Testing magnetically confined wind shock models for β Cephei using XMM-Newton and Chandra phase-resolved X-ray observations
Abstract
Aims: We have performed a set of high- and low-spectral resolution phase-resolved X-ray observations of the magnetic B star β Cep, for which theoretical models predict the presence of a confined wind emitting X-rays from stationary shocks. Given the peculiar geometry of β Cep, some of the models predict strong rotational modulation of the X-ray emission, while other models predict a much lower amplitude modulation at 90 deg phase shift from the modulation predicted from the first group of models. Our observations were designed to provide a stringent test of such models.
Methods: We obtained four observations spaced in rotational phase with XMM-Newton (using both the EPIC cameras and the RGS spectrograph) and with Chandra (using the LETG spectrograph). A detailed analysis of the data was performed to derive both photometric and spectral parameters from the EPIC data, searching for rotational modulation, and to derive the location of the X-ray plasma from the line ratios in the He-like triplets of N, O, and Ne from the RGS data. The LETG data were used to constrain the presence of bulk motions in the plasma.
Results: The strong rotational modulation predicted by the early, static magnetically-confined wind model for the X-ray emission is not observed in β Cep. The small modulation present goes in the opposite direction, pointing to the absence of any optically thick disk of neutral material, and showing a modulation consistent with the later, dynamic models of magnetically-confined wind models in B stars. The lack of observed bulk motion points to the plasma being confined by a magnetic field, but the low plasma temperature and lack of any flaring show that the plasma is not heated by magnetic reconnection. Therefore, the observations point to X-ray emission from shocks in a magnetically confined wind, with no evidence of an optically thick, dense disk at the magnetic equator.
- Publication:
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Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- February 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361:20078529
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0806.2275
- Bibcode:
- 2009A&A...495..217F
- Keywords:
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- stars: emission-line;
- Be;
- X-rays: stars;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in Astronomy &