Circumstellar environment of the M-type AGB star R Dor. APEX spectral scan at $159.0-368.5$ GHz

TL;DR

This study presents a spectral survey of the oxygen-rich AGB star R Dor, revealing its molecular composition, isotopic ratios, and complex outflow kinematics, expanding understanding of circumstellar chemistry in low mass-loss rate stars.

Contribution

It provides the first extensive spectral scan of R Dor in the 159-368.5 GHz range, identifying new molecules, a potential maser, and modeling isotopologue abundances, highlighting chemical complexity.

Findings

Detection of SO₂ and SiO isotopologues as dominant emissions.

Identification of a new potential maser at 354.2 GHz, possibly H₂SiO.

Evidence for multiple kinematic components in R Dor's outflow.

Abstract

Our current insights into the circumstellar chemistry of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are largely based on studies of carbon-rich stars and stars with high mass-loss rates. In order to expand the current molecular inventory of evolved stars we present a spectral scan of the nearby, oxygen-rich star R Dor, a star with a low mass-loss rate ($\sim2\times10^{-7}M_{\odot}$/yr). We carried out a spectral scan in the frequency ranges 159.0-321.5GHz and 338.5-368.5 GHz (wavelength range 0.8-1.9mm) using the SEPIA/Band-5 and SHeFI instruments on the APEX telescope and we compare it to previous surveys, including one of the oxygen-rich AGB star IK Tau, which has a high mass-loss rate ($\sim5\times10^{-6}M_{\odot}$/yr). The spectrum of R Dor is dominated by emission lines of SO$_2$ and the different isotopologues of SiO. We also detect CO, H$_2$O, HCN, CN, PO, PN, SO, and tentatively TiO$_2$, AlO, and NaCl. Sixteen out of approximately 320 spectral features remain unidentified. Among these is a strong but previously unknown maser at 354.2 GHz, which we suggest could pertain to H$_2$SiO, silanone. With the exception of one, none of these unidentified lines are found in a similarly sensitive survey of IK Tau performed with the IRAM 30m telescope. We present radiative transfer models for five isotopologues of SiO ($^{28}$SiO, $^{29}$SiO, $^{30}$SiO, Si$^{17}$O, Si$^{18}$O), providing constraints on their fractional abundance and radial extent. We derive isotopic ratios for C, O, Si, and S and estimate that R Dor likely had an initial mass in the range 1.3-1.6$M_{\odot}$, in agreement with earlier findings based on models of H$_2$O line emission. From the presence of spectral features recurring in many of the measured thermal and maser emission lines we tentatively identify up to five kinematical components in the outflow of R Dor, indicating deviations from a smooth, spherical wind.