Infrared spectroscopy of the 1999 outburst of U Scorpii

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 378, Number 1, October IV 2001


Page(s)		132 - 141
Section		Formation, structure and evolution of stars
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20011154

A&A 378, 132-141 (2001)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011154

Infrared spectroscopy of the 1999 outburst of U Scorpii

A. Evans¹, J. Krautter², L. Vanzi³ and S. Starrfield⁴

¹ Department of Physics, Keele University, Keele, Staffs, ST5 5BG, UK
² Landessternwarte, Königstuhl, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
    e-mail: J.Krautter@lsw.uni-heidelberg.de
³ European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile
    e-mail: lvanzi@eso.org
⁴ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Arizona State University, PO Box 871504, Tempe, AZ 85287-1504, USA
    e-mail: sumner.starrfield@asu.edu

(Received 11 December 2000 / Accepted 9 August 2001)

Abstract
We present infrared spectroscopy of the recurrent nova U Sco, obtained during the 1999 eruption. The 0.94...2.4 $\mu$ m spectrum is dominated by HI, HeI and HeII emission lines and the pseudo photosphere of the hot white dwarf. The ejected material is overabundant in He and O; we estimate He/H $\simeq4.5\pm1.7$ and O/H $\simeq 0.013$ by number, for electron temperature $2\times10^4$ K. There appears to be excess emission longward of ~1.4 $\mu$ m, which is likely to be due to free-free emission by the material ejected in the 1999 eruption; from this we deduce an ejected mass of $2.7 (\pm 0.9) \times 10^{-7}$ $M_\odot$ .

Key words: stars: individual: U Sco -- stars: cataclysmic variables -- infrared: stars

Offprint request: A. Evans, ae@astro.keele.ac.uk

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