TY - JOUR A1 - El Mellah, Ileyk A1 - Sander, Andreas Alexander Christoph A1 - Sundqvist, Jon Olof A1 - Keppens, Rony T1 - Formation of wind-captured disks in supergiant X-ray binaries Consequences for Vela X-1 and Cygnus X-1 JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - Context. In supergiant X-ray binaries (SgXB), a compact object captures a fraction of the wind of an O/B supergiant on a close orbit. Proxies exist to evaluate the efficiency of mass and angular momentum accretion, but they depend so dramatically on the wind speed that given the current uncertainties, they only set loose constraints. Furthermore, these proxies often bypass the impact of orbital and shock effects on the flow structure. Aims. We study the wind dynamics and angular momentum gained as the flow is accreted. We identify the conditions for the formation of a disk-like structure around the accretor and the observational consequences for SgXB. Methods. We used recent results on the wind launching mechanism to compute 3D streamlines, accounting for the gravitational and X-ray ionizing influence of the compact companion on the wind. Once the flow enters the Roche lobe of the accretor, we solved the hydrodynamics equations with cooling. Results. A shocked region forms around the accretor as the flow is beamed. For wind speeds on the order of the orbital speed, the shock is highly asymmetric compared to the axisymmetric bow shock obtained for a purely planar homogeneous flow. With net radiative cooling, the flow always circularizes for sufficiently low wind speeds. Conclusions. Although the donor star does not fill its Roche lobe, the wind can be significantly beamed and bent by the orbital effects. The net angular momentum of the accreted flow is then sufficient to form a persistent disk-like structure. This mechanism could explain the proposed limited outer extension of the accretion disk in Cygnus X-1 and suggests the presence of a disk at the outer rim of the neutron star magnetosphere in Vela X-1 and has dramatic consequences on the spinning up of the accretor. KW - accretion, accretion disks KW - X-rays: binaries KW - stars: black holes KW - stars: neutron KW - supergiants KW - stars: winds, outflows Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834498 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 622 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Martinez-Nunez, Silvia A1 - Kretschmar, Peter A1 - Bozzo, Enrico A1 - Oskinova, Lida A1 - Puls, Joachim A1 - Sidoli, Lara A1 - Sundqvist, Jon Olof A1 - Blay, Pere A1 - Falanga, Maurizio A1 - Furst, Felix A1 - Gimenez-Garcia, Angel A1 - Kreykenbohm, Ingo A1 - Kuehnel, Matthias A1 - Sander, Andreas Alexander Christoph A1 - Torrejon, Jose Miguel A1 - Wilms, Joern T1 - Towards a Unified View of Inhomogeneous Stellar Winds in Isolated Supergiant Stars and Supergiant High Mass X-Ray Binaries JF - Space science reviews N2 - 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. KW - Massive stars KW - Stellar outflows KW - X-ray binary KW - Wind-fed systems KW - Accretion processes KW - SgXBs KW - SFXTs Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-017-0340-1 SN - 0038-6308 SN - 1572-9672 VL - 212 SP - 59 EP - 150 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER -