Multi-wavelength Observations of Colliding Stellar Winds Mike - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Multi-wavelength Observations of Colliding Stellar Winds Mike Corcoran Universities Space Research Association and NASA/GSFC Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics Collaborators: Julian Pittard (Leeds) Ian Stevens (U. Birmingham) David Henley (U. Birmingham) Andy Pollock (ESA) X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Outline of Talk • Statement of the Problem • Massive Stars as Colliding Wind Labs – Wind Characteristics – Types of Interactions • A (non) canonical Example: Eta Car • New high resolution tools • Colliding winds in Single Stars • Conclusions X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Statement of a General Problem: • An “engine” loses mass into its surroundings • the surroundings are “messy” and the outflow collides with nearby “stuff” • by observing the results of this collision, we can learn about the engine, its environment, and the relation between the engine and the environment • Concentrate on: Massive outflows from massive (non-exploding) stars • neglect interesting phenomena like magneto-hydrodynamic interactions in winds of lower mass stars and AGB X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Massive Stars (10<M/M<100): Colliding Wind Labs • Wind parameters (mass loss rates, wind velocities) can be characterized (UV, radio) P-Cygni profiles Flux Wavelength V ∞ = ( ∆λ/λ) c •Stellar parameters (masses, temperatures, radii, rotational velocity) can often be estimated •They are nearby •Generate X-ray & Radio emission X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Stellar Wind Characteristics • For Massive Stars Near the Main Sequence •Lots of energy to accelerate particles and heat gas •Evolutionary scenario: O ⇒ WR ( ⇒ LBV) ⇒ WR ⇒ SN •Winds evolve as the star evolves: X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Types of Interactions: • Stellar outflows can collide with – pre-existing clouds – earlier ejecta – winds from a companion – a companion – itself • All these collisions can produce observable emission from shocked gas Typical velocities 100-1000 km/s ⇒ T ~ 10 6 K • X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

A (non)canonical example: Eta Carinae • Eta Car: perhaps the Galaxy’s most massive & luminous star (5 × 10 6 L ; 100 M ; cf. the Pistol Star, LBV1806-20) • An eruptive star (erupted in 1843; 1890; 1930?; now?) • shows beautiful ejecta: outer debris field and the “Homunculus” nebula Homunculus forms “mini”-Eruption Great Eruption X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Eta Car and the Homunculus the Paddle Humphrey and Davidson 1994 The Skirt The Star the “jet” Lobes Artist rendering of Eta Carina based on Very Large Telescope Interferometer HST/ACS image of Eta Car (Courtesy the HST TREASURY PROJECT) (ESO) observations X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Eta Car: From the Outside In The Outer Ejecta Outer debris W condensations ejected a few “Jet” hundred years Homunculus before the Great Eruption shocks from ejecta/CSM S Ridge collision “Strings” E Condensations HST/WFPC2 [N II] 6583 (courtesy N. Smith) X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

The Stellar Emission 1992: contemporaneous radio & X-ray observations saw a rapid brightening of the star 92 Jun 93 Jan Inner: optically thick 0.5-1.0 keV thermal 1 arcmin. Outer: E>1.6 keV optically thin thermal; NT? 3 cm. continuum (Duncan et al. 1995) X-ray continuum (Corcoran et al. 1995) X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Continued Variability • Monitoring since 1992 in radio and X-ray regimes showed continuous variability • Damineli (1996) showed evidence of a 5.5 year period from ground-based spectra • apparent simultaneous variations in ground-based optical, IR, radio and X-rays suggest periodically varying emission: colliding winds? • one star or two? X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Radio and X-ray Monitoring of Eta Car 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 -10 3.0x10 RXTE PCU2 L1 scaled data Chandra 2.5 Observed Flux (2-10 keV) XMM-Newton 2.0 1.5 ROSAT 1.0 0.5 ASCA 0.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 Phase X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Eta Car’s Latest Eclipse (June 29, 2003): Caught in the Act 40 May 17 Around the time of the X- May 26 PCU2 L1 net counts PCU2 L1 net counts from quicklook data Previous cycle ray eclipse, snapshot "Flares" June 15 30 monitoring of Eta Car’s X- End of XMM Visibility ray emission by Chandra -1 Net PCU2 L1 counts s and the XMM-Newton X- 20 ray Observatories XMM 10 June 29 previous cycle INTEGRAL 0 1.90 1.95 2.00 2.05 2.10 Orbital Phase Nov 20 2000 Oct 16 2002 May 3 2003 Jun 16 2003 Jul 20 2003 Sep 26 2003 X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Absorption variations 35 Column Densities Interval of Enhanced Absorption Chandra 25 XMM-Newton 30 SAX (from previous cycle) ASCA (from previous cycle) RXTE 20 25 PCU2 L1 rate (cts s PCU2 L1 rate -2 ) 22 cm 20 N H (10 15 15 -1 ) 10 10 5 5 1.80 1.85 1.90 1.95 2.00 2.05 2.10 Phase Variation of observed X-ray Variation of X-ray spectrum from XMM-Newton observations flux and column density during 2003 X-ray minimum X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

X-ray “flares” • Frequent monitoring of the X-ray flux of Eta Car with RXTE showed unexpected quasi-periodic spikes occurring ~every 3 months • get stronger and more frequent on approach to X-ray minimum Phase 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 40 PCU2 L1 Net rate PCU2 L1 Net rate (realtime data) "flares" 150 Time to next X-ray Peak (days) 30 Time to Next Flare (days) -1 Net PCU2 counts s 100 20 50 10 0 0 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 Time (years) Red points show the time between X-ray peaks. X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

A Simple CWB Model • X-rays are generated in the shock where the massive, slow wind from Eta Car smashes into and overcomes the thin, fast wind from the companion force balance determines which wind dominates Intrinsic X-ray luminosity varies the square of the density x volume cooler Observed flux is proportional to intrinsic flux modified by absorption hotter In eccentric orbit, intrinsic L x a maximum at slow dense wind fast thin wind periastron X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Comparisons to the Simple Model 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 -10 3.0x10 RXTE PCU2 L1 scaled data 2.5 Observed Flux (2-10 keV) Chandra XMM-Newton Model CWB curve 2.0 1.5 ROSAT 1.0 May 2003 20 Apr 2003 0.5 Start of totality Mar 2003 Jun 2003 Dec 15 1997 ASCA Feb 2003 Jan 2003 0.0 10 June 29,2003 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2002 Distance (AU) Phase 1997 Maximum (Nov 9) 2001 0 2003 Maximum (May26) July 12, 2003 To Earth Recovery from optical minimum 2000 • General trends are reproduced; -10 1999 End of totality Recovery Jan 23 1998 Sep 23, 2003 details (secular increases in L x , Recovery End of Totality Mar 6 1998 Sep 10 2003 -20 Orbit of Secondary relative to Primary short-period variability) not (based on elements in Corcoran et al. 2001) -10 0 10 20 30 40 • requires extra absorption to match Distance (AU) Derived orbit of companion around width of minimum Eta Car, based on the model lightcurve X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

X-ray Grating Spectroscopy: Measuring the Flow Geometry • Nearby CWB systems are bright enough for X-ray grating spectroscopy • line diagnostics (width, centroids, ratios) measure characteristics of the material flow in the shock, the location of the shock between the stars, the orientation of the shock cone X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Comparison: Apastron vs. Quadrature apastron quadrature May 2003 20 Apr 2003 • Decrease in f/i ratio Start of totality Jun 2003 Mar 2003 Dec 15 1997/ Jun 27 2003? Feb 2003 10 Jan 2003 2002 • broader, double-peaked Distance (AU) 1997 Maximum (Nov 9) 2001 0 2003 Maximum? (May31) July 12, 2003 To Earth lines 2000 -10 1999 End of totality • Doppler shifts? Jan 23 1998/Aug 5 2003? recovery Mar 6 1998/ Sep 16 2003? -20 Orbit of Secondary relative to Primary (based on elements in Corcoran et al. 2001) -10 0 10 20 30 40 Distance (AU) X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Spatial Morphology (1): Resolving the shock structure WR 146, WR 147: composite radio spectra, have been resolved in the radio, NT emission from a bow shock NT bow shock Thermal WR147 wind WR 147: Williams et al (1997) Pittard et al. (2002) X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004

Resolving Confusion in The Trifid Nebula Rho et al. 2004 ROSAT & ASCA found HD 164492A (O7.5III) a bright hard source ionizes the nebula coincident with the star …but Chandra resolved the O star as a soft source; hard source is an optically faint object to the south Rho et al. 2001 X-Ray and Radio Connections Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3-6 Feb 2004