| 13 | | Here is the abstract.. |
| | 13 | RS Ophiuchi (RS Oph) is one of only four known nova-producing systems |
| | 14 | embedded within the dense wind nebula of a red-giant companion; it is |
| | 15 | the only one of these systems to have erupted during the current era |
| | 16 | of modern X-ray instruments. I will use observations of the recent |
| | 17 | outburst of RS Oph as a framework for a discussion of novae, the |
| | 18 | progenitors of type Ia supernovae, and stellar jets. As the RS Oph |
| | 19 | nova ejecta plowed through the surrounding nebula, the resulting blast |
| | 20 | wave shock-heating this gas to temperatures of ~100 million degrees K |
| | 21 | and accelerated particles to relativistic speeds, producing the |
| | 22 | strongest hard X-ray emission ever seen from a white dwarf and copious |
| | 23 | radio synchrotron emission. The blast wave began decelerating very |
| | 24 | soon after the eruption, indicating that the ejecta did not contain |
| | 25 | much mass. To generate a thermonuclear runaway with so little fuel, |
| | 26 | the white dwarf mass must be very close to the Chandrasekhar limit. |
| | 27 | As has been found in other stellar explosions, the ejecta were also |
| | 28 | not perfectly spherical. Radio observations revealed an expanding |
| | 29 | shell plus a bi-polar jet. Some of the phenomena observed |
| | 30 | in RS Oph have bearing on the study of supernova remnants and other |
| | 31 | jet-producing sources such as proto-stars and microquasars. |
