No Arabic abstract
Binary interactions dominate the evolution of massive stars, but their role is less clear for low- and intermediate-mass stars. The evolution of a spherical wind from an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star into a nonspherical planetary nebula (PN) could be due to binary interactions. We observed a sample of AGB stars with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and found that their winds exhibit distinct nonspherical geometries with morphological similarities to planetary nebulae (PNe). We infer that the same physics shapes both AGB winds and PNe; additionally, the morphology and AGB mass-loss rate are correlated. These characteristics can be explained by binary interaction. We propose an evolutionary scenario for AGB morphologies that is consistent with observed phenomena in AGB stars and PNe.
Supermassive stars (SMS; ~ 10^5 M_sun) formed from metal-free gas in the early Universe attract attention as progenitors of supermassive black holes observed at high redshifts. To form SMSs by accretion, central protostars must accrete at as high rates as ~ 0.1-1 M_sun/yr. Such protostars have very extended structures with bloated envelopes, like super-giant stars, and are called super-giant protostars (SGPSs). Under the assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium, SGPSs have density inverted layers, where the luminosity becomes locally super-Eddington, near the surface. If the envelope matter is allowed to flow out, however, a stellar wind could be launched and hinder the accretion growth of SGPSs before reaching the supermassive regime. We examine whether radiation-driven winds are launched from SGPSs by constructing steady and spherically symmetric wind solutions. We find that the wind velocity does not reach the escape velocity in any case considered. This is because once the temperature falls below ~ 10^4 K, the opacity plummet drastically owing to the recombination of hydrogen and the acceleration ceases suddenly. This indicates that, in realistic non-steady cases, even if outflows are launched from the surface of SGPSs, they would fall back again. Such a wind does not result in net mass loss and does not prevent the growth of SGPSs. In conclusion, SGPSs will grow to SMSs and eventually collapse to massive BHs of ~ 10^5 M_sun, as long as the rapid accretion is maintained.
A total of 28 young nearby stars (ages $leq 60$,Myr) have been observed in the K$_{rm s}$-band with the adaptive optics imager Naos-Conica of the Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Among the targets are ten visual binaries and one triple system at distances between 10 and 130 pc, all previously known. During a first observing epoch a total of 20 faint stellar or sub-stellar companion-candidates were detected around seven of the targets. These fields, as well as most of the stellar binaries, were re-observed with the same instrument during a second epoch, about one year later. We present the astrometric observations of all binaries. Their analysis revealed that all stellar binaries are co-moving. In two cases (HD 119022 AB and FG Aqr B/C) indications for significant orbital motions were found. However, all sub-stellar companion-candidates turned out to be non-moving background objects except PZ Tel which is part of this project but whose results were published elsewhere. Detection limits were determined for all targets, and limiting masses were derived adopting three different age values; they turn out to be less than 10 Jupiter masses in most cases, well below the brown dwarf mass range. The fraction of stellar multiplicity and of the sub-stellar companion occurrence in the star forming regions in Chamaeleon are compared to the statistics of our search, and possible reasons for the observed differences are discussed.
We present the highest resolution single-dish submillimetre observations of the detached shell source U Antliae to date. The observations were obtained at $450~micron$ and $850~micron$ with SCUBA-2 instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope as part of the Nearby Evolved Stars Survey. The emission at $850~micron$ peaks at $40arcsec$ with hints of a second peak seen at $sim 20arcsec$. The emission can be traced out to a radius of $56arcsec$ at a $3sigma$ level. The outer peak observed at $850~micron$ aligns well with the peak observed at Herschel/PACS wavelengths. With the help of spectral energy distribution fitting and radiative transfer calculations of multiple-shell models for the circumstellar envelope, we explore the various shell structures and the variation of grain sizes along the in the circumstellar envelope. We determine a total shell dust mass of $(2.0 pm 0.3) times 10^{-5}$ M$_{odot}$ and established that the thermal pulse which gave rise to the detached shell occurred 3500 $pm$ 500 years ago.
Multi-epoch radial velocity measurements of stars can be used to identify stellar, sub-stellar, and planetary-mass companions. Even a small number of observation epochs can be informative about companions, though there can be multiple qualitatively different orbital solutions that fit the data. We have custom-built a Monte Carlo sampler (The Joker) that delivers reliable (and often highly multi-modal) posterior samplings for companion orbital parameters given sparse radial-velocity data. Here we use The Joker to perform a search for companions to 96,231 red-giant stars observed in the APOGEE survey (DR14) with $geq 3$ spectroscopic epochs. We select stars with probable companions by making a cut on our posterior belief about the amplitude of the stellar radial-velocity variation induced by the orbit. We provide (1) a catalog of 320 companions for which the stellar companion properties can be confidently determined, (2) a catalog of 4,898 stars that likely have companions, but would require more observations to uniquely determine the orbital properties, and (3) posterior samplings for the full orbital parameters for all stars in the parent sample. We show the characteristics of systems with confidently determined companion properties and highlight interesting systems with candidate compact object companions.
We report the detections of substellar companions orbiting around seven evolved intermediate-mass stars from precise Doppler measurements at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. o UMa (G4 II-III) is a giant with a mass of 3.1 M_sun and hosts a planet with minimum mass of m_2sini=4.1 M_J in an orbit with a period P=1630 d and an eccentricity e=0.13. This is the first planet candidate (< 13 M_J) ever discovered around stars more massive than 3 M_sun. o CrB (K0 III) is a 2.1 M_sun giant and has a planet of m_2sini=1.5 M_J in a 187.8 d orbit with e=0.19. This is one of the least massive planets ever discovered around ~2 M_sun stars. HD 5608 (K0 IV) is an 1.6 M_sun subgiant hosting a planet of m_2sini=1.4 M_J in a 793 d orbit with e=0.19. The star also exhibits a linear velocity trend suggesting the existence of an outer, more massive companion. 75 Cet (G3 III:) is a 2.5 M_sun giant hosting a planet of m_2sini=3.0 M_J in a 692 d orbit with e=0.12. The star also shows possible additional periodicity of about 200 d and 1880 d with velocity amplitude of ~7--10 m/s, although these are not significant at this stage. nu Oph (K0 III) is a 3.0 M_sun giant and has two brown-dwarf companions of m_2sini= 24 M_J and 27 M_J, in orbits with P=530.3 d and 3190 d, and e=0.126 and 0.17, respectively, which were independently announced by Quirrenbach et al. (2011). The ratio of the periods is close to 1:6, suggesting that the companions are in mean motion resonance. We also independently confirmed planets around k CrB (K0 III-IV) and HD 210702 (K1 IV), which had been announced by Johnson et al. (2008) and Johnson et al. (2007a), respectively. All of the orbital parameters we obtained are consistent with the previous results.