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Romero, G. E. (Gustavo Esteban)
Gamma rays from colliding winds in massive binaries : statius and prospects / Gustavo E. Romero.
— (Trabajos publicados del IAR ; no. 1485)
Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali — Springer — Vol. 30, Supl. 1, (2019), p. S115-118
Este artículo es una versión "peer-reviewed" de una contribución seleccionada sobre la presentada en Conference on Gamma-Ray Astrophysics with the AGILE Satellite held at Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Rome on December 11–13, 2017.
Binary systems formed by early-type stars with strong winds are known to display variable non-thermal radio emission, thermal X-rays, and, at least in one case (Eta Carina), γ rays. Some of these systems are quite eccentric and the conditions for efficient particle acceleration and γ-ray production might manifest only occasionally. In this paper, I briefly review the physics of colliding wind binaries with emphasis on the observational signatures of non-thermal particle acceleration. I discuss, in particular, the case of the system HD 93129A which is made up of an O2 If* star (the primary) and an O3.5 V star (the secondary). The primary is among the earliest, hottest, most massive, luminous, and windy O stars in the Galaxy. The periastron passage during 2018 will offer an outstanding observational window that will be exploited by an international multi-wavelength campaign.
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