The shadow wind in high-mass X-ray binaries

Details The shadow wind in high-mass X-ray binaries The shadow wind in high-mass X-ray binaries

Nov 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...435..756b&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 435, no. 2, p. 756-766

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

54

Accretion Disks, Computerized Simulation, Deposition, Hydrodynamics, Stellar Winds, X Ray Binaries, X Ray Sources, Luminosity, Photoionization, X Ray Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present hydrodynamic simulations of the most X-ray luminous high-mass X-ray binary systems, such as Cen X-3 and SMC X-1. These models illustrate the presence of both a normal radiatively driven wind confined to the X-ray shadow of the primary star -- a shadow wind -- and a thermally driven wind excited by the X-ray heating of the primary's stellar surface -- an X-ray-excited wind. The X-ray flux in these systems is sufficiently intense that any circumstellar gas exposed to the X-ray source will be highly photoionized. These extreme ionization conditions prevent the formation of a normal radiatively driven wind from the irradiated surface of the primary, but such a wind can still form on the shadowed side of the primary. Orbital rotation can then bring this shadow wind into the line of sight toward the X-ray source, enhancing the column density of the wind seen near eclipse egress. Furthermore, such a high X-ray flux can also excite a thermal wind from the irradiated surface of the primary. Again, orbital rotation tends to deflect the wind, this time leading to an enhanced column density near eclipse ingress.

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