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Nature of the Wolf-Rayet component of the binary system V444 Cygni

Journal Article · · Sov. Astron. AJ (Engl. Transl.); (United States)
OSTI ID:7190150
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The photometric strcture of the disk of the WR star is recovered from narrow-band light curves of the V444 Cyg system (WN 5+06) at four wavelengths in the continuum (4244-7512 A). The empirical color and brightness temperature distributions over the disk of the WR star imply a temperature above 7 to 1..pi.. x 10/sup 4/ /sup 0/K at the surface of the WR core. The radiation of the WR envelope has a color temperature T/subc/approx. =10/sup 4/ /sup 0/K, while for the whole WR disk disk T/subc/=2 x 10/sup 4/DK. These values are independent of intersellar reddening. The WR envelope has an electron temperature T/sube/<10/sup 50/K. Electron scattering is the principal having a power-law distribution. At the surface of the core n/sube/=1.54 x 10/sup 13/ cm/sup -3/; the radius of the core is approx. =2.6 R/sub sun/. Accelerated radial outflow is present, with a mass loss of approx. =10/sup -5/ M/sub sun//yr. The core has a mean density of approx. =0.8g/cm/sup 3/. Its bolometric luminosity is close to the critical value; radiation pressure is primarily responsible for the mass loss. Short-wavelength radiation from the core (the Beals model) plays the chief role in exciting the emission lines; collision processes are evidently of secondary importance. The WR star was presumably formed through mass exchange in the binary system and is probably a helium remnant in a terminal evolutionary phase following the main sequence. In the future it might give rise to a relativistic object: a neutron star or a black hole. (AIP)
Research Organization:
Shternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow
OSTI ID:
7190150
Journal Information:
Sov. Astron. AJ (Engl. Transl.); (United States), Journal Name: Sov. Astron. AJ (Engl. Transl.); (United States) Vol. 19:6; ISSN SAAJA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

640102* -- Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology-- Stars &amp; Quasi-Stellar
Radio &amp; X-Ray Sources
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATMOSPHERES
BINARY STARS
BRIGHTNESS
LUMINOSITY
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHOTOMETRY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES
WOLF-RAYET STARS