RXTE, Swift & NICER obs. of WR 140

DOI

The long-period, highly eccentric Wolf-Rayet star binary system WR140 has exceptionally well-determined orbital and stellar parameters. Bright, variable X-ray emission is generated in shocks produced by the collision of the winds of the WC7pd+O5.5fc component stars. We discuss the variations in the context of the colliding-wind model using broadband spectrometry from the RXTE, Swift, and NICER observatories obtained over 20yr and nearly 1000 observations through three consecutive 7.94yr orbits, including three periastron passages. The X-ray luminosity varies as expected with the inverse of the stellar separation over most of the orbit; departures near periastron are produced when cooling shifts to excess optical emission in CIII{lambda}5696 in particular. We use X-ray absorption to estimate mass-loss rates for both stars and to constrain the system morphology. The absorption maximum coincides closely with the inferior conjunction of the WC star and provides evidence of the ion-reflection mechanism that underlies the formation of collisionless shocks governed by magnetic fields probably generated by the Weibel instability. Comparisons with K-band emission and HeI{lambda}10830 absorption show that both are correlated after periastron with the asymmetric X-ray absorption. Dust appears within a few days of periastron, suggesting formation within shocked gas near the stagnation point. The X-ray flares seen in {eta} Car have not occurred in WR 140, suggesting the absence of large-scale wind inhomogeneities. Relatively constant soft emission revealed during the X-ray minimum is probably not from recombining plasma entrained in outflowing shocked gas.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.19230191
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/923/191
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/923/191
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/923/191
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/923/191
Provenance
Creator Pollock A.M.T.; Corcoran M.F.; Stevens I.R.; Russell C.M.P.; Hamaguchi K.,Williams P.M.; Moffat A.F.J.; Weigelt G.; Shenavrin V.; Richardson N.D.,Espinoza D.; Drake S.A.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2023
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Cosmology; Natural Sciences; Physics; Stellar Astronomy