HD54662 radial velocities and X-ray light curves

We determine an orbital period of 2103.4 days, a surprisingly low orbital eccentricity of 0.11, and a mass ratio m_2/m_1 of 0.84. Combined with the orbital inclination inferred in a previous astrometric study, we obtain surprisingly low masses of 9.7 and 8.2M_{sun}_. From the disentangled primary and secondary spectra, we infer O6.5 spectral types for both stars with the primary being about two times brighter than the secondary.

The softness of the X-ray spectra for the two observations, the very small variation of best-fitting spectral parameters and the comparison of the X-ray-to- bolometric luminosity ratio with the canonical value for O-type stars allow us to conclude that the X-ray emission from the wind interaction region is quite small and that the observed emission is rather dominated by the intrinsic emission from the stars. Computing the peculiar radial and intrinsic emission from the stars.

Computing the peculiar radial and tangential velocities, we cannot confirm the runaway status previously attributed to HD 54662. We find no X-ray emission associated with the bow shock detected in the infrared. The lack of hard X-ray emission from the wind-shock region suggests that the mass-loss rates are lower than expected and/or that the pre-shock wind velocities are much lower than the terminal wind velocities.

The bow shock associated with HD 54662 possibly corresponds to a wind-blown arc created by the interaction of the stellar winds with the ionized gas of the CMa OB1 association rather than by a large differential velocity between the binary and the surrounding interstellar medium.