Journal article
UV spectropolarimetry with Polstar: massive star binary colliding winds
Astrophysics and space science, Vol.367(12), 118
12/01/2022
DOI: 10.1007/s10509-022-04102-0
Abstract
The winds of massive stars are important for their direct impact on the interstellar medium, and for their influence on the final state of a star prior to it exploding as a supernova. However, the dynamics of these winds is understood primarily via their illumination from a single central source. The Doppler shift seen in resonance lines is a useful tool for inferring these dynamics, but the mapping from that Doppler shift to the radial distance from the source is ambiguous. Binary systems can reduce this ambiguity by providing a second light source at a known radius in the wind, seen from orbitally modulated directions. From the nature of the collision between the winds, a massive companion also provides unique additional information about wind momentum fluxes. Since massive stars are strong ultraviolet (UV) sources, and UV resonance line opacity in the wind is strong, UV instruments with a high resolution spectroscopic capability are essential for extracting this dynamical information. Polarimetric capability also helps to further resolve ambiguities in aspects of the wind geometry that are not axisymmetric about the line of sight, because of its unique access to scattering direction information. We review how the proposed MIDEX-scale mission Polstar can use UV spectropolarimetric observations to critically constrain the physics of colliding winds, and hence radiatively-driven winds in general. We propose a sample of 20 binary targets, capitalizing on this unique combination of illumination by companion starlight, and collision with a companion wind, to probe wind attributes over a range in wind strengths. Of particular interest is the hypothesis that the radial distribution of the wind acceleration is altered significantly, when the radiative transfer within the winds becomes optically thick to resonance scattering in multiple overlapping UV lines.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- UV spectropolarimetry with Polstar: massive star binary colliding winds
- Creators
- Nicole St-Louis - Université de MontréalKen Gayley - University of IowaD. John Hillier - Department of Physics and Astronomy, Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology Center (PITT PACC), Pittsburgh, USARichard Ignace - East Tennessee State UniversityCarol E. Jones - Western UniversityAlexandre David-Uraz - Howard UniversityNoel D. Richardson - Embry–Riddle Aeronautical UniversityJorick S. Vink - Armagh Observatory & PlanetariumGeraldine J. Peters - University of Southern CaliforniaJennifer L. Hoffman - University of DenverYael Naze - University of LiègeHeloise Stevance - University of AucklandTomer Shenar - University of AmsterdamAndrew G. Fullard - Michigan State UniversityJamie R. Lomax - United States Naval AcademyPaul A. Scowen - NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Astrophysics and space science, Vol.367(12), 118
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10509-022-04102-0
- ISSN
- 0004-640X
- eISSN
- 1572-946X
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Number of pages
- 20
- Grant note
- Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (Belgium); Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS University of Denver via a 2021 PROF award 80GSFC21M0002; 80NSSC18K0919 / NASA; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) HST -GO-15659.002; HST-GO-15869.001 / STScI; Space Telescope Science Institute National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) AST-2009412; AST-1816944 / National Science Foundation (NSF) NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO); Belgian Federal Science Policy Office European Space Agency (ESA); European Space Agency; European Commission
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/01/2022
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984429051102771
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