Pulsars, transients and relativistic astrophysics

Abstract:

Massive stars moving at supersonic peculiar velocities through the interstellar medium (ISM) can create bow shocks, arc-like structures at the interface between the stellar wind and the ISM. Many such bow shocks have been detected and catalogued at IR wavelengths, but detections in other wavebands remain rare. Strikingly, while electrons are expected to be accelerated in the bow shock and their non-thermal emission may include synchrotron emission at low frequencies, only two massive runaway stellar bow shocks have to date been detected in the radio band. Here, we examine a sample of fifty IR-detected bow shocks from the E-BOSS catalogues in recently released radio images from the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey. We identify three confident and three likely counterparts, as well as three inconclusive candidates requiring confirmation via follow-up observations. These detections significantly increase the number of known radio massive stellar bow shocks and highlight the advantage of dedicated searches with current and next-generation radio telescopes. We investigate the underlying radio emission mechanism for these radio sources, finding a mix of free–free-dominated and synchrotron-dominated systems. We also discuss the non-detected targets by putting constraints on their emission properties and investigating their detectability with future observations. Finally, we propose several future avenues of research to advance the study and understanding of bow shocks at radio frequencies.

Abstract:

Current theoretical models predict a mass gap with a dearth of stellar black holes (BHs) between roughly 50 M_⊙ and 100 M_⊙, while above the range accessible through massive star evolution, intermediate-mass BHs (IMBHs) still remain elusive. Repeated mergers of binary BHs, detectable via gravitational-wave emission with the current LIGO/Virgo/Kagra interferometers and future detectors such as LISA or the Einstein Telescope, can form both mass-gap BHs and IMBHs. Here we explore the possibility that mass-gap BHs and IMBHs are born as a result of successive BH mergers in dense star clusters. In particular, nuclear star clusters at the centers of galaxies have deep enough potential wells to retain most of the BH merger products after they receive significant recoil kicks due to anisotropic emission of gravitational radiation. Using for the first time simulations that include full stellar evolution, we show that a massive stellar BH seed can easily grow to ∼10³–10⁴ M_⊙ as a result of repeated mergers with other smaller BHs. We find that lowering the cluster metallicity leads to larger final BH masses. We also show that the growing BH spin tends to decrease in magnitude with the number of mergers so that a negative correlation exists between the final mass and spin of the resulting IMBHs. Assumptions about the birth spins of stellar BHs affect our results significantly, with low birth spins leading to the production of a larger population of massive BHs.