Related papers: WR 143: A Wolf-Rayet Binary
Context: The recent detection of very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from the direction of the W43 star-forming region prompted us to investigate its stellar population in detail in an attempt to see wether or not it is possible an…
The hot WN star WR2 (HD6327) has been claimed to have many singular characteristics. To explain its unusually rounded and relatively weak emission line profiles, it has been proposed that WR2 is rotating close to break-up with a…
We present the analysis of the optical variability of the early, nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet (WR) star WR7. The analysis of multi-sector Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) light curves and high-resolution spectroscopic observations…
We present refined color-color selection criteria for identifying Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars using available mid infrared (MIR) photometry from WISE in combination with near infrared (NIR) photometry from 2MASS. Using a sample of spectrally…
We report on interferometric observations with the CHARA Array of two classical Wolf-Rayet stars in suspected binary systems, namely WR 137 and WR 138. In both cases, we resolve the component stars to be separated by a few milliarcseconds.…
Classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are hot, massive stars with depleted hydrogen. At low metallicities (Z), WN3-type WR stars have relatively thin winds and are major sources of ionizing flux. The detection of high-ionization emission lines in…
We present results of a Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating (HETG) observation of the carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet (WR) star WR48a. These are the first high-resolution spectra of this object in X-rays. Blue-shifted centroids of the spectral…
The WN3/O3 Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars were discovered as part of our survey for WRs in the Magellanic Clouds. The WN3/O3s show the emission lines of a high-excitation WN star and the absorption lines of a hot O-type star, but our prior work has…
IC 10 X-1 is an eclipsing high mass X-ray binary (HMXB) containing a stellar-mass black hole (BH) and a Wolf-Rayet (WR) donor star with an orbital period of P = 34.9 hr. This binary belongs to a group of systems that can be the progenitors…
Gravitationally bound companions to stars enable determinations of their masses, and offer clues to their formation, evolution and dynamical histories. So motivated, we have carried out a speckle imaging survey of eight of the nearest and…
In recent years, much studies have focused on determining the origin of the large-scale line-profile and/or photometric patterns of variability displayed by some apparently single Wolf-Rayet stars, with the existence of an unseen…
We report on the serendipitous discovery of the first central star of a planetary nebula (PN) that mimics the helium- and nitrogen-rich WN sequence of massive Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. The central star of IC 4663 (PN G346.2-08.2) is dominated…
Wolf-Rayet stars (WRs) are evolved massive stars in the brief stage before they undergo core collapse. Not only are they rare, but they also can be particularly difficult to find due to the high extinction in the Galactic plane. This paper…
We present a statistical analysis of the He ii 4686 emission line in the spectra of the black hole and Wolf-Rayet (WR) star of the high-mass X-ray binary IC10 X-1. This line is visibly skewed, and the third moment (skewness) varies with the…
We present ISOPHOT spectrophotometric observations of SS433 at four different orbital phases in 1996 and 1997. The HeI+HeII lines in both spectra of SS433 and the Wolf-Rayet star WR147, a WN8+BO5 binary system, closely match. The 2.5-12…
Different theoretical models predict VHE gamma-ray emission to arise in tight binary star systems (high mass-loss and high wind speeds), which has not been confirmed experimentally so far. Here we present the first bounds on the VHE…
We report the discovery of a relatively faint (V=15.5) early-type WN star in the SMC. The line strength and width of He II lambda 4686 emission is similar to that of the other SMC WNs, and the presense of N V lambda 4603,19 emission…
The SMC harbours a class of hot nitrogen-sequence Wolf-Rayet stars (WNE) that display only relatively weak broad emission lines. This indicates low mass-loss rates and makes them also hard to detect. However, such stars are possible…
Context. A significant number of the Wolf-Rayet stars seem to be binary or multiple systems, but the nature of many of them is still unknown. Dedicated monitoring of WR stars favours the discovery of new systems. Aims. We explore the…
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…