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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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