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Register a new userTomography of the red supergiant star {mu} Cep
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Added by
Kateryna Kravchenko
Publication date
2018
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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A tomographic method, aiming at probing velocity fields at depth in stellar atmospheres, is applied to the red supergiant star {mu} Cep and to snapshots of 3D radiative-hydrodynamics simulation in order to constrain atmospheric motions and relate them to photometric variability.
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Red supergiants are cool massive stars and are the largest and the most luminous stars in the universe. They are characterized by irregular or semi-regular photometric variations, the physics of which is not clearly understood. The paper aims at deriving the velocity field in the red supergiant star $mu$ Cep and relating it to the photometric variability with the help of the tomographic method. The tomographic method allows to recover the line-of-sight velocity distribution over the stellar disk and within different optical-depth slices. The method is applied to a series of high-resolution spectra of $mu$ Cep, and these results are compared to those obtained from 3D radiative-hydrodynamics CO5BOLD simulations of red supergiants. Fluctuations in the velocity field are compared with photometric and spectroscopic variations, the latter being derived from the TiO band strength and serving (at least partly) a proxy of the variations in effective temperature. The tomographic method reveals a phase shift between the velocity and spectroscopic/photometric variations. This phase shift results in a hysteresis loop in the temperature - velocity plane, with a timescale of a few hundred days, similar to the photometric one. The similarity between the hysteresis loop timescale measured in $mu$ Cep and the timescale of acoustic waves disturbing the convective pattern suggests that such waves play an important role in triggering the hysteresis loops.
Red supergiant stars are surrounded by a gaseous and dusty circumstellar environment created by their mass loss which spreads heavy elements into the interstellar medium. The structure and the dynamics of this envelope are crucial to understand the processes driving the red supergiant mass loss and the shaping of the pre-supernova ejecta. We have observed the emission from the CO $J = 2-1$ line from the red supergiant star $mu$~Cep with the NOEMA interferometer. In the line the synthesized beam was $0.92 times 0.72$~arcsec ($590 times 462$~au at 641~pc). The continuum map shows only the unresolved contribution of the free-free emission of the star chromosphere. The continuum-subtracted channel maps reveal a very inhomogeneous and clumpy circumstellar environment. In particular, we detected a bright CO clump, as bright as the central source in the line, at 1.80~arcsec south-west from the star, in the blue channel maps. After a deprojection of the radial velocity assuming two different constant wind velocities, the observations were modelled using the 3D radiative transfer code textsc{lime} to derive the characteristics of the different structures. We determine that the gaseous clumps observed around $mu$~Cep are responsible for a mass loss rate of $(4.9 pm 1.0) times 10^{-7}~{rm M}_odot,{rm yr}^{-1}$, in addition to a spatially unresolved wind component with an estimated mass-loss rate of $2.0 times 10^{-6}~{rm M}_odot,{rm yr}^{-1}$. Therefore, the clumps have a significant role in $mu$~Ceps mass loss ($ge 25 %$). We cannot exclude that the unresolved central outflow may be made of smaller unresolved clumps.
We present diffraction limited (0.6) 24.5micron Subaru/COMICS images of the red supergiant mu Cep. We report the detection of a circumstellar nebula, that was not detected at shorter wavelengths. It extends to a radius of at least 6 in the thermal infrared. On these angular scales, the nebula is roughly spherical, in contrast, it displays a pronounced asymmetric morphology closer in. We simultaneously model the azimuthally averaged intensity profile of the nebula and the observed spectral energy distribution using spherical dust radiative transfer models. The models indicate a constant mass-loss process over the past 1000 years, for mass-loss rates a few times 10^(-7) Msun/yr. This work supports the idea that at least part of the asymmetries in shells of evolved massive stars and supernovae may be due to the mass-loss process in the red supergiant phase.
Red supergiant stars represent a late stage of the evolution of stars more massive than about nine solar masses, in which they develop complex, multi-component atmospheres. Bright spots have been detected in the atmosphere of red supergiants using interferometric imaging. Above the photosphere of a red supergiant, the molecular outer atmosphere extends up to about two stellar radii. Furthermore, the hot chromosphere (5,000 to 8,000 kelvin) and cool gas (less than 3,500 kelvin) of a red supergiant coexist at about three stellar radii. The dynamics of such complex atmospheres has been probed by ultraviolet and optical spectroscopy. The most direct approach, however, is to measure the velocity of gas at each position over the image of stars as in observations of the Sun. Here we report the mapping of the velocity field over the surface and atmosphere of the nearby red supergiant Antares. The two-dimensional velocity field map obtained from our near-infrared spectro-interferometric imaging reveals vigorous upwelling and downdrafting motions of several huge gas clumps at velocities ranging from about -20 to +20 kilometres per second in the atmosphere, which extends out to about 1.7 stellar radii. Convection alone cannot explain the observed turbulent motions and atmospheric extension, suggesting that an unidentified process is operating in the extended atmosphere.
This brief review describes some of the observed properties of the populations of massive asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants (RSGs) found in nearby galaxies, with a focus on their luminosity functions, mass-loss rates and dust production. I do this within the context of their role as potential supernova (SN) progenitors, and the evolution of SNe and their remnants. The paper ends with an outlook to the near future, in which new facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope offer a step change in our understanding of the evolution and fate of the coolest massive stars in the Universe.
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