Detailed Spectral Synthesis of Accretions Disk Winds

Author(s)

Raul Eduardo Puebla Puebla

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto Astronômico e Geofísico (IAG/SBD)
• Defense date: 2010-08-26

Examining board members

Marcos Perez Diaz; Roberto Dell' Aglio Dias da Costa; Desmond John Hillier; Eduardo Janot Pacheco; Claudia Vilega Rodrigues

• Advisor: Marcos Perez Diaz

Abstract

We have developed a new spectral synthesis method for modeling the accretion disk of non-magnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs). The aim of this work is to analyze the continuum and line emission of disks in a wide ultraviolet (UV) spectral range. The disk is separated in concentric rings, and for each ring a wind plus disk atmosphere are calculated. The wind atmospheres are calculated consistently with a density given by Wade and Hubeny disk-atmosphere models at their base. The structure is calculated in the co-moving frame with a vertical velocity profile defined by the Eulers equation solution for the disk wind. We found that the resulting line and continuum behavior as a function of the orbital inclination is consistent with the observations. We also verify that the accretion rate changes the wind temperature, leading to corresponding trends in the intensity of lines. We found that the primary mass has a strong effect on the absorption profiles depth. It was verified that the lines profiles are strongly sensitive to the wind temperature structure and a rise of mass loss rate increases the line intensity. Selected UV data for two high orbital inclination nova-like (NL) CVs, RW Tri and V347 Pup, were confronted with synthetic spectra. The line widths and profiles are reasonably well reproduced by the models. A lack of flux in some high ionization lines (C iv ¸¸1548,1551 and Nv ¸¸1238,1242) may be the signature of the boundary layer (BL) effect and/or the irradiation of outer wind by inner disk. We also found that for high inclination systems the vertical wind structure is less important than for low inclination system models. (AU)