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Register a new userThe RCB star V854 Cen is surrounded by a hot dusty shell
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Aims : The hydrogen-deficient supergiants known as R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars might be the result of a double-degenerate merger of two white dwarfs (WDs), or a final helium shell flash in a planetary nebula central star. In this context, any information on the geometry of their circumstellar environment and, in particular, the potential detection of elongated structures, is of great importance. Methods : We obtained near-IR observations of V854 Cen with the AMBER recombiner located at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) array with the compact array (B$leq$35m) in 2013 and the long array (B$leq$140m) in 2014. At each time, V854 Cen was at maximum light. The $H$- and $K$-band continua were investigated by means of spectrally dependant geometric models. These data were supplemented with mid-IR VISIR/VLT images. Results : A dusty slightly elongated over density is discovered both in the $H$- and $K$-band images. With the compact array, the central star is unresolved ($Thetaleq2.5$,mas), but a flattened dusty environment of $8 times 11$ mas is discovered whose flux increases from about $sim$20% in the $H$ band to reach about $sim$50% at 2.3$micron$, which indicates hot (T$sim$1500,K) dust in the close vicinity of the star. The major axis is oriented at a position angle (P.A.) of 126$pm$29$deg$. Adding the long-array configuration dataset provides tighter constraints on the star diameter ($Thetaleq1.0$ mas), a slight increase of the overdensity to $12 times 15$ mas and a consistent P.A. of 133$pm$49$deg$. The closure phases, sensitive to asymmetries, are null and compatible with a centro-symmetric, unperturbed environment excluding point sources at the level of 3% of the total flux in 2013 and 2014. The VISIR images exhibit a flattened aspect ratio at the 15-20% level at larger distances ($sim$1$arcsec$) with a position angle of 92$pm$19$deg$, marginally consistent with the interferometric observations. Conclusions : This is the first time that a moderately elongated structure has been observed around an RCB star. These observations confirm the numerous suggestions for a bipolar structure proposed for this star in the literature, which were mainly based on polarimetric and spectroscopic observations.
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