Modeling Nonthermal Emission in a Stellar Bubble

• Grant number: 23/11877-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Astrophysics of the Interstellar Medium
• Principal Investigator: Maria Victoria Del Valle
• Grantee: Luna Costa Lacerda Espinosa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/05757-9 - Nonthermal processes in galactic sources: modelling and predictions in the CTAs and ASTRI Mini-Arrays eve, AP.JP

Abstract

Massive early-type stars have very powerful winds that interact with the interstellar medium, depositing great amount of kinetic energy. Besides, their strong stellar photon field ionizes and heats the environment surrounding them. Both phenomena occur at extended scales, parsecs away from the star. The powerful stellar winds, which have supersonic velocities, generate strong shocks in the surrounding interstellar material as they propagate, piling it up and sculpting the environment into a stellar bubble. Recently, synchrotron radio emission related to the bubble of a single star, G2.4+1.4 associated with a Wolf-Rayet star, was reported for the first time. This suggests that the acceleration of particles, at least electrons, in stellar winds of massive stars might be universal. The current plan aims to model the nonthermal emission produced in the bubble G2.4+1.4, from radio to gamma rays.