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Optical interferometry of High-Mass X-ray Binaries: Resolving wind, disk and jet outflows at sub-milliarcsecond scale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 December 2019

Idel Waisberg ,
Jason Dexter ,
P.-O. Petrucci ,
Guillaume Dubus ,
Karine Perraut  and
GRAVITY Collaboration
Idel Waisberg
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstr., 85748 Garching, Germany email: idelw@mpe.mpg.de
Jason Dexter
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstr., 85748 Garching, Germany email: idelw@mpe.mpg.de
P.-O. Petrucci
Affiliation:
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG Box 515, F-38000 Grenoble, France
Guillaume Dubus
Affiliation:
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG Box 515, F-38000 Grenoble, France
Karine Perraut
Affiliation:
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG Box 515, F-38000 Grenoble, France
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Abstract

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Because of their small angular size < 1 mas, spatial information on High-mass X-ray binaries (HMXB) has typically been inferred from photometry or spectroscopy. Optical interferometry offers the possibility to spatially resolve such systems, but has been traditionally limited to bright targets or low spectral resolution. The VLTI instrument GRAVITY, working in the near-infrared K band, achieves unprecedented precision in differential interferometric quantities at high spectral resolution, allowing to study HMXBs through the lens of optical interferometry for the first time. We present GRAVITY observations on two X-ray binaries: the microquasar SS 433 and the supergiant HMXB BP Cru. The former is the only known steady super-Eddington accretor in the Galaxy and is in a unique stage of binary evolution, with probable ties to at least part of the ULX population. With GRAVITY, we resolve its massive winds and optical baryonic jets for the first time, finding evidence for powerful equatorial outflows and photoionization as the main heating process along the jets. BP Cru harbors an X-ray pulsar accreting from the wind of its early-blue hypergiant companion Wray 977. The GRAVITY observations resolve the inner parts of the stellar wind and allow probing the influence of the orbiting pulsar on the circumstellar environment.

Keywords

techniques: interferometric — stars: binaries: close — stars: circumstellar matter — stars: windsoutflows — infrared: stars — X-rays: binaries — stars: individual: BP Cru — stars: individual: SS 433
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 14 , Symposium S346: High-mass X-ray Binaries: Illuminating the Passage from Massive Binaries to Merging Compact Objects , August 2018 , pp. 114 - 122
Copyright
© International Astronomical Union 2019 

Footnotes

†

GRAVITY is developed in a collaboration by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, LESIA of Paris Observatory and IPAG of Universit Grenoble Alpes / CNRS, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the University of Cologne, the Centro Multidisciplinar de Astrofısica Lisbon and Porto, and the European Southern Observatory.

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