@article{GrinbergHellElMellahetal.2017, author = {Grinberg, Victoria and Hell, Natalie and El Mellah, Ileyk and Neilsen, Joseph and Sander, Andreas Alexander Christoph and Leutenegger, Maurice and F{\"u}rst, Felix and Huenemoerder, David P. and Kretschmar, Peter and Kuehnel, Matthias and Martinez-Nunez, Silvia and Niu, Shu and Pottschmidt, Katja and Schulz, Norbert S. and Wilms, Joern and Nowak, Michael A.}, title = {The clumpy absorber in the high-mass X-ray binary Vela X-1}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {608}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, issn = {1432-0746}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201731843}, pages = {18}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Bright and eclipsing, the high-mass X-ray binary Vela X-1 offers a unique opportunity to study accretion onto a neutron star from clumpy winds of O/B stars and to disentangle the complex accretion geometry of these systems. In Chandra-HETGS spectroscopy at orbital phase similar to 0.25, when our line of sight towards the source does not pass through the large-scale accretion structure such as the accretion wake, we observe changes in overall spectral shape on timescales of a few kiloseconds. This spectral variability is, at least in part, caused by changes in overall absorption and we show that such strongly variable absorption cannot be caused by unperturbed clumpy winds of O/B stars. We detect line features from high and low ionization species of silicon, magnesium, and neon whose strengths and presence depend on the overall level of absorption. These features imply a co-existence of cool and hot gas phases in the system, which we interpret as a highly variable, structured accretion flow close to the compact object such as has been recently seen in simulations of wind accretion in high-mass X-ray binaries.}, language = {en} } @misc{OskinovaFeldmeierKretschmar2012, author = {Oskinova, Lida and Feldmeier, Achim and Kretschmar, Peter}, title = {Clumped stellar winds in supergiant high-mass X-ray binaries}, series = {Postprint der universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprint der universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {573}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-41391}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-413916}, pages = {287 -- 288}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The clumping of massive star winds is an established paradigm, which is confirmed by multiple lines of evidence and is supported by stellar wind theory. We use the results from time-dependent hydrodynamical models of the instability in the line-driven wind of a massive supergiant star to derive the time-dependent accretion rate on to a compact object in the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton approximation. The strong density and velocity fluctuations in the wind result in strong variability of the synthetic X-ray light curves. Photoionization of inhomogeneous winds is different from the photoinization of smooth winds. The degree of ionization is affected by the wind clumping. The wind clumping must also be taken into account when comparing the observed and model spectra of the photoionized stellar wind.}, language = {en} } @misc{MartinezNunezKretschmarBozzoetal.2017, author = {Martinez-Nunez, Silvia and Kretschmar, Peter and Bozzo, Enrico and Oskinova, Lida and Puls, Joachim and Sidoli, Lara and Sundqvist, Jon Olof and Blay, Pere and Falanga, Maurizio and Furst, Felix and Gimenez-Garcia, Angel and Kreykenbohm, Ingo and Kuehnel, Matthias and Sander, Andreas Alexander Christoph and Torrejon, Jose Miguel and Wilms, Joern}, title = {Towards a Unified View of Inhomogeneous Stellar Winds in Isolated Supergiant Stars and Supergiant High Mass X-Ray Binaries}, series = {Space science reviews}, volume = {212}, journal = {Space science reviews}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Dordrecht}, issn = {0038-6308}, doi = {10.1007/s11214-017-0340-1}, pages = {59 -- 150}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Massive stars, at least similar to 10 times more massive than the Sun, have two key properties that make them the main drivers of evolution of star clusters, galaxies, and the Universe as a whole. On the one hand, the outer layers of massive stars are so hot that they produce most of the ionizing ultraviolet radiation of galaxies; in fact, the first massive stars helped to re-ionize the Universe after its Dark Ages. Another important property of massive stars are the strong stellar winds and outflows they produce. This mass loss, and finally the explosion of a massive star as a supernova or a gamma-ray burst, provide a significant input of mechanical and radiative energy into the interstellar space. These two properties together make massive stars one of the most important cosmic engines: they trigger the star formation and enrich the interstellar medium with heavy elements, that ultimately leads to formation of Earth-like rocky planets and the development of complex life. The study of massive star winds is thus a truly multidisciplinary field and has a wide impact on different areas of astronomy. In recent years observational and theoretical evidences have been growing that these winds are not smooth and homogeneous as previously assumed, but rather populated by dense "clumps". The presence of these structures dramatically affects the mass loss rates derived from the study of stellar winds. Clump properties in isolated stars are nowadays inferred mostly through indirect methods (i.e., spectroscopic observations of line profiles in various wavelength regimes, and their analysis based on tailored, inhomogeneous wind models). The limited characterization of the clump physical properties (mass, size) obtained so far have led to large uncertainties in the mass loss rates from massive stars. Such uncertainties limit our understanding of the role of massive star winds in galactic and cosmic evolution. Supergiant high mass X-ray binaries (SgXBs) are among the brightest X-ray sources in the sky. A large number of them consist of a neutron star accreting from the wind of a massive companion and producing a powerful X-ray source. The characteristics of the stellar wind together with the complex interactions between the compact object and the donor star determine the observed X-ray output from all these systems. Consequently, the use of SgXBs for studies of massive stars is only possible when the physics of the stellar winds, the compact objects, and accretion mechanisms are combined together and confronted with observations. This detailed review summarises the current knowledge on the theory and observations of winds from massive stars, as well as on observations and accretion processes in wind-fed high mass X-ray binaries. The aim is to combine in the near future all available theoretical diagnostics and observational measurements to achieve a unified picture of massive star winds in isolated objects and in binary systems.}, language = {en} } @article{OskinovaFeldmeierKretschmar2012, author = {Oskinova, Lida and Feldmeier, Achim and Kretschmar, Peter}, title = {Clumped stellar winds in supergiant high-mass X-ray binaries: X-ray variability and photoionization}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {421}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {4}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Malden}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.20507.x}, pages = {2820 -- 2831}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The clumping of massive star winds is an established paradigm, which is confirmed by multiple lines of evidence and is supported by stellar wind theory. The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between detailed models of inhomogeneous stellar winds in single stars and the phenomenological description of donor winds in supergiant high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). We use the results from time-dependent hydrodynamical models of the instability in the line-driven wind of a massive supergiant star to derive the time-dependent accretion rate on to a compact object in the BondiHoyleLyttleton approximation. The strong density and velocity fluctuations in the wind result in strong variability of the synthetic X-ray light curves. The model predicts a large-scale X-ray variability, up to eight orders of magnitude, on relatively short time-scales. The apparent lack of evidence for such strong variability in the observed HMXBs indicates that the details of the accretion process act to reduce the variability resulting from the stellar wind velocity and density jumps.}, language = {en} }