ASPCS
 
Title: The Nature of V838 Mon and its Light Echo
Volume: 363 Year: 2007 View this Volume on ADS
Editors: Corradi, Romano L.M.; Munari, Ulisse
Synopsis:
The 2002 outburst of V838 Monocerotis was one of the major hits in stellar astrophysics in recent years. This object is the most studied member of a class of rare stars undergoing tremendous explosions, so powerful as to make V838 Mon at peak brightness one of the most luminous stars in the whole Local Group (Mv = −10 mag). After the outburst, V838 Mon expanded to hypergiant dimensions while cooling down to the brown-dwarf temperture regime. The progenitor of V838 Mon must have been massive and young, given the presence of a normal B3V companion and its likely location inside a young stellar cluster. In addition, the energetic outburst and the presence of a large amount of material around V838 Mon produced a sensational light echo, the first in our Galaxy for many decades. This light echo has become so large and bright as to be easily observable with backyard telescopes, while the Hubble Space Telescope followed the details of its spectacular evolution (see the front cover picture).

The story is not concluded yet, and as this volume goes into press V838 Mon is calling once again the attention of the astronomical community with new unexpected events, like the flaring of an extremely rich and intense iron emission line spectrum at the end of 2006. This volume collects and discusses what we know so far of this rare and intriguing star, and hopefully will pave the way to future, detailed studies that will incorporate the analysis of the advanced evolution of V838 Mon.

ISBN: 978-1-583812-31-0 eISBN: 978-1-58381-297-6

Paper Title Page Authors
Cover   
Volume 363 Cover Corradi, R.L.M.; Munari, U.
Front Matter   
Volume 363 Front Matter 1 Corradi, R.L.M.; Munari, U.
Conference Photo   
Volume 363 Conference Photograph 2 Corradi, R.L.M.; Munari, U.
Part 1.
The Outburst
  
Optical/NIR Photometric Evolution 3 Henden, A.A.
The Spectral Evolution of V838 Mon 13 Munari, U.; Navasardyan, H.; Villanova, S.
V838 Monocerotis: Spitzer Observations 26 Ashok, N.; Su, K.Y.L.; Misselt, K.A.; Banerjee, D.P.K.
Infrared Observations of V838 Mon 32 Rushton, M.T.; Geballe, T.R.; Evans, A.N.; van Loon, J.Th.; Smalley, B.; Eyres, S.P.S.
Recent Infrared Spectroscopy of V838 Monocerotis and the Current Model 39 Lynch, D.K.; Rudy, R.J.; Russell, R.W.; Mazuk, S.; Venturini, C.C.; Bernstein, L.S.; Puetter, R.C.; Perry, R.B.; Skinner, M.A.
A Chandra Observation of V838 Mon a Year after the Second Outburst 48 Orio, M.
SAAO Observations of V838 Mon 50 Crause, L.A.
Discovery of the Second Outburst and Further Observations of V838 Mon in the Czech Republic 59 Skoda, P.; Smelcer, L.; Brat, L.; Pejcha, O.; Sobotka, P.
Part 2.
Circumstellar and Interstellar Medium, Ejecta
  
Polarimetric Evolution of V838 Mon 67 Desidera, S.; Siviero, A.; Giro, E.; Munari, U.; Henden, A.A.; Efimov, Y.
The Spectropolarimetric Evolution of V838 Monocerotis 73 Wisniewski, J.P.
SiO Maser Emission in V838 Mon 81 Deguchi, S.; Matsunaga, N.; Fukushi, H.
Variable SiO Maser Emission from V838 Mon 87 Claussen, M.J.; Bond, H.E.; Starrfield, S.; Healy, K.
Use of the BT2 Water Line List to Determine the Rotational Temperature and H2O Column Density of the Circumstellar Envelope on Five Dates 95 Barber, R.J.; Banerjee, D.P.K.; Ashok, N.M.; Tennyson, J.
Observations of V838 Mon and the Nearby Region in the CO J = 1→0, 2→1 and 3→2 Transitions 103 Kaminski, T.; Miller, M.; Szczerba, R.; Tylenda, R.
What Infrared Spectroscopy of Carbon Monoxide Tells us about V838 Mon 110 Geballe, T.R.; Evans, A.; van Loon, J.Th.; Smalley, B.; Rushton, M.R.; Eyres, S.P.S.
Part 3. Light Echo: Observations and Theory   
An Introduction to Scattered-Light Echoes 121 Sugerman, B.E.K.
Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Light Echo around V838 Monocerotis 130 Bond, H.E.
Light Echoes in Type Ia Supernovae 138 Patat, F.
Light Echoes of SNe in the LMC 146 Rest, A.; Suntzeff, R. C.; Smith, K. O.
HST Polarimetry of the V838 Mon Light Echo 153 Sparks, W.B.
USNOFS Observations of the Light Echo Evolution 161 Henden, A.A.
The Light Echo Evolution from ING Observations 169 Santander-Garcia, M.; Corradi, R.L.M.
Photometry of V838 Mon and its Light Echo 174 Liimets, T.; Kolka, I.; Kipper, T.
Near-IR Scattered Light in V838 Monocerotis 181 Fukushi, H.; Matsunaga, N.; Tanabe, T.; Nakada, Y.; Deguchi, S.; Ishihara, A.; Kusakabe, N.; Tamura, M.
A NewMethod for Extracting Light Echo Fluxes 184 Newman, A.B.; Rest, A.
Part 4.
Historical Lightcurve and Related Objects
  
V838 Mon and M31-RV: The Stellar Populations Angle 189 Siegel, M.H.; Bond, H.E.
V838 Mon, V4332 Sgr, ... and Relatives in Our Galaxy? 197 Kimeswenger, S.
Comparative Analysis of Blue Spectra of the Peculiar Red Novae V838 Mon and V4332 Sgr after their Outbursts 206 Barsukova, E.; Goranskij, V.P.; Abolmasov, P.K.; Fabrika, S.N.
Historical Light Curves of Peculiar Red Novae V838 Mon and V4332 Sgr 214 Goranskij, V.P.; Metlova, N.V.; Shugarov, S.Yu.; Zharova, A.V.; Barsukova, E.A.; Kroll, P.
Part 5.
Properties, Evolutionary Status and Outburst Mechanisms
  
Modelling the Spectrum and SED of V838 Mon 225 Pavlenko, Y.; Kaminsky, B.; Lyubchik, Y.; Yakovina, L.
Chemical Composition of V838 Mon 231 Kipper, T.; Skoda, P.
Spectral Variability and Binary Nature of V838 Mon 235 Kolka, I.; Kipper, T.
A Young Open Cluster Surrounding V838 Monocerotis 241 Bond, H.E.; Afsar, M.
Evolution Models for V838 Mon: Born-again Binaries and Others 249 Lawlor, T.M.
The Evolution of Massive Stars in the Context of V838 Monocerotis 257 Hirschi, R.
Plausibility of the Planet-Engulfing Scenario for V838 Mon from the Current Knowledge of Extrasolar Planets 266 Desidera, S.
The Planets-Capture Model of V838 Mon 271 Retter, A.; Zhang, B.; Siess, L.; Levinson, A.; Marom, A.
Modelling V838 Mon as a Mergeburst Object 280 Soker, N.; Tylenda, R.
Back Matter   
Volume 363 Back Matter 291 Corradi, R.L.M.; Munari, U.
Photographs   
Volume 363 Photographs 999 Corradi, R.L.M.; Munari, U.