Photochemical origin of SiC2 in the circumstellar envelope of carbon-rich AGB stars revealed by ALMA

Yanan Feng, Xiaohu Li*, Tom J. Millar, Ryszard Szczerba, Ke Wang, Donghui Quan, Shengli Qin, Xuan Fang, Juan Tuo, Zhenzhen Miao, Rong Ma, Fengwei Xu, Jingfei Sun, Biwei Jiang, Qiang Chang, Jianchao Yang, Gao Lei Hou, Fangfang Li, Yong Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

The fact that whether SiC2 is a parent species, formed in the photosphere or as a by-product of high-temperature dust formation, or a daughter species, formed in chemistry driven by the photodestruction of the parent species in the outer envelope, has been debated for a long time. In this study, we analyze the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of four SiC2 transitions in the circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of three C-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars (AI Vol, II Lup, and RAFGL 4211) and find that SiC2 exhibits an annular, shell-like distribution in these targets, suggesting that SiC2 can be a daughter species in the CSEs of carbon-rich AGB stars. The results may provide important references for future chemical models.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1215642
JournalFrontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences
Volume10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Aug 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
XL acknowledges the support from the Xinjiang Tianchi project (2019). TM is grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for the award of an Emeritus Fellowship. This work was also funded by the National Science Foundation of China (12173023), the China Manned Space Project (CMS-CSST-2021-A09), the National Science Foundation of China (11973013), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (22022YFA1603102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (92261101), the Innovation Capability Support Program of Shaanxi Province (2023-CX-TD-49), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11973075). XF, SQ, and YZ thank the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China for their support through the Tianchi Talent Program.

Funding Information:
XL acknowledges the support from the Xinjiang Tianchi project (2019). TM is grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for the award of an Emeritus Fellowship. This work was also funded by the National Science Foundation of China (12173023), the China Manned Space Project (CMS-CSST-2021-A09), the National Science Foundation of China (11973013), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (22022YFA1603102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (92261101), the Innovation Capability Support Program of Shaanxi Province (2023-CX-TD-49), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11973075). XF, SQ, and YZ thank the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China for their support through the Tianchi Talent Program.

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Feng, Li, Millar, Szczerba, Wang, Quan, Qin, Fang, Tuo, Miao, Ma, Xu, Sun, Jiang, Chang, Yang, Hou, Li and Zhang.

Keywords

  • AI Vol
  • asymptotic giant branch stars
  • C-rich
  • circumstellar envelope
  • II Lup
  • mass loss
  • RAFGL 4211
  • SiC

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics

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