AMBER: Instrument description and first astrophysical results
A. Domiciano de Souza1,4 - T. Driebe1 - O. Chesneau2 - K.-H. Hofmann1 - S. Kraus1 - A.S. Miroshnichenko1,3 - K. Ohnaka1 - R.G. Petrov4 - T. Preisbisch1 - P. Stee2 - G. Weigelt1 - F. Lisi5 - F. Malbet6 - A. Richichi7
1 - Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69,
53121 Bonn, Germany
2 - Laboratoire Gemini, UMR 6203 Observatoire de la Côte
d'Azur/CNRS, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
3 - Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, PO Box 26170, University of
North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27402 6170, USA
4 - Laboratoire Universitaire d'Astrophysique de Nice, UMR 6525
Université de Nice - Sophia Antipolis/CNRS, Parc Valrose, 06108
Nice Cedex 2,
France
5 - INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Istituto Nazionale di
Astrofisica, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
6 - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, UMR 5571 Université Joseph
Fourier/CNRS, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
7 - European Southern Observatory, Karl Schwarzschild Strasse 2,
85748 Garching, Germany
Received 31 August 2005 / Accepted 17 October 2005
Abstract
We present the first high spatial and spectral
resolution observations of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) of a
B[e] supergiant (CPD
), performed with the Very
Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). Spectra, visibilities and
closure phase were obtained using the beam-combiner instruments
AMBER (near-IR interferometry with three 8.3 m Unit Telescopes or
UTs) and MIDI (mid-IR interferometry with two UTs). The
interferometric observations of the CSE are well fitted by an
elliptical Gaussian model with FWHM diameters varying linearly
with wavelength. Typical diameters measured are
mas or
AU (adopting a
distance of 2.5 kpc) at
,
and
mas
or
AU at
.
The size of the region
emitting the Br
flux is
mas or
AU. The major-axis position angle of the
elongated CSE in the mid-IR (
)
agrees well with
previous polarimetric data, hinting that the hot-dust emission
originates in a disk-like structure. In addition to the
interferometric observations we also present new optical
(
)
and near-IR (
)
broadband photometric
observations of CPD
.
Our spectro-interferometric
VLTI observations and data analysis support the non-spherical CSE
paradigm for B[e] supergiants.
Key words: techniques: high angular resolution - techniques: interferometric - infrared: stars - stars: early-type - stars: emission-line, Be - stars: mass-loss
To investigate these crucial questions concerning the origin,
geometry and physical structure of the sgB[e] CSE, it is necessary
to combine several observing techniques. In particular, the high
spatial resolution provided by optical/IR long-baseline
interferometry allows us to directly probe the vicinity of these
complex objects. In this paper we present the first direct
multi-wavelength measurements of the close environment of a
Galactic sgB[e] star, namely CPD
(WRAY 15-535; IRAS 10136-5736),
using the VLTI with its instruments AMBER and MIDI.
CPD
is a poorly-studied object for which McGregor
et al. (1988) suggested a distance of d=2.5 kpc, assuming that
it belongs to the Carina OB association. A high reddening and the
presence of CO emission bands at
makes it
compatible with the sgB[e] class. Zickgraf (2003) obtained
high-resolution optical spectra exhibiting double-peaked emission
lines that are suggestive of a flattened CSE geometry, typical for
sgB[e] stars. However, the physical parameters of neither the star
nor its CSE have been studied in detail yet.
CPD
was observed on 2005 February 25 using the
AMBER/VLTI instrument (e.g., Petrov et al. 2007) to combine the
light from the 8.3 m Unit Telescopes UT2, UT3 and UT4. With an
exposure time of 85 ms, 3000 spectrally dispersed interferograms
(frames) were recorded on the target and calibrator (HD 90393).
This allowed us to obtain spectra as well as wavelength-dependent
visibilities and a closure phase in the K band with a spectral
resolution of R = 1500 between 2.09 and
(including the Br
line).
Data reduction was performed with the amdlib software
(Millour et al. 2004; Tatulli et al. 2007). We checked the
consistency of our results by selecting a fixed percentage of
frames from the target and calibrator data sets, based on the
fringe contrast signal-to-noise ratio. By keeping 50%, 30%, and 10% of the frames with the best SNR, we found that the derived
quantities were stable (differences ![]()
). Moreover, we also
found good agreement between the results from the amdlib
software and our own software based on a power spectrum analysis.
We also observed CPD
with the MIDI/VLTI instrument
(Leinert et al. 2004) on 2004 December 28 and 30. The N-band
spectrum as well as spectrally dispersed fringes have been
recorded between 7.9 and
with a spectral
resolution of R = 30, allowing us to study the wavelength
dependence of the apparent size of CPD
in the
mid-IR. In total, 4 data sets have been obtained using the
UT2-UT3-47 m and UT3-UT4-62 m baselines. Several calibrator
stars were observed: HD 37160, HD 50778, HD 94510 and HD 107446.
Data reduction was performed with the MIA (Leinert et al. 2004)
and EWS (Jaffe 2004) packages. While MIA follows the classical
power spectrum analysis, in the EWS software the fringes are
coherently added after correction for the instrumental and
atmospheric delay in each scan. The visibilities derived with both
softwares agree within the uncertainties of ![]()
.
The logs of the AMBER and MIDI observations are given in
Table 1, while Fig. 1
shows the projected baseline lengths (
)
and
corresponding position angles (PA) used. In
Table 2 we list the uniform disc
diameters
and observation log for the
calibrators. Calibrated visibilities from both AMBER and MIDI observations were obtained using the known uniform disk diameters
of the calibrator stars (Richichi et al. 2005), which were
observed during the same nights as CPD
.
Table 1:
AMBER and MIDI observation log for
CPD
.
![]() |
Figure 1:
Projected baselines and corresponding position
angles for the AMBER and MIDI observations of
CPD
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Table 2: Uniform disc diameters and observation log for the calibrators.
In addition to the VLTI data we present new broadband photometric
observations of CPD
.
Optical (
)
and
near-IR (
)
photometric observations were obtained
quasi-simultaneously on 1997 July 10 at the South African
Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). Additional near-IR observations
were obtained on 1997 June 15 and December 28. The 0.75-m
telescope with a single-element InSb photometer (Carter 1990) was
used in the near-IR, while the 0.5-m telescope with a GaAs
photometer (Menzies et al. 1991) was used in the optical region.
Table 3:
Photometry of CPD
obtained at SAAO.
The data are presented in Table 3. The errors in the tabulated magnitudes and colors are not greater than 0.02 mag. A number of standard stars were observed during the same nights for calibration.
Our photometric results are very close to previously published
observations of the star. Drilling (1991) obtained 3
observations in 1972-1976 (V=10.20:, B-V=1.66, U-B=0.41 mag; the colon indicates either a variability suspicion or an
uncertainty of over 0.08 mag), and McGregor et al. (1988) obtained
near-IR observations on 1983 May 15 (J=5.77, H=4.99, K=4.02 mag). The 2MASS data obtained on 2000 January 18 (Cutri et al.
2003) are very similar (J=5.76, H=4.96,
mag).
However, the near-IR fluxes from Swings & Allen (1972) are very
different: K=5.44, H-K=0.33,
mag. Also,
Wackerling (1970) quotes
mag and
mag
. This information is not sufficient to conclude
whether any brightness changes occurred in the early 1970s, but it
indicates that the optical and near-IR fluxes have been stable for
the last 30 years.
![]() |
Figure 2:
AMBER/VLTI observations of CPD
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Table 4:
Model parameters and
(reduced
chi-squared) derived from the fit of an elliptical Gaussian
(Eqs. (1) and (2))
to the AMBER/VLTI and MIDI/VLTI visibilities. Angular sizes (in
mas) correspond to FWHM diameters. The errors of the fit
parameters include the calibration errors of the instrumental
transfer function (![]()
), estimated from all calibrator
stars observed.
![]() |
Figure 3:
MIDI/VLTI observations of CPD
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Analysis of the available photometric and spectroscopic data for
the object and its neighborhood allows us to put some constraints
on the basic parameters of the underlying star and the distance
toward it, an issue that has never been carefully addressed. The
observed set of emission lines in the optical region (H I,
He I, Fe II; Zickgraf 2003; McGregor et al. 1988;
Carlson & Henize 1979, and others) suggests that the star has an
early B spectral type, which in combination with the large optical
colour-indices implies a high reddening (see
Table 3). However, the presence of a
significant amount of gas and dust in the object's CSE makes
uncertain whether the entire reddening is interstellar. On the
other hand, this is most likely the case, because the observed
U-B and B-V colour-indices are in agreement with the
interstellar reddening slope for the stars in the object's
direction (E(U-B)/
). If we ignore the
possible impact of the CSE gas on the object's SED, then
dereddening with the above colour-index ratio gives
E(B-V)=1.85mag and the spectral type B
(also in agreement with the
spectral line content). Moreover, strong diffuse interstellar
bands (at
Å and
Å) are present in
the spectrum, and their strengths are consistent with the E(B-V)(Herbig 1993).
Adopting the typical galactic total-to-selective interstellar
extinction ratio
/
E(B-V)=3.1 for early-type stars, we get
mag and the intrinsic visual brightness V0=4.3 mag.
Such a brightness, in combination with the high reddening, implies
a high stellar luminosity. Since a few nearby A-type stars of 9-10 mag have negligible reddenings, there is almost no
interstellar extinction in the object's direction closer than
1 kpc. Even at such a distance, CPD
2874 would be
a supergiant (
). An upper limit for the
distance (
3 kpc) is set by the Humphreys-Davidson luminosity
limit (
,
Humphreys & Davidson 1979).
Thus, the most probable range for the object's distance is
kpc. It is difficult to constrain it better due to the
unknown contribution of the CSE gas to the star's brightness,
possible anomalous extinction by the CSE dust, and the absence of
high-resolution spectroscopic data that show photospheric lines
and allow us to measure their radial velocities. The distance
determination using galactic kinematic models and available radial
velocities of the emission lines is uncertain, because the line
profiles are double-peaked. The interstellar extinction law in the
object's direction indicates a patchy structure of dust in the
line of sight and hampers further improvement of the above
distance estimate.
Summarizing the above discussion, we adopt the following
parameters for CPD
2874:
kpc,
K,
mag. They lead to an estimate for
the star's radius of
.
Figures 2 and 3 show
the spectra and visibilities obtained with AMBER and MIDI,
respectively. CPD
is resolved in both spectral
regions at all projected baselines
and position
angles PA. As a zero-order size estimate these figures also show
the uniform disk angular diameters
obtained
from the visibilities at each spectral channel. The size of the
region emitting the Br
line is larger than the region
emitting the near-IR continuum. Moreover, the mid-IR sizes are
much larger than those in the near-IR.
The AMBER observations also reveal a zero closure phase
(Fig. 4) at all wavelengths (within the
noise level of a few degrees). This is a strong indication that
the near-IR emitting regions (continuum and Br
line) have
an approximately centrally-symmetric intensity distribution.
Since sgB[e] stars are thought to have non-spherical winds, we
expect an elongated shape for their CSE projected onto the sky,
unless the star is seen close to pole-on. Hereafter, we show that
both AMBER and MIDI observations can indeed be well reproduced by
an elliptical Gaussian model for the CSE intensity distribution,
corresponding to visibilities of the form:
![]() |
Figure 4:
AMBER/VLTI closure phase for CPD
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We interpret the AMBER observations in terms of an elliptical
Gaussian model (Eq. (1)) with a
chromatic variation of the size. The
curves in Fig. 2 suggest a linear increase
of the size within this part of the K band. In addition, the
AMBER visibilities decrease significantly inside Br
,
indicating that the line-forming region is more extended than the
region responsible for the underlying continuum. Based on these
considerations, we adopted the following expression for the
major-axis FWHM:
Similar to the analysis of the AMBER visibilities, we interpret
the MIDI observations of CPD
in terms of an
elliptical Gaussian model (Eq. (1))
with a size varying linearly with
as given in
Eq. (2) (for the analysis of the MIDI data the
parameter C2 is set to zero). Additionally, since the
curves show a stronger
-dependence
between 7.9 and 9.8
compared to the region between 10.2
and 13.5
(see Fig. 3), we performed
an independent fit for each of these two spectral regions. The
adopted elliptical Gaussian model also provides a good fit to the
MIDI visibilities as shown in Fig. 3. The
parameters corresponding to the fit in the two spectral regions
within the N band are listed in Table 4.
To illustrate our results the model parameters given in Table 4 can be visualized in Fig. 5.
![]() |
Figure 5:
Size and orientation of the CSE
derived from the fit of an elliptical Gaussian model
(Eqs. (1) and (2))
to the AMBER/VLTI and MIDI/VLTI visibilities (the corresponding
fit parameters are listed in Table 4). The scale in
the right is given in stellar diameters (
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Our analysis of the VLTI spectro-interferometric data presented in Sect. 4 supports the hypothesis of a non-spherical CSE for sgB[e] stars.
In particular, the MIDI observations suggest that the hot-dust
emission originates in an elongated structure (probably in an
equatorial disk), which is in agreement with previous polarization
measurements from Yudin & Evans (1998). After correction for the
interstellar polarization, Yudin (private communication) estimated
an intrinsic polarization position angle
.
Interestingly, within the error bars this angle is perpendicular
to the major-axis PA we derived from the MIDI data (
;
see Table 4), as is
expected from a disk-like dusty CSE. Under the disk hypothesis,
the measured mid-IR flattening (
;
see
Table 4) allows us to estimate an intermediate
viewing angle for the non-spherical CSE (
).
The contemporaneous recording of the AMBER and MIDI data enables
us to compare the CSE structure in the near- and mid-IR. As shown
in Table 4, the size, flattening and orientation of
the elliptical Gaussian model significantly changes from the K to the N band. For example, the region emitting the mid-IR flux
(
at
)
is more than 2.5 times larger than the
region emitting the near-IR continuum flux (
at
).
If we correct the influence of the continuum on the visibility
measured in Br
(Malbet et al. 2007), we estimate the size
(minor
major axes) of the region responsible for the pure
Br
emission to be
mas (or
AU). This size is
larger than
that of the underlying near-IR continuum, but more than 2 times
smaller than the mid-IR emitting region (
).
Near-IR diameters of
10 AU correspond to
(assuming
;
see Sect. 3). This
measurements are compatible with the theoretical CSE diameters
computed by Stee & Bittar (2001) for a classical Be star,
although our data show a larger difference between the Br
and continuum sizes.
The differences in flattening and position angle of the elliptical
models fitted to the AMBER and MIDI data are in agreement with the
two-component CSE paradigm suggested for sgB[e] stars (Zickgraf et al. 1985). The mid-IR flux is probably solely due to dust emission
from an equatorial disk. In contrast, the near-IR continuum flux
distribution probably results from a complex interplay among the
radiation from the central star, the tail of hot-dust emission
(
K), and the free-free and
free-bound emission from the fast polar wind and the disk-wind
interaction. The Br
emission does not necessarily follow
the same geometry.
A detailed investigation of the CSE geometry in the near-IR
(continuum and Br
)
requires additional interferometric
observations covering a larger range of baselines and position
angles. In addition, we believe that further MIDI observations at
baselines longer than
80 m should be performed to obtain
higher spatial resolution of the innermost parts of the dusty CSE.
This would allow one to investigate more deeply how close to the
hot central star (
K) the dust is formed.
Moreover, the combination of interferometric resolution, multi-spectral wavelength coverage and relatively high spectral resolution now available from the VLTI requires de development of interferometry-oriented and physically-consistent models for sgB[e] stars. We hope that the present work will motivate the development of such models, as well as open the door for new spectro-interferometric observations of these complex and intriguing objects.
Acknowledgements
A.D.S. acknowledges the Max-Planck-Institut fr Radioastronomie for a postdoctoral fellowship. We are indebted to Dr. R. V. Yudin for his calculations on the intrinsic polarization vector. The preparation and interpretation of AMBER observations benefit from the tools developed by the Jean-Marie Mariotti Center for optical interferometry (JMMC) and from the databases of the Centre de Données Stellaires (CDS) and of the Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS). The data reduction software amdlib and the user-friendly interface ammyorick used in this work is available on the AMBER site http://amber.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr.