High spectral resolution spectroscopy of the SiO fundamental lines in red giants and red supergiants with VLT/VISIR

Abstract

We present high spectral resolution (R = 30000) spectroscopic observations of the SiO fundamental lines near 8.1 micron in 16 bright red giants and red supergiants using VLT/VISIR. Our sample consists of seven normal K--M giants, three Mira stars, three optically bright red supergiants, two dusty red supergiants, and the enigmatic object GCIRS3 near the Galactic center. We detected SiO fundamental lines in all of our program stars except for GCIRS3. The SiO lines in normal K and M giants as well as optically bright red supergiants do not show P-Cyg profiles or blueshifts, which means the absence of systematic outflows in the SiO line forming region. On the other hand, we detected P-Cyg profiles in the SiO lines in the dusty red supergiants VY CMa and VX Sgr (with the latter being a new detection), which suggest outflow velocities of 27 and 17 km/s, respectively. We derived basic stellar parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, luminosity, and mass) for the normal K--M giants and optically bright red supergiants in our sample and compared the observed VISIR spectra with synthetic spectra predicted from MARCS photospheric models. Most of the SiO lines observed in the program stars warmer than ~3400 K are reasonably reproduced by the MARCS models, which allowed us to estimate the silicon abundance as well as the 28Si/29Si and 28Si/30Si ratios. However, we detected possible absorption excess in some SiO lines. Moreover, the SiO lines in the cooler red giants and red supergiant cannot be explained by the MARCS models at all even if the dust emission is taken into account. This disagreement may be a signature of the dense, extended molecular outer atmosphere.

13 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

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