LS I +61 303 Simulations

1. Introduction

This page has links to movies from a simulation for the colliding wind model of LS I +61 303. I've run this simulation for comparing with the accretion model. The movies show that the interaction surface between the colliding winds doesn't agree with the VLBA maps of this system, and therefore suggests that the colliding wind model doesn't work for LS I +61 303. For more detailed discussion on both models, see Romero, Okazaki, Orellana & Owocki (2007, A&A, 474, 15 or astro-ph/0712.1832).

Accretion model	Colliding wind model
Mosaic snapshots from a Be disc simulation and the corresponding accretion disc simulation around periastron passage at phi=0.23. Each panel shows the surface density in cgs units on a logarithmic scale. The annotations in each panel give the orbital phase and total number of SPH particles.	Wind collision interface geometry at periastron for collision between a Be-star wind with a pulsar wind of energy 10³⁶ erg/s, corresponding to pulsar/Be wind momentum ratio of eta = 0.53. The upper panel shows the density in the orbital plane and the lower panel the density in the plane perpendicular to the orbital plane and through the major axis of the orbit, on a logarithmic scale with cgs units. The bright spot near the origin represents the Be star, while the small bright spot to the left represents the pulsar.

Accretion model

Colliding wind model

Mosaic snapshots from a Be disc simulation and the corresponding
accretion disc simulation around
periastron passage at phi=0.23.
Each panel shows the surface density in cgs units on a logarithmic scale. The annotations in each panel give the orbital phase and total number of SPH particles.

Wind collision interface geometry at periastron for collision between a Be-star wind with a pulsar wind of energy 10³⁶ erg/s, corresponding to pulsar/Be wind momentum ratio of eta = 0.53. The upper panel shows the density in the orbital plane and the lower panel the density in the plane perpendicular to the orbital plane and through the major axis of the orbit, on a logarithmic scale with cgs units. The bright spot near the origin represents the Be star, while the small bright spot to the left represents the pulsar.

2. Movies

In the following simulation, the binary orbit is on the x-y plane and the major axis of the orbit is along the x-axis (+x-axis is in the direction of the apastron). This simulation starts at t=-10d (10 days before the periastron passage) and ends at t=6.7d. The density shown in movies is in cgs units. Times are in units of the orbital period.

r_out=5a simualtion

The density distribution on the orbital plane (the x-y plane; the left panel) and on the plane perpendicular to the orbital plane and through the major axis (y=0; the right panel).

GIF animation (85MB); Quick Time movie (14MB)