TY  - JOUR
A1  - Richardson, Noel D.
A1  - Russell, Christopher M. P.
A1  - St-Jean, Lucas
A1  - Moffat, Anthony F. J.
A1  - St-Louis, Nicole
A1  - Shenar, Tomer
A1  - Pablo, Herbert
A1  - Hill, Grant M.
A1  - Ramiaramanantsoa, Tahina
A1  - Corcoran, Michael
A1  - Hamuguchi, Kenji
A1  - Eversberg, Thomas
A1  - Miszalski, Brent
A1  - Chene, Andre-Nicolas
A1  - Waldron, Wayne
A1  - Kotze, Enrico J.
A1  - Kotze, Marissa M.
A1  - Luckas, Paul
A1  - Cacella, Paulo
A1  - Heathcote, Bernard
A1  - Powles, Jonathan
A1  - Bohlsen, Terry
A1  - Locke, Malcolm
A1  - Handler, Gerald
A1  - Kuschnig, Rainer
A1  - Pigulski, Andrzej
A1  - Popowicz, Adam
A1  - Wade, Gregg A.
A1  - Weiss, Werner W.
T1  - The variability of the BRITE-est Wolf-Rayet binary, gamma(2) Velorum-I. Photometric and spectroscopic evidence for colliding winds
JF  - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
N2  - We report on the first multi-colour precision light curve of the bright Wolf-Rayet binary gamma(2) Velorum, obtained over six months with the nanosatellites in the BRITE-Constellation fleet. In parallel, we obtained 488 high-resolution optical spectra of the system. In this first report on the data sets, we revise the spectroscopic orbit and report on the bulk properties of the colliding winds. We find a dependence of both the light curve and excess emission properties that scales with the inverse of the binary separation. When analysing the spectroscopic properties in combination with the photometry, we find that the phase dependence is caused only by excess emission in the lines, and not from a changing continuum. We also detect a narrow, high-velocity absorption component from the He perpendicular to lambda 5876 transition, which appears twice in the orbit. We calculate smoothed-particle hydrodynamical simulations of the colliding winds and can accurately associate the absorption from He perpendicular to to the leading and trailing arms of the wind shock cone passing tangentially through our line of sight. The simulations also explain the general strength and kinematics of the emission excess observed in wind lines such as C III lambda 5696 of the system. These results represent the first in a series of investigations into the winds and properties of gamma(2) Velorum through multi-technique and multi-wavelength observational campaigns.
KW  - stars: early type
KW  - stars: individual: gamma(2) Vel
KW  - stars: mass loss
KW  - stars: winds
KW  - outflows
KW  - stars: Wolf-Rayet
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx1731
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
VL  - 471
SP  - 2715
EP  - 2729
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -