Abstract

Contributed Talk - Splinter ISM

Friday, 15 September 2023, 16:15   (H 3006)

Simulating nebulae around hot stars

Jonathan Mackey
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

The interaction between stellar wind and interstellar medium (ISM) is often difficult to observe because of the low emission measure of the dilute stellar wind. Exceptions to this are in bow shocks around massive stars with high velocity relative to the ISM, and in expanding nebulae around Wolf-Rayet stars. In both cases the large dynamical pressure leads to enhanced surface brightness, with detectable emission from radio to X-rays. I will show 2D and 3D MHD simulations of bow shocks, studying the dynamically unstable wind-ISM interface and its emission properties. Numerical convergence of observable quantities such as X-ray luminosity will be assessed. I will also show some preliminary work on modelling Wolf-Rayet nebulae, aiming for accurate prediction of UV, optical and IR spectral lines of photoionized species.