Searching for Faint X-ray Emission from Galactic Stellar Wind Bow Shocks

Abstract

We present a stacking analysis of 2.61 Msec of archival Chandra observations of stellar wind bow shocks. We place an upper limit on the X-ray luminosity of IR-detected bow shocks of $<2\times 10^{29}$ erg s${}^{-1}$, a more stringent constraint than has been found in previous archival studies and dedicated observing campaigns of nearby bow shocks. We compare the X-ray luminosities and $L_X/L_{\mathrm{bol}}$ ratios of bow shock driving stars to those of other OB stars within the Chandra field of view. Driving stars are, on average, of later spectral type than the "field of view" OB stars, and we do not observe any unambiguously high $L_X/L_{\mathrm{bol}}$ ratios indicative of magnetic stars in our sample. We additionally asses the feasibility of detecting X-rays from stellar wind bow shocks with the proposed Lynx X-ray Observatory. If the X-ray flux originating from the bow shocks is just below our Chandra detection limit, the nearest bow shock in our sample (at $\sim$0.4 kpc with an absorbing column of $\sim 10^{21}$ cm${}^{-2}$) should be observable with Lynx in exposure times on the order of $\sim$100 kiloseconds.

arXiv comment11 pages, 6 figures; accepted to AJ

References in corpus (31)

• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• Physical Properties of Wolf-Rayet Stars
• A Wavelet-Based Algorithm for the Spatial Analysis of Poisson Data
• A Magnetic Confinement vs. Rotation Classification of Massive-Star Magnetospheres
• Chandra HETGS Multi-Phase Spectroscopy of the Young Magnetic O Star theta^1 Orionis C
• Hot stars observed by XMM-Newton I. The catalog and the properties of OB stars
• Global X-ray properties of the O and B stars in Carina
• E-BOSS: an Extensive stellar BOw Shock Survey. I: Methods and First Catalogue
• Magnetic Fields in Large Diameter HII Regions Revealed by the Faraday Rotation of Compact Extragalactic Radio Sources
• A Catalog of Chandra X-ray Sources in the Carina Nebula
• A comprehensive search for stellar bowshock nebulae in the Milky Way: a catalog of 709 mid-infrared selected candidates
• Detection of nonthermal emission from the bow shock of a massive runaway star
• The Integrated Diffuse X-ray Emission of the Carina Nebula Compared to Other Massive Star-forming Regions
• 3D Simulations of Betelgeuse's Bow Shock
• On magnetic field amplification and particle acceleration near non-relativistic astrophysical shocks: Particles in MHD Cells simulations
• Non-thermal processes in bowshocks of runaway stars. Application to Zeta Oph
• Bow shock nebulae of hot massive stars in a magnetized medium
• An X-ray Imaging Study of the Stellar Population in RCW49
• AE Aurigae: first detection of non-thermal X-ray emission from a bow shock produced by a runaway star
• Magnetically Confined Wind Shocks in X-rays - a Review
• X-ray Observations of Bow Shocks around Runaway O Stars. The case of $\zeta$ Oph and BD+43${}^{\circ }$3654
• Systematic search for high-energy gamma-ray emission from bow shocks of runaway stars
• On the Absence of Non-thermal X-ray emission around Runaway O stars
• Non-thermal emission from stellar bow shocks
• X-ray study of bow shocks in runaway stars
• Magnetometry of a sample of massive stars in Carina
• Search for Diffuse X-rays from the Bow Shock Region of Runaway Star BD+43${}^{\circ }$3654 with Suzaku
• Statistical Characterization of the Chandra Source Catalog
• Systematic search for very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from bow shocks of runaway stars
• Runaway stars as cosmic ray injectors inside molecular clouds
• Modeling non-thermal emission from stellar bow shocks

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Wind nebulae and supernova remnants of very massive stars
• The Massive Star-Forming Regions Omnibus X-Ray Catalog, Third Installment
• X-ray photolysis of CH${}_3$COCH${}_3$ ice: Implications for the radiation effects of compact objects towards astrophysical ices
• Runaway O-star Bow Shocks as Particle Accelerators? The Case of AE Aur revisited
• Radio polarization from runaway star bowshocks-I. The general case