Radial Velocity Evidence for a Post-Mass-Transfer Massive Binary System: NaSt1

TL;DR

This study provides multi-epoch spectroscopic and imaging evidence supporting the binary nature of NaSt1, revealing its circumstellar kinematics, dust components, and recent mass-loss history, indicating it as a potential supernova progenitor.

Contribution

First detailed multi-wavelength analysis confirming NaSt1 as a post-mass-transfer massive binary with circumstellar dynamics and recent mass-loss activity.

Findings

Radial velocity variations with a 310-day period indicating binarity.

Detection of two dust components at different temperatures.

Circumstellar nebula expanding at ~31 km/s with a ~40-year dynamical age.

Abstract

We present multi-epoch high-resolution optical spectroscopy ($R \simeq 80{,}000$) of the emission-line object NaSt1 to test its proposed binary nature, along with long-term multiband photometry, mid-infrared spectroscopy, and spatially resolved integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy to probe the circumstellar kinematics of the system. We detect two groups of 35 emission lines showing radial velocities (RVs) variation of the same period of 310 $\pm$ 6 d, but with opposing phase, which we associate with the optically thick wind of the stripped primary star and the wind-wind collision region with the companion star, providing a strong evidence for binarity. The RV and light curve (LC) periods are consistent within the uncertainties, ruling out ellipsoidal modulation, which would require an orbital period of about 620 d. The phase relationship between the RV and LC is inconsistent with stellar pulsations and supports a binary origin. We model the 1--5~$\mu$m spectrum of NaSt1 and find two optically thin dust components: hot $T_{\rm h} \simeq 1230$ K, $M_{\rm h} \simeq 2 \times 10^{-10} M_{\odot}$ and warm $T_{\rm c} \simeq 660$ K, $M_{\rm c} \simeq 3 \times 10^{-8} M_{\odot}$. IFU spectroscopy spatially resolves the circumstellar medium in the [\ion{N}{2}] $\lambda6548$ and $\lambda6584$ emission lines, showing a deprojected expansion velocity of $\sim31$ km~s$^{-1}$, implying a dynamical age of $\sim40$ yr. This short timescale suggests that the nebula was produced by recent mass loss. The system may represent a Galactic analog of a massive binary undergoing a mass-loss process to become a stripped-envelope supernova progenitor.