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Highly Accelerated Diamagnetic Plasmoids: a New X-ray Production Mechanism for Ob Stellar Winds
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Cassinelli, Joseph P. |
| Copyright Year | 2009 |
| Abstract | The observed X-ray source temperature distributions in OB stellar winds, as determined from high energy resolution Chandra observations, show that the highest temperatures occur near the star, and then steadily decrease outward through the wind. To explain this unexpected behavior, we propose a shock model concept that utilizes a well-known magnetic propulsion mechanism; the surface ejection of “diamagnetic plasmoids” into a diverging external magnetic field. This produces rapidly accelerating self-contained structures that plow through an ambient wind and form bow shocks that generate a range in X-ray temperatures determined by the plasmoid-wind relative velocities. The model free parameters are the plasmoid initial Alfvén speed, the initial plasma-β of the external medium, and the divergence rate of the external field. These are determined by fitting the predicted bow shock temperatures with the observed OB supergiant X-ray temperature distribution. We find that the initial external plasma-β has a range between 0 and 2, and the assumed radially-decreasing external magnetic field strength that scales as r has a value of S lying between 2 and 3. Most importantly, the initial plasmoid Alfvén speed is found to be well-constrained at a value of 0.6 V∞, which appears to represent an upper limit for all normal OB stars. This intriguing new limit on OB magnetic properties, as derived from Chandra observations, emphasizes the need for further studies of magnetic propulsion mechanisms in these stars. Subject headings: shock waves – stars: early-type – stars: magnetic fields – stars: winds, outflows – X-rays: stars – X-rays: general |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://arxiv.org/pdf/0901.1405v1.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Assumed Contain (action) Environmental Wind GUCY2C protein, human Magnetic Fields Medical Subject Headings Outside broadcasting Rajiformes Shock Stars, Celestial Stellar (payment network) Telling untruths |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
