SWIFT OBSERVATIONS OF THE 2006 OUTBURST OF THE RECURRENT NOVA RS OPHIUCHI. III. X-RAY SPECTRAL MODELING

Journal Article · Mon Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/740/1/5; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21587440

Vaytet, N M. H. ^[1]; O'Brien, T J; Lloyd, M ^[2]; Page, K L; Beardmore, A P ^[3]

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1. CEA/DSM/IRFU, Service d'Astrophysique, Laboratoire AIM, CNRS, Universite Paris Diderot, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, Cedex (France)
2. Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL (United Kingdom)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)

Following the Swift X-ray observations of the 2006 outburst of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi, we developed hydrodynamical models of mass ejection from which the forward shock velocities were used to estimate the ejecta mass and velocity. In order to further constrain our model parameters, we present synthetic X-ray spectra from our hydrodynamical calculations, which we compare to the Swift data. An extensive set of simulations was carried out to find a model that best fits the spectra up to 100 days after outburst. We find a good fit at high energies but require additional absorption to match the low energy emission. We estimate the ejecta mass to be in the range (2-5) x 10{sup -7} M{sub sun} and the ejection velocity to be greater than 6000 km s{sup -1} (and probably closer to 10, 000 km s{sup -1}). We also find that estimates of shock velocity derived from gas temperatures via standard model fits to the X-ray spectra are much lower than those of the true shock velocities.

• OSTI ID: 21587440
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 740, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/740/1/5; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
HYDRODYNAMICS
MASS
NOVAE
SHOCK WAVES
SIMULATION
STANDARD MODEL
VELOCITY
X-RAY SPECTRA
BINARY STARS
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
FIELD THEORIES
FLUID MECHANICS
GRAND UNIFIED THEORY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
PARTICLE MODELS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
SPECTRA
STARS
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
VARIABLE STARS