Insight into the occurrence of particle acceleration through the investigation of Wolf-Rayet stars using uGMRT observations

TL;DR

This study investigates particle acceleration in Wolf-Rayet stars using uGMRT radio observations, finding limited evidence of synchrotron emission likely obscured by free-free absorption, thus challenging detection of such phenomena in these stars.

Contribution

First low-frequency radio upper limits for these WR stars, highlighting free-free absorption as a key obstacle in detecting particle acceleration.

Findings

Only WR 110 detected with thermal spectrum.

Non-detections suggest strong free-free absorption effects.

First sub-1 GHz upper limits for these targets.

Abstract

Massive stars produce strong stellar winds that consist of continuous outflows of material at speeds of thousands of km/s. These winds convey large amounts of kinetic power, especially in the case of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. When these winds interact with nearby material, they will likely produce shocks. Among other processes, particle acceleration is expected to occur. This is particularly well established in the case of massive binary systems, where the stellar winds collide, allowing these systems to be identified thanks to the detection of synchrotron radio emission, produced by a population of relativistic particles accelerated in the shocks. Our goal is to investigate the occurrence of particle acceleration among massive stars in their pre-supernova evolution phases. To this end, we observed a subset of five WR stars in the radio domain using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT), located in India. The observations were carried out in bands 4 (550-950 MHz) and 5 (1050-1450 MHz) for all the targets. We detected radio emission for only WR 110 in bands 4 and 5. Its thermal spectrum displays a consistent index of +0.74 down to uGMRT bands. The four other targets were not detected and we derived 3$\sigma$ upper limits. Our upper limits in Band 4 are the first provided for these targets below 1 GHz. None of the targets was identified as a synchrotron radio emitter in these radio bands. If some synchrotron emission is produced in these systems, the non-detection with uGMRT can be most likely attributed to strong free-free absorption (FFA). This is especially relevant for WR 98a, which is catalogued as a particle accelerator based on previous measurements at higher radio frequencies. We discuss how the prominence of FFA constitutes a severe obstacle to identifying particle accelerators in the radio domain.