We detect only small-amplitude, random variability in the CIII5696 emission line and its integrated quantities (radial velocity,…
The striking broad emission line spectroscopic appearance of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars has long defied analysis, due to the extreme physical conditions within their line and continuum forming regions. Recently, model atmosphere studies have…
We report precision ground-based broadband optical intensity and linear-polarisation light-curves for the sky's brightest WN8 star, WR40. WN8 stars are notorious for their high level of variability, stemming from stochastic clumps in their…
Several long-period binaries with a carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet star and an O star produce dust in their wind collisions. In eccentric binaries, this is seen most strongly near periastron passage. The exact conditions leading to dust creation…
We present the results of an intensive photometric and spectroscopic monitoring campaign of the WN4 Wolf-Rayet (WR) star WR1=HD4004. Our broadband V photometry covering a timespan of 91 days shows variability with a period of…
In the colliding wind region of early-type binaries, electrons can be accelerated up to relativistic energies displaying power-law spectra, as demonstrated by the detection of non-thermal radio emission from several WR+OB systems. The…
Infrared imaging of the colliding-wind binary Apep has revealed a spectacular dust plume with complicated internal dynamics that challenges standard colliding-wind binary physics. Such challenges can be potentially resolved if a…