Crystalline silicate dust around evolved stars III. A correlations study of crystalline silicate features

TL;DR

This study analyzes crystalline silicate features in evolved stars using ISO spectra, revealing differences in composition and temperature between disk and outflow sources, and proposing the 69.0 micron feature as a temperature indicator.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of crystalline silicate properties in different stellar environments and introduces the 69.0 micron feature as a potential temperature diagnostic.

Findings

Crystalline silicates are more abundant in disk sources.

The 69.0 micron feature can indicate grain temperature.

Enstatite is generally more abundant than forsterite.

Abstract

We have carried out a quantitative trend analysis of the crystalline silicates observed in the ISO spectra of a sample of 14 stars with different evolutionary backgrounds. We have modeled the spectra using a simple dust radiative transfer model and have correlated the results with other known parameters. We confirm the abundance difference of the crystalline silicates in disk and in outflow sources, as found by Molster et al. (1999, Nature 401, 563). We found some indication that the enstatite over forsterite abundance ratio differs, it is slightly higher in the outflow sources with respect to the disk sources. It is clear that more data is required to fully test this hypothesis. We show that the 69.0 micron feature, attributed to forsterite, may be a very suitable temperature indicator. We found that the enstatite is more abundant than forsterite in almost all sources. The temperature of the enstatite grains is about equal to that of the forsterite grains in the disk sources but slightly lower in the outflow sources. Crystalline silicates are on average colder than amorphous silicates. This may be due to the difference in Fe content of both materials. Finally we find an indication that the ratio of ortho to clino enstatite, which is about 1:1 in disk sources, shifts towards ortho enstatite in the high luminosity (outflow) sources.