Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
Science. 2020 Sep 18;369(6510):1497-1500. doi: 10.1126/science.abb1229.
Binary interactions dominate the evolution of massive stars, but their role is less clear for low- and intermediate-mass stars. The evolution of a spherical wind from an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star into a nonspherical planetary nebula (PN) could be due to binary interactions. We observed a sample of AGB stars with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and found that their winds exhibit distinct nonspherical geometries with morphological similarities to planetary nebulae (PNe). We infer that the same physics shapes both AGB winds and PNe; additionally, the morphology and AGB mass-loss rate are correlated. These characteristics can be explained by binary interaction. We propose an evolutionary scenario for AGB morphologies that is consistent with observed phenomena in AGB stars and PNe.
二进制交互主导着大质量恒星的演化，但它们在低质量和中质量恒星中的作用尚不明确。一个渐近巨星分支（AGB）恒星的球形风演变成非球形行星状星云（PN）可能是由于二进制交互作用。我们用阿塔卡马大型毫米/亚毫米波阵（ALMA）观测了一组 AGB 恒星，发现它们的风呈现出明显的非球形几何形状，与行星状星云（PNe）具有形态相似性。我们推断相同的物理过程塑造了 AGB 风和 PNe；此外，形态和 AGB 质量损失率是相关的。这些特征可以用二进制交互作用来解释。我们提出了一个与 AGB 恒星和 PNe 中观测到的现象一致的 AGB 形态演化场景。
