Related papers: The dominant X-ray wind in massive star binaries
We describe here the nature, formation and evolution of the supergiant high mass X-ray binary (HMXB) population, i.e. systems accreting the stellar wind of supergiant stars. There are now many new observations, from the high-energy side…
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 describe X-ray production in the atmospheres of hot, early-type stars in the framework of a ``stochastic shock model''. The extended envelope of a star is assumed to possess numerous X-ray emitting ``hot'' zones that are produced by…
Colliding winds of massive binaries have long been considered as potential sites of non-thermal high-energy photon production. This is motivated by the detection of non-thermal spectra in the radio band, as well as by correlation studies of…
Colliding winds in massive binaries generate X-ray-bright shocks, synchrotron radio emission, and sometimes even dusty "pinwheel" spirals. We report the first X-ray detections of the dusty WC+O binary system WR 112 from Chandra and Swift,…
Stars interact with their planets through gravitation, radiation, and magnetic fields. Although magnetic activity decreases with time, reducing associated high-energy (e.g., coronal XUV emission, flares), stellar winds persist throughout…
X-ray binaries are binary star systems in which a compact object (a neutron star or a black hole) and a relatively normal star orbit a common centre of mass. Since the discovery of X-ray binaries with the first X-ray telescopes in the…
We have developed a stellar wind model for OB supergiants to investigate the effects of accretion from a clumpy wind on the luminosity and variability properties of High Mass X-ray Binaries. Assuming that the clumps are confined by ram…
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…
We report on the presence of very rapid hard X-ray variability in the $\gamma$-ray binary LS I +61 303. The results were obtained by analysing NuSTAR data, which show two achromatic strong flares on ks time-scales before apastron. The…
Several colliding-wind massive binaries are known to be non-thermal emitters in the radio domain. This constitutes strong evidence for the fact that an efficient particle acceleration process is at work in these objects. The acceleration…
We consider a new mechanism for the removal of the angular momentum from an X-ray binary system and the change in its orbital period - the mass loss in the form of a wind from an accretion disc. Both observations and models predict powerful…
In this work the thermal emission over cm to sub-mm wavelengths from the winds in short-period O+O-star binaries is investigated (potential non-thermal emission is presently ignored). The calculations are based on three-dimensional…
The stellar winds of massive stars show large changes in mass-loss rates and terminal velocities during their evolution from O-star through the Luminous Blue Variable phase to the Wolf-Rayet phase. The luminosity remains approximately…
Wind-blown bubbles, from those around massive O and Wolf-Rayet stars, to superbubbles around OB associations and galactic winds in starburst galaxies, have a dominant role in determining the structure of the Interstellar Medium. X-ray…
Our understanding of massive star evolution is in flux, due to recent upheavals in our view of mass loss, and observations of a high binary fraction among O-type stars. Mass-loss rates for standard metallicity-dependent winds of hot stars…
We discuss a scenario for the very faint X-ray transients as X-ray binaries fed by winds from detached M-dwarf donors in binary stars within the "period gap" -- the range of periods where donor stars have become fully convective, and…
Recent spectropolarimetric surveys of bright, hot stars have found that ~10% of OB-type stars contain strong (mostly dipolar) surface magnetic fields (~kG). The prominent paradigm describing the interaction between the stellar winds and the…
WR 140 is a long-period, highly eccentric Wolf-Rayet star binary system with exceptionally well-determined orbital and stellar parameters. Bright, variable X-ray emission is generated in shocks produced by the collision of the winds of the…
The theory of radiation-driven winds succeeded in describing terminal velocities and mass loss rates of massive stars. However, for A-type supergiants the standard m-CAK solution predicts values of mass loss and terminal velocity higher…