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- 2018
Anisotropic winds in a Wolf–Rayet binary identify a potential gamma-ray burst progenitorDOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0617-7 Abstract: The massive evolved Wolf–Rayet stars sometimes occur in colliding-wind binary systems in which dust plumes are formed as a result of the collision of stellar winds1. These structures are known to encode the parameters of the binary orbit and winds2,3,4. Here we report observations of a previously undiscovered Wolf–Rayet system, 2XMM?J160050.7–514245, with a spectroscopically determined wind speed of ~3,400?km?s?1. In the thermal infrared, the system is adorned with a prominent ~12″ spiral dust plume, revealed by proper motion studies to be expanding at only ~570?km?s?1. As the dust and gas appear to be coeval, these observations are inconsistent with existing models of the dynamics of such colliding-wind systems5,6,7. We propose that this contradiction can be resolved if the system is capable of launching extremely anisotropic winds. Near-critical stellar rotation is known to drive such winds8,9, suggesting that this Wolf–Rayet system may be a Galactic progenitor system for long-duration gamma-ray bursts
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