Discovery of New, Dust-Poor B[e] Supergiants in the Small Magellanic Cloud
Abstract
We present the discovery of three new B[e] supergiants (sgB[e] stars) in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). All three stars (R15, R38, and R48) were identified in the course of our Runaways and Isolated O Type Star Spectroscopic Survey of the SMC (RIOTS4). The stars show optical spectra that closely resemble those of previously known B[e] stars, presenting numerous low-ionization forbidden and permitted emission lines such as [Fe II] and Fe II. Furthermore, our stars have luminosities of log(L/L_sun) > 4, demonstrating that they are supergiants. However, we find lower infrared excesses and weaker forbidden emission lines than for previously identified B[e] supergiants. Thus our stars appear to either have less material in their circumstellar disks than other sgB[e] stars, or the circumstellar material has lower dust content. We suggest that these may constitute a new subclass of dust-poor sgB[e] stars.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1208.5486,
title = {Discovery of New, Dust-Poor B[e] Supergiants in the Small Magellanic Cloud},
author = {A. S. Graus and J. B. Lamb and M. S. Oey},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.5486},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
7 pages, 6 figures, accepted to ApJ