Redshifted emission lines and radiative recombination continuum from the Wolf-Rayet binary theta Muscae: evidence for a triplet system?

TL;DR

This study analyzes XMM-Newton X-ray observations of the Wolf-Rayet binary Theta Muscae, revealing emission lines, Doppler shifts, and evidence suggesting it is part of a triplet system with complex wind interactions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed X-ray spectral analysis of Theta Muscae, indicating the presence of a possible third companion and complex plasma conditions.

Findings

Detection of strong emission lines from highly ionized elements.

Doppler shift of ~630 km/s indicating wind dynamics.

Evidence supporting a triplet system with a distant O supergiant.

Abstract

We present XMM-Newton observations of the WC binary Theta Muscae (WR 48), the second brightest Wolf-Rayet binary in optical wavelengths. The system consists of a short-period (19.1375 days) WC5/WC6 + O6/O7V binary and possibly has an additional O supergiant companion (O9.5/B0Iab) which is optically identified at a separation of ~46 mas. Strong emission lines from highly ionized ions of C, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, Ca and Fe are detected. The spectra are fitted by a multi-temperature thin-thermal plasma model with an interstellar absorption N_H = 2--3*10**21 cm**-2. Lack of nitrogen line indicates that the abundance of carbon is at least an order of magnitude larger than that of nitrogen. A Doppler shift of ~630 km/s is detected for the OVIII line, while similar shifts are obtained from the other lines. The reddening strongly suggests that the emission lines originated from the wind-wind shock zone, where the average velocity is ~600 km/s. The red-shift motion is inconsistent with a scenario in which the X-rays originate from the wind-wind collision zone in the short-period binary, and would be evidence supporting the widely separated O supergiant as a companion. This may make up the collision zone be lying behind the short-period binary. In addition to the emission lines, we also detected the RRC (radiative recombination continuum) structure from carbon around 0.49 keV. This implies the existence of additional cooler plasma.