No Arabic abstract
We analyse ALMA observations of the 12CO(3-2) emission of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) of the Mira variable binary star W Aql. These provide, for the first time, spatially resolved Doppler velocity spectra of the CSE up to angular distances to the central star of ~ 5 (meaning some 2000 AU). The exploratory nature of the observations (only five minutes in each of two different configurations) does not allow for a detailed modelling of the properties of the CSE but provides important qualitative information on its morphology and kinematics. Emission is found to be enhanced along an axis moving from east/west to north-east/south-west when the angular distance from the central star projected on the plane of the sky increases from zero to four arcseconds. In parallel, the Doppler velocity distribution displays asymmetry along an axis moving from east/west to north-west/south-east. The results are discussed in the context of earlier observations, in particular of the dust morphology.
Observations of 12CO(3-2) emission of the circumbinary envelope of Mira Ceti, made by ALMA are analysed. The observed Doppler velocity distribution is made of three components: a blue-shifted south-eastern arc, which can be described as a ring in slow radial expansion, ~1.7 km/s, making an angle of ~50 deg with the plane of the sky and born some 2000 years ago; a few arcs, probably born at the same epoch as the blue-shifted arc, all sharing Doppler velocities red-shifted by approximately 3 +/- 2 km/s with respect to the main star; the third, central region dominated by the circumbinary envelope, displaying two outflows in the south-western and north-eastern hemispheres. At short distances from the star, up to ~1.5, these hemispheres display very different morphologies: the south-western outflow covers a broad solid angle, expands radially at a rate between 5 and 10 km/s and is slightly red shifted; the north-eastern outflow consists of two arms, both blue-shifted, bracketing a broad dark region where emission is suppressed. At distances between ~1.5 and ~2.5 the asymmetry between the two hemispheres is significantly smaller and detached arcs, particularly spectacular in the north-eastern hemisphere are present. Close to the stars, we observe a mass of gas surrounding Mira B, with a size of a few tens of AU, and having Doppler velocities with respect to Mira B reaching +/-1.5 km/s, which we interpret as gas flowing from Mira A toward Mira B.
Observations of the $^{12}$CO(3-2) emission of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) of the variable star $pi^1$ Gru using the compact array (ACA) of the ALMA observatory have been recently made accessible to the public. An analysis of the morphology and kinematics of the CSE is presented with a result very similar to that obtained earlier for $^{12}$CO(2-1) emission by Chiu et al. (2006) using the Sub-Millimeter Array. A quantitative comparison is made using their flared disk model. A new model is presented that provides a significantly better description of the data, using radial winds and smooth evolutions of the radio emission and wind velocity from the stellar equator to the poles.
Using ALMA observations of the C$^{18}$O(2-1) line emission of the gas envelope of protostar L1527, we have reconstructed its morphology and kinematics under the assumption of axisymmetry about the west-east axis. The main original contribution to our understanding of the formation process of L1527 is the presentation of a simple 3D parameterisation based solely on regions that are not dominated by absorption. In the explored range ($sim$0.7 to 5 arcsec from the star) the model reproduces observations better than earlier attempts. The main results include: a measurement of the rotation velocity that confirms its evolution to Keplerian toward short distances; a measurement of the mean in-fall velocity, 0.43$pm$0.10 kms$^{-1}$, lower than free fall velocity, with no evidence for the significant $r$-dependence suggested by an earlier analysis; a measurement of the central mass, 0.23$pm$0.06 M$_{odot}$ within a distance of 1.5 arcsec from the star, in agreement with earlier estimates obtained from a different range of distances; evidence for a strong disc plane depression of the in-falling flux resulting in an $X$ shaped flow possibly caused by the freeze-out of CO molecules on dust grains; a measurement of the accretion rate, 3.5$pm$1.0 10$^{-7}$ M$_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$ at a distance of 1 arcsec (140 au) from the star; evidence for a 10$^circ$ tilt of the symmetry plane of the envelope about the line of sight, cancelling below $sim$3 arcsec from the star, but matching infrared observations and being also apparent on the sky map of the mean Doppler velocity.
An incidental spectrum of the poorly studied long period variable EF Aquilae shows [O III] emission indicative of a symbiotic star. Strong GALEX detections in the UV reinforce this classification, providing overt evidence for the presence of the hot subluminous companion. Recent compilations of the photometric behavior strongly suggest that the cool component is a Mira variable. Thus EF Aql appears to be a member of the rare symbiotic Mira subgroup.
We performed photometry with a 1 minute time resolution of the symbiotic stars EF Aquilae, AG Pegasi and SU Lyncis in Johnson B and V band. Our observations of the symbiotic Mira-type star EF Aql demonstrate the presence of stochastic light variations with an amplitude of about 0.25 magnitudes on a time scale of 5 minutes. The observations prove the white dwarf nature of the hot component in the binary system. It is the 11th symbiotic star (among more than 200 symbiotic stars known in our Galaxy) which displays optical flickering. For SU Lyn we do not detect flickering with an amplitude above 0.03 mag in B band. For AG Peg, the amplitude of variability in B and V band is smaller than 0.05 mag and 0.04 mag respectively.