Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T06:49:55.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the formation of wind bow-shocks around OB runaway stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Lex Kaper ,
Fernando Comerón  and
Orly Barziv
Lex Kaper
Affiliation:
Astronomical Institute, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, NL-1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Fernando Comerón
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl Schwarzschild Str. 2, D-85748, Garching bei München, Germany
Orly Barziv
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl Schwarzschild Str. 2, D-85748, Garching bei München, Germany

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The interaction of the stellar wind of a supersonically moving massive star with its surrounding interstellar medium can result in the formation of an observable bow-shock. Recent studies at optical and infrared wavelengths indicate the presence of wind bow-shocks around several OB runaways, including the high-mass X-ray binary system Vela X-1. A large fraction of runaway stars do not seem to form wind bow-shocks. Obviously, when the local sound speed is high (∼ 100 km s−1), as is the case e.g., inside a hot superbubble, the (subsonic) space velocity would not be sufficient to form a bow-shock. Two-dimensional time-dependent hydrodynamical simulations indicate that the bow-shock is generally unstable; for certain combinations of ISM and wind parameters a bow-shock is not formed at all. The runaway nature of Wolf-Rayet stars in relation to the formation of wind bow-shocks is also discussed.

Type
Part 3. Interaction of Wolf-Rayet stars and other hot massive stars with their environment: colliding winds and ring nebulae
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 193: Wolf-Rayet Phenomena in Massive Stars and Starburst Galaxies , 1999 , pp. 316 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999 

References

Blaauw, A. 1961, Bull. Astr. Inst. Neth. 15, 265 Google Scholar
Blaauw, A. 1993, in: Cassinelli, J.P. & Churchwell, E.B. (eds.), Massive Stars: Their Lives in the Interstellar Medium, ASP-CS 35, 207 Google Scholar
Bomans, D.J., de Boer, K.S., Koornneef, J., Grevel, E.K. 1996, A&A 313, 101 Google Scholar
Chevalier, C., Ilovaisky, S. 1998, A&A 330, 201 Google Scholar
Comerón, F., Kaper, L. 1998, A&A 338, 273 Google Scholar
Comerón, F., Torra, J., Gómez, A.E. 1998, A&A 330, 975 Google Scholar
Gies, D.R. 1987, ApJS 64, 545 Google Scholar
Gies, D.R., Bolton, C.T. 1986, ApJS 61, 419 Google Scholar
Hansen, B.M.S., Phinney, E.S. 1997, MNRAS 291, 569 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaper, L., van Loon, J.Th., Augusteijn, T. et al. 1997, ApJ 475, L37 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moffat, A.F.J., Marchenko, S.V., Seggewiss, W., van der Hucht, K.A., et al. 1998, A&A 313, 949 Google Scholar
Philp, C.J., Evans, C.R., Leonard, P.J.T., Frale, D.A. 1996, AJ 111, 1220 Google Scholar
Poveda, A., et al. 1967, Bol. Obs. Ton. y Tac. 4, 860 Google Scholar
van Rensbergen, W., Vanbeveren, D., de Loore, C. 1996, A&A 305, 825 Google Scholar
Steele, I.A., Negueruela, I., Coe, M., Roche, P. 1998, MNRAS 297, L5 Google Scholar
Stone, R.C. 1991, AJ 102, 333 Google Scholar
Van Buren, D., McCray, R. 1988, ApJ 329, L93 Google Scholar
Van Buren, D., Noriega-Crespo, A., Dgani, R. 1995, AJ 110, 2914 Google Scholar
Wilkin, F.P. 1996, ApJ 459, L31 Google Scholar