The first X-ray survey of Galactic Luminous Blue Variables
Yael Naze, Gregor Rauw, Damien Hutsemekers
(Univ. of Liege)
Aims: The X-ray emission of massive stars has been studied when these objects are in their main-sequence phase, as well as in their Wolf-Rayet phase. However, the X-ray properties of the transitional Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) phase remain unknown.
Methods: Using a dedicated but limited XMM survey as well as archival XMM and Chandra observations, we performed the first X-ray survey of LBVs: about half of the known LBVs or candidate LBVs are studied.
Results: Apart from the well known X-ray sources eta Car and Cyg OB2 #12, four additional LBVs are detected in this survey, though some doubt remains on the association with the X-ray source for two of these. For the other LBVs, upper limits on the flux were derived, down to $log[L_{rm X}/L_{rm BOL}]-9.4$ for PCyg. This variety in the strength of the X-ray emission is discussed, with particular emphasis on the potential influence of binarity.
Reference: accepted by A&A
Status: Manuscript has been accepted
Weblink: http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.6375
Comments:
Email: naze@astro.ulg.ac.be