The ionization structure of the circumstellar envelope of Alpha Orionis

Details The ionization structure of the circumstellar envelope of Alpha Orionis The ionization structure of the circumstellar envelope of Alpha Orionis

Jul 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986apj...306..605g&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 306, July 15, 1986, p. 605-617. Research supported by the Alfred P. Sloan F

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

49

Photoionization, Stellar Envelopes, Stellar Mass Ejection, Supergiant Stars, Abundance, Carbon, Chromosphere, Gas Temperature, Hydrogen Recombinations, Ionization Frequencies, Potassium, Ultraviolet Radiation

Scientific paper

The physical processes which affect the ionization of the outer circumstellar envelope of Alpha Ori are analyzed and evaluated. The ultraviolet radiation fields of the chromosphere and the interstellar medium dominate the envelope, and the most common forms of all species are neutral atoms and first ions. Hydrogen recombines just outside the chromosphere, where atoms with smaller ionization potential are essentially fully ionized. The heavier ions gradually recombine with increasing distance from the star, until the interstellar radiation field reverses this trend. The electron fraction in the outer envelope is approximately equal to the abundance of all such heavy atoms, i.e., of the order of 0.0001. The analysis is applied to the case of neutral K, whose density in the envelope has been determined by scattering experiments. The theory predicts that the slope of the K I density distribution should decrease from -1.5 to -3.5 in the outer envelope. The mass loss rate of Alpha Ori implied by the K I scattering experiments is 4 x 10 to the -6th solar mass/yr.

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