Non-thermal emission in hyper-velocity and semi-relativistic stars

Abstract

Context. There is a population of runaway stars that move at extremely high speeds with respect to their surroundings. The fast motion and the stellar wind of these stars, plus the wind-medium interaction, can lead to particle acceleration and non-thermal radiation. Aims. We characterise the interaction between the winds of fast runaway stars and their environment, in particular to establish their potential as cosmic-ray accelerators and non-thermal emitters. Methods. We model the hydrodynamics of the interaction between the stellar wind and the surrounding material. We self-consistently calculate the injection and transport of relativistic particles in the bow shock using a multi-zone code, and compute their broadband emission from radio to γ-rays. Results. Both the forward and reverse shocks are favourable sites for particle acceleration, although the radiative efficiency of particles is low and therefore the expected fluxes are in general rather faint. Conclusions. We show that high-sensitivity observations in the radio band can be used to detect the non-thermal radiation associated with bow shocks from hyper-velocity and semi-relativistic stars. Hyper-velocity stars are expected to be modest sources of sub-TeV cosmic rays, accounting perhaps for ∼0.1% of that of galactic cosmic rays.