Stratification of optical emission from NGC 6888 as a trace of the interaction between Wolf-Rayet stellar wind and the shell of a red supergiant

Abstract

We suggest a model that explains the stratification peculiarities of the [O III] and Hα line emission from some of the ring nebulae around Wolf-Rayet stars. These peculiarities lie in the fact that the [O III] line emission regions are farther from the central star than the Hα regions, with the distance between them reaching several tenths of a parsec. We show that the radiative shock produced by a Wolf-Rayet stellar wind and propagating with a velocity of ∼100 km s⁻¹ cannot explain such large distances between these regions due to the low velocity of the gas outflow from the shock front. The suggested model takes into account the fact that the shock produced by a Wolf-Rayet stellar wind propagates in a two-phase medium: a rarefied medium and dense compact clouds. The gas downstream of a fast shock traveling in a rarefied gas compresses the clouds. Slow radiative shocks are generated in the clouds; these shocks heat the latter to temperatures at which ions of doubly ionized oxygen are formed. The clouds cool down, radiating in the lines of this ion, to temperatures at which Balmer line emission begins. The distance between the [O III] and Hα line emission regions is determined by the cooling time of the clouds downstream of the slow shock and by the velocity of the fast shock. Using the ring nebula NGC 6888 as an example, we show that the gas downstream of the fast shock must be at the phase of adiabatic expansion rather than deceleration with radiative cooling, as assumed previously.