Michael Werner Innsbruck

Wolf-Rayet binaries: a gamma-ray perspective (pdf)

Wolf-Rayet stars exhibit high mass loss rates, high surface temperatures and high terminal wind velocities. In binary systems a colliding wind region forms. At the shock front between the two winds conditions are favorable for particle acceleration. X-ray and radio frequency observation hint at the presence of a non-thermal particle population. Several physical processes such as IC-scattering might lead to the creation of high energy gamma-rays. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope might be able to detect emission from these binaries.