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Sher 25: Pulsating but Apparently Alone

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Sher 25: Pulsating but Apparently Alone Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 000, 000{000 (0000) Printed 24 October 2018 (MN LATEX style file v2.2) Sher 25: pulsating but apparently alone William D. Taylor1, Christopher J. Evans1, Sergio Sim´on-D´ıaz2;3, Hugues Sana4, Norbert Langer5, Nathan Smith6, Stephen J. Smartt7 1UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK 2Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 3Departamento de Astrof´sica, Universidad de La Laguna, Avda. Astrof´sico Francisco S´anchez s/n, E-38071 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 4European Space Agency, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA 5Argelander-Unstitut fur Astronomie der Universitat Bonn, Auf dem Hugel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany 6Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA 7Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Maths and Physics,Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK 24 October 2018 ABSTRACT The blue supergiant Sher 25 is surrounded by an asymmetric, hourglass-shaped cir- cumstellar nebula, which shows similarities to the triple-ring structure seen around SN1987A. From optical spectroscopy over six consecutive nights, we detect periodic radial velocity variations in the stellar spectrum of Sher 25 with a peak-to-peak am- plitude of ∼12 km s−1 on a timescale of about 6 days, confirming the tentative detec- tion of similar variations by Hendry et al. From consideration of the amplitude and timescale of the signal, coupled with observed line profile variations, we propose that the physical origin of these variations is related to pulsations in the stellar atmosphere, rejecting the previous hypothesis of a massive, short-period binary companion. The radial velocities of two other blue supergiants with similar bipolar nebulae, SBW1 and HD 168625, were also monitored over the course of six nights, but these did not display any significant radial velocity variations. Key words: stars: early-type { stars: evolution { stars: individual : Sher 25 1 INTRODUCTION slightly to the northeast of the young massive cluster NGC 3603 (Sher 1965); classified as B1.5 Iab (Moffat 1983). Many of the known Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) stars It too has an associated nebula, consisting of a well-defined have associated emission nebulae (e.g. Humphreys & David- central ring with two asymmetric lobes of material on either son 1994; Nota et al. 1995). These are thought to have orig- side (Brandner et al. 1997b, see Figure 1). The similarities arXiv:1405.2101v1 [astro-ph.SR] 8 May 2014 inated from the large amounts of material thrown-off by the in their spectral types and associated nebulae have led to parent star during violent episodes of mass-loss. The most th comparisons of Sher 25 with SN1987A (e.g. Brandner et al. famous example is the Homunculus formed by the 19 cen- 1997a; Smartt et al. 2002). tury eruption of η Carinae which, in common with several other LBV nebulae, has a highly bipolar structure. There is no clear consensus as to how the ring structures Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed surrounding these stars were formed. One of the most suc- ◦ that the progenitor of SN1987A, Sk −69 202 (classified as cessful models is that of a binary merger between a 15 M B0.7-3 I by Walborn et al. 1989), was surrounded by a bipo- star and a 5 M companion (Morris & Podsiadlowski 2009). lar nebula that pre-dated the supernova explosion by about Alternatively, Chita et al. (2008) argued that a single star 20,000 years (Burrows et al. 1995a). This comprises a well- could generate this complex structure through the inter- defined equatorial ring and two larger rings that are roughly action of its stellar wind with material deposited during plane-parallel with the inner ring but offset along the sys- earlier stages of the star's evolution. Both of these mod- tem's polar axis (see Figure 1). Indeed, the similarity of els require the star to have passed through a red supergiant the nebula around SN1987A to that seen around the can- (RSG) phase, whereas a more recent theory by Smith et al. didate LBV HD 168625, led Smith (2007) to suggest that (2013) is independent of previous evolutionary stages. In Sk −69◦202 may have been a low-luminosity quiescent LBV, this model the equatorial ring has been formed in a previous or that it had at least undergone an LBV-like eruption in unexplained mass-loss event, while the subsequent photoe- its recent past. vaporation of material from this ring interacting with the The LBV candidate Sher 25 is a B-type supergiant stellar wind forms the polar rings. Whether the progenitor c 0000 RAS 2 W. D. Taylor et al. 0.2 pc 0.2 pc 0.2 pc 0.2 pc SN1987A Sher 25 HD168625 SBW1 Figure 1. Images of the famous triple-ring nebula of SN1987A and the three LBV candidates observed in this study. SBW1 also has three well-defined rings making it the closest analogue of SN1987A, while Sher 25 has large lobes of material aligned along the axis of the central ring. The rings of HD 168625 are faint, so have been highlighted in this Spitzer image from Smith (2007). Other image credits: SN1987A, HST , Burrows et al. (1995b); Sher 25, HST , Brandner et al. (1997b); and SBW1, HST , Smith et al. (2013). of SN1987A and Sher 25 have passed through a RSG phase tory (ESO) 2.2-m telescope at La Silla. FEROS is a fixed- cannot currently be determined conclusively. configuration instrument, with a wide wavelength coverage In the course of investigating the abundances of Sher 25 of λλ3600{9200 A˚ at a spectral resolving power of 48 000. and its nebula, Hendry et al. (2008) detected radial veloc- Sher25 and SBW1 are sufficiently faint (V = 12.3 and 12.7, ity (RV) shifts with peak-to-peak amplitude of ∼12 km s−1 respectively) that pairs of back-to-back exposures of 2400 s from the five stellar observations available. The RV shifts were obtained. HD 168625 (V = 8.4) was observed in a se- were consistent with either a three or six day period of a ries of shorter back-to-back exposures (of 240 to 600 s). A binary companion. Hendry et al. noted that the implied sec- full list of the observations is given in Table A1. ondary in such a scenario would have to be more massive The data were reduced using the ESO Data Reduction than Sher 25 itself, and yet we see no evidence for such a Software pipeline for FEROS. Further steps can be taken be- companion - for instance, Naz´eet al. (2012) found no signif- yond the pipeline reductions to improve the merging of the icant X-ray emission from Sher 25, which might be expected spectral orders, but this was not necessary for our purposes. if a massive short-period companion were present. Hendry Also, our targets are sufficiently bright that the spectrum et al. speculated that a binary with a centre-of-mass within from the FEROS sky fibre was not subtracted; indeed, sub- the radius of Sher 25 might account for the observations (i.e. traction of the sky fibre actually degraded our data given a slow merger), but also noted that the RV shifts may have the additional source of noise. arisen from pulsations or some other process in the stel- lar envelope. Indeed, their reported RV shifts were roughly Cosmic rays were removed from the individual spectra the same magnitude as their measurement uncertainties, al- via comparisons with a median-averaged spectrum of all the though no equivalent shift was seen in the interstellar Ca II observations of each star. The flux ratio of each spectrum to absorption suggesting that the signature was real. the median was calculated and a boxcar 5σ-clip was applied If Sher 25 has a short-period binary companion it could over 100 wavelength bins to identify and remove likely cos- have important consequences for our understanding of the mics. Note that the median-averaging of the spectra means formation of its nebula. Likewise, the presence and type of that significant RV shifts in spectral lines between frames pulsations within the stellar atmosphere could potentially could lead to regions being flagged as `suspect' pixels. Thus, indicate different evolutionary histories (Saio et al. 2013). only suspect pixels which were 5σ greater than the local con- Here we report on a comprehensive set of follow-up obser- tinuum were removed, ensuring that any absorption features vations to investigate the nature of Sher 25 in more depth. were preserved intact. We also report on observations of two other LBV can- The cleaned spectra were rectified by division of a low- didates with similarities to SN1987A and Sher 25, namely order polynomial fit to the continuum. Back-to-back expo- HD 168625 (e.g. Smith 2007) and SBW2007 1, commonly sures of Sher 25 and SBW1 were coadded to increase the known as SBW1 (Smith et al. 2007). Both are also sur- signal to noise ratio (S/N), while all of the exposures of rounded by triple-ring structures (see Figure 1). Classified HD 168625 from a given night were coadded together as they as B6 Iap (Walborn & Fitzpatrick 2000), HD 168625 has a were obtained in quick succession. The typical S/N achieved luminosity comparable to that estimated for Sk −69◦202, in the final spectra (measured around λ4560 A,˚ in the mid- while Smith et al. (2013) argue that the nebula of SBW1 is dle of the Silicon triplet) was ∼50 for Sher 25 and SBW1, the closest known analog to that of SN1987A.
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