CII emission-line stars in LMC with MagE spectra

DOI

We present a narrowband imaging survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), designed to isolate the CII{lambda}{lambda}7231,7236 emission lines in objects as faint as m_{lambda}7400_~18. The work is motivated by the recent serendipitous discovery in the LMC of the first confirmed extragalactic [WC11] star, whose spectrum is dominated by CII emission, and the realization that the number of such objects is currently largely unconstrained. The survey, which imaged ~50deg^2^ using on-band and off-band filters, will significantly increase the total census of these rare stars. In addition, each new LMC [WC] star has a known luminosity, a quantity quite uncertain in the Galactic sample. Multiple known CII emitters were easily recovered, validating the survey design. We find 38 new CII emission candidates; spectroscopy of the complete sample will be needed to ascertain their nature. In a preliminary spectroscopic reconnaissance, we observed three candidates, finding CII emission in each. One is a new [WC11]. Another shows both the narrow CII emission lines characteristic of a [WC11], but also broad emission of CIV, OV, and HeII characteristic of a much hotter [WC4] star; we speculate that this is a binary [WC]. The third object shows weak CII emission, but the spectrum is dominated by a dense thicket of strong absorption lines, including numerous OII transitions. We conclude it is likely an unusual hot, hydrogen-poor post-AGB star, possibly in transition from [WC] to white dwarf. Even lacking a complete spectroscopic program, we can infer that late [WC] stars do not dominate the central stars of LMC planetary nebulae, and that the detected CII emitters are largely of an old population.

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/898/85/table1 (Spectroscopically verified LMC CII emission stars)

Associated data

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.18980085
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/898/85
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/898/85
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/898/85
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/assocdata/?obs_collection=J/ApJ/898/85
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/898/85
Provenance
Creator Margon B.; Massey P.; Neugent K.F.; 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; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy