Spectra of a rare low-mass Wolf-Rayet star in LMC

DOI

We report the serendipitous discovery of an object, UVQSJ060819.93-715737.4, with a spectrum dominated by extremely intense, narrow CII emission lines. The spectrum is similar to those of the very rare, late-type [WC11] low-mass Wolf-Rayet stars. Despite the recognition of these stars as a distinct class decades ago, there remains barely a handful of Galactic members, all of which are also planetary-nebula central stars. Although no obvious surrounding nebulosity is present in J0608, [OII], [NII], and [SII] emission suggest the presence of an inconspicuous, low-excitation nebula. There is low-amplitude incoherent photometric variability on timescales of days to years, as well as numerous prominent P Cygni profiles, implying mass loss. There are indications of a binary companion. The star is located on the outskirts of the LMC, and the observed radial velocity (~+250km/s) and proper motion strongly suggest membership. If indeed an LMC member, this is the first extragalactic late [WC] star, and the first with an accurately determined luminosity, as the Galactic examples are too distant for precise parallax determinations. A high-quality, broad-coverage spectrum of the prototype of the late [WC] class, CPD -56 8032, is also presented. We discuss different excitation mechanisms capable of producing the great strength of the CII emission. Numerous autoionizing levels of C II are definitely populated by processes other than dielectronic recombination. Despite the spectacular emission spectra, observational selection makes objects such as these difficult to discover. Members of the [WC11] class may in fact be considerably more common than the handful of previously known late [WC] stars.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.18880054
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/888/54
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/888/54
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/888/54
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/888/54
Provenance
Creator Margon B.; Manea C.; Williams R.; Bond H.E.; Prochaska J.X.,Szymanski M.K.; Morrell N.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2021
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Exoplanet Astronomy; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy