Aim: We aim to determine the abundances of CS, SiO, and SiS in a large sample of carbon star envelopes covering a wide range of mass loss rates to investigate the potential role that these molecules could play in the formation of dust in the surroundings of the central AGB star. Methods: We surveyed a sample of 25 carbon-rich AGB stars in the $λ$ 2 mm band, using the IRAM 30 m telescope. We performed excitation and radiative transfer calculations based on the LVG method to model the observed lines of the molecules and to derive their fractional abundances in the observed CSEs. Results: We detected CS in all 25 CSEs, SiO in 24 of them, and SiS in 17 sources. We found that CS and SiS have similar abundances in carbon star envelopes, while SiO is present with a lower abundance. We also found a strong correlation in which the denser the envelope, the less abundant are CS and SiO. The trend is however only tentatively seen for SiS in the range of high mass loss rates. Furthermore, we found a relation in which the integrated flux of the MgS dust feature at 30 um increases as the fractional abundance of CS decreases. Conclusions: The decline in the fractional abundance of CS with increasing density could be due to gas-phase chemistry in the inner envelope or to adsorption onto dust grains. The latter possibility is favored by a correlation between the CS fractional abundance and the 30 um feature, which suggests that CS is efficiently incorporated onto MgS dust around C-rich AGB stars. In the case of SiO, the observed abundance depletion with increasing density is most likely caused by an efficient incorporation onto dust grains. We conclude that CS, SiO (very likely), and SiS (tentatively) are good candidates to act as gas-phase precursors of dust in C-rich AGB envelopes.
Charting circumstellar chemistry of carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars. III. SiO and SiS abundances
Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）；Joint ALMA Observatory（ALMA联合 observatory）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Leiden University（莱顿大学）；Queen’s University Belfast（贝尔法斯特女王大学）
Context. With the outstanding spatial resolution and sensitivity of the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA), molecular gas other than the abundant CO can be observed and resolved in circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) around evolved stars, such as the binary S-type Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) star W Aquilae. Aims. We aim to constrain the chemical composition of the CSE and determine the radial abundance distribution, the photospheric peak abundance, and isotopic ratios of a selection of chemically important molecular species in the innermost CSE of W Aql. The derived parameters a…
The study of the gas in the envelopes surrounding asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars through observations in the millimetre wavelength range provides information about the history and nature of these molecular factories. Here we present ALMA observations at subarsecond resolution, complemented with IRAM-30m data, of several lines of SiO, SiS, and CS towards the best-studied AGB circumstellar envelope, IRC+10216. We aim to characterise their spatial distribution and determine their fractional abundances mainly through radiative transfer and chemical modelling. The three species display extende…
Aims: We aim to determine the abundances of SiO, CS, SiS, SO, and SO$_2$ in a large sample of oxygen-rich AGB envelopes covering a wide range of mass loss rates to investigate the potential role that these molecules could play in the formation of dust in these environments. Methods:We surveyed a sample of 30 oxygen-rich AGB stars in the $λ$ 2 mm band using the IRAM 30m telescope. We performed excitation and radiative transfer calculations based on the LVG method to model the observed lines of the molecules and to derive their fractional abundances in the observed envelopes. Results:We detected…
Circumstellar molecular composition of the oxygen-rich AGB star IK~Tau: II. In-depth non-LTE chemical abundance analysis
K.U.Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学）；Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics（哈佛-史密森天体物理中心）；Universität zu Köln（科隆大学）；Max-Planck Institut für Radioastronomie（马克斯·普朗克射电天文研究所）；MPI für Gravitationsphysik（引力物理学马普研究所）；Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院喷气推进实验室）
Circumstellar environments of oxygen-rich stars are among the strongest SiO maser emitters. Physical processes such as collisions, infrared pumping and overlaps favors the inversion of level population and produce maser emission at different vibrational states. Despite numerous observational and theoretical efforts, we still do not have an unified picture including all the physical processes involved in the SiO maser emission. The aim of this work is to provide homogeneous data in a large sample of oxygen-rich stars. We present a survey of 67 oxygen-rich stars from 7 to 1 mm, in their rotation…
We present ALMA band 6 observations of the luminous blue variable Eta Car, obtained within the ALMAGAL program. We report SiO J=5-4, SiS J=12-11 and SiN N=5-4 emission in the equatorial region of the Homunculus nebula, constituting the first detection of silicon- and sulphur-bearing molecules in the outskirts of a highly evolved, early-type massive star. SiO, SiS and SiN trace a clumpy equatorial ring that surrounds the central binary at a projected distance of 2 arcsec, delineating the inner rims of the butterfly-shaped dusty region. The formation of silicon-bearing compounds is presumably re…
We present continuum and molecular line emission ALMA observations of OH 231.8+4.2, a well studied bipolar nebula around an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. The high angular resolution (~0.2-0.3 arcsec) and sensitivity of our ALMA maps provide the most detailed and accurate description of the overall nebular structure and kinematics of this object to date. We have identified a number of outflow components previously unknown. Species studied in this work include 12CO, 13CO, CS, SO, SO2, OCS, SiO, SiS, H3O+, Na37Cl, and CH3OH. The molecules Na37Cl and CH3OH are first detections in OH 231.8+4.…
On the Carriers of the 21 Micron Emission Feature in Post-Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars
在16个富含碳的原行星状星云（PPNe）中发现的神秘的21微米发射特征自1989年发现以来一直没有得到确认。十几种材料被建议作为载体候选者。在这项工作中，我们定量研究了8种无机和1种有机载体候选者的元素丰度限制，而以前的研究主要集中在他们的光谱分布（这可能在很大程度上受到晶粒尺寸，形状和聚类效应）。发现：（1）5名候选人（TiC纳米团簇、与Ti原子配位的富勒烯、SiS $_2$、掺杂SiC和SiO $_2$涂覆的SiC粉末）违反了丰度约束（即，它们需要太多的Ti、S或Si来解释21微米带的发射功率，（2）三个候选物（碳和硅的混合物，Fe $_2$ O $_3$和Fe $_3$ O $_4$），在满足丰度限制的同时，表现出在21微米源中未检测到的次要特征，（3）纳米FeO，既没有超过丰度预算，也没有产生未被检测到的次级特征，似乎是一个可行的候选者，支持Posch等人2004年的建议。
Unravelling the composition and characteristics of gas and dust lost by asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars is important as these stars play a vital role in the chemical life cycle of galaxies. The general hypothesis of their mass loss mechanism is a combination of stellar pulsations and radiative pressure on dust grains. However, current models simplify dust formation, which starts as a microscopic phase transition called nucleation. Various nucleation theories exist, yet all assume chemical equilibrium, growth restricted by monomers, and commonly use macroscopic properties for a microscopic …
The carriers of the 21 and 30\,$μ$m emission features in infrared spectra of circumstellar envelopes are a long-standing enigma. In this paper, we present the results of molecular line observations toward two circumstellar envelopes exhibiting the 21 and/or 30\,$μ$m features, IRAS\,21318+5631 and 22272+5435, aiming at investigating whether they have unusual gas-phase chemistry and searching for possible gas-phase precursor of the carriers of the two dust features. The spectra cover several discrete frequency ranges of 130--164\,GHz and 216.5--273\,GHz, resulting in a detection of 13 molecular …
A spectral line and imaging survey of the low mass-loss rate AGB star R Dor (Mdot ~ 1e-7 Msun/yr) and the high mass-loss rate AGB star IK Tau (Mdot ~5e-6 Msun/yr) was made with ALMA between 335 and 362 GHz at a spatial resolution of ~150 mas, corresponding to the locus of the main dust formation region of both targets. Some 200 spectral features from 15 molecules (and their isotopologues) were observed, including rotational lines in both the ground and vibrationally excited states. Detected species include the gaseous precursors of dust grains such as SiO, AlO, AlOH, TiO, and TiO2. We present …
This overview paper presents ATOMIUM, a Large Programme in Cycle 6 with the Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA). The goal of ATOMIUM is to understand the dynamics and the gas phase and dust formation chemistry in the winds of evolved asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and red supergiant (RSG) stars. A more general aim is to identify chemical processes applicable to other astrophysical environments. 17 oxygen-rich AGB and RSG stars spanning a range in (circum)stellar parameters and evolutionary phases were observed in a homogeneous observing strategy allowing for an unambiguous compa…
