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ALMA explores the inner wind of evolved O-rich stars with two widespread vibrationally excited transitions of water

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2024

Alain Baudry*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. de Bordeaux, CNRS, B18N, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 33615 Pessac, France.
Ka Tat Wong
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala Univ., Box 516, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden
Sandra Etoka
Affiliation:
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, The University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
Anita M.S. Richards
Affiliation:
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, The University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
Malcolm D. Gray
Affiliation:
NARIT, 260 Moo 4, Chiangmai 50180, Thailand
Fabrice Herpin
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. de Bordeaux, CNRS, B18N, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 33615 Pessac, France.
Taïssa Danilovich
Affiliation:
School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash Univ., Clayton 3800 Victoria, Australia
Sofia Wallström
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Leen Decin
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Carl A. Gottlieb
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge MA 02138, USA
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Abstract

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ALMA observations with angular resolution in the range ∼20–200 mas demonstrate that emission at 268.149 and 262.898 GHz in the (0,2,0) and (0,1,0) vibrationally excited states of water are widespread in the inner envelope of O-rich AGB stars and red supergiants. These transitions are either quasi-thermally excited, in which case they can be used to estimate the molecular column density, or show signs of maser emission with a brightness temperature of ∼103–107 K in a few stars. The highest spatial resolution observations probe the inner few stellar radii environment, up to ∼10–12 R* in general, while the mid resolution data probe more thermally excited gas at larger extents. In several stars, high velocity components are observed at 268.149 GHz which may be caused by the kinematic perturbations induced by a companion. Radiative transfer models of water are revisited to specify the physical conditions leading to 268.149 and 262.898 GHz maser excitation.

Type
Contributed Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that no alterations are made and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use and/or adaptation of the article.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

References

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