A new paradigm for the X-rays from O stars

Details A new paradigm for the X-rays from O stars A new paradigm for the X-rays from O stars

Nov 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005mshe.work...35p&link_type=abstract

"Proceedings of "Massive Stars and High-Energy Emission in OB Associations", a workshop of the JENAM 2005, "Distant Worlds", hel

Physics

1

Scientific paper

XMM-Newton observations of zeta Orionis suggest a new framework for the interpretation of the X-ray spectra of hot stars. The broad, slightly asymmetric lines all have the same velocity profile and probably originate in collisionless shocks behind which the exchange of energy between ions and electrons is so slow that electron heating does not take place, reducing the continuum. The spectrum is excited instead by protons with the randomized ion velocity dispersion accounting for the line widths. X-ray spectra in both single and binary stars are likely to be determined by the amount of post-shock electron heating: magnetically-confined plasma can evolve to high electron temperatures while in single stars this does not take place. The long mean-free path for Coulomb energy exchange suggests a minimum scale length for any structures in stellar winds, throwing into doubt the large-scale development of instability-driven shocks.

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