The Circumstellar Environment of Evolved Stars as Revealed by Studies of Circumstellar Water Masers

Details The Circumstellar Environment of Evolved Stars as Revealed by Studies of Circumstellar Water Masers The Circumstellar Environment of Evolved Stars as Revealed by Studies of Circumstellar Water Masers

Nov 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997pasp..109.1286m&link_type=abstract

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, v.109, p.1286

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

24

Scientific paper

This dissertation presents the results of a multi-epoch very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) study of water masers located in the extended atmospheres of seven evolved stars. The research was performed using the Very Long Baseline Array and Very Large Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Water masers are found to exist in the atmospheres of evolved, oxygen-rich stars where a population inversion of the rotational transition at 22 GHz can be maintained by collisional pumping. The masers are identified as individual pockets or filaments of gas, which have good velocity coherence and may be imaged using radio interferometry. Stellar winds are initiated in these sources by dust formation and acceleration of the gas through momentum coupling. The typical wind speeds in the region of the water masers are 10 to 20 \kms. The water masers in several evolved stars (VY CMa, VX Sgr, S Per, U Her, IK Tau, RX Boo and NML Cyg) have been observed at three epochs and exhibit proper motions consistent with the assumed source distances and the measured outflow velocity in the water maser region. Estimates of the distance to the sources using statistical approximation are in agreement with the currently accepted distances to the stars. The following stars had reliable distances determined using proper motion data: S Per (2.3 +/- 0.5 kpc), VY CMa (1.4 +/- 0.2 kpc), VX Sgr (1.4 +/- 0.3 kpc). An upper limit for the distance of NML Cyg was obtained ( 3.5 kpc). The remaining stars had too few maser detections (RX BOO, IK Tau) or were not strong enough at all epochs (U Her) to self-calibrate using the VLBA. A detailed kinematic model was used to describe the flow motions of the gas in the maser region. The regions are found to be complex and not well modeled by uniform radial outflow, radial outflow with rotation, or radial outflow with acceleration. The reasons for this are explored and include the probable presence of anisotropic velocity fields induced through non-uniform dust formation near the star. (SECTION: Dissertation Summaries)
[1]The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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