| Abstract: | In the cited works 1, 2], a study was made of supersonic flow round a source of x-ray radiation by stellar wind. It was found that if the energy release is sufficiently high, a bow shock wave forms in the flow, and a zone of low density and high temperature of the gas arises behind the source. If the influx of energy to the gas is small, the flow remains supersonic everywhere 2]. The question of the formation of a shock wave in the case of weak heating through of the gas by the radiation was not considered in 2]. However, on the basis of the qualitative analogy between supersonic flow past impermeable bodies and radiation sources, one would naturally expect that if the power of the energy release is low a shock wave which does not intersect the axis of symmetry could appear. The following article indicates the conditions under which this actually occurs, and a quantitative analogy is established between supersonic flow past thin bodies and sources of radiation, and the range of flow where such an analogy is absent is also determined.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 133–136, July–August, 1984.The author thanks V. P. Stulov and M. M. Gilinskii for discussing this work and for their extremely useful comments. |
