TY - CHAP A1 - Oskinova, Lida A1 - Hamann, Wolf-Rainer A1 - Feldmeier, Achim T1 - X-raying clumped stellar winds N2 - X-ray spectroscopy is a sensitive probe of stellar winds. X-rays originate from optically thin shock-heated plasma deep inside the wind and propagate outwards throughout absorbing cool material. Recent analyses of the line ratios from He-like ions in the X-ray spectra of O-stars highlighted problems with this general paradigm: the measured line ratios of highest ions are consistent with the location of the hottest X-ray emitting plasma very close to the base of the wind, perhaps indicating the presence of a corona, while measurements from lower ions conform with the wind-embedded shock model. Generally, to correctly model the emerging Xray spectra, a detailed knowledge of the cool wind opacities based on stellar atmosphere models is prerequisite. A nearly grey stellar wind opacity for the X-rays is deduced from the analyses of high-resolution X-ray spectra. This indicates that the stellar winds are strongly clumped. Furthermore, the nearly symmetric shape of X-ray emission line profiles can be explained if the wind clumps are radially compressed. In massive binaries the orbital variations of X-ray emission allow to probe the opacity of the stellar wind; results support the picture of strong wind clumping. In high-mass X-ray binaries, the stochastic X-ray variability and the extend of the stellar-wind part photoionized by X-rays provide further strong evidence that stellar winds consist of dense clumps. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-18133 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Cassinelli, Joseph P. A1 - Ignace, R. A1 - Waldron, W. A1 - Cho, J. A1 - Murphy, N. A1 - Lazarian, A. T1 - X-ray line emission produced in clump bow shocks N2 - We summarize Chandra observations of the emission line profiles from 17 OB stars. The lines tend to be broad and unshifted. The forbidden/intercombination line ratios arising from Helium-like ions provide radial distance information for the X-ray emission sources, while the H-like to He-like line ratios provide X-ray temperatures, and thus also source temperature versus radius distributions. OB stars usually show power law differential emission measure distributions versus temperature. In models of bow shocks, we find a power law differential emission measure, a wide range of ion stages, and the bow shock flow around the clumps provides transverse velocities comparable to HWHM values. We find that the bow shock results for the line profile properties, consistent with the observations of X-ray line emission for a broad range of OB star properties. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-18057 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Szeifert, T. T1 - Wind variabilities and asymmetries in Luminous Blue Variables N2 - Luminous Blue Variables show strong changes in their stellar wind on time scales of typically years to decades when they expand and contract radially at approximately constant luminosity. Micro-variability on shorter time scales and amplitudes can be observed superimposed to the larger scale radial changes. I will show long-term time series of high resolution spectra which we have collected in the past 20 years for many of the well known LBVs together with a few time series of weekly sampling (HR Car, R40, R71, R110, R127, S Dor) covering a time windows of up to a few months. Wind variability is seen on short and intermediate time scales with the line profiles changing from P Cygni to inverse P Cygni and double peeked profiles sometimes for the same star and spectral line. On longer time scales the ionisation levels for all chemical elements change drastically due to the strong change of the temperature on the stellar surface. While on the long term the characteristic radial changes may have impact on the over all mass loss rates, the variabilities and asymmetries on short and intermediate time scales may cause false estimates of the mass loss rates when confronting models with the observed line profiles Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-18146 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Weis, K. T1 - Wind relics : clumps, inhomogeneities and outflows in LBV nebulae N2 - The most massive stars are those with the shortest but most active life. One group of massive stars, the Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs), of which only a few objects are known, are in particular of interest concerning the stability of stars. They have a high mass loss rate and are close to being instable. This is even more likely as rotation becomes an important factor in stellar evolution of these stars. Through massive stellar winds and sometimes giant eruptions, LBV nebulae are formed. Various aspects in the evolution in the LBV phase lead, beside the large scale morphological and kinematical differences, to a diversity of small structures like clumps, rims, and outflows in these nebulae. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-18235 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Marchenko, S. V. T1 - Wind inhomogeneities in low-Z environment : observations N2 - We discuss the results of time-resolved spectroscopy of three presumably single Population I Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, where the ambient metallicity is $\sim 1/5 Z_\odot$. We were able to detect and follow numerous small-scale wind-embedded inhomogeneities in all observed stars. The general properties of the moving features, such as their velocity dispersions, emissivities and average accelerations, closely match the corresponding characteristics of small-scale inhomogeneities in the winds of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-17769 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Kraus, M. A1 - Kubát, Jiří A1 - Krtička, Jiri T1 - Wind emission of OB supergiants and the influence of clumping N2 - The influence of the wind to the total continuum of OB supergiants is discussed. For wind velocity distributions with β > 1.0, the wind can have strong influence to the total continuum emission, even at optical wavelengths. Comparing the continuum emission of clumped and unclumped winds, especially for stars with high β values, delivers flux differences of up to 30% with maximum in the near-IR. Continuum observations at these wavelengths are therefore an ideal tool to discriminate between clumped and unclumped winds of OB supergiants. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-17757 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Reimer, O. A1 - Aharonian, Felix A. A1 - Hinton, J. A1 - Hofmann, W. A1 - Hoppe, S. A1 - Raue, M. A1 - Reimer, A. T1 - VHE gamma-rays from Westerlund 2 and implications for the inferred energetics N2 - The H.E.S.S. collaboration recently reported the discovery of VHE γ-ray emission coincident with the young stellar cluster Westerlund 2. This system is known to host a population of hot, massive stars, and, most particularly, the WR binary WR 20a. Particle acceleration to TeV energies in Westerlund 2 can be accomplished in several alternative scenarios, therefore we only discuss energetic constraints based on the total available kinetic energy in the system, the actual mass loss rates of respective cluster members, and implied gamma-ray production from processes such as inverse Compton scattering or neutral pion decay. From the inferred gammaray luminosity of the order of 1035erg/s, implications for the efficiency of converting available kinetic energy into non-thermal radiation associated with stellar winds in the Westerlund 2 cluster are discussed under consideration of either the presence or absence of wind clumping. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-18172 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Romero, G. E. A1 - Owocki, S. P. A1 - Araudo, A. T. A1 - Townsend, R. H. D. A1 - Benaglia, P. T1 - Using gamma-rays to probe the clumped structure of stellar winds N2 - Gamma-rays can be produced by the interaction of a relativistic jet and the matter of the stellar wind in the subclass of massive X-ray binaries known as “microquasars”. The relativistic jet is ejected from the surroundings of the compact object and interacts with cold protons from the stellar wind, producing pions that then quickly decay into gamma-rays. Since the resulting gamma-ray emissivity depends on the target density, the detection of rapid variability in microquasars with GLAST and the new generation of Cherenkov imaging arrays could be used to probe the clumped structure of the stellar wind. In particular, we show here that the relative fluctuation in gamma rays may scale with the square root of the ratio of porosity length to binary separation, $\sqrt{h/a}$, implying for example a ca. 10% variation in gamma ray emission for a quite moderate porosity, h/a ∼ 0.01. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-18210 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Najarro, F. A1 - Puls, Joachim A1 - Herrero, A. A1 - Hanson, M. M. A1 - Martín-Pintado, J. A1 - Hillier, D. J. T1 - Tracking the Clumping in OB Stars from UV to radio N2 - We review different line and continua diagnostics from the UV to radio, which can be utilized to simultaneously constrain the clumping structure throughout the stellar wind of massive OB stars. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-17701 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Krtička, Jiri A1 - Puls, Joachim A1 - Kubát, Jiří T1 - The influence of clumping on predicted O star wind parameters N2 - We study the influence of clumping on the predicted wind structure of O-type stars. For this purpose we artificially include clumping into our stationary wind models. When the clumps are assumed to be optically thin, the radiative line force increases compared to corresponding unclumped models, with a similar effect on either the mass-loss rate or the terminal velocity (depending on the onset of clumping). Optically thick clumps, alternatively, might be able to decrease the radiative force. Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-17969 ER -