Detection of the S(1) Rotational Line of H2 toward IRC+10216: A Simultaneous Measurement of Mass-Loss Rate and CO Abundance

TL;DR

This study reports the first detection of the S(1) rotational line of ortho-H2 in IRC+10216, enabling simultaneous measurement of the star's mass-loss rate and CO abundance, with implications for understanding stellar composition.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of the S(1) line of ortho-H2 in an AGB star and derives key stellar parameters without relying on CO abundance assumptions.

Findings

Mass-loss rate of 2.43 x 10^-5 M_sun/yr derived from H2 lines.

Estimated CO abundance relative to H2 is 6.7 x 10^-4.

C/O ratio is greater than 1.5, indicating carbon-rich chemistry.

Abstract

We report the first detection of the S(1) pure rotational line of ortho-H2 at 17.04 um in an asymptotic giant branch star, using observations of IRC+10216 with the Echelon-cross-echelle Spectrograph (EXES) mounted on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). This line, which was observed in a very high sensitivity spectrum (RMS noise ~0.04% of the continuum), was detected in the wing of a strong telluric line and displayed a P Cygni profile. The spectral ranges around the frequencies of the S(5) and S(7) ortho-H2 transitions were observed as well but no feature was detected in spectra with sensitivities of 0.12% and 0.09% regarding the continuum emission, respectively. We used a radiation transfer code to model these three lines and derived a mass-loss rate of 2.43(0.21)E-05 M_sun/yr without using the CO abundance. The comparison of this rate with previous estimates derived from CO observations suggests that the CO abundance relative to H2 is 6.7(1.4)E-04. From this quantity and previously reported molecular abundances, we estimate the O/H and C/H ratios to be 3.3(0.7)E-04 and >5.2(0.9)E-04, respectively. The C/O ratio is >1.5(0.4). The absence of the S(5) and S(7) lines of ortho-H2 in our observations can be explained by the opacity of hot dust within 5R* from the center of the star. We estimate the intensity of the S(0) and S(2) lines of para-H2 to be ~0.1% and 0.2% of the continuum, respectively, which are below the detection limit of EXES.