POTENTIAL LINE STRUCTURE VARIABILITY IN DIB FEATURES OBSERVED IN PATHFINDER TRES SURVEY

Johansen, Sommer Lynn

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/97075 Copy

Description

Title

POTENTIAL LINE STRUCTURE VARIABILITY IN DIB FEATURES OBSERVED IN PATHFINDER TRES SURVEY

Author(s)

Johansen, Sommer Lynn

Contributor(s)

• Crabtree, Kyle N.
• Milisavljevic, Dan
• Law, Charles

Issue Date

6/20/2017

Keyword(s)

Astronomy

Abstract

The Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs) are hundreds of spectral lines observed in sightlines towards many stars in the optical and near-infrared. _x000d_ Although most of these transitions remain unassigned, four of them have recently been assigned to C$_{60}^{+}$ and C$_{70}^{+}$. _x000d_ In earlier observations of the visible spectrum of_x000d_ the extragalactic supernova SN 2012ap, we observed changes in the equivalent widths of DIBs on the timescale of its light curve, which indicated that some DIB carriers might exist closer to massive stars then previously believed. _x000d_ Motivated by these findings, we undertook a pathfinder survey of 17 massive stars with the Tillinghast Reflector Echelle Spectrograph_x000d_ at Fred L. Whipple Observatory in search of temporal variability in DIBs. In 3 of the 17 stars, we found possible evidence for variation in line substructure of DIBs $lambda$5797 and $lambda$6614. _x000d_ In this talk, we will discuss our efforts to model $lambda$5797 toward MT-59 using contour simulations based on previously published spectral models from higher resolution observations. Although the SNR of this spectrum was only 5--15, our preliminary results suggest that the variations in molecular spectra over time might arise from changes in carrier temperature. _x000d_ These early results demonstrate the need for higher SNR spectra taken at multiple epochs to further explore potential temporal variability. If successful, time-variation_x000d_ could provide additional evidence to assist in identifying DIB carriers.

Publisher

International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy

Type of Resource

text

Language

English

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97075

DOI

10.15278/isms.2017.TA07

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