Inward Motions of the Compact SiO Masers Around VX Sagittarii

TL;DR

This study uses VLBA observations to analyze the structure and motion of SiO masers around VX Sagittarii, revealing a contracting shell and changes in maser emission related to stellar activity.

Contribution

First high-resolution VLBA imaging of SiO masers around VX Sgr showing shell contraction and morphological changes over time.

Findings

Maser shell contracts at about 4 km/s, consistent with gravitational infall.

Maser emission distribution is asymmetric and varies over epochs.

Maser feature size scale changed, possibly due to stellar activity.

Abstract

We report Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of 43 GHz v=1, J=1-0 SiO masers in the circumstellar envelope of the M-type semi-regular variable star VX Sgr at 3 epochs during 1999 April-May. These high-resolution VLBA images reveal a persistent ringlike distribution of SiO masers with a projected radius of ~3 stellar radii. The typical angular size of 0.5 mas for individual maser feature was estimated from two-point correlation function analysis for maser spots. We found that the apparent size scale of maser features was distinctly smaller than that observed in the previous observations by comparing their fractions of total power imaged. This change in the size scale of maser emission may be related to stellar activity that caused a large SiO flare during our observations. Our observations confirmed the asymmetric distribution of maser emission, but the overall morphology has changed significantly with the majority of masers clustering to the north-east of the star compared to that lying to the south-west direction in 1992. By identifying 42 matched maser features appearing in all the three epochs, we determined the contraction of an SiO maser shell toward VX Sgr at a proper motion of -0.507 mas/yr, corresponding to a velocity of about 4 km/s at a distance of 1.7 kpc to VX Sgr. Such a velocity is on the order of the sound speed, and can be easily explained by the gravitational infall of material from the circumstellar dust shell.