Radiative Pressure on Fractal Dust Grains in Oxygen-rich AGB Stars

Abstract There is still considerable debate on the exact composition of grains formed in the outflows of O-rich, asymptotic giant branch stars. Estimates of the expected condensation distances based on radiative transfer calculations show that iron-free silicates can condense close to the star but typically lack the opacity to drive an outflow unless they are large enough that radiation pressure due to scattering on the grains becomes significant. Iron-containing silicates have a much higher absorption opacity, but due to this stronger absorption, their expected condensation location is well beyond the expected dust formation zone. Recent measurements of the efficiency of SiO condensational growth have shown that this rate is low. The result of this low growth efficiency is that nucleation may persist for longer, giving a larger number of smaller primary particles, leading to an increased likelihood of particle aggregation in these outflows. In this work, we examine how the radiation pressure changes with the possible aggregation of these primary particles into fractal aggregates. Opacity calculations are made using optical properties of both forsterite and astronomical silicate for aggregates containing up to 256 primary particles and for fractal dimensions of 1.8 and 2.8. For primary particles of radius less than ∼0.1 μ m, aggregation leads to an enhancement of the radiation pressure over an equivalent cloud of isolated primary particles.