Chemical tracers of a highly eccentric AGB–main-sequence star binary
Journal article, 2024
Binary interactions have been proposed to explain a variety of circumstellar structures seen around evolved stars, including asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and planetary nebulae. Studies resolving the circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars have revealed spirals, disks and bipolar outflows, with shaping attributed to interactions with a companion. Here we use a combined chemical and dynamical analysis to reveal a highly eccentric and long-period orbit for W Aquilae, a binary system containing an AGB star and a main-sequence companion. Our results are based on anisotropic SiN emission, the detections of irregular NS and SiC emission towards the S-type star, and density structures observed in the CO emission. These features are all interpreted as having formed during periastron interactions. Our astrochemistry-based method can yield stringent constraints on the orbital parameters of long-period binaries containing AGB stars, and will be applicable to other systems.
Author
Taissa Danilovich
ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D)
Monash University
KU Leuven
J. Malfait
KU Leuven
M. Van De Sande
University of Leeds
M. Montargès
Paris Observatory
P. Kervella
Paris Observatory
F. De Ceuster
KU Leuven
A. Coenegrachts
KU Leuven
T. J. Millar
Queen's University Belfast
A. M.S. Richards
University of Manchester
L. Decin
KU Leuven
University of Leeds
C. A. Gottlieb
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
C. Pinte
Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG)
Monash University
Elvire De Beck
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
D. J. Price
Monash University
K. T. Wong
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)
Uppsala University
J. Bolte
University of Kiel
KU Leuven
K. M. Menten
Max Planck Society
A. Baudry
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
A. de Koter
KU Leuven
Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy
S. Etoka
University of Manchester
D. Gobrecht
University of Gothenburg
M. Gray
University of Manchester
National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand
F. Herpin
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
M. Jeste
Max Planck Society
E. Lagadec
Laboratoire Joseph-Louis Lagrange
S. Maes
KU Leuven
I. McDonald
University of Manchester
Open University
L. Marinho
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux
H. S.P. Müller
University of Cologne
B. Pimpanuwat
University of Manchester
National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand
J. M.C. Plane
University of Leeds
R. Sahai
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Sofia Wallström
KU Leuven
J. Yates
University College London (UCL)
A. Zijlstra
University of Manchester
Nature Astronomy
23973366 (eISSN)
Vol. 8 3 308-327Subject Categories
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
DOI
10.1038/s41550-023-02154-y