Modelling multiwavelength observational characteristics of bow shocks from runaway early-type stars

Abstract

We assess the multiwavelength observable properties of the bow shock around a runaway early-type star using a combination of hydrodynamical modelling, radiative transfer calculations and synthetic imaging. Instabilities associated with the forward shock produce dense knots of material which are warm, ionized and contain dust. These knots of material are responsible for the majority of emission at far infrared, H α and radio wavelengths. The large-scale bow shock morphology is very similar and differences are primarily due to variations in the assumed spatial resolution. However infrared intensity slices (at 22 microns and 12 microns) show that the effects of a temperature gradient can be resolved at a realistic spatial resolution for an object at a distance of 1 kpc