No Arabic abstract
We present a distance measurement for the semiregular variable S Crateris (S Crt) based on its annual parallax. With the unique dual beam system of the VLBI Exploration for Radio Astrometry (VERA) telescopes, we measured the absolute proper motion of a water maser spot associated with S Crt, referred to the quasar J1147-0724 located at an angular separation of 1.23$^{circ}$. In observations spanning nearly two years, we have detected the maser spot at the LSR velocity of 34.7 km s$^{-1}$, for which we measured the annual parallax of 2.33$pm$0.13 mas corresponding to a distance of 430$^{+25}_{-23}$ pc. This measurement has an accuracy one order of magnitude better than the parallax measurements of HIPPARCOS. The angular distribution and three-dimensional velocity field of maser spots indicate a bipolar outflow with the flow axis along northeast-southwest direction. Using the distance and photospheric temperature, we estimate the stellar radius of S Crt and compare it with those of Mira variables.
We conducted phase referencing VLBI observations of the Mira variable T~Lepus (T~Lep) using VERA, from 2003 to 2006. The distance to the source was determined from its annual parallax which was measured to be 3.06$pm$0.04 mas, corresponding to a distance of 327$pm$4,pc. Our observations revealed the distribution and internal kinematics of H$_2$O masers in T~Lep, and we derived a source systemic motions of 14.60$pm$0.50 mas yr$^{-1}$ and $-$35.43$pm$0.79 mas yr$^{-1}$ in right ascension and declination, respectively. We also determined a LSR velocity of $V_mathrm{LSR}^{ast} = -$27.63 km s$^{-1}$. Comparison of our result with an image recently obtained from the VLTI infrared interferometer reveals a linear scale picture of the circumstellar structure of T~Lep. Analysis of the source systemic motion in the Galacto-centric coordinate frame indicates a large peculiar motion, which is consistent with the general characteristics of AGB stars. This source makes a contribution to the calibration of the period-luminosity relation of Galactic Mira variables. From the compilation of data for nearby Mira variables found in the literature, whose distances were derived from astrometric VLBI observations, we have calibrated the Galactic Mira period-luminosity relation to a high degree of accuracy.
We obtained, for the first time, astrometrically registered maps of the 22.2 GHz H2O and 42.8, 43.1, and 86.2 GHz SiO maser emission toward the semiregular b-type variable (SRb) R Crateris, at three epochs (2015 May 21, and 2016 January 7 and 26) using the Korean Very-long-baseline Interferometry Network. The SiO masers show a ring-like spatial structure, while the H2O maser shows a very asymmetric one-side outflow structure, which is located at the southern part of the ring-like SiO maser feature. We also found that the 86.2 GHz SiO maser spots are distributed in an inner region, compared to those of the 43.1 GHz SiO maser, which is different from all previously known distributions of the 86.2 GHz SiO masers in variable stars. The different distribution of the 86.2 GHz SiO maser seems to be related to the complex dynamics caused by the overtone pulsation mode of the SRb R Crateris. Furthermore, we estimated the position of the central star based on the ring fitting of the SiO masers, which is essential for interpreting the morphology and kinematics of a circumstellar envelope. The estimated stellar coordinate corresponds well to the position measured by Gaia.
Many studies have shown that there are clear sequences in the period-luminosity relationship (PLR) for Mira variables and semiregular variables (SRVs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). To investigate the PLR for SRVs in our galaxy, we examined the annual parallax measurement and conducted K-band photometric monitoring of an SRV star SV Pegasus (SV Peg). We measured the position change of the associating H$_2$O maser spots by phase-referencing VLBI observations with VERA at 22 GHz, spanning approximately 3 yr, and detected an annual parallax of $pi = 3.00 pm 0.06$ mas, corresponding to a distance of $D=333 pm 7$ pc. This result is in good agreement with the Hipparcos parallax and improves the accuracy of the distance from 35 $%$ to 2 $%$. However, the GAIA DR2 catalog gave a parallax of $pi=1.12pm0.28$ mas for SV Peg. This indicates that the GAIA result might be blurred by the effect of the stellar size because the estimated stellar radius was $sim 5$ mas, which is comparable to the parallax. We obtained a K-band mean magnitude of $m_{K} = -0.48$ mag and a period of $P=177$ days from our photometric monitoring with a 1-m telescope. Using the trigonometric distance, we derived an absolute magnitude of $M_{K}=-8.09 pm 0.05$ mag. This result shows that the position of SV Peg in the PLR falls on the C sequence found in the PLR in the LMC, which is similar to other SRVs in our galaxy.
We monitored water-vapor masers around the semi-regular variable star R Crateris with the Japanese VLBI Network (J-Net) at the 22 GHz band during four epochs with intervals of one month. The relative proper motions and Doppler-velocity drifts of twelve maser features were measured. Most of them existed for longer than 80 days. The 3-D kinematics of the features indicates a bipolar expanding flow. The major axis of the asymmetric flow was estimated to be at P.A. = 136 degrees. The existence of a bipolar outflow suggests that a Mira variable star had already formed a bipolar outflow. The water masers are in a region of apparent minimum radii of 1.3 x 10^12 m and maximum radii of 2.6 x 10^12 m, between which the expansion velocity ranges from 4.3 to 7.4 km/s. These values suggest that the water masers are radially accelerated, but still gravitationally bound, in the water-maser region. The most positive and negative velocity-drifting features were found relatively close to the systemic velocity of the star. We found that the blue-shifted features are apparently accelerated and the red-shifted apparently decelerated. The acceleration of only the blue-shifted features seems to be consistent with that of the expanding flow from the star.
We present the first astrometry catalog from the Japanese VLBI (very long baseline interferometer) project VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). We have compiled all the astrometry results from VERA, providing accurate trigonometric annual parallax and proper motion measurements. In total, 99 maser sources are listed in the VERA catalog. Among them, 21 maser sources are newly reported while the rest of 78 sources are referred to previously published results or those in preparation for forthcoming papers. The accuracy in the VERA astrometry are revisited and compared with those from the other VLBI astrometry projects such as BeSSeL (The Bar and Spiral Structure Legacy) Survey and GOBELINS (the Goulds Belt Distances Survey) with the VLBA (Very Long Baseline Array). We have confirmed that most of the astrometry results are consistent with each other, and the largest error sources are due to source structure of the maser features and their rapid variation, along with the systematic calibration errors and different analysis methods. Combined with the BeSSeL results, we estimate the up-to-date fundamental Galactic parameter of $R_{0}=7.92pm0.16_{rm{stat.}}pm0.3_{rm{sys.}}$~kpc and $Omega_{odot}=30.17pm0.27_{rm{stat.}}pm0.3_{rm{sys.}}$~km~s$^{-1}$~kpc$^{-1}$, where $R_{0}$ and $Omega_{odot}$ are the distance from the Sun to the Galactic center and the Suns angular velocity of the Galactic circular rotation, respectively.