SiO in C-rich circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars: Effects of non-LTE chemistry and grain adsorption

Abstract

Aims. New SiO multi-transition millimetre line observations of a sample of carbon stars, including J = 8 → 7 observations with the APEX telescope, are used to probe the role of non-equilibrium chemistry and the influence of grains in circumstellar envelopes of carbon stars. Methods. A detailed radiative transfer modelling, including the effect of dust emission in the excitation analysis, of the observed SiO line emission is performed. A combination of low- and high-energy lines are important in constraining the abundance distribution. Results. It is found that the fractional abundance of SiO in these C-rich environments can be several orders of magnitude higher than predicted by equilibrium stellar atmosphere chemistry. In fact, the SiO abundance distribution of carbon stars closely mimic that of M-type (O-rich) AGB stars. A possible explanation for this behaviour is a shock-induced chemistry, but also the influence of dust grains, both as a source for depletion as well as production of SiO, needs to be further investigated. As observed for M-type AGB stars, a clear trend that the SiO fractional abundance decreases as the mass-loss rate of the star increases is found for the carbon stars. This indicates that SiO is accreted onto dust grains in the circumstellar envelopes. © ESO 2006.