Related papers: Wind clumping and the wind-wind collision zone in …
Binary systems with an accreting compact object are a unique chance to investigate the strong, clumpy, line-driven winds of early type supergiants by using the compact object's X-rays to probe the wind structure. We analyze the…
We study X-ray spectra of Cyg X-3 from BeppoSAX, taking into account absorption and emission in the strong stellar wind of its companion. We find the intrinsic X-ray spectra are well modelled by disc blackbody emission, its upscattering by…
Mass loss through a stellar wind is an important physical process that steers the evolution of massive stars and controls the properties of their end-of-life products, such as the supernova type and the mass of compact remnants. For an…
We report the detection and monitoring of transient substructures in the radiation-driven winds of five massive, hot stars in different evolutionary stages. Clumping in the winds of these stars shows up as variable, narrow subpeaks…
An increasing number of early-type (O and Wolf-Rayet) colliding wind binaries (CWBs) is known to accelerate particles up to relativistic energies. In this context, non-thermal emission processes such as inverse Compton (IC) scattering are…
This paper discusses our ongoing efforts to characterize dust-enshrouded Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in the radio and infrared. We have used the Very Large Array to measure the broadband radio spectrum of WR stars in suspected binary systems and…
Some studies have claimed a universal stellar upper-mass limit of 150 Msun. A factor that is often overlooked is that there might be a difference between the current and initial masses of the most massive stars, as a result of mass loss. We…
The accretion onto the black hole in the system HDE 226868/Cygnus X-1 is powered by the strong line driven stellar wind of the O-type donor star. We study the X-ray properties of the stellar wind in the hard state of Cyg X-1 as determined…
We investigate the impact of optically thick clumping on stellar wind diagnostics in O supergiants and constrain wind parameters associated with porosity in velocity space. This is the first time the effects of optically thick clumping have…
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…
We report the discovery of a starburst-driven wind (superwind) from the starburst nucleus galaxy Mrk 1259. The estimated number ratio of Wolf-Rayet (WR) to O stars amounts to ~0.09. While the nuclear emission-line region is due to usual…
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…
Massive star winds are known to be responsible for X-ray emission arising from wind plasma heated by the strong shocks up to the temperature of 10$^6$--10$^7$ K in case of colliding wind binaries. We have investigated thermal and…
We analyzed archival Chandra X-ray observations of the central portion of the 30 Doradus region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The image contains 20 X-ray point sources with luminosities between $5 \times 10^{32}$ and $2 \times 10^{35}$ erg…
WR140 is the archetype long-period colliding wind binary (CWB) system, and is well known for dramatic variations in its synchrotron emission during its 7.9-yr, highly eccentric orbit. This emission is thought to arise from relativistic…
The X-ray emission from a simulated massive stellar cluster is investigated. The emission is calculated from a 3D hydrodynamical model which incorporates the mechanical feedback from the stellar winds of 3 O-stars embedded in a giant…
We report on new data, including four vacuum ultraviolet spectropolarimetric observations by the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment ("WUPPE") on the Astro-1 (one observation) and Astro-2 (three observations) shuttle…
Model atmosphere fits to high-resolution optical spectra of Wray 977 confirm the B hypergiant classification of the massive companion to the X-ray pulsar GX301-2. The models give a radius of 62 Rsun, an effective temperature of 18,100 K and…
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…
The stellar winds of the massive stars in high-mass microquasars are thought to be inhomogeneous. The interaction of these inhomogeneities, or clumps, with the jets of these objects may be a major factor in gamma-ray production. Our goal is…