AGB Stars and Their Circumstellar Envelopes: An Operative Approach to Computing Their Atmospheres

The study of AGB stars necessarily covers a wide range of topics, from the primary astronomical observations to their interpretation in terms of fundamental physics. All that requires proper ad hoc methodologies, among which numerical modeling of the outer layers of AGB stars plays a paramount role. In this paper, we present an iterative sequential procedure, operative and physically sound, tailored to compute extended stellar atmospheres. It will constitute the backbone of the in fieri TEIDE package to be implemented into our VULCAN code. Such an improvement will allow us to compute more realistic models of the extended atmospheres of AGB stars taking into account important physical aspects that are neglected in the actual version of VULCAN.

Dust Production around Carbon-Rich Stars: The Role of Metallicity

Background: Most of the stars in the Universe will end their evolution by losing their envelope during the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase, enriching the interstellar medium of galaxies with heavy elements, partially condensed into dust grains formed in their extended circumstellar envelopes. Among these stars, carbon-rich TP-AGB stars (C-stars) are particularly relevant for the chemical enrichment of galaxies. We here investigated the role of the metallicity in the dust formation process from a theoretical viewpoint. Methods: We coupled an up-to-date description of dust growth and dust-driven wind, which included the time-averaged effect of shocks, with FRUITY stellar evolutionary tracks. We compared our predictions with observations of C-stars in our Galaxy, in the Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) and in the Galactic Halo, characterised by metallicity between solar and 1/10 of solar. Results: Our models explained the variation of the gas and dust content around C-stars derived from the IRS Spitzer spectra. The wind speed of the C-stars at varying metallicity was well reproduced by our description. We predicted the wind speed at metallicity down to 1/10 of solar in a wide range of mass-loss rates.

AGB Stars and Their Circumstellar Envelopes. I. the VULCAN Code

The interplay between AGB interiors and their outermost layers, where molecules and dust form, is a problem of high complexity. As a consequence, physical processes like mass loss, which depend on the chemistry of the circumstellar envelope, are often oversimplified. The best candidates to drive mass-loss in AGB stars are dust grains, which trap the outgoing radiation and drag the surrounding gas. Grains build up, however, is far from being completely understood. Our aim is to model both the physics and the chemistry of the cool expanding layers around AGB stars in order to characterize the on-going chemistry, from atoms to dust grains. This has been our rationale to develop ab initio VULCAN, a FORTRAN hydro code able to follow the propagation of shocks in the circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars. The version presented in this paper adopts a perfect gas law and a very simplified treatment of the radiative transfer effects and dust nucleation. In this paper, we present preliminary results obtained with our code.

Direct observation of long-lived cyanide anions in superexcited states

The cyanide anion (CN−) has been identified in cometary coma, interstellar medium, planetary atmosphere and circumstellar envelopes, but its origin and abundance are still disputed. An isolated CN− is stabilized in the vibrational states up to ν = 17 of the electronic ground-state 1Σ+, but it is not thought to survive in the electronic or vibrational states above the electron autodetachment threshold, namely, in superexcited states. Here we report the direct observation of long-lived CN− yields of the dissociative electron attachment to cyanogen bromide (BrCN), and confirm that some of the CN− yields are distributed in the superexcited vibrational states ν ≥ 18 (1Σ+) or the superexcited electronic states 3Σ+ and 3Π. The triplet state can be accessed directly in the impulsive dissociation of BrCN− or by an intersystem transition from the superexcited vibrational states of CN−. The exceptional stability of CN− in the superexcited states profoundly influences its abundance and is potentially related to the production of other compounds in interstellar space.

Gas-phase synthesis of corannulene – a molecular building block of fullerenes

Corannulene can be formed through molecular mass growth processes in circumstellar envelopes.

Molecular Emissions from Circumstellar Envelopes in the Presence of a Binary Companion

Following our previous work on the hydrodynamic simulations of the structure of circumstellar envelopes in the presence of a binary companion, in this paper we present the results of radiative transfer calculations for molecular emission line HC3N J=5 – 4 from these simulated circumstellar envelopes. We show that the molecular line emission traces closely the spiral pattern and the associated density enhancement induced by the presence of the binary companion. The molecular emission provides the spatial kinematics of the features within the envelope, which is valuable for estimating the orbital parameters of the binary system and for inferring the physical conditions of the gas within the envelope. We also show that the appearance of the molecular emission depends on the viewing angle resulting in a range of shapes from the spiral pattern to ring-like features, similar to that observed recently in a number of circumstellar envelopes at high angular resolution.

GG Carinae: orbital parameters and accretion indicators from phase-resolved spectroscopy and photometry

B[ e ] supergiants are a rare and unusual class of massive and luminous stars, characterised by opaque circumstellar envelopes. GG Carinae is a binary whose primary component is a B[ e ] supergiant and whose variability has remained unsatisfactorily explained. Using photometric data from ASAS, OMC, and ASAS-SN, and spectroscopic data from the Global Jet Watch and FEROS to study visible emission lines, we focus on the variability of the system at its ∼31-day orbital period and constrain the stellar parameters of the primary. There is one photometric minimum per orbital period and, in the emission line spectroscopy, we find a correlation between the amplitude of radial velocity variations and the initial energy of the line species. The spectral behaviour is consistent with the emission lines forming in the primary’s wind, with the variable amplitudes between line species being caused by the less energetic lines forming at larger radii on average. By modelling the atmosphere of the primary, we are able to model the radial velocity variations of the wind lines in order to constrain the orbit of the binary. We find that the binary is even more eccentric than previously believed (e = 0.5 ± 0.03). Using this orbital solution, the system is brightest at periastron and dimmest at apastron, and the shape of the photometric variations at the orbital period can be well described by the variable accretion by the secondary of the primary’s wind. We suggest that the evolutionary history of GG Carinae may need to be reevaluated in a binary context.