Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jun 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007mnras.378..681v&link_type=abstract
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 378, Issue 2, pp. 681-690.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
3
Turbulence, Binaries: General
Scientific paper
In this paper we propose that the observed unpulsed X-ray emission in AE Aquarii is the result of a very tenuous hot corona associated with the secondary star, which is pumped magnetohydrodynamically by the propeller action of the fast rotating white dwarf. It is shown that the closed coronal field of the secondary star envelops a substantial portion of the binary system, including the fast rotating magnetized white dwarf. This implies that the propeller outflow of material in AE Aquarii is initiated inside an enveloping magnetic cavity. The outflow crossing the secondary dead-zone field constitutes a βgen = (8πρv2esc/B2) >> 1 plasma, acting as a magnetohydrodynamic generator resulting in the induction of field-aligned currents in these closed magnetospheric circuits where βcir = (8πnkT/B2) << 1. The Ohmic heating of the coronal circuit can readily account for a Tx >= 107 K plasma in the coronal flux tubes connecting the generator and the stellar surface. Further, the bremsstrahlung losses of the thermal electrons in the coronal circuit can readily drive the observed unpulsed X-ray luminosity of Lx ~ 1031 ergs -1, which correlates with the luminosity and relatively large source implied by recent XMM-Newton observations.
Meintjes Pieter J.
Venter L. A.
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