Gamma rays from colliding winds of massive stars
| dc.creator | Reimer, Anita | |
| dc.creator | Reimer, Olaf | |
| dc.creator | Pohl, Martin | |
| dc.date | 2006-11-21 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T10:36:37Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T10:36:37Z | |
| dc.description | Colliding winds of massive binaries have long been considered as potential sites of non-thermal high-energy photon production. This is motivated by the detection of non-thermal spectra in the radio band, as well as by correlation studies of yet unidentified EGRET gamma-ray sources with source populations appearing in star formation regions. This work re-considers the basic radiative processes and its properties that lead to high energy photon production in long-period massive star systems. We show that Klein-Nishina effects as well as the anisotropic nature of the inverse Compton scattering, the dominating leptonic emission process, likely yield spectral and variability signatures in the gamma-ray domain at or above the sensitivity of current or upcoming gamma ray instruments like GLAST-LAT. In addition to all relevant radiative losses, we include propagation (such as convection in the stellar wind) as well as photon absorption effects, which a priori can not be neglected. The calculations are applied to WR140 and WR147, and predictions for their detectability in the gamma-ray regime are provided. Physically similar specimen of their kind like WR146, WR137, WR138, WR112 and WR125 may be regarded as candidate sources at GeV energies for near-future gamma-ray experiments. Finally, we discuss several aspects relevant for eventually identifying this source class as a gamma-ray emitting population. Thereby we utilize our findings on the expected radiative behavior of typical colliding wind binaries in the gamma-ray regime as well as its expected spatial distribution on the gamma-ray sky. | |
| dc.description | Comments: 6 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science, Proc. of "The Multi-Messenger Approach to High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources (Third Workshop on the Nature of Unidentified High-Energy Sources)", Barcelona, July 4-7, 2006 | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0611647 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0611647 | |
| dc.identifier | Astrophys.SpaceSci.309:351-357,2007 | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.1007/s10509-007-9462-3 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/180111 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | Gamma rays from colliding winds of massive stars | |
| dc.type | text |