| Description |
There is much controversy concerning the ionized nebula that produces the radio through FIR emission from symbiotic stars. The goal of the proposed Herschel observations is to test two popular models for this emission; whether it is produced by a wind from the red giant that is photoionized by Lyman continuum photons from the hot WD (STB) or it comes from plasma that is shock heated as the winds from the two stars collide by constraining the submm SED and measuring the free-free turnover frequency of the ionised component. These two models predict distinctly different shapes for the submm portion of the SED and different dependence of the turnover frequency on binary separation. Thus, submm photometry of a diverse sample of symbiotic stars with know binary parameters that only Herschel can perform is an ideal way to quantitatively test and discriminate between these models (as well as motivate new ones). In terms of astrophysical significance, determining the origin of the radio-through-FIR emission from symbiotic stars has implications for the nature and geometry of mass transfer in wide binaries, mass loss from accreting compact objects, the shaping of asymmetric nebulae around binary stars (including binary planetary nebulae), and the likelihood that symbiotic stars can explode as type Ia supernovae. |
