Non-equilibrium chemistry of O-rich AGB stars as revealed by ALMA
1 : Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique
(IRAM)
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Website
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : UPS2074
300 rue de la Piscine, Domaine Universitaire 38406 Saint Martin d\'Hères -
France
Chemical models suggest that pulsation driven shocks propagating from the stellar surfaces of oxygen-rich evolved stars to the dust formation zone trigger non-equilibrium chemistry in the shocked gas near the star, including the formation of carbon-bearing molecules in the stellar winds dominated by oxygen-rich chemistry. Recent long-baseline ALMA observations are able to give us a detailed view of the molecular line emission and absorption at an angular resolution of a few stellar radii. I am going to present the latest results from the ALMA observations of IK Tau and o Cet in late 2017, with a particular focus on HCN.