Characterization and proportion of very cold C-rich circumstellar envelopes.

The paper develops a method for identification of very cold C-rich circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) in IR regions colder than region VII (i.e., larger value of IRAS flux ratio S25/S12), by reviewing the different criteria and by identifying C-rich CSEs in a sample of 228 bright IRAS sources. By using the results of OH surveys and catalogs together with the results of additional HCN/CO millimeter observations performed on critical classes of objects, a C/O classification is proposed for 94 percent of the sources with a good probability. It is shown that the low-resolution spectra by themselves are a reasonable and easy way to identify C-rich late AGB CSEs. For post-AGB object with cold CSEs, HCN and OH observations or visible/near IR spectroscopy are necessary.