Imaging the oxygen-rich disk toward the silicate carbon star EU And

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution VLBA observations and infrared spectra to investigate the structure of oxygen-rich material around the silicate carbon star EU And, suggesting a circum-companion disk with a potential embedded CO2 signature.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence of CO2 emission in silicate carbon stars and supports the presence of a circum-companion disk through combined radio and infrared observations.

Findings

Maser spots form a linear distribution with slight S-shape.

Outward motion of masers is smaller than expected for a jet.

Infrared data indicates an optically thin, small-grain silicate disk.

Abstract

We present multi-epoch high-angular resolution observations of 22 GHz H2O masers toward the silicate carbon star EU And to probe the spatio-kinematic distribution of oxygen-rich material. EU And was observed at three epochs (maximum time interval of 14 months) with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). Our VLBA observations of the 22 GHz H2O masers have revealed that the maser spots are distributed along a straight line across ~20 mas, with a slight hint of an S-shaped structure. The observed spectra show three prominent velocity components at V_LSR = -42, -38, and -34 km s^-1, with the masers in SW redshifted and those in NE blueshifted. The maser spots located in the middle of the overall distribution correspond to the component at V_LSR = -38 km s^-1, which approximately coincides with the systemic velocity. These observations can be interpreted as either an emerging helical jet or a disk viewed almost edge-on (a circumbinary or circum-companion disk). However, the outward motion measured in the VLBA images taken 14 months apart is much smaller than that expected from the jet scenario. Furthermore, the mid-infrared spectrum obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope indicates that the 10 micron silicate emission is optically thin and the silicate grains are of sub-micron size. This lends support to the presence of a circum-companion disk, because an optically thin circumbinary disk consisting of such small grains would be blown away by the intense radiation pressure of the primary (carbon-rich) star. If we assume Keplerian rotation for the circum-companion disk, the mass of the companion is estimated to be 0.5--0.8 M_sun. We also identify CO2 emission features at 13--16 micron in the Spitzer spectrum of EU And--the first unambiguous detection of CO2 in silicate carbon stars.