ALMA’s Acute View of pPNe: Through the Magnifying Glass... and What We Found There

Contreras, C. Sánchez; Alcolea, J.; Bujarrabal, V.; Castro-Carrizo, A.

doi:10.3390/galaxies6030094

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…For example, in the case of a mass-exchanging binary system composed of a mass-losing blue giant (presumably the B[e] star MWC 922) and a compact companion, the rotating ~30-100 au-scale disk observed could represent a circumbinary disk formed as a result of angular momentum transfer from the binary orbital motion to the slow wind of the mass-losing star. This is indeed the case of the Red Rectangle (Bujarrabal et al 2013) and all post-AGB stars with rotating disks spatially and spectrally resolved to date (Bujarrabal et al 2013, 2017, 2018; Sánchez Contreras et al 2018, and references therein). In this scenario, the fast wind would be launched not from the surface of the circumbinary disk but from the (unseen) accretion disk around the companion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

A rotating fast bipolar wind and disk system around the B[e]-type star MWC 922

Contreras

Báez-Rubio

Alcolea

et al. 2019

A&A

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We present interferometric observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) of the free-free continuum and recombination line emission at 1 and 3 mm of the "Red Square Nebula" surrounding the B[e]-type star MWC922. The unknown distance to the source is usually taken to be d=1.7-3 kpc. The unprecedented angular resolution (upto∼0.″02) and exquisite sensitivity of these data unveil, for the first time, the structure and kinematics of the emerging, compact ionized region at its center. We imaged the line emission of H30α and H39α, previously detected with single-dish observations, as well as of H51ϵ, H55γ, and H63δ, detected for the first time in this work. The line emission is seen over a full velocity range of ~180 km s−1 arising in a region of diameter <0.″14 (less than a few hundred au) in the maser line H30α, which is the most intense transition reported here. We resolve the spatio-kinematic structure of a nearly edge-on disk rotating around a central mass of ~10 M⊙ (d=1.7 kpc) or ~18 M⊙ (d=3 kpc), assuming Keplerian rotation. Our data also unveil a fast (~100 km s−1) bipolar ejection (a jet?) orthogonal to the disk. In addition, a slow (<15 km s−1) wind may be lifting off the disk. Both, the slow and the fast winds are found to be rotating in a similar manner to the ionized layers of the disk. This represents the first empirical proof of rotation in a bipolar wind expanding at high velocity (~100 km s−1). The launching radius of the fast wind is found to be <30-51 au i.e., smaller than the inner rim of the ionized disk probed by our observations. We believe that the fast wind is actively being launched, probably by a disk-mediated mechanism in a (accretion?) disk around a possible compact companion. We have modelled our observations using the radiative transfer code MORELI. This has enabled us to describe with unparalleled detail the physical conditions and kinematics in the inner layers of MWC 922, which has revealed itself as an ideal laboratory for studying the interplay of disk rotation and jet-launching. Although the nature of MWC 922 remains unclear, we believe it could be a ~15 M⊙ post-main sequence star in a mass-exchanging binary system. If this is the case, a more realistic value of the distance may be d~3 kpc.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

A rotating fast bipolar wind and disk system around the B[e]-type star MWC 922

Contreras

Báez-Rubio

Alcolea

et al. 2019

A&A

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“…To date, inner rotating circumbinary disks have been mapped in CO emission in ∼5 post-AGB objects. All of them have very similar properties, which are summarized in Table 1 of Sánchez Contreras et al [38], including references to the original works. We note, however, that a very low-number statistics still prevail, and partially for this reason, it is not yet understood how these large-scale circumbinary disks form and what their role is in the PN-shaping process.…”

Section: Disk-prominent Post-agb Stars: Rotating Circumbinary Disksmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Sub)mm-Wavelength Observations of Pre-Planetary Nebulae and Young Planetary Nebulae

Contreras

2020

Galaxies

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This is a non-comprehensive review of observations of pre-Planetary Nebulae (pPNe) and young Planetary Nebulae (yPNe) at (sub)mm-wavelengths, a valuable window for probing multi-phased gas and dust in these objects. This contribution focuses on observations of molecular lines (from carbon monoxide—CO—and other species), and briefly at the end, on hydrogen radio recombination lines from the emerging H ii regions at the center of yPNe. The main goal of this contribution is to show the potential of (sub)mm-wavelength observations of pPNe/yPNe to help the community to devise and develop new observational projects that will bring us closer to a better understanding of these latest stages of the evolution of low-to-intermediate (∼0.8–8 M ⊙ ) mass stars.

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ALMA’s Acute View of pPNe: Through the Magnifying Glass... and What We Found There

Cited by 2 publications

References 25 publications

A rotating fast bipolar wind and disk system around the B[e]-type star MWC 922

A rotating fast bipolar wind and disk system around the B[e]-type star MWC 922

(Sub)mm-Wavelength Observations of Pre-Planetary Nebulae and Young Planetary Nebulae

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