Colloquium Abstract - Costa - 2024Mar22
March 22, 2024
11:00am Mountain
Allison Costa (NRAO)
Faraday Complexity in the High Mass X-ray Binary LS I +61 303
Abstract
I present Faraday Rotation Measure (RM) Synthesis analyses of multi-epoch polarimetric observations of the Gamma-ray loud High Mass X-ray Binary LS I +61 303. With the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, I obtained eight observations of LS I +61 303, spanning three orbital periods between 2019 and 2020. In each observing epoch, I find that the Faraday spectrum contains multiple peaks at more than 10 times the noise. Considering the recent pulsation detection attributed to the system (Weng et al. 2022, Nature, 6, 698), I employ a analytical model for the plasma environments that includes RM contributions from the interaction of the pulsar with the stellar winds of the companion Be star and the decretion disc of the Be star. I discuss the results of the multi-epoch Faraday rotation analyses in the context of this model to probe the magneto-ionic environments responsible for the Faraday complex spectrum.
Local Host: Amy Mioduszewski
