|
| | | | |
| | | |
| Stat |
Members: 3645
Articles: 2'506'133
Articles rated: 2609
27 April 2024 |
|
| | | | |
|
Article overview
| |
|
|
Stagnation and Infall of Dense Clumps in the Stellar Wind of tau Scorpii | | J. Christopher Howk
; Joseph Cassinelli
; Jon Bjorkman
; Henny Lamers
; | | Date: |
16 Dec 1999 | | Journal: | 2000, ApJ, 534, 348 | | Subject: | astro-ph | | Affiliation: | JHU), Joseph Cassinelli (Wisc), Jon Bjorkman (Toledo), Henny Lamers (Utrecht | | Abstract: | Observations of the B0.2V star tau Scorpii have revealed unusual stellar wind characteristics: red-shifted absorption in the far-ultraviolet O VI resonance doublet up to +250 km/s, and extremely hard X-ray emission implying gas at temperatures in excess of 10^7 K. We describe a phenomenological model to explain these properties. We assume the wind of tau Sco consists of two components: ambient gas in which denser clumps are embedded. The clumps are optically thick in the UV resonance lines primarily responsible for accelerating the ambient wind. The reduced acceleration causes the clumps to slow and even infall, all the while being confined by the ram pressure of the outflowing ambient wind. We calculate detailed trajectories of the clumps in the ambient stellar wind, accounting for a line radiation driving force and the momentum deposited by the ambient wind in the form of drag. We show these clumps will fall back towards the star with velocities of several hundred km/sec for a broad range of initial conditions. The infalling clumps produce X-ray emitting plasmas with temperatures in excess of (1-6)x10^7 K in bow shocks at their leading edge. The infalling material explains the peculiar red-shifted absorption wings seen in the O VI doublet. The required mass loss in clumps is 3% - 30% ofthe total mass loss rate. The model developed here can be generally applied to line-driven outflows with clumps or density irregularities. (Abstract Abridged) | | Source: | arXiv, astro-ph/9912360 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
|
|
No review found.
Did you like this article?
Note: answers to reviews or questions about the article must be posted in the forum section.
Authors are not allowed to review their own article. They can use the forum section.
browser Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
|
| |
|
|
|
|
News, job offers and information for researchers and scientists:
| |
REGISTER