TY - JOUR
T1 - The RCB star V854 Centauri is surrounded by a hot dusty shell
AU - Chesneau, O.
AU - Millour, F.
AU - De Marco, O.
AU - Bright, S. N.
AU - Spang, A.
AU - Lagadec, E.
AU - Mékarnia, D.
AU - De Wit, W. J.
N1 - Copyright ESO 2014. First published in Astronomy and astrophysics 569, L4, 2014, published by EDP Sciences. The original publication is available at http://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201424173
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - Aims: The hydrogen-deficient supergiants known as R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars might be the result of a double-degenerate merger of two white dwarfs (WDs), or a final helium shell flash in a planetary nebula central star. In this context, any information on the geometry of their circumstellar environment and, in particular, the potential detection of elongated structures, is of great importance.Methods: We obtained near-IR observations of V854 Cen with the AMBER recombiner located at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) array with the compact array (B = 35 m) in 2013 and the long array (B = 140 m) in 2014. At each time, V854 Cen was at maximum light. The H- and K-band continua were investigated by means of spectrally dependant geometric models. These data were supplemented with mid-IR VISIR/VLT images.Results: A dusty slightly elongated overdensity is discovered both in the H- and K-band images. With the compact array, the central star is unresolved (T = 2.5 mas), but a flattened dusty environment of 8 × 11 mas is discovered whose flux increases from about 20% in the H band to reach about ∼50% at 2.3μm, which indicates hot (T ∼ 1500 K) dust in the close vicinity of the star. The major axis is oriented at a position angle (PA) of 126 ± 29°. Adding the long-array configuration dataset provides tighter constraints on the star diameter (T = 1.0 mas), a slight increase of the overdensity to 12 × 15 mas and a consistent PA of 133 ± 49°. The closure phases, sensitive to asymmetries, are null and compatible with a centro-symmetric, unperturbed environment excluding point sources at the level of 3% of the total flux in 2013 and 2014. The VISIR images exhibit a flattened aspect ratio at the 15-20% level at larger distances (∼1") with a position angle of 92 ± 19°, marginally consistent with the interferometric observations.Conclusions: This is the first time that a moderately elongated structure has been observed around an RCB star. These observations confirm the numerous suggestions for a bipolar structure proposed for this star in the literature, which were mainly based on polarimetric and spectroscopic observations.
AB - Aims: The hydrogen-deficient supergiants known as R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars might be the result of a double-degenerate merger of two white dwarfs (WDs), or a final helium shell flash in a planetary nebula central star. In this context, any information on the geometry of their circumstellar environment and, in particular, the potential detection of elongated structures, is of great importance.Methods: We obtained near-IR observations of V854 Cen with the AMBER recombiner located at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) array with the compact array (B = 35 m) in 2013 and the long array (B = 140 m) in 2014. At each time, V854 Cen was at maximum light. The H- and K-band continua were investigated by means of spectrally dependant geometric models. These data were supplemented with mid-IR VISIR/VLT images.Results: A dusty slightly elongated overdensity is discovered both in the H- and K-band images. With the compact array, the central star is unresolved (T = 2.5 mas), but a flattened dusty environment of 8 × 11 mas is discovered whose flux increases from about 20% in the H band to reach about ∼50% at 2.3μm, which indicates hot (T ∼ 1500 K) dust in the close vicinity of the star. The major axis is oriented at a position angle (PA) of 126 ± 29°. Adding the long-array configuration dataset provides tighter constraints on the star diameter (T = 1.0 mas), a slight increase of the overdensity to 12 × 15 mas and a consistent PA of 133 ± 49°. The closure phases, sensitive to asymmetries, are null and compatible with a centro-symmetric, unperturbed environment excluding point sources at the level of 3% of the total flux in 2013 and 2014. The VISIR images exhibit a flattened aspect ratio at the 15-20% level at larger distances (∼1") with a position angle of 92 ± 19°, marginally consistent with the interferometric observations.Conclusions: This is the first time that a moderately elongated structure has been observed around an RCB star. These observations confirm the numerous suggestions for a bipolar structure proposed for this star in the literature, which were mainly based on polarimetric and spectroscopic observations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84908454339&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/201424173
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/201424173
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84908454339
SN - 0004-6361
VL - 569
SP - 1
EP - 5
JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics
M1 - L4
ER -