Resolving the dusty circumstellar environment of the A[e] supergiant HD 62623 with the VLTI/MIDI^*

¹ Max Planck Intitut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hugel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany e-mail: meilland@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
² UMR 6525 CNRS H. FIZEAU UNS, OCA, Campus Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France CNRS, Avenue Copernic, Grasse, France

Received: 11 November 2009
Accepted: 9 December 2009

Abstract

Context. B[e] stars are hot stars surrounded by circumstellar gas and dust which is responsible for the presence of emission lines and IR-excess in their spectra. How dust can be formed in this highly illuminated and diluted environment remains an open issue.

Aims. HD 62623 is one of the very few A-type supergiants showing the B[e] phenomenon. We studied the geometry of its circumstellar envelope in the mid-infrared using long-baseline interferometry, which is the only observing technique able to spatially resolve objects smaller than a few tens of milliarcseconds.

Methods. We obtained nine calibrated visibility measurements between October 2006 and January 2008 using the VLTI/MIDI instrument in SCI-PHOT mode and PRISM spectral dispersion mode with projected baselines ranging from 13 to 71 m and with various position angles (PA). We used geometrical models and physical modeling with a radiative transfer code to analyze these data.

Results. The dusty circumstellar environment of HD 62623 is partially resolved by the VLTI/MIDI, even with the shortest baselines. The environment is flattened (a/b~1.3±0.1) and can be separated into two components: a compact one whose extension grows from 17 mas at 8 μm to 30 mas at 9.6 μm and stays almost constant up to 13 μm, and a more extended one that is over-resolved even with the shortest baselines. Using the radiative transfer code MC3D, we managed to model HD 62623's circumstellar environment as a dusty disk with an inner radius of 3.85±0.6 AU, an inclination angle of 60±10°, and a mass of 2 × 10^-7 .

Conclusions. It is the first time that the dusty disk inner rim of a supergiant star exhibiting the B[e] phenomenon is significantly constrained. The inner gaseous envelope likely contributes up to 20% to the total N band flux and acts like a reprocessing disk. Finally, the hypothesis of a stellar wind deceleration by the companion's gravitational effects remains the most probable case since the bi-stability mechanism does not seem to be efficient for this star.