Shocks and Photoionization of the Inner 650 AU Jet of the Interacting Binary Star R Aquarii from Multiwavelength Hubble Space Telescope Observations

Abstract

Astrophysical jets are present in a range of environments, including young stellar objects, X-ray binaries, and active galactic nuclei, but their formation is still not fully understood. As one of the nearest symbiotic binary stars, R Aquarii ($D\sim 220$ pc) offers a unique opportunity to study the inner region within $\sim$ 600 AU of the jet source, which is particularly crucial to our understanding of non-relativistic jet formation and origin. We present high-angular resolution ultraviolet and optical imaging from the \emph{Hubble} Space Telescope in six emission-line regions of the inner jet. Using these observations to obtain a range of representative line ratios for our system and kinematic data derived from a comparison with previous studies, we model the shocked gas in order to determine the relative roles of shock heating and photoionization in the R Aquarii system. We find that our shock models suggest a nonzero magnetic field is needed to describe the measured line ratios. We also find that the Mg~II$\lambda \lambda$2795,2802 intensities are overpredicted by our models for most of the jet regions, perhaps because of depletion onto grains or to opacity in these resonance lines.

arXiv comment22 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (15)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• Binary companions of evolved stars in APOGEE DR14: Search method and catalog of ~5,000 companions
• Abundances of the elements in the solar system
• Destruction of Interstellar Dust in Evolving Supernova Remnant Shock Waves
• Jets and Tori in Proto-Planetary Nebulae
• The X-ray R Aquarii: A Two-sided Jet and Central Source
• SPHERE / ZIMPOL observations of the symbiotic system R Aqr. I. Imaging of the stellar binary and the innermost jet clouds
• A radio jet in the prototypical symbiotic star Z And?
• The spectroscopic orbit and the geometry of R Aqr
• Accurate Parallax Measurement toward the Symbiotic Star R Aquarii
• The bipolar jet of the symbiotic star R Aquarii: A study of its morphology using the high-resolution HST WFC3/UVIS camera
• Chandra Low Energy Transmission Grating Spectrum of SS Cygni in Outburst
• New insights into the outflows from R Aquarii
• Structure and dynamics of the inner nebula around the symbiotic stellar system R Aqr
• An XMM-Newton EPIC X-ray view of the Symbiotic Star R~Aquarii

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Newborn jet in the symbiotic system R Aquarii