21–23 Jan 2015
Europe/Zurich timezone

Cosmic rays acceleration in stellar wind collisions

Speaker

Roland Walter (University of Geneva)

Description

Eta Carinae is the colliding wind binary with the largest mass loss rate in our Galaxy and the only one in which hard X-ray and gamma-ray emission has been detected. Eta Carinae is therefore a primary candidate to search for particle acceleration. We present preliminary gamma-ray data covering two periastron passages. The source variability can be compared with the results of hydrodynamic simulations. The energy transferred to the accelerated hadrons (∼ 5% of the collision mechanical energy) is comparable to that of the thermal X-ray emission. The colliding winds could accelerate as much cosmic rays as a supernova remnant. Extrapolation to OB association will be explored.

Primary author

Roland Walter (University of Geneva)

Co-author

Mr Matteo Balbo (ISDC)

Presentation materials