The high-speed solar wind is typically the simplest and least stochastic type of large-scale plasma flow in the heliosphere. For much of the solar cycle, it is connected magnetically to large polar coronal holes on the Sun's surface. Because these features are relatively well-known (and less complex than the multiple source-regions of the slow wind), the fast wind is often a useful testing-ground for theoretical models of coronal heating. In order to provide global empirical constraints to these models, here we collect together some older and more recent measurements of the temperatures of protons, electrons, and oxygen ions as a function of radial distance.
The late stellar evolutionary phases of low and intermediate-mass stars are strongly constrained by their mass-loss rates. The wind surrounding cool evolved stars frequently shows non-spherical features, thought to be due to an unseen companion orbiting the donor star. We study the morphology of the circumbinary envelope, in particular around oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. We run a grid of 70 3D hydrodynamics simulations of a progressively accelerating wind propagating in the Roche potential formed by a mass-loosing evolved star in orbit with a main sequence companion. We res…
During their asymptotic giant branch, evolution low-mass stars lose a significant fraction of their mass through an intense wind, enriching the interstellar medium with products of nucleosynthesis. We observed the nearby oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch star IK Tau using the high-resolution HIFI spectrometer onboard Herschel. We report on the first detection of H_2^{16}O and the rarer isotopologues H_2^{17}O and H_2^{18}O in both the ortho and para states. We deduce a total water content (relative to molecular hydrogen) of 6.6x10^{-5}, and an ortho-to-para ratio of 3:1. These results are co…
We present new cooling models for carbon-oxygen white dwarfs with both H- and He-atmospheres, covering the whole relevant mass range, to extend our updated BaSTI (a Bag of Stellar Tracks and Isochrones) stellar evolution archive. They have been computed using core chemical stratifications obtained from new progenitor calculations, adopting a semiempirical initial-final mass relation. The physics inputs have been updated compared to our previous BaSTI calculations: ^{22}Ne diffusion in the core is now included, together with an updated CO phase diagram, and updated electron conduction opacities…
Winds in protoplanetary disks play an important role in their evolution and dispersal. However, what physical process is driving the winds is still unclear (i.e. magnetically vs thermally driven), and can only be understood by directly confronting theoretical models with observational data. We use hydrodynamic photoevaporative disk-wind models and post-process them with a thermo-chemical model to produce synthetic observables for the o-H$_2$ at 2.12 micron and [OI] at 0.63 micron spectral lines and directly compare the results to a sample of observations. Our photoevaporative disk-wind model i…
Stars with $\sim 8-10~{M}_{\odot}$ evolve to form a strongly degenerate ONeMg core. When the core mass becomes close to the Chandrasekhar mass, the core undergoes electron captures on $^{24}$Mg and $^{20}$Ne, which induce the electron-capture supernova (ECSN). In order to clarify whether the ECSN leads to a collapse or thermonuclear explosion, we calculate the evolution of an $8.4~M_\odot$ star from the main sequence until the oxygen ignition in the ONeMg core. We apply the latest electron-capture rate on $^{20}$Ne including the second forbidden transition, and investigate how the location of …
Context. Obtaining precise stellar and wind properties and abundance patterns of massive stars is crucial to understanding their nature and interactions with their environments, as well as to constrain their evolutionary paths and end-products. Aims. To enable higher versatility and precision of the complete UV to optical range, we improve our NLTE atmosphere and spectrum synthesis code FASTWIND. We also aim to obtain an advanced description of X-ray emission from wind-embedded shocks. Methods. We include a detailed comoving frame radiative transfer for the essential frequency range, but still…
We report the discovery of weak yet hard X-ray emission from the Wolf-Rayet (WR) star WR142 with the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. Being of spectral subtype WO2, WR142 is a massive star in a very advanced evolutionary stage, short before its explosion as a supernova or gamma-ray burst. This is the first detection of X-ray emission from a WO-type star. We rule out any serendipitous X-ray sources within approx 1" of WR142. WR142 has an X-ray luminosity of L_X=7\times10^{30} erg/s, which constitutes only $\lsim 10^{-8}$ of its bolometric luminosity. The hard X-ray spectrum suggests a plasma tempera…
We update two kinds of results obtained with the SWAN instrument on board SOHO. First, we use H cell data recorded in 2001 and derive the H flow direction in the same way we performed the study at solar minimum. We compare with the Helium flow and doing so we correct for the coordinate system change between the Ulysses and SOHO mission. The deflection plane we obtain is compatible with the previous result within error bars, confirming the predominant role of the interstellar magnetic field. Secondly, we extend the derivation of solar wind ionization temporal evolution as a function of heliolat…
Using ALMA observations of $^{12}$CO(2-1), $^{28}$SiO(5-4) and $^{32}$SO$_2$(16$_{6,10}$-17$_{5,13}$) emissions of the circumstellar envelope of AGB star EP Aqr, we describe the morpho-kinematics governing the nascent wind. Main results are: 1) Two narrow polar structures, referred to as jets, launched from less than 25 au away from the star, build up between $\sim$ 20 au and $\sim$ 100 au to a velocity of $\sim$ 20 \kms. They fade away at larger distances and are barely visible in CO data. 2) SO$_2$, SiO and CO emissions explore radial ranges reaching respectively $\sim$30 au, 250 au and 1000…
Massive stars lose a large fraction of their mass to radiation-driven winds throughout their entire life. These outflows impact both the life and death of these stars and their surroundings. Theoretical mass-loss rates of hot, massive stars are derived to be used in applications such as stellar evolution. The behaviour of these rates in the OB-star regime is analysed, and their effects on massive-star evolution predictions is studied. Dynamically-consistent models are computed by solving the spherically symmetric, steady-state equation-of-motion for a large grid of hot, massive stars. The radi…
We compare element and isotopic fractionations measured in solar wind samples collected by NASA's Genesis mission with those predicted from models incorporating both the ponderomotive force in the chromosphere and conservation of the first adiabatic invariant in the low corona. Generally good agreement is found, suggesting that these factors are consistent with the process of solar wind fractionation. Based on bulk wind measurements, we also consider in more detail the isotopic and elemental abundances of O. We find mild support for an O abundance in the range 8.75 - 8.83, with a value as low …
Aluminium monoxide, AlO, is likely efficiently depleted from the gas around oxygen-rich evolved stars to form alumina clusters and dust seeds. Its presence in the extended atmospheres of evolved stars has been derived from optical spectroscopy. More recently, AlO gas was also detected at long wavelengths around the supergiant VY CMa and the oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star o Cet (Mira A). In search of AlO, we mined data obtained with APEX, the IRAM 30m telescope, Herschel/HIFI, SMA, and ALMA, which were primarily aimed at studying other molecular species. We report here on observ…
Hot star wind mass-loss rates depend on the abundance of individual elements. This dependence is usually accounted for assuming scaled solar chemical composition. However, this approach may not be justified in evolved rotating stars. The rotational mixing brings CNO-processed material to the stellar surface, increasing the abundance of nitrogen at the expense of carbon and oxygen, which potentially influences the mass-loss rates. We study the influence of the modified chemical composition resulting from the rotational mixing on the wind parameters, particularly the wind mass-loss rates. We use…
New data for calculation of the ionization and recombination rates have have been published in the past few years. Most of these are included in CHIANTI database. We used these data to calculate collisional ionization and recombination rates for the non-Maxwellian kappa-distributions with an enhanced number of particles in the high-energy tail, which have been detected in the solar transition region and the solar wind. Ionization equilibria for elements H to Zn are derived. The kappa-distributions significantly influence both the ionization and recombination rates and widen the ion abundance p…
WD J005311 is a newly identified white dwarf (WD) in a mid-infrared nebula. The spectroscopic observation indicates the existence of a neon-enriched carbon/oxygen wind with a terminal velocity of $v_{\infty,\rm obs}\sim 16,000\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$ and a mass loss rate of $\dot M_{\rm obs}\sim 3.5\times 10^{-6}\,M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. Here we consistently explain the properties of WD J005311 using a newly constructed wind solution, where the optically thick outflow is launched from the carbon burning shell on an oxygen-neon core and accelerated by the rotating magnetic field to become supersonic and u…
Phosphorus-bearing compounds have only been studied in the circumstellar environments (CSEs) of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star IRC +10216 and the protoplanetary nebula CRL 2688, both C-rich objects, and the O-rich red supergiant VY CMa. The current chemical models cannot reproduce the high abundances of PO and PN derived from observations of VY CMa. No observations have been reported of phosphorus in the CSEs of O-rich AGB stars. We aim to set observational constraints on the phosphorous chemistry in the CSEs of O-rich AGB stars, by focussing on the Mira-type variable star IK Tau. Usin…
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）
We present a SOFIA FORCAST grism spectroscopic survey to examine the mineralogy of the circumstellar dust in a sample of post-asymptotic giant branch yellow supergiants that are believed to be the precursors of planetary nebulae. Our mineralogical model of each star indicates the presence of both carbon rich and oxygen rich dust species-contrary to simple dredge-up models-with a majority of the dust in the form of amorphous carbon and graphite. The oxygen rich dust is primarily in the form of amorphous silicates. The spectra do not exhibit any prominent crystalline silicate emission features. …
Exploring the Milky Way stellar disk. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, potassium, and copper abundances for 714 F- and G-type dwarf stars in the solar neighbourhood
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…
The production factor, or broad band averaged cross-section, for solar wind charge-exchange with hydrogen producing emission in the ROSAT 1/4 keV (R12) band is $3.8\pm0.2\times10^{-20}$ count degree$^{-2}$ cm$^4$. This value is derived from a comparison of the Long-Term (background) Enhancements in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey with magnetohysdrodynamic simulations of the magnetosheath. This value is 1.8 to 4.5 times higher than values derived from limited atomic data, suggesting that those values may be missing a large number of faint lines. This production factor is important for deriving the exa…
Detecting heavy atoms in the inflated atmospheres of giant exoplanets that orbit close to their parent stars is a key factor for understanding their bulk composition, and the processes that drive their expansion and interaction with the impinging stellar wind. Here, we use archive data obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescope to report an absorption of ~6.4+/-1.8% by neutral oxygen during the HD 189733b transit. Scaling published HI results from a simple hydrodynamic model of HD 189733b, a vertical OI column density of ~8x10^15/cm2 produces only a 3.5% a…
An empirical view of the extended atmosphere and inner envelope of the asymptotic giant branch star R Doradus. II. Constraining the dust properties with radiative transfer modelling
The 18O/17O ratio of the Solar System is 5.2 while that of the interstellar medium (ISM) and young stellar objects is ~4. This difference cannot be explained by pollution of the Sun's natal molecular cloud by 18O-rich supernova ejecta because (1) the necessary B-star progenitors live longer than the duration of star formation in molecular clouds; (2) the delivery of ejecta gas is too inefficient and the amount of dust in supernova ejecta is too small compared to the required pollution (2% of total mass or ~20% of oxygen); and (3) the predicted amounts of concomitant short-lived radionuclides (…
Both the recent 2009 and 2020 solar minima were classified as unusually quiet and characterized with unusually high galactic cosmic ray (GCR) levels. However, unlike the trends from previous decades in which anomalous cosmic ray (ACR) and GCR levels strongly agreed, the ACR intensities did not reach such high record-setting levels.This discrepancy between the behaviour of GCRs and ACRs is investigated in this work by simulating the acceleration and transport of GCR and ACR oxygen under different transport conditions. After using recent observations to constrain any remaining free parameters pr…
The solar wind speed plays a key role in the transport of CME out of the Sun and ultimately determines the arrival time of CME-driven shocks in the heliosphere. Here, we develop an empirical model of the solar wind parameters at the inner boundary (18 solar radii, Rs) used in our global, 3D MHD model (G3DMHD) or other equivalent ones. The model takes solar magnetic field maps at 2.5 Rs (which is based on the Potential Field Source Surface, PFSS model) and interpolates the solar wind plasma and field out to 18 Rs using the algorithm of Wang and Sheeley [1990a]. A formula V_{18Rs} = V1 + V2 fs^α…
We present the results of our survey of 1612 MHz circumstellar OH maser emission from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants (RSGs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We have discovered four new circumstellar maser sources in the LMC, and increased the number of reliable wind speeds from IR stars in the LMC from 5 to 13. Using our new wind speeds, as well as those from Galactic sources, we have derived an updated relation for dust driven winds: $v_{exp} \propto Z L^{0.4}$. We compare the sub-solar metallicity LMC OH/IR stars with carefully selected samples of more metal-rich OH/IR…
We present and analyse SO and SO$_2$, recently observed with high angular resolution and sensitivity in a spectral line survey with ALMA, for two oxygen-rich AGB stars: the low mass-loss rate R Dor and high mass-loss rate IK Tau. We analyse 8 lines of SO detected towards both stars, 78 lines of SO$_2$detected towards R Dor and 52 lines of SO$_2$ detected towards IK Tau. We detect several lines of $^{34}$SO, $^{33}$SO and $^{34}$SO$_2$ towards both stars, and tentatively S$^{18}$O towards R Dor, and hence derive isotopic ratios for these species. The spatially resolved observations show us that…
The properties of a solar wind stream are determined by its source region and by transport effects. Independently of the solar wind type, the solar wind measured in situ is always affected by both. We consider the proton-proton collisional age as an ordering parameter for the solar wind at 1AU and explore its relation to the solar wind classification scheme developed by Xu & Borovsky (2015). We use this to show that explicit magnetic field information is not required for this solar wind classification. Based on the observation that the three basic solar wind types from this categorization cove…
