Synthetic spectra of red supergiants with winds Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Davies B.
  2. Plez B.
  3. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

The rate at which mass is lost during the Red Supergiant evolutionary stage may strongly influence how the star appears. Though there have been many studies discussing how RSGs appear in the mid and far infrared (IR) as a function of their mass-loss rate, to date there have been no such investigations at optical and near-IR wavelengths. In a preliminary study we construct model atmospheres for RSGs which include a wind, and use these models to compute synthetic spectra from the optical to the mid-infrared. The inclusion of a wind has two important effects. Firstly, higher mass-loss rates result in stronger absorption in the TiO bands, causing the star to appear as a later spectral type despite its effective temperature remaining constant. This explains the observed relation between spectral type, evolutionary stage and mid-IR excess, as well as the mismatch between temperatures derived from the optical and infrared. Secondly, the wind mimics many observed characteristics of a 'MOLsphere', potentially providing an explanation for the extended molecular zone inferred to exist around nearby RSGs. Thirdly, we show that wind fluctuations can explain the spectral variability of Betelgeuse during its recent dimming, without the need for dust.

Keywords
  1. Supergiant stars
  2. Astronomical models
  3. Spectroscopy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2021MNRAS.508.5757D
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/508/5757
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/508/5757

Access

Web browser access HTML
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/508/5757
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/508/5757
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/508/5757
IVOA Table Access TAP
http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).

History

2022-12-16T13:08:59Z
Resource record created
2022-12-16T13:08:59Z
Created
2023-10-03T13:06:49Z
Updated

Contact

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