Abstract
We report the discovery of the diatomic molecule SiO in the gas phase in the environment of the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis. While some of the SiO is photospheric, a substantial portion must arise in the wind from the red giant component of T CrB. A simple fit to the SiO feature, assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium, suggests a SiO column density of 2.8 × 1017 cm-2 and temperature ∼1000 K; the SiO column density is similar to that present in the winds of field red giants. A search for SiO maser emission is encouraged both before and after the next anticipated eruption. We find that the 12C/13C ratio in the red giant is <9, with a best-fitting value of ∼5, a factor ∼18 times lower than the solar value of 89. We find no convincing evidence for the presence of dust in the environment of T CrB, which we attribute to the destructive effects on nucleation sites of hard X-ray emission. When the next eruption of T CrB occurs, the ejected material will shock the wind, producing X-ray and coronal line emission, as is the case for the recurrent nova RS Oph. T CrB is also a good candidate for very high energy γ-ray emission, as first observed during the 2010 outburst of V407 Cyg. We include in the paper a wide variety of infrared spectroscopic and photometric data.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3498-3505 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
| Volume | 486 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 1 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. It also makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Funding Information:
We thank the anonymous referee, Dr Tom Geballe and the editor for their help with improving the original version of this paper. Based in part on observations made with the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA is jointly operated by the Universities Space Research Association, Inc. (USRA) under NASA contract NNA17BF53C, and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) under DLR contract 50 OK 0901 to the University of Stuttgart. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. It also makes use of data products from the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The IRTF is operated by the University of Hawaii under contract NNH14CK55B with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We are very grateful to David Sand for making possible the IRTF observation. The research work at Physical Research Laboratory is supported by the Department of Space, Government of India. RDG was supported by NASA and the United States Air Force. SS is grateful for partial support from NASA and HST grants to ASU. CEW was supported by NASA SOFIA resources under contracts from USRA. UM is partially supported by the PRIN-INAF 2017 'Towards the SKA and CTA era: discovery, localization and physics of transient sources' (PI M. Giroletti).
Funding Information:
The research work at Physical Research Laboratory is supported by the Department of Space, Government of India. RDG was supported by NASA and the United States Air Force. SS is grateful for partial support from NASA and HST grants to ASU. CEW was supported by NASA SOFIA resources under contracts from USRA. UM is partially supported by the PRIN-INAF 2017 ‘Towards the SKA and CTA era: discovery, localization and physics of transient sources’ (PI M. Giroletti).
Funding Information:
Based in part on observations made with the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA is jointly operated by the Universities Space Research Association, Inc. (USRA) under NASA contract NNA17BF53C, and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) under DLR contract 50 OK 0901 to the University of Stuttgart.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Keywords
- circumstellar matter
- infrared: stars
- novae, cataclysmic variables
- stars: AGB and post-AGB
- stars: individual: T CrB