Eta Carinae and WR 140 are similar long-period colliding wind binaries in which X-ray emission is produced by a strong shock due to the collision of the powerful stellar winds. The change in the orientation and density of this shock as the stars revolve in their orbits influences the X-ray flux and spectrum in a phase dependent way. Monitoring observations with RXTE and other X-ray satellite observatories since the 1990s have detailed this variability but have also shown significant deviations from strict phase dependence (short-term brightness changes or "flares", and cyc1e-to-cyc1e average flux differences). We examine these acylic variations in Eta Car and WR 140 and discuss what they tell us about the stability of the wind-wind collision shock

Corcoran, Michael F.

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Acyclic High-Energy Variability in Eta Carinae and WR 140 
Michael F. Corcoran 1 
1 Universities Space Research Association, Center for Research and 
Exploration in Space Science and Technology, NASA/Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Code 662, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA 
Abstract. Eta Carinae and WR 140 are similar long-period colliding wind binaries 
in which X-ray emission is produced by a strong shock due to the collision of the 
powerful stellar winds. The change in the orientation and density of this shock as the 
stars revolve in their orbits influences the X-ray flux and spectrum in a phase dependent 
way. Monitoring observations with RXTE and other X-ray satellite observatories since 
the 1990s have detailed this variability but have also shown significant deviations from 
strict phase dependence (short-term brightness changes or "flares", and cyc1e-to-cyc1e 
average flux differences). We examine these acylic variations in Eta Car and WR 140 
and discuss what they tell us about the stability of the wind-wind collision shock. 
1. Eta Carinae: Peculiar Variations at High Energy 
Eta Carinae (= HD 93308) is a long-period (P = 2022 days) colliding wind binary with 
an extremely bright unstable Luminous Blue Variable primary (Eta Car A) which has a 
dense eM ~ 10-3 M0 yr- I) slow (VOO :::::; 500 km S-I) wind orbited by a fainter, hotter, 
lower mass unseen companion (Eta Car B) possessing a less dense (£1 ~ 10-5 M0 yr- l ) 
but much faster (V 00 :::::; 3000 km s-I) wind in a very eccentric orbit (e ~ 0.9 or there-
abouts). See Davidson & Humphreys (1997) and Corcoran et al. (2010) for references 
about the system parameters. Because of the large eccentricity, changes in separa-
tion (by a factor of 20) and viewing geometry produce phase-dependent variability in 
nearly all bands of the EM spectrum, especially in the thermal X-ray region. This 
cyclical variability makes Eta Carinae a fine laboratory for studying hypersonic astro-
physical shocks, the generation of thermal hard radiation, and (possibly) the production 
of non-thermal high energy emission due to Fermi acceleration of charged particles 
and inverse-Compton scattering of seed photospheric photons (Leyder et al. 2010). 
However Eta Car A is also a dramatic and sporadic variable in its own right, prone 
to episodes of extreme brightening and mass loss (the best example of this is the "Great 
Eruption" of 1843). Sporadic variations in the stellar wind from Eta Car A should cause 
cycle-to-cycle changes in the state of the wind-wind shock which produces the thermal 
X-ray emission as studied in great detail by the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) on 
board the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE; Bradt et al. 1993) for the last 3 stellar 
orbital cycles (from 1996 to 2011 ]; Figure 1). In the following, Cycle I is the orbital 
1 Like AFJ Moffat, RXTE is another honoured retiree: as of this writing, RXTE is scheduled to be turned 
out to that great pasture in the sky in December 20 I 1. 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120008690 2019-08-30T20:14:46+00:00Z
2 M. F Corcoran 
period centered on the 1997 X-ray minimum, Cycle 2 centered on the 2003.5 minimum, 
and Cycle 3 centered on the 2009 minimum. 
40 
Ul 30 "-l:l 
.s 
2 
e 20 
::::i 
N 
::l 
U 
Cl.. 10 ..., 
OJ 
Z 
0 
-0.05 0 0.05 
Phase 
Figure 1. RXTE PCA X-ray fluxes from Eta Car near periastron passage for 3 
orbital cycles. The fulllightcurve is available in Corcoran et al. (2010), with updates 
at http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/Michael.Corcoran/eta_car/etacarJxte_lightcurve. 
1.1. Examples of Cycle-to-Cycle X-ray Variations 
There are a number of examples of X -ray phenomena exhibited by Eta Car which either 
a) don't follow the (relatively) smooth X-ray variability expected from (relatively sim-
ple) models of X-ray emissions from wind-wind collisions or b) show definite changes 
from cycle to cycle. These are not mutually exclusive categories. The best examples 
of this are the so-called X-ray "flares" seen most obviously around periastron passage; 
variations in the flux level approaching apastron; and a striking change in the duration 
of the X-ray minimum. We discuss each briefly below. 
1.1.1. "Flaring" 
X-ray "flares" were first noted by Ishibashi et al. (1997) as rather weak, long-duration 
(~ 20 days) increases in the "ambient" X-ray flux level in the 2-10 ke V band. Early 
monitoring suggested a recurrence timescale of ~ 85 days, but additional data obtained 
by RXTE showed that this period was not maintained for the entire orbital cycle. Mof-
fat & Corcoran (2009) analyzed the flare characteristics (separation in time of the flare 
"peaks", the flare "full-width at half maximum", FWHM, and "flare strength", or peak 
height x FWHM) as a function of time, mean anomaly and true anomaly. Both the time 
separation of the flare peaks and the flare FWHM decrease sharply from apastron to 
periastron. Interestingly, the flare strength does not seem to vary greatly around the or-
bital cycle there are low-peak-level, long duration flares near apastron, and high-peak, 
short duration flares near periastron, but the product remains roughly constant. Moffat 
& Corcoran considered 3 simple models for the flare behavior: variations caused by 
clumps in the wind of one or both stars, large-scale structures ("co-rotating interaction 
regions") in the wind of the primary, and (briefly) instabilities in the wind-wind col-
lision. Their analysis suggested that a model in which large (,2: 1 AU) homologously-
expanding clumps in the primary wind colliding with the wind-wind shock interface 
Acyclic High-Energy Variability in Eta Carinae and WR 140 3 
was arguably the best to explain the observed behavior of the X-ray flares, though the 
other two models could not be strongly ruled out. 
1.1.2. Flux Level Variations 
RXTE has also observed variations in the flux level away from periastron, at phases 
when the stars are far apart and the wind has settled down from the contortions of 
periastron passage. Comparison of the three orbital cycles seen so far by RXTE show 
striking changes in the "quiescent" flux level. Perhaps significantly, at a phase interval 
near apastron (¢ ~ 0.4), Cycle 2 and Cycle 3 show a similar 2-10 keY X-ray flux level 
in the orbital phase interval 0.4 ;S ¢ ;S 0.6, despite strong differences in flux outside this 
interval2 In the run-up to periastron passage (0.7 ;S ¢ ;S 0.9, before the onset of strong 
flaring), the flux in Cycle 2 was significantly higher then the flux from either Cycle 1 
or Cycle 3 (which were similar in flux level for this phase interval). This lasted until 
the onset of strong flaring after ¢ ~ 0.9, at which time the Cycle 3 level reached and 
eventually surpassed the Cycle 2 level. After periastron the flux levels show a higher 
level of discrepancy. In the phase interval 0.1 ;S ¢ ;S 0.4 Cycle 1 was brighter in the 
2-10 keY band than Cycle 2, which was brighter than Cycle 3. This may indicate a 
temporal trend so that the post-minimum flux is dropping significantly with time. Since 
the 2-10 ke V flux is a measure of the shocked fast wind from the companion star, this 
could indicate some waning of the mass loss rate from the companion. 
1.1.3. Changes in X-ray Minimum Duration 
While the morphology of the minimum its start, minimum flux level, and egress -
were strikingly similar in Cycle 1 and Cycle 2, the Cycle 3 minimum was about 1/3 
shorter than the earlier ones. The cause of this change has not yet been conclusively 
demonstrated. A drop in mass loss rate from the LBV primary star has been a suggested 
culprit, though this is not confirmed, and ground based spectroscopy of the H-8line by 
Damineli and collaborators (these proceedings) does not support any significant change 
in the primary's wind density. 
2. WR 140: A Shock Physics Laboratory 
WR 140 HD 193793; WC7+04-5) is arguably the best example we have of a collid-
ing wind system and of the range of phenomena which may be associated with strong, 
time-variable astrophysical shocks. WR 140's long period (P = 2897 d) highly eccen-
tric (e = 0.88) orbit is congruent to Eta Car's, but the lack of confusing thick circum-
stellar material near WR 140, and the ability to detect directly both stars in the system, 
as well as the fact that the shock has been directly resolved by VLBA interferometry 
(Dougherty et al. 2005) means we have a much clearer view of WR 140 and a much 
more direct understanding of the variations in the wind-wind interaction around the 
orbit. 
2Unfortunately cycle I observations did not start until orbital phase ¢ 0.66. 
4 M. F. Corcoran 
2.1. Modeling WR 140's X-ray Emission 
The PCA on RXTE has measured the X -ray lightcurve of WR 140 for over two cycles3. 
The coverage is not as extensive or complete as it is for Eta Car, however two X-ray 
minima were measured in detail. Qualitatively, the phase-dependent X-ray variation 
of WR 140 is similar to that of Eta Car: there's a gradual increase in 2-10 keY X-ray 
flux from apastron as the stars approach periastron passage; the X-ray flux grows as 
(roughly) 1/ D (where D is the separation between the two stars) up through orbital 
mean anomaly ¢ ~ 0.9 at which time a deviation from this relation begins; there's a 
rapid rise to a maximum flux near the time when the X-ray emitting material near the 
shock cone apex is viewed through the lower density wind of the 04 companion; the 
X-ray flux falls to a minimum which occurs near the time when the leading edge of the 
shock cone is occulted by the WR star; and after this minimum, the flux recovers but 
the recovery is asymmetric, i.e. the level after the minimum is lower than the level at 
a similar mean anomaly prior to the minimum. Figure 2 shows the observed 2-10 keY 
X-ray variation for the two periastron passages observed by RXTE. 
-ft- PCU2 net rate 
..•... Cycle 1 repeated 
L,(l/O) 
2.96 2.98 3.00 
Phase 
0.20 
0.15 
3.02 3,04 
Figure 2. RXTE PCA fluxes from WR 140 near X-ray minimum. The black cir-
cles are observations taken in 2009, while the data marked by the square symbols are 
the observations of the 2001 minimum, shown for comparison. UT dates of obser-
vations from 2009 are indicated, along with important orbital phases near periastron 
passage, which occurs at ¢ = 3.00. 
Modeling the system with smoothed particle hydrodynamics calculations similar 
to those used to model the X-ray flux variations in Eta Car have had some success. As 
shown in Russell et al. (2011), simple models in which the X-ray flux is localized very 
near the apex of the shock cone provide good descriptions of the observed variation, 
though models in which the X-ray emitting region is distributed along the shock cone 
(as expected in a realistic wind-wind collision) don't describe the observed variations 
as well. 
3see http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/MichaeI.Corcoranjwrl40/wr140JxteJightcurves/index.html for the latest 
RXTE data 
Acyclic High-Energy Variability in Eta Carinae and WR 140 5 
2.2. Cycle-to-Cycle Variations 
There are some slight variations in the flux level after periastron passage if we compare 
the 2001 and 2009 data. Otherwise the data from the two cycles are remarkably similar. 
In particular the timing ofthe ingress and egress from the X-ray minimum, the height of 
the maximum X-ray flux, and the depth of the minima, all agree with each other. This 
statement can be extended to the spectral variation of the X-ray emission; the X-ray 
color shows remarkably good agreement between the 2001 and 2009 cycle, especially 
around periastron. There are only mild variations in X-ray flux seen prior to the 2009 
X-ray minimum; there are no strong flaring episodes of the type exhibited by Eta Car. 
3. Conclusions 
As a canonical colliding wind binary, the X-ray flux behavior of WR 140 around the 
orbit is remarkably well-behaved even if not yet entirely understood in detail. Impor-
tant features of its X-ray lightcurve (X-ray extrema, hardness ratio maximum, etc) are 
well associated with significant orbital events deduced from radial-velocity and radio 
interferometric studies. This is not the case with Eta Car, a star that's notoriously badly 
behaved in almost every epoch and almost every energy band. Indeed the behavior of 
Eta Car's X-ray flux arguably shows the smallest amount of cycle-to-cycle variability 
compared to other wavebands. Secular changes in the observed X-ray flux from Eta Car 
are probably the best indication of a fundamental change in the wind-wind interaction 
zone. Such change must indicate a real variation in the stellar winds from either or both 
the primary and secondary. 
Acknowledgments. The author would like to acknowledge the efforts of K. Ham-
aguchi , T. Gull, S. P. Owocki, C. M. P. Russell, A. M. T. Pollock, J. M. Pittard, E. R. 
Parkin, A. Okazaki, K. Ishibashi, K. Davidson, and especially A. F. J. Moffat, without 
whom this work would not have been possible. The author also acknowledges the as-
sistance of the RXTE Guest Observer Facility at GSFC. This research has made use 
of NASA's Astrophysics Data System and data obtained from NASA's High Energy 
Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC). 
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