arXiv subjects

C. Dominik

Publications and source records attributed to C. Dominik.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Herschel/HIFI observations of high-J CO transitions in the protoplanetary nebula CRL618

We performed Herschel/HIFI observations of several CO lines in the far-infrared/sub-mm in the protoplanetary nebula CRL618. The high spectral resolution provided by HIFI allows measurement of the line profiles. Since the dynamics and structure of the nebula is well known from mm-wave interferometric maps, it is possible to identify the contributions of the different nebular components (fast bipolar outflows, double shells, compact slow shell) to the line profiles. The observation of these relatively high-energy transitions allows an accurate study of the excitation conditions in these components, particularly in the warm ones, which cannot be properly studied from the low-energy lines. The 12CO J=16-15, 10-9, and 6-5 lines are easily detected in this source. 13CO J=10-9 and 6-5 are also detected. Wide profiles showing spectacular line wings have been found, particularly in 12CO 16-15. Other lines observed simultaneously with CO are also shown. Our analysis of the CO high-J transitions, when compared with the existing models, confirms the very low expansion velocity of the central, dense component, which probably indicates that the shells ejected during the last AGB phases were driven by radiation pressure under a regime of maximum transfer of momentum. No contribution of the diffuse halo found from mm-wave data is identified in our spectra, because of its low temperature. We find that the fast bipolar outflow is quite hot, much hotter than previously estimated; for instance, gas flowing at 100 km/s must have a temperature higher than ~ 200 K. Probably, this very fast outflow, with a kinematic age < 100 yr, has been accelerated by a shock and has not yet cooled down. The double empty shell found from mm-wave mapping must also be relatively hot, in agreement with the previous estimate.

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arXiv2010

A HIFI preview of warm molecular gas around chi Cyg : first detection of H2O emission toward an S-type AGB star

A set of new, sensitive, and spectrally resolved, sub-millimeter line observations are used to probe the warm circumstellar gas around the S-type AGB star chi Cyg. The observed lines involve high rotational quantum numbers, which, combined with previously obtained lower-frequency data, make it possible to study in detail the chemical and physical properties of, essentially, the entire circumstellar envelope of chi Cyg. The data were obtained using the HIFI instrument aboard Herschel, whose high spectral resolution provides valuable information about the line profiles. Detailed, non-LTE, radiative transfer modelling, including dust radiative transfer coupled with a dynamical model, has been performed to derive the temperature, density, and velocity structure of the circumstellar envelope. We report the first detection of circumstellar H2O rotational emission lines in an S-star. Using the high-J CO lines to derive the parameters for the circumstellar envelope, we modelled both the ortho- and para-H2O lines. Our modelling results are consistent with the velocity structure expected for a dust-driven wind. The derived total H2O abundance (relative to H2) is (1.1 +/- 0.2)E-5, much lower than that in O-rich stars. The derived ortho-to-para ratio of 2.1 +/- 0.6 is close to the high-temperature equilibrium limit, consistent with H2O being formed in the photosphere.

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arXiv2010

Discovery of water vapour in the carbon star V Cygni from observations with Herschel/HIFI

We report the discovery of water vapour toward the carbon star V Cygni. We have used Herschel's HIFI instrument, in dual beam switch mode, to observe the 1(11) - 0(00) para-water transition at 1113.3430 GHz in the upper sideband of the Band 4b receiver. The observed spectral line profile is nearly parabolic, but with a slight asymmetry associated with blueshifted absorption, and the integrated antenna temperature is 1.69 \pm 0.17 K km/s. This detection of thermal water vapour emission, carried out as part of a small survey of water in carbon-rich stars, is only the second such detection toward a carbon-rich AGB star, the first having been obtained by the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite toward IRC+10216. For an assumed ortho-to-para ratio of 3 for water, the observed line intensity implies a water outflow rate ~ (3 - 6) E-5 Earth masses per year and a water abundance relative to H2 of ~ (2-5) E-6. This value is a factor of at least 1E+4 larger than the expected photospheric abundance in a carbon-rich environment, and - as in IRC+10216 - raises the intriguing possibility that the observed water is produced by the vapourisation of orbiting comets or dwarf planets. However, observations of the single line observed to date do not permit us to place strong constraints upon the spatial distribution or origin of the observed water, but future observations of additional transitions will allow us to determine the inner radius of the H2O-emitting zone, and the H2O ortho-to-para ratio, and thereby to place important constraints upon the origin of the observed water emission.

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arXiv2010

Water vapor toward starless cores: the Herschel view

SWAS and Odin provided stringent upper limits on the gas phase water abundance of dark clouds (x(H2O) < 7x10^-9). We investigate the chemistry of water vapor in starless cores beyond the previous upper limits using the highly improved angular resolution and sensitivity of Herschel and measure the abundance of water vapor during evolutionary stages just preceding star formation. High spectral resolution observations of the fundamental ortho water (o-H2O) transition (557 GHz) were carried out with Herschel HIFI toward two starless cores: B68, a Bok globule, and L1544, a prestellar core embedded in the Taurus molecular cloud complex. The rms in the brightness temperature measured for the B68 and L1544 spectra is 2.0 and 2.2 mK, respectively, in a velocity bin of 0.59 km s^-1. The continuum level is 3.5+/-0.2 mK in B68 and 11.4+/-0.4 mK in L1544. No significant feature is detected in B68 and the 3 sigma upper limit is consistent with a column density of o-H2O N(o-H2O) < 2.5x10^13 cm^-2, or a fractional abundance x(o-H2O) < 1.3x10^-9, more than an order of magnitude lower than the SWAS upper limit on this source. The L1544 spectrum shows an absorption feature at a 5 sigma level from which we obtain the first value of the o-H2O column density ever measured in dark clouds: N(o-H2O) = (8+/-4)x10^12 cm^-2. The corresponding fractional abundance is x(o-H2O) ~ 5x10^-9 at radii > 7000 AU and ~2x10^-10 toward the center. The radiative transfer analysis shows that this is consistent with a x(o-H2O) profile peaking at ~10^-8, 0.1 pc away from the core center, where both freeze-out and photodissociation are negligible. Herschel has provided the first measurement of water vapor in dark regions. Prestellar cores such as L1544 (with their high central densities, strong continuum, and large envelopes) are very promising tools to finally shed light on the solid/vapor balance of water in molecular clouds.

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arXiv2010

Chemical study of intermediate-mass (IM) Class 0 protostars. CO depletion and N2H+ deuteration

We are carrying out a physical and chemical study of the protostellar envelopes in a representative sample of IM Class 0 protostars. In our first paper (Crimier et al. 2010), we determined the physical structure (density-temperature radial profiles) of the protostellar envelopes. Here, we study the CO depletion and N2H+ deuteration. We observed the millimeter lines of C18O, C17O, N2H+ and N2D+ toward the protostars using the IRAM 30m telescope. Based on these observations, we derived the C18O, N2H+ and N2D+ radial abundance profiles across their envelopes using a radiative transfer code. In addition, we modeled the chemistry of the protostellar envelopes. All the C18O 1-0 maps are well fit assuming that the C18O abundance decreases inwards within the protostellar envelope until the gas and dust reach the CO evaporation temperature, 20-25K, where the CO is released back to the gas phase. The N2H+ deuterium fractionation in Class 0 IMs is [N2D+]/[N2H+]=0.005-0.014, two orders of magnitude higher than the elemental [D/H] value in the interstellar medium, but a factor of 10 lower than in pre-stellar clumps. Chemical models account for the C18O and N2H+ observations if we assume the CO abundance is 2 times lower than the canonical value in the inner envelope. This could be the consequence of the CO being converted into CH3OH on the grain surfaces prior to the evaporation and/or the photodissociation of CO by the stellar UV radiation. The deuterium fractionation is not fitted by chemical models. This discrepancy is very likely caused by the simplicity of our model that assumes spherical geometry and neglects important phenomena like the effect of bipolar outflows and UV radiation from the star. More important, the deuterium fractionation is dependent on the ortho-to-para H2 ratio, which is not likely to reach the steady-state value in the dynamical time scales of these protostars.

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arXiv2010

SPITZER-IRS spectral fitting of discs around binary post-AGB stars - Corrigendum

Recently, we have discovered an error in our Monte-Carlo spectral fitting routine, more specifically where the errors on the fluxes were rescaled to get a reduced chi2 of 1. The rescaled errors were too big, resulting in too wide a range of good fits in our 100 step Monte-Carlo routine. This problem affects Figs. 7-9 and Tables A.1, A.2 in Gielen et al. (2008), Table 3 in Gielen et al. (2009a), and Table 4 in Gielen et al. (2009b). We corrected for this error and present the new values and errors in the tables below. The new values and errors nearly all fall within the old error range. Our best chi2 values and overall former scientific results are not affected. With these new errors some possible new trends in the dust parameters might be observed. These will be discussed in an upcoming paper where we extend the sample presented in Gielen et al. (2008) with newly obtained SPITZER-IRS data.

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arXiv2010

CHESS, Chemical Herschel surveys of star forming regions:Peering into the protostellar shock L1157-B1

The outflow driven by the low-mass class 0 protostar L1157 is the prototype of the so-called chemically active outflows. The bright bowshock B1 in the southern outflow lobe is a privileged testbed of magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD) shock models, for which dynamical and chemical processes are strongly interdependent. We present the first results of the unbiased spectral survey of the L1157-B1 bowshock, obtained in the framework of the key program "Chemical Herschel Surveys of Star Forming Regions" (CHESS). The main aim is to trace the warm and chemically enriched gas and to infer the excitation conditions in the shock region. The CO 5-4 and H2O lines have been detected at high-spectral resolution in the unbiased spectral survey of the HIFI-Band 1b spectral window (555-636 GHz), presented by Codella et al. in this volume. Complementary ground-based observations in the submm window help establish the origin of the emission detected in the main-beam of HIFI, and the physical conditions in the shock.}{Both lines exhibit broad wings, which extend to velocities much higher than reported up to now. We find that the molecular emission arises from two regions with distinct physical conditions: an extended, warm (100K), dense (3e5 cm-3) component at low-velocity, which dominates the water line flux in Band~1; a secondary component in a small region of B1 (a few arcsec) associated with high-velocity, hot (> 400 K) gas of moderate density ((1.0-3.0)e4 cm-3), which appears to dominate the flux of the water line at 179mu observed with PACS. The water abundance is enhanced by two orders of magnitude between the low- and the high-velocity component, from 8e-7 up to 8e-5. The properties of the high-velocity component agree well with the predictions of steady-state C-shock models.

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arXiv2010

Testing the theory of grain growth and fragmentation by millimeter observations of protoplanetary disks

Context. Observations at sub-millimeter and mm wavelengths will in the near future be able to resolve the radial dependence of the mm spectral slope in circumstellar disks with a resolution of around a few AU at the distance of the closest star-forming regions. Aims. We aim to constrain physical models of grain growth and fragmentation by a large sample of (sub-)mm observations of disks around pre-main sequence stars in the Taurus-Auriga and Ophiuchus star-forming regions. Methods. State-of-the-art coagulation/fragmentation and disk-structure codes are coupled to produce steady-state grain size distributions and to predict the spectral slopes at (sub-)mm wavelengths. Results. This work presents the first calculations predicting the mm spectral slope based on a physical model of grain growth. Our models can quite naturally reproduce the observed mm-slopes, but a simultaneous match to the observed range of flux levels can only be reached by a reduction of the dust mass by a factor of a few up to about 30 while keeping the gas mass of the disk the same. This dust reduction can either be due to radial drift at a reduced rate or during an earlier evolutionary time (otherwise the predicted fluxes would become too low) or due to efficient conversion of dust into larger, unseen bodies.

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arXiv2010

Herschel-PACS spectroscopy of the intermediate mass protostar NGC7129 FIRS 2

Aims: We present preliminary results of the first Herschel spectroscopic observations of NGC7129 FIRS2, an intermediate mass star-forming region. We attempt to interpret the observations in the framework of an in-falling spherical envelope. Methods: The PACS instrument was used in line spectroscopy mode (R=1000-5000) with 15 spectral bands between 63 and 185 microns. This provided good detections of 26 spectral lines seen in emission, including lines of H2O, CO, OH, O I, and C II. Results: Most of the detected lines, particularly those of H2O and CO, are substantially stronger than predicted by the spherical envelope models, typically by several orders of magnitude. In this paper we focus on what can be learned from the detected CO emission lines. Conclusions: It is unlikely that the much stronger than expected line emission arises in the (spherical) envelope of the YSO. The region hot enough to produce such high excitation lines within such an envelope is too small to produce the amount of emission observed. Virtually all of this high excitation emission must arise in structures such as as along the walls of the outflow cavity with the emission produced by a combination of UV photon heating and/or non-dissociative shocks.

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arXiv2010

Water cooling of shocks in protostellar outflows: Herschel-PACS map of L1157

In the framework of the Water in Star-forming regions with Herschel (WISH) key program, maps in water lines of several outflows from young stars are being obtained, to study the water production in shocks and its role in the outflow cooling. This paper reports the first results of this program, presenting a PACS map of the o-H2O 179 um transition obtained toward the young outflow L1157. The 179 um map is compared with those of other important shock tracers, and with previous single-pointing ISO, SWAS, and Odin water observations of the same source that allow us to constrain the water abundance and total cooling. Strong H2O peaks are localized on both shocked emission knots and the central source position. The H2O 179 um emission is spatially correlated with emission from H2 rotational lines, excited in shocks leading to a significant enhancement of the water abundance. Water emission peaks along the outflow also correlate with peaks of other shock-produced molecular species, such as SiO and NH3. A strong H2O peak is also observed at the location of the proto-star, where none of the other molecules have significant emission. The absolute 179 um intensity and its intensity ratio to the H2O 557 GHz line previously observed with Odin/SWAS indicate that the water emission originates in warm compact clumps, spatially unresolved by PACS, having a H2O abundance of the order of 10^-4. This testifies that the clumps have been heated for a time long enough to allow the conversion of almost all the available gas-phase oxygen into water. The total water cooling is ~10^-1 Lo, about 40% of the cooling due to H2 and 23% of the total energy released in shocks along the L1157 outflow.

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arXiv2010

The β Pictoris disk imaged by Herschel PACS and SPIRE

We obtained Herschel PACS and SPIRE images of the thermal emission of the debris disk around the A5V star β Pic. The disk is well resolved in the PACS filters at 70, 100, and 160 μm. The surface brightness profiles between 70 and 160 μm show no significant asymmetries along the disk, and are compatible with 90% of the emission between 70 and 160 μm originating in a region closer than 200 AU to the star. Although only marginally resolving the debris disk, the maps obtained in the SPIRE 250 - 500 μm filters provide full-disk photometry, completing the SED over a few octaves in wavelength that had been previously inaccessible. The small far-infrared spectral index (β = 0.34) indicates that the grain size distribution in the inner disk (<200AU) is inconsistent with a local collisional equilibrium. The size distribution is either modified by non-equilibrium effects, or exhibits a wavy pattern, caused by an under-abundance of impactors which have been removed by radiation pressure.

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arXiv2010

The Vega Debris Disc: A view from Herschel

We present five band imaging of the Vega debris disc obtained using the Herschel Space Observatory. These data span a wavelength range of 70-500 um with full-width half-maximum angular resolutions of 5.6-36.9". The disc is well resolved in all bands, with the ring structure visible at 70 and 160 um. Radial profiles of the disc surface brightness are produced, and a disc radius of 11" (~ 85 AU) is determined. The disc is seen to have a smooth structure thoughout the entire wavelength range, suggesting that the disc is in a steady state, rather than being an ephemeral structure caused by the recent collision of two large planetesimals.

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arXiv2010

First results of the Herschel Key Program 'Dust, Ice and Gas in Time': Dust and Gas Spectroscopy of HD 100546

We present far-infrared spectroscopic observations, taken with the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory, of the protoplanetary disk around the pre-main-sequence star HD 100546. These observations are the first within the DIGIT Herschel key program, which aims to follow the evolution of dust, ice, and gas from young stellar objects still embedded in their parental molecular cloud core, through the final pre-main-sequence phases when the circumstellar disks are dissipated. Our aim is to improve the constraints on temperature and chemical composition of the crystalline olivines in the disk of HD 100546 and to give an inventory of the gas lines present in its far-infrared spectrum. The 69 μ\m feature is analyzed in terms of position and shape to derive the dust temperature and composition. Furthermore, we detected 32 emission lines from five gaseous species and measured their line fluxes. The 69 μ\m emission comes either from dust grains with ~70 K at radii larger than 50 AU, as suggested by blackbody fitting, or it arises from ~200 K dust at ~13 AU, close to the midplane, as supported by radiative transfer models. We also conclude that the forsterite crystals have few defects and contain at most a few percent iron by mass. Forbidden line emission from [CII] at 157 μ\m and [OI] at 63 and 145 μ\m, most likely due to photodissociation by stellar photons, is detected. Furthermore, five H2O and several OH lines are detected. We also found high-J rotational transition lines of CO, with rotational temperatures of ~300 K for the transitions up to J=22-21 and T~800 K for higher transitions.

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arXiv2010

Detection of interstellar oxidaniumyl: abundant H2O+ towards the star-forming regions DR21, Sgr B2, and NGC6334

We identify a prominent absorption feature at 1115 GHz, detected in first HIFI spectra towards high-mass star-forming regions, and interpret its astrophysical origin. The characteristic hyperfine pattern of the H2O+ ground-state rotational transition, and the lack of other known low-energy transitions in this frequency range, identifies the feature as H2O+ absorption against the dust continuum background and allows us to derive the velocity profile of the absorbing gas. By comparing this velocity profile with velocity profiles of other tracers in the DR21 star-forming region, we constrain the frequency of the transition and the conditions for its formation. In DR21, the velocity distribution of H2O+ matches that of the [CII] line at 158μ\m and of OH cm-wave absorption, both stemming from the hot and dense clump surfaces facing the HII-region and dynamically affected by the blister outflow. Diffuse foreground gas dominates the absorption towards Sgr B2. The integrated intensity of the absorption line allows us to derive lower limits to the H2O+ column density of 7.2e12 cm^-2 in NGC 6334, 2.3e13 cm^-2 in DR21, and 1.1e15 cm^-2 in Sgr B2.

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arXiv2010

Dust, Ice and Gas in Time (DIGIT) Herschel program first results: A full PACS-SED scan of the gas line emission in protostar DK Cha

DK Cha is an intermediate-mass star in transition from an embedded configuration to a star plus disk stage. We aim to study the composition and energetics of the circumstellar material during this pivotal stage. Using the Range Scan mode of PACS on the Herschel Space Observatory, we obtained a spectrum of DK Cha from 55 to 210 micron as part of the DIGIT Key Program. Almost 50 molecular and atomic lines were detected, many more than the 7 lines detected in ISO-LWS. Nearly the entire ladder of CO from J=14-13 to 38-37 (E_u/k = 4080 K), water from levels as excited as E_u/k = 843 K, and OH lines up to E_u/k = 290 K were detected. The continuum emission in our PACS SED scan matches the flux expected from a model consisting of a star, a surrounding disk of 0.03 Solar mass, and an envelope of a similar mass, supporting the suggestion that the object is emerging from its main accretion stage. Molecular, atomic, and ionic emission lines in the far-infrared reveal the outflow's influence on the envelope. The inferred hot gas can be photon-heated, but some emission could be due to C-shocks in the walls of the outflow cavity.

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arXiv2010

Origin of the hot gas in low-mass protostars: Herschel-PACS spectroscopy of HH 46

'Water in Star-forming regions with Herschel' (WISH) is a Herschel Key Programme aimed at understanding the physical and chemical structure of young stellar objects (YSOs) with a focus on water and related species. The low-mass protostar HH 46 was observed with the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory to measure emission in H2O, CO, OH, [OI], and [CII] lines located between 63 and 186 um. The excitation and spatial distribution of emission can disentangle the different heating mechanisms of YSOs, with better spatial resolution and sensitivity than previously possible. Far-IR line emission is detected at the position of the protostar and along the outflow axis. The OH emission is concentrated at the central position, CO emission is bright at the central position and along the outflow, and H2O emission is concentrated in the outflow. In addition, [OI] emission is seen in low-velocity gas, assumed to be related to the envelope, and is also seen shifted up to 170 km/s in both the red- and blue-shifted jets. Envelope models are constructed based on previous observational constraints. They indicate that passive heating of a spherical envelope by the protostellar luminosity cannot explain the high-excitation molecular gas detected with PACS, including CO lines with upper levels at >2500 K above the ground state. Instead, warm CO and H2O emission is probably produced in the walls of an outflow-carved cavity in the envelope, which are heated by UV photons and non-dissociative C-type shocks. The bright OH and [OI] emission is attributed to J-type shocks in dense gas close to the protostar. In the scenario described here, the combined cooling by far-IR lines within the central spatial pixel is estimated to be 2 \times 10-2 L_sun, with 60-80% attributed to J- and C-type shocks produced by interactions between the jet and the envelope.

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arXiv2010

Full 2D radiative transfer modelling of transitional disk LkCa 15

With the legacy of Spitzer and current advances in (sub)mm astronomy, a large number of 'transitional' disks has been identified which are believed to contain gaps or have developped large inner holes, some filled with dust. This may indicate that complex geometries may be a key feature in disk evolution that has to be understood and modeled correctly. The disk around LkCa 15 is such a disk, with a gap ranging from ~5 - 50 AU, as identified by Espaillat et al. (2007) using 1+1D radiative transfer modelling. To fit the SED, they propose 2 possible scenarios for the inner (<5 AU) disk - optically thick or optically thin - and one scenario for the outer disk. We use the gapped disk of LkCa 15 as a showcase to illustrate the importance of 2D radiative transfer in transitional disks, by showing how the vertical dust distribution in dust-filled inner holes determines not only the radial optical depth but also the outer disk geometry. We use MCMax, a 2D radiative transfer code with a self-consistent vertical structure, to model the SED. We identify two possible geometries for the inner and outer disk, that are both different from those in Espaillat et al. (2007). An inner disk in hydrostatic equilibrium reprocesses enough starlight to fit the near infrared flux, but also casts a shadow on the inner rim of the outer disk. This requires the outer disk scale height to be large enough to rise out of the shadow. An optically thin inner disk does not cast such a shadow, and the SED can be fitted with a smaller outer disk scale height. For the dust in the inner regions to become optically thin however, the scale height would have to be so much larger than its hydrostatic equilibrium value that it effectively becomes a dust shell. It is currently unclear if a physical mechanism exists which could provide for such a configuration.

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arXiv2010

The lunar phases of dust grains orbiting Fomalhaut

Optical images of the nearby star Fomalhaut show a ring of dust orbiting the central star. This dust is in many respects expected to be similar to the zodiacal dust in the solar system. The ring displays a clear brightness asymmetry, attributed to asymmetric scattering of the central starlight by the circumstellar dust grains. Recent measurements show that the bright side of the Fomalhaut ring is oriented away from us. This implies that the grains in this system scatter most of the light in the backward direction, in sharp contrast to the forward-scattering nature of the grains in the solar system. In this letter, we show that grains considerably larger than those dominating the solar system zodiacal dust cloud provide a natural explanation for the apparent backward scattering behavior. In fact, we see the phases of the dust grains in the same way as we can observe the phases of the Moon and other large solar system bodies. We outline how the theory of the scattering behavior of planetesimals can be used to explain the Fomalhaut dust properties. This indicates that the Fomalhaut dust ring is dominated by very large grains. The material orbiting Fomalhaut, which is at the transition between dust and planetesimals, can, with respect to their optical behavior, best be described as micro-asteroids.

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