Detached Shell Carbon Stars: Tracing Thermal Pulses on the Asymptotic Giant Branch

Abstract

We consider whether the subset of carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars that exhibit detached, expanding circumstellar shells may reveal the past histories of these stars as having undergone helium shell flashes (thermal pulses) on the AGB. We exploit newly available Gaia parallaxes and photometry, along with archival infrared photometry, to obtain refined estimates of the luminosities of all (12) known detached shell carbon stars. We examine the relationship between these luminosities and the estimated dynamical ages (ejection times) of the detached shells associated with the 12 stars, which range from $\sim$1000 to $\sim$30000 yr. When arranged according to detached shell dynamical age, the (implied) luminosity evolution of the known detached shell carbon stars closely follows the predicted "light curves" of individual thermal pulses obtained from models of AGB stars. The comparison between data and models suggests that detached shell carbon stars are descended from $\sim$2.5-4.0 $M_{\odot }$ progenitors. We conclude that detached shell carbon stars may serve as effective tracers of the luminosity evolution of AGB thermal pulses.

arXiv comment14 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (30)

• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
• Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions
• Estimating distances from parallaxes. V: Geometric and photogeometric distances to 1.47 billion stars in Gaia Early Data Release 3
• Evolution of asymptotic giant branch stars II. Optical to far-infrared isochrones with improved TP-AGB models
• A 3D Dust Map Based on Gaia, Pan-STARRS 1 and 2MASS
• Gaia Early Data Release 3: The astrometric solution
• Estimating distances from parallaxes
• Gaia-2MASS 3D maps of Galactic interstellar dust within 3 kpc
• The White Dwarf Initial-Final Mass Relation for Progenitor Stars From 0.85 to 7.5 M${}_{\odot }$
• Models of circumstellar molecular radio line emission: Mass loss rates for a sample of bright carbon stars
• Unexpectedly large mass loss during the thermal pulse cycle of the red giant R Sculptoris!
• Helium enrichment and Carbon-star Production in Metal-rich Populations
• Carbon star formation as seen through the non-monotonic initial-final mass relation
• Properties of detached shells around carbon stars: Evidence of interacting winds
• Mass Loss Evolution and the Formation of Detached Shells around TP-AGB Stars
• The Role of Convection in Determining the Ejection Efficiency of Common Envelope Interactions
• Imaging the circumstellar dust around AGB stars with PolCor
• The detached dust shells of AQ And, U Ant, and TT Cyg
• Resolving the extended stellar atmospheres of Asymptotic Giant Branch stars at (sub-)millimetre wavelengths
• The formation of a detached shell around the carbon star Y CVn
• A detailed view of the gas shell around R Sculptoris with ALMA
• Convection and Spin-Up During Common Envelope Evolution: The Formation of Short-Period Double White Dwarfs
• Rings and filaments: The remarkable detached CO shell of U Antliae
• An HI Imaging Survey of Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars
• ALMA observations of the "fresh" carbon-rich AGB star TX Piscium. The discovery of an elliptical detached shell
• Dusty shells surrounding the carbon variables S Scuti and RT Capricorni
• Properties of dust in the detached shells around U Ant, DR Ser, and V644 Sco
• Detection of CI line emission from the detached CO shell of the AGB star R Sculptoris