Computer Science
Scientific paper
Jun 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008phdt........23m&link_type=abstract
Proquest Dissertations And Theses 2008. Section 0031, Part 0606 199 pages; [Ph.D. dissertation].United States -- California: Un
Computer Science
X-Ray Sources, Galactic Center, Massive Stars, Star Formation, Emission Lines
Scientific paper
The purpose of this thesis is to discover unidentified members of the massive stellar population in the Galactic center, using a novel selection technique: the identification of infrared counterparts to hard X-ray sources. This method provides a means of distinguishing a subset of hot, massive stars from the more numerous cool giants that dominate the stellar population of the central Galaxy, providing potential beacons toward undiscovered regions of massive star formation, and the remains of tidally-disrupted stellar clusters. Hard-X-ray selection also highlights exotic species of massive star, including Wolf-Rayet (WR) binaries with colliding supersonic winds, and wind-accreting neutron stars and black holes in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs).
Massive stars were sought in the central 300 pc of the Galaxy by cross- correlating X-ray and IR point-source catalogs. Approximately 1% of the 6067 Chandra X-ray sources near the Galactic center have near-infrared matches with K s < 15.6 mag. A spectroscopic campaign was launched to investigate the most promising candidates; 17 new WR/O stars were discovered throughout the inner 300 pc. Most of the massive stars exhibit infrared excess, attributable to free-free and dust emission. In many cases, mid-IR images exhibit strong interaction of the X-ray sources with the Galactic center medium. Most of the newly found sources have no apparent association with a dense stellar cluster, although several stars lie near the Quintuplet cluster and may have escaped from it.
The X-ray emission of the massive stars is consistent with thermal emission from plasma at temperatures above 2 keV, not a ubiquitous feature of single massive stars. The X-ray data are consistent with models of strong WR/O winds colliding with the surfaces of binary companions, but are also consistent with known, low-luminosity HMXBs. Future experiments are discussed, aimed at unambiguously determining the masses of the stellar components, and surveying the environments of confirmed massive stellar X-ray sources for additional massive stars. The overall rarity of hard X-ray-emitting massive stars among stellar populations suggests the presence of a massive stellar population, comparable in size to that within the known stellar clusters in the Galactic center.
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