Understanding A New Class of Mid-IR Transients

Details Understanding A New Class of Mid-IR Transients Understanding A New Class of Mid-IR Transients

May 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011sptz.prop80015k&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #80015

Physics

Scientific paper

There is a new class of stellar transients whose progenitors are completely obscured (probably) extreme AGB stars, where the dust in the surviving wind appears to reform after the transient and again cloak the system. Whether these are true supernovae or a new class of stellar eruption is unclear, so the key question is whether or not the star survived. However, their present day emission appears to be due to optically thick dust (shock) heated by the ejecta from the transient, so we must understand the evolution of this emission and the dust optical depths before we can determine the survival of the stars. We propose a combination of Spitzer, Hubble and Chandra observations to characterize 6 of the new transients and a comparison sample of 5 supernovae with late time emission due to shocks and 3 luminous variable outbursts with late time emission due to a surviving star surrounded by ejected matter. The SST data will characterize the shock luminosity and its rate of decay, both exploring the physics of dusty shocks and setting limits on the flux from any surviving star. The near-IR HST data will tightly constrain the optical depth of the dust and potentially allow us to see through it to any surviving star. If the emission is from a dusty shock, there must be X-ray emission, and the amount of soft X-ray absorption will determine the the absorbing column densities.

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