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Issue A&A
Volume 417, Number 2, April II 2004
Page(s) 695 - 699
Section Stellar structure and evolution
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20034243



A&A 417, 695-699 (2004)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20034243

Photo-ionization induced rapid grain growth in novae

S. N. Shore1 and R. D. Gehrz2

1  Dipartimento di Fisica "Enrico Fermi", Università di Pisa, Pisa 56127, Italy
2  Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
    e-mail: gehrz@astro.umn.edu

(Received 29 August 2003 / Accepted 9 December 2003 )

Abstract
An elementary model is developed for grain growth during the expansion stage of nova ejecta. Rather than suppressing grain formation, we argue that agglomeration of atoms by dust nuclei proceeds kinetically through induced dipole reactions in a partially ionized medium. Ionization of a cluster increases once the ejecta become transparent in the ultraviolet which triggers runaway grain growth. This mechanism may also be important in other dust-forming hot stars such as Luminous Blue Variables and Wolf-Rayet systems.


Key words: stars: novae, cataclysmic variables -- ISM: dust, extinction -- stars: mass-loss

Offprint request: S. N. Shore, shore@df.unipi.it

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