Shenar Tomer, Wade Gregg A, Marchant Pablo, Bagnulo Stefano, Bodensteiner Julia, Bowman Dominic M, Gilkis Avishai, Langer Norbert, Nicolas-Chené André, Oskinova Lidia, Van Reeth Timothy, Sana Hugues, St-Louis Nicole, de Oliveira Alexandre Soares, Todt Helge, Toonen Silvia
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Department of Physics and Space Science, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston K7K7B4, Canada.
Science. 2023 Aug 18;381(6659):761-765. doi: 10.1126/science.ade3293. Epub 2023 Aug 17.
Magnetars are highly magnetized neutron stars, the formation mechanism of which is unknown. Hot helium-rich stars with spectra dominated by emission lines are known as Wolf-Rayet stars. We observed the binary system HD 45166 using spectropolarimetry and reanalyzed its orbit using archival data. We found that the system contains a Wolf-Rayet star with a mass of 2 solar masses and a magnetic field of 43 kilogauss. Stellar evolution calculations indicate that this component will explode as a supernova, and that its magnetic field is strong enough for the supernova to leave a magnetar remnant. We propose that the magnetized Wolf-Rayet star formed by the merger of two lower-mass helium stars.
磁星是高度磁化的中子星,其形成机制尚不清楚。光谱以发射线为主的富热氦恒星被称为沃尔夫-拉叶星。我们使用分光偏振测量法观测了双星系统HD 45166,并利用存档数据重新分析了它的轨道。我们发现该系统包含一颗质量为2个太阳质量、磁场为43千高斯的沃尔夫-拉叶星。恒星演化计算表明,这一组成部分将作为超新星爆发,并且其磁场强度足以使超新星留下一个磁星遗迹。我们提出,这颗磁化的沃尔夫-拉叶星是由两颗质量较低的氦星合并形成的。