Supercritical colliding wind binaries

Understand

Context.

• Particle-accelerating colliding-wind binaries (PACWBs) are systems that are formed by two massive and hot stars and produce nonthermal (NT) radiation.
• The key elements of these systems are fast winds and the shocks that they create when they collide.
• Binaries with nonaccreting young pulsars have also been detected as NT emitters, again as a consequence of the wind-wind interaction.