Paper:	Probing Giant Winds with FUSE and STIS
Volume:	348, Astrophysics in the Far Ultraviolet: Five Years of Discovery with FUSE
Page:	162
Authors:	Crowley, C.; Espey, B.R.; McCandliss, S.R.
Abstract:	We present a series of FUSE and HST/STIS observations of an eclipsing symbiotic system and discuss our findings. Phase-dependent observations of these binary systems, containing a mass-losing giant and a hot white dwarf, are ideal for studying the wind acceleration regions in evolved stars. For such systems it is possible to use the orbital motion of the dwarf through the giant's wind to provide a pencil-beam view of the circumstellar gas. FUV observations probe different layers of the wind in absorption, providing spatially-resolved diagnostics of the cool wind, as well as information about the velocity profile. The velocity profiles, and by implication, wind generation mechanisms for these giants are found to differ from those predicted by the commonly used beta-law parametrisations. The phasing of our observations allow us to examine the ionisation, temperature and velocity structure in the wind acceleration region, as well as the composition of the outflowing material. The eclipsed FUSE spectra are characterised by a host of low-ionisation absorption lines originating from lower levels from 0 to ∼5eV above ground.

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