O VI in the local interstellar medium

M.A. Barstow (1) , D.D. Boyce (1) , J.K. Barstow (1) , A.E. Forbes (1) , B.Y. Welsh (2) , Rosine Lallement (3)

1 Department of Physics and Astronomy [Leicester]
2 SSL - Space Sciences Laboratory [Berkeley]
3 HELIOS - LATMOS

We report preliminary results of a search for O VI absorption in the spectra of ∼100 hot DA white dwarfs observed by the FUSE satellite. We have carried out a detailed analysis of the radial velocities of interstellar and (where present) stellar absorption lines for the entire sample of stars. In many cases, the velocity differences between the interstellar and photospheric components are below the resolution of the FUSE spectrographs. However, in a significant number of cases the interstellar and photospheric contributions can be separated. In the majority of stars where we find O VI absorption lines, the material is clearly associated with the stellar photosphere and not the interstellar medium. There are a small number of lines-of-sight where the gas is interstellar in nature but the stars are located beyond the boundaries of the local cavity.

Mots clés: ISM; Ultraviolet; Stars; White dwarfs; Interstellar medium

Domaines: Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]; Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]

M.A. Barstow, D.D. Boyce, J.K. Barstow, A.E. Forbes, B.Y. Welsh, et al.. O VI in the local interstellar medium. Astrophysics and Space Science, 2009, 320 (1-3), pp.91-95. ⟨10.1007/s10509-008-9832-5⟩. ⟨hal-00368681⟩