Open AccessA tenuous X‐ray corona enveloping AE Aquarii
Author(s) -
Venter L. A.,
Meintjes P. J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11813.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , white dwarf , astronomy , corona (planetary geology) , bremsstrahlung , x ray binary , dynamo , plasma , magnetohydrodynamics , luminosity , magnetic field , stars , neutron star , photon , optics , galaxy , quantum mechanics , astrobiology , venus
In this paper we propose that the observed unpulsed X‐ray emission in AE Aquarii is the result of a very tenuous hot corona associated with the secondary star, which is pumped magnetohydrodynamically by the propeller action of the fast rotating white dwarf. It is shown that the closed coronal field of the secondary star envelops a substantial portion of the binary system, including the fast rotating magnetized white dwarf. This implies that the propeller outflow of material in AE Aquarii is initiated inside an enveloping magnetic cavity. The outflow crossing the secondary dead‐zone field constitutes a β gen = (8πρ v 2 esc / B 2 ) ≫ 1 plasma, acting as a magnetohydrodynamic generator resulting in the induction of field‐aligned currents in these closed magnetospheric circuits where β cir = (8π nkT / B 2 ) ≪ 1 . The Ohmic heating of the coronal circuit can readily account for a T x ≥ 10 7 K plasma in the coronal flux tubes connecting the generator and the stellar surface. Further, the bremsstrahlung losses of the thermal electrons in the coronal circuit can readily drive the observed unpulsed X‐ray luminosity of L x ∼ 10 31 erg s −1 , which correlates with the luminosity and relatively large source implied by recent XMM–Newton observations.