Can the dust eclipses in WR 104 provide constraints on the system's inclination?
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Richardson, Noel D. White, Ryan M. T. Fabrega, Anthony J. Lieb, Emma P. Chené, André-Nicolas Tuthill, Peter G. Monnier, John D. Hill, Grant M. Williams, Peredur M. Moffat, Anthony F. J. Weigelt, Gerd |
| author_facet | Richardson, Noel D. White, Ryan M. T. Fabrega, Anthony J. Lieb, Emma P. Chené, André-Nicolas Tuthill, Peter G. Monnier, John D. Hill, Grant M. Williams, Peredur M. Moffat, Anthony F. J. Weigelt, Gerd |
| contents | When two massive stars orbit each other, their winds create a shock cone. In some cases, an evolved, carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet (WR) star's wind collides with that of an orbiting OB star, condensing into dust downstream. This dust is then seen as large spiral structures that eventually move into the interstellar medium. Among these colliding wind binaries, the archetype system WR104 has become an enigma. Aperture masking interferometry with Keck revealed an evolving face-on dust spiral with multiple rungs of dust visible from years of observations. In contrast to direct imagery, recent spectroscopic results implied that the orbit must have an inclination quite different from the face-on geometry. We examined the ASAS and ASAS-SN photometry to put further constraints on the geometry of the orbit. Through a phase-binning of the light curve, we find that the recent g-band light curve is brightest at a time when the OB star is in front of the WR star in our line of sight, with the lowest flux happening at the opposite conjunction. We fit the light curve with an illustrative model for scattering eclipses, which then allows us to infer an inclination of the system of $(41.8^{+13.0}_{-14.9})^\circ$. This inclination agrees with the recent spectroscopic orbit and presents challenges to previous interpretations of high-angular resolution images of the dust plume. We provide a qualitative geometric model for the dust plume to reconcile these results and show how WR104 can provide a means to study the properties of WR dust in detail. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_23606 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Can the dust eclipses in WR 104 provide constraints on the system's inclination? Richardson, Noel D. White, Ryan M. T. Fabrega, Anthony J. Lieb, Emma P. Chené, André-Nicolas Tuthill, Peter G. Monnier, John D. Hill, Grant M. Williams, Peredur M. Moffat, Anthony F. J. Weigelt, Gerd Solar and Stellar Astrophysics When two massive stars orbit each other, their winds create a shock cone. In some cases, an evolved, carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet (WR) star's wind collides with that of an orbiting OB star, condensing into dust downstream. This dust is then seen as large spiral structures that eventually move into the interstellar medium. Among these colliding wind binaries, the archetype system WR104 has become an enigma. Aperture masking interferometry with Keck revealed an evolving face-on dust spiral with multiple rungs of dust visible from years of observations. In contrast to direct imagery, recent spectroscopic results implied that the orbit must have an inclination quite different from the face-on geometry. We examined the ASAS and ASAS-SN photometry to put further constraints on the geometry of the orbit. Through a phase-binning of the light curve, we find that the recent g-band light curve is brightest at a time when the OB star is in front of the WR star in our line of sight, with the lowest flux happening at the opposite conjunction. We fit the light curve with an illustrative model for scattering eclipses, which then allows us to infer an inclination of the system of $(41.8^{+13.0}_{-14.9})^\circ$. This inclination agrees with the recent spectroscopic orbit and presents challenges to previous interpretations of high-angular resolution images of the dust plume. We provide a qualitative geometric model for the dust plume to reconcile these results and show how WR104 can provide a means to study the properties of WR dust in detail. |
| title | Can the dust eclipses in WR 104 provide constraints on the system's inclination? |
| topic | Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.23606 |