EP Aqr ALMA and SPHERE observations Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Homan W.
  2. Cannon E.
  3. Montarges M.
  4. Richards A.M.S.
  5. Millar T.J.
  6. Decin L.
  7. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Cool evolved stars are known to be significant contributors to the enrichment of the interstellar medium through their dense and dusty stellar winds. High resolution observations of these outflows have shown them to possess high degrees of morphological complexity. We observed the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star EP Aquarii with ALMA in band 6 and VLT/SPHERE/ZIMPOL in four filters the visible. Both instruments had an angular resolution of 0.025". These are follow-up observations to the lower-resolution 2016 ALMA analysis of EP Aquarii, which revealed that its wind possesses a nearly face-on, spiral-harbouring equatorial density enhancement, with a nearly pole-on bi-conical outflow. At the base of the spiral, the SiO emission revealed a distinct emission void approximately 0.4" to the west of the continuum brightness peak, which was proposed to be linked to the presence of a companion. The new ALMA data better resolve the inner wind and reveal that its morphology as observed in CO is consistent with hydrodynamical companion-induced perturbations. Assuming that photodissociation by the UV-field of the companion is responsible for the emission void in SiO, we deduced the spectral properties of the tentative companion from the size of the hole. We conclude that the most probable companion candidate is a white dwarf with a mass between 0.65 and 0.8M_{sun}_, though a solar-like companion could not be definitively excluded. The radial SiO emission shows periodic, low-amplitude perturbations. We tentatively propose that they could be the consequence of the interaction of the AGB wind with another much closer low-mass companion. The polarised SPHERE/ZIMPOL data show a circular signal surrounding the AGB star with a radius of ~0.1". Decreased signal along a PA of 138{deg} suggests that the dust is confined to an inclined ring-like structure, consistent with the previously determined wind morphology.

Keywords
  1. Giant stars
  2. Millimeter astronomy
  3. Submillimeter astronomy
  4. Radio sources
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2020A&A...642A..93H
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/642/A93
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/642/A93
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.36420093

Access

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History

2020-10-12T09:55:53Z
Resource record created
2020-10-12T09:55:53Z
Created
2021-02-19T09:39:31Z
Updated

Contact

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CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr