Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Sep 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...432..770u&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 432, no. 2, p. 770-784
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
9
Absorption Spectra, Binary Stars, Line Spectra, O Stars, Wolf-Rayet Stars, Orbital Elements, Plasma Cooling, Radial Velocity, Spectrograms
Scientific paper
Radial-velocity observations of the Wolf-Rayet spectroscopic binary HD 190918 obtained from 25 spectrograms covering the yellow-green range are presented. In general three absorption lines were measured to determine the line-of-sight motion of the O star and one unblended emission line, He II lambda 5411.52, for the Wolf-Rayet star. A sharp C III lambda 5696 emission line, as seen in most Of type spectra, was detected on each spectrogram and measured. This line follows the predicted radial-velocity curve of the O star fairly well when the radial velocities are shifted by an appropriate amount. New orbital elements have been found for the O star, for the Wolf-Rayet star, and for the C III emission line. The estimated systemic velocity is -20.9 +/- 0.7 km/s for the O star, +70.1 +/- 4.6 km/s for the Wolf-Rayet star, and -34.2 +/- 1.5 km/s for the sharp C III emission line. The systemic velocity of the O star is reasonable considering the expected line-of-sight component of motion due to the peculiar motion of Population I stars, Galactic rotation, and reflex solar motion. We adopt the O-star systemic velocity as a fiducial radial velocity for the binary HD 190918. This shows that the He II lambda 5411 line of the WN4.5 star is displaced longward by 91.1 km/s, while the sharp C III line appears to be formed in a body of gas moving toward the observer by an additional 13.3 km/s. We discuss the implications of each possible solution including the swath traversed by the O star in the outer part of the line emitting region of the Wolf-Rayet star and the possible generation of X-rays. We conclude that our observations of the sharp C III lambda 5696 emission line confirm the hydrodynamic models of Stevens, Blondin, and Pollock which show that extensive, chaotic tongues of cooling plasma are formed perpendicular to the line joining the stars in the case of colliding winds in massive binary systems. We describe observational tests which may be used to confirm what type of model is best for the line-emitting region of a Wolf-Rayet star.
Hill Grant Michael
Underhill Anne. B.
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