Mass outflow from the symbiotic binary RS Oph during its 2021 outburst

Abstract

RS Oph is a symbiotic recurrent nova containing a massive white dwarf with heavy mass loss during activity. In August 2021, it underwent its seventh optical eruption since the end of the 19th century. The goal of this work is to analyse the structure of the outflows from the outbursting object. Based on broad-band $U$, $B$, $V$, $R_{\mathrm{C}}$, and $I_{\mathrm{C}}$ photometry and high-resolution H$\alpha$ spectroscopy obtained at days 11--15 of the outburst, we derived some parameters of the system's components and outflows and their changes during our observation. The effective temperature of a warm shell (pseudophotosphere) produced by the ejected material and occulting the hot component of the system was $T_{eff}=15000\pm 1000$ K and the electron temperature of the nebula was $T_e=17000\pm 3000$ K throughout the observations. The effective radius of the pseudophotosphere was $R_{eff}=13.3\pm 2.0$ R${}_{\odot }$ and the emission measure of the nebula $EM=(9.50\pm 0.59)$10${}^{61}$ cm${}^{-3}$ for day 11 and $R_{eff}=10.3\pm 1.6$ R${}_{\odot }$ and $EM=(5.60\pm 0.35)$10${}^{61}$ cm${}^{-3}$ for day 15. To provide this emission measure, the bolometric luminosity of the outbursting object must exceed its Eddington limit. The mass-loss rate of the outbursting object through its wind is much greater than through its streams. The total rate (from wind + streams) was less than $(4-5)$ 10${}^{-5}$ (d/1.6kpc)${}^{3/2}$ M${}_{\odot }$yr${}^{-1}$. The streams are not highly collimated. Their mean outflowing velocities are ${\upsilon }_b=-3680\pm 60$ km s${}^{-1}$ for the approaching stream and ${\upsilon }_r=3520\pm 50$ km s${}^{-1}$ for the receding one if the orbit inclination is 50${}^{\circ }$.

arXiv comment8 pages, 2 figures; accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics

References in corpus (11)

• X-Ray Emitting Blast Wave from the Recurrent Nova RS Ophiuchi
• An asymmetric shock wave in the 2006 outburst of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi
• Spectroscopic orbits and variations of RS Oph
• Modelling the circumstellar medium in RS Ophiuchi and its link to Type Ia supernovae
• Near-Infrared H and K band studies of the 2006 outburst of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi
• Transient jets in the symbiotic prototype Z Andromedae
• Expanding Bipolar X-ray Structure After the 2006 Eruption of RS Oph
• Current and Future White Dwarf Mass-radius Constraints on Varying Fundamental Couplings and Unification Scenarios
• Bipolar ejection by the symbiotic binary system Z And during its 2006 outburst
• The recurrent nova RS Oph - simultaneous B and V band observations of the flickering variability
• Multiwavelength modelling the SED of supersoft X-ray sources. II. RS Ophiuchi: From the explosion to the SSS phase

Cited by in corpus (1)

• High-resolution imaging of the evolving bipolar outflows in symbiotic novae: The case of the RSOphiuchi 2021 nova outburst