Cloudy circumstellar dust shells around young variable stars

Abstract

A number of variable stars of the Orion population has been identified with IRAS point sources by us. This finding supports the conclusion that the prominent Algol-like minima in the lightcurves of these stars originate from obscurations by dust clouds in a circumstellar shell. The discussion of the existingUBVR data leads to the remarkable conclusion that the extinction properties of the grain populations contained in individual dust clouds moving in one and the same circumstellar shell are quite different.

From the multicolour photometric data of the different Algol-like minima we derived individual values of the reddening parameterR = A _v /E(B - V). It covers a remarkable wide range of values from that one typical of the interstellar extinction law up to 7. In the case of SV Cep one of the grain populations produces a virtually neutral extinction. The large values ofR speak in favour of larger than normal (interstellar) dust grains, which may have grown by coagulation processes. The cloudy circumstellar dust shell provides a natural explanation for the observed infrared excess. The properties derived from the optical light variations are fully compatible with the properties deduced from the infrared radiation. The irregularity of the light variations indicates that many clouds are involved and may sometimes superimpose themselves.