Spectroscopic observations of Nova Cen 2013

ATel #5639; L. Izzo (Sapienza Università di Roma and ICRANet), E. Mason (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste), L. Vanzi, J. M. Fernandez, N. Espinoza, K. Helminiak (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), M. della Valle (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte)
on 8 Dec 2013; 12:39 UT
Credential Certification: Luca Izzo (luca.izzo@gmail.com)

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We report optical spectroscopy observations of the recent outburst of Nova Cen 2013 = PNV J13544700-5909080, obtained with the 0.5 m telescope at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Observatory with the PUCHEROS echelle spectrograph on 2013 December 6.33. The observations cover the spectral range between 425.5 and 726.0 nm at a resolution of \sim 0.025 at 500 nm. The observations shows typical features of Fe II spectra, with the Fe II 5169, which is blended with Mg I (2), as the brightest non-Balmer line. We detect many other absorption lines and P-Cygni associated with Fe II lines of the multiplets (74, 54, 49, 48, 46, 38, 37 and 27) and possible multiplets (43, 41, 25 and 20) as well. We report also the presence of lower ionization transitions as Ti II (70 69, and 39) and Cr II (44 and 30), and other transitions as Si II 6347 and 6371 AA, from detection of their P-Cygni absorptions. The velocities measured from the P-Cygni profiles for all these lines are v_{rad} \sim 408 +- 10 km/s. Similar velocities are measured for the Na I doublet absorptions. The H-alpha line shows a flat P-Cygni profile with absorption extending up to -1300 km/s, while the Doppler broadening of the emission line extends to +700 km/s. The profile is not structured and shows a triangular shape. On the other hand, the P-Cygni profile of the H-beta is more sharp, with minimum at around -450 km/s, showing an other possible minimum at -1200 km/s, which we however associate with the presence of Cr II (30), detected also at 4824 and 4876 AA. It is interesting to note that from the widths of the Na I doublet, we have preliminarily estimated an E(B-V) = 0.11 +. 0.08 from Poznanski et al. (MNRAS, (2012), 426, 1465) and E(B-V) = 0.14 from Munari & Zwitter, (A&A, (1997), 318, 269), which suggest a low extinction and a not large distance for the nova. We will continue to monitor the spectroscopic evolution of the nova in the following weeks and suggest to continue to follow-up the nova, particularly at different wavelengths.