Charting circumstellar chemistry of carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars. III. SiO and SiS abundances

Abstract

The present understanding of C-rich AGB chemistry largely relies on observations of the archetypal carbon star IRC+10216. Current molecular abundance estimates for carbon stars are based either on single-dish spectra sampling a range of excitation conditions, or on interferometric mapping of a few lines. We aim to estimate the circumstellar abundances of SiO, SiS, and their most abundant isotopologues (${}^{29}$SiO, ${}^{30}$SiO, ${}^{29}$SiS, ${}^{30}$SiS, and Si${}^{34}$S) for a sample of five carbon stars. We derived molecular abundances using detailed 1D non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) radiative transfer (RT) modelling, constrained by both morphological and excitation information obtained from spatially resolved ALMA maps and single-dish observations. We further compared the derived abundances to chemical modelling results. We obtain good fits to the SiO and SiS line profiles, and derived well-constrained abundance profiles and reliable isotopic ratios for all sources except AFGL 3068. While the SiS peak abundances are very similar across the sample (2.0$\times$10${}^{-6}-4.7\times$10${}^{-6}$), we find that the SiO peak abundances of the rest of the stars are a factor of $\sim$5 larger than that of IRC+10216. The $e$-folding radii ($R_{\mathrm{e}}$) are in the range 1.3$\times$10${}^{16}-7.0\times$10${}^{16}$ cm for SiO and 6.0$\times$10${}^{15}-1.0\times$10${}^{17}$ cm for SiS. The $R_{\mathrm{e}}$ increases with gas density for both SiO and SiS. Chemical models reproduce the derived SiO abundance profiles well, while over-predicting the SiS $R_{\mathrm{e}}$ values. Our models highlight the necessity of having spatially resolved observations across a broad range of excitation conditions, while also making evident the limitations inherent in 1D RT modelling using simplified (circum)stellar models. We find that the currently assumed SiS photodissociation rate in chemical models is underestimated.

14 pages, with 10 figures and 3 tables in the main text. Two appendices contain additional figures and tables. Total 22 pages. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics