Rau, G. ; Paladini, C. ; Hron, J. ; Aringer, B. ; Erikssonn, K. ; Groenewegen, M.

published in IAU General Assembly, 22, pp. 2254798 (2015)

Abstract: We study the atmospheres of a set of carbon rich AGB stars to improve our understanding of the dynamic processes happening in there.For the first time we compare in a systematic way spectrometric, photometric and mid-infrared (VLTI/MIDI) interferometric measurements with different type of model atmospheres: (1) hydrostatic models + MOD-dusty models (Groenewegen, 2012) added a posteriori; (2) self-consistent dynamic model atmospheres (Eriksson et al. 2014). These allow to interpret in a coherent way the dynamic behavior of gas and dust. In addition, the geometric model fitting tool for interferometric data GEM-FIND is applied to carry out a first interpretation of the structural environment of the stars.The results underline that the joint use of different kind of observations, as photometry, spectroscopy and interferometry, is essential for understanding and modeling the atmosphere of pulsating C-rich AGB stars. For our first target, the carbon-rich Mira star RU Vir, the dynamic model atmospheres fit well the ISO/SWS spectra in the wavelength range λ = [2.9, 13.0] μm. However, the object turned out to be “peculiar”: we notice a discrepancy in the visible part of the SED, and in the visibilities. Possible causes are intra/inter-cycle variations in the dynamic model atmospheres, and an eventual presence of a companion star and/or disk or clumps in the atmosphere of RU Vir (Rau et al. subm.). Results on further targets will also be presented.The increased sample of C-rich stars of this work provides crucial constraints for the atmospheric structure and the formation of SiC. Moreover the second generation VLTI instrument MATISSE will be a perfect tool to detect and study asymmetries, as it will allow interferometric imaging in the L, M, and N bands.

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