Abstract

Molecules and dust produced by the atmospheres of cool evolved stars contribute to a significant amount of the total material found in the interstellar medium. To understand the mechanism behind the mass loss of these stars, it is of pivotal importance to investigate the structure and dynamics of their atmospheres. Our goal is to verify if the extended molecular and dust layers of the carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star V Oph, and their time variations, can be explained by dust-driven winds triggered by stellar pulsation alone, or if other mechanisms are in play. We model V Oph mid-infrared interferometric VLTI-MIDI data (8-13 mu m), at phases 0.18, 0.49, and 0.65, together with literature photometric data, using the latest-generation self-consistent dynamic atmosphere models for carbon-rich stars: DARWIN. We determine the fundamental stellar parameters: T-eff = 2600 K, L-bol = 3585 L-circle dot, M = 1.5 M-circle dot, C/O = 1.35, M = 2.50 x 10(-6) M-circle dot yr(-1). We calculate the stellar photospheric radii at the three phases: 479, 494, 448 R-circle dot; and the dust radii: 780, 853, 787 R-circle dot. The dynamic models can fairly explain the observed N-band visibility and spectra, although there is some discrepancy between the data and the models, which is discussed in the text. We discuss the possible causes of the temporal variations of the outer atmosphere, deriving an estimate of the magnetic field strength, and computing upper limits for the Alfven waves velocity. In addition, using period-luminosity sequences, and interferometric modeling, we suggest V Oph as a candidate to be reclassified as a semi-regular star.