Journal article
Laboratory analogue of a supersonic accretion column in a binary star system.
- Abstract:
- Astrophysical flows exhibit rich behaviour resulting from the interplay of different forms of energy-gravitational, thermal, magnetic and radiative. For magnetic cataclysmic variable stars, material from a late, main sequence star is pulled onto a highly magnetized (B>10 MG) white dwarf. The magnetic field is sufficiently large to direct the flow as an accretion column onto the poles of the white dwarf, a star subclass known as AM Herculis. A stationary radiative shock is expected to form 100-1,000 km above the surface of the white dwarf, far too small to be resolved with current telescopes. Here we report the results of a laboratory experiment showing the evolution of a reverse shock when both ionization and radiative losses are important. We find that the stand-off position of the shock agrees with radiation hydrodynamic simulations and is consistent, when scaled to AM Herculis star systems, with theoretical predictions.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.3MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/ncomms11899
Authors
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Journal:
- Nature Communications More from this journal
- Volume:
- 7
- Pages:
- ncomms11899
- Publication date:
- 2016-06-01
- Acceptance date:
- 2016-05-10
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2041-1723
- Pmid:
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27291065
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:628291
- UUID:
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uuid:2133ed27-b8de-49af-b577-ff2cce93bfd9
- Local pid:
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pubs:628291
- Source identifiers:
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628291
- Deposit date:
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2017-08-31
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Gregori et al
- Copyright date:
- 2016
- Notes:
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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