Shock-induced polarized hydrogen emission lines in omicron Ceti

Fabas, N.; Lèbre, A.; Gillet, D.
Referencia bibliográfica

STELLAR POLARIMETRY: FROM BIRTH TO DEATH. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1429, pp. 215-221 (2012).

Fecha de publicación:
5
2012
Número de autores
3
Número de autores del IAC
0
Número de citas
1
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
Hydrogen emission lines in Mira variable stars are a well-known phenomenon whose origin has been established as related to the propagation of radiative hypersonic shock waves throughout the stellar atmosphere. A polarimetric observation by McLean and Coyne [1] made on omicron Ceti (the prototype of Mira variable stars) has revealed the existence of linear polarization signatures associated with Balmer emission lines. However, the polarizing mechanism has never been properly explained so far. The study presented here is the first of its kind since it displays the results of a spectropolarimetric survey of omicron Ceti in the Balmer lines. The survey was made with the NARVAL spectropolarimeter (Telescope Bernard Lyot, France) in full Stokes mode. We did not just confirm the appearance of this polarization but we also and above all showed the temporal variation of the linear polarization in the lines. We conclude that the polarizing mechanism is definitely intrinsic to the shock wave propagation throughout the stellar atmosphere of Mira and give some leads about the nature of this mechanism.