Observational constraints for the circumstellar disk of the B[e] star CPD-52 9243

CIDALE, L.; BORGES FERNANDES, M.; ANDRUCHOW, I.; ARIAS, M. L.; KRAUS, M.; CHESNEAU, O.; KANAAN, S.; CURE, M.; DE WIT, W. J.; MURATORE, M. F.

ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

EDP SCIENCES S A

Lugar: Paris; Año: 2012 vol. 548 p. 1 - 9

0004-6361

     Molecular emission has been detected in several Magellanic Cloud B[e] supergiants. In this Letter, we report on the detection of CO band head emission in the B[e] supergiant LHA 115-S 65, and present a K-band near-infrared spectrum obtained with the Spectrograph forINtegral Field Observation in the Near-Infrared (SINFONI; R=4500) on the ESO VLT UT4 telescope. The observed molecular band head emission in S 65 is quite surprising in light of a previous  non-detection by McGregor et al. (1989), as well as a high resolution (R=50000) Gemini/Phoenix spectrum of this star taken nine months earlier showing no emission. Based on analysis of the optical spectrum by Kraus et al. (2010), we suspect that the sudden appear-ance of molecular emission could be due to density build up in an outflowing viscous disk, as seen for Be stars. This new discovery, combined with variability in two other similar evolved massive stars, indicates an evolutionary link between B[e] supergiants and LBVs.