Raman Scattering of OVI in Symbiotic Stars


Monday, 29 August 2016 2:30 p.m. — 3:30 p.m. MST

AURA Lecture Hall

NOIRLab South Colloquia
HEE-WON LEE (Sejong University and Gemini South Visiting Astronomer)

Symbiotic stars are wide binary systems consisting of an active white dwarf and a mass losing giant. Many of them show broad features at 6825 and 7082, which are formed through Raman scattering of O VI 1032 and 1038 by atomic hydrogen. They are strongly polarized and show multiple peak profiles that are consistent with the formation of an accretion disk and bipolar outflows around the white dwarf component. In this talk, I will provide a general overview of these new spectroscopic tools to probe the mass loss and mass transfer processes in symbiotic stars.