NRAO/Socorro Colloquium Series

Sean Dougherty

HIA/DRAO


Winds in Collision: High Energy Particles in Massive Binary Systems


High-resolution radio observations have revealed that non-thermal radio emission in Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars arises where the stellar wind of the WR star collides with that of a binary companion. These colliding-wind binary (CWB) systems offer an important laboratory for investigating particle acceleration in a regime of higher mass, radiation and magnetic field densities than typically found in supernovae, which have been widely used for this work. Hydrodynamic models of the binary stellar winds and the wind-collision region (WCR) are now being used to determine the relativistic particle distribution within the WCR and model both the spatial and spectral distribution of the radio emission. Radiometry and high-resolution imaging obtained with the VLA, MERLIN, EVN and VLBA provide essential constraints to these models. This talk will demonstrate the application of these models to the radio data, highlighting the archetype CWB system WR140. The important role of high-energy observatories such as GLAST and VERITAS in these models will also be outlined.






November 17, 2006
11:00 a.m.

Array Operations Center, Auditorium

All NRAO employees are invited to attend via video, available in Charlottesville Room 230, Green Bank Room 137 and Tucson N525.

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