C isotopic ratio in N- and SC-type stars

DOI

We present a result of quantitative analysis of ^12^C/^13^C ratios in 62 N-type and 15 SC-type carbon stars. By the use of CCD as a detector we can obtain spectra of resolution ~20,000 with enough signal-to-noise ratios for a large number of carbon stars, for which ^12^C/^13^C ratios have not yet been derived. Carbon isotopic ratios are determined from lines of the CN red system around 8000A, based on the iso-intensity method and line-blanketed model atmospheres. The average of ^12^C/^13^C ratios in 62 N-type carbon stars is found to be 27+/-11 (standard deviation). The majority of the N-type carbon stars studied (about 85%) are found to have ^12^C/^13^C ratios less than 40, and the number of stars which have ^12^C/^13^C ratios larger than 40 is found to be relatively small. This result shows a marked contrast to some of the previous results that have shown the opposite distribution, namely, ^12^C/^13^C ratios mostly larger than 40 in N-type carbon stars. The average of ^12^C/^13^C ratios in 15 SC-type carbon stars is found to be 22+/-14 (standard deviation). Most of the SC-type carbon stars studied are found to have ^12^C/^13^C ratios larger than 10, while only three of them turn out to be ^13^C-rich. This is in contrast with the earlier classification based on low resolution spectra which classified them as J-type, that is, ^13^C-rich. The earlier temperature scale which classified SC-type carbon stars as the latest (C8-9) based on their strong NaI D lines can not be necessarily justified. The strong NaI D lines of SC stars should be attributed to the peculiar atmospheric structure due to C/O ratios very near to unity. The resulting ^12^C/^13^C ratios are partly consistent with the scenario in which M giants evolve through SC-type to N-type carbon stars, as ^12^C produced during the helium shell flash is added to the envelope.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.33100933
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/310/933
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/310/933
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/310/933
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/310/933
Provenance
Creator Ohnaka K.; Tsuji T.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 1997
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy