Interferometric properties of pulsating C-rich AGB stars

Intensity profiles and uniform disc diameters of dynamic model atmospheres

¹ Department of Astronomy, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Wien, Austria e-mail: claudia.paladini@univie.ac.at
² INAF-OAPD, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 515, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden

Received: 24 February 2009
Accepted: 10 April 2009

Abstract

Aims. On the basis of a set of dynamic model atmospheres of C-rich AGB stars, we present the first theoretical study of centre-to-limb variation (CLV) properties and relative radius interpretation on narrow and broad-band filters. We computed visibility profiles and the equivalent uniform disc (UD) radii to investigate the dependence of these quantities on the wavelength and pulsation phase.

Methods. After an accurate morphological analysis of the visibility and intensity profiles determined in narrow and broad-band filters, we fitted our visibility profiles with a UD function simulating the observational approach. The UD-radii were computed using three different fitting-methods to investigate the influence of the visibility sampling profile: single point, two points and a least squares method.

Results. The intensity and visibility profiles of models characterises by mass loss show a behaviour very different from a UD. We found that UD-radii are wavelength dependent and that this dependence is stronger if mass loss is present. Strong opacity contributions from C₂H₂ affect all radius measurements at 3 μm and in the N-band, resulting in higher values for the UD-radii. In the case of models with mass loss the predicted behaviour of UD-radii versus phase is complicated, while the radial changes are almost sinusoidal for models without mass loss. Compared to the M-type stars, for the C-stars no windows are available for measuring the pure continuum.