Very fast variations of SiO maser emission in evolved stars

Context. Stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) are long-period variables that present strong flux variations at almost all wavelengths, including the SiO maser lines. The periods of these variations are of 300-500 days in Mira-type stars and somewhat shorter in semi-regular variables. The variability of the SiO lines on short timescales has been investigated, but the data are inconclusive.
Aims: We aim to study the time evolution of the SiO maser lines in Mira-type and semi-regular variables at short timescales. We also discuss the origin of the observed fast variations.
Methods: We observed the SiO maser lines at 7 mm (²⁸SiO v = 1,2 J = 1-0) and 3 mm (²⁸SiO v = 1 J = 2-1) using the 40 m Yebes antenna and the 30 m IRAM telescope, respectively, with a minimum spacing of 1 day. We studied the semi-regular variables RX Boo and RT Vir and the Mira-type variables U Her, R LMi, R Leo, and χ Cyg. We performed a detailed statistical analysis of the variations on different timescales.
Results: RX Boo shows strong and fast variations in the intensity of the different spectral features of the SiO lines at 7 and 3 mm. On a timescale of one day, we find variations of ≳10% in 25% of the cases. Variations of greater than ~50% are often found when the observations are separated by 2 or 3 days. A similar variation rate of the SiO lines at 7 mm is found for RT Vir, but the observations of this object are less complete. On the contrary, the variations of the SiO maser line intensity in the Mira-type variables are moderate, with typical variation rates around ≲10% in 7 days. This phenomenon can be explained by the presence of particularly small maser-emitting clumps in semi-regular variables, which would lead to a strong dependence of the intensity on the density variations due to the passage of shocks.

The reduced spectra are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/642/A213