TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ignace, Rico
A1  - Gayley, Kenneth G.
A1  - Hamann, Wolf-Rainer
A1  - Huenemoerder, David P.
A1  - Oskinova, Lida
A1  - Pollock, Andy M. T.
A1  - McFall, Michael
T1  - THE XMM-NEWTON/EPIC X-RAY LIGHT CURVE ANALYSIS OF WR 6
JF  - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics
N2  - We obtained four pointings of over 100 ks each of the well-studied Wolf-Rayet star WR 6 with the XMM-Newton satellite. With a first paper emphasizing the results of spectral analysis, this follow-up highlights the X-ray variability clearly detected in all four pointings. However, phased light curves fail to confirm obvious cyclic behavior on the well-established 3.766 day period widely found at longer wavelengths. The data are of such quality that we were able to conduct a search for event clustering in the arrival times of X-ray photons. However, we fail to detect any such clustering. One possibility is that X-rays are generated in a stationary shock structure. In this context we favor a corotating interaction region (CIR) and present a phenomenological model for X-rays from a CIR structure. We show that a CIR has the potential to account simultaneously for the X-ray variability and constraints provided by the spectral analysis. Ultimately, the viability of the CIR model will require both intermittent long-term X-ray monitoring of WR 6 and better physical models of CIR X-ray production at large radii in stellar winds.
KW  - stars: individual (WR 6)
KW  - stars: winds, outflows
KW  - stars: Wolf-Rayet
KW  - X-rays: stars
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/775/1/29
SN  - 0004-637X
VL  - 775
IS  - 1
PB  - IOP Publ. Ltd.
CY  - Bristol
ER  -