Spectroscopically Discerning Unresolved X-ray Sources from Late Type B Stars
Ehud Behar (Technion
Israel Institute of Technology)
Maurice Leutenegger (Columbia University)
Rami Doron (Weizmann Institute)
It will be shown how high-resolution, grating spectroscopy provides a powerful tool for solving the puzzle of X-rays from late type B stars. Late type B stars are not supposed to be X-ray sources; nevertheless they have been detected in X-rays. We will present spectroscopic methods with which to determine whether it is the B star emitting the X-rays, or an unresolved low-mass companion. X-ray spectroscopy is the only viable approach when multiwavelength imaging (see the work by Stelzer at this meeting) fails to resolve the source. We apply the method to previously unpublished XMM-Newton and Chandra guest observations of mu Lep, a chemically peculiar late type B star revealing interesting results.
http://physics.technion.ac.il/~astrogr/