Resonance Line Profiles from Radial Accretion Flows

Extract

A compact star in a detached binary system can accrete the matter from the stellar wind of the companion. In this case a more or less radial accretion flow is formed. By analogy to stellar winds from early type stars it is usually believed that the accretion of this sort should produce inverse P-Cygni profiles in resonance lines. However, there are physical differences between the wind and the radial accretion which can alter the outgoing profile significantly.

The matter outflowing from an early type star cools off very fast due to the adiabatic expansion. However, it remains highly ionized as the quickly decreasing density does not allow it to recombine. Therefore the principal mechanism for the resonance line formation here is the scattering of the stellar continuum photons in the wind.