The detached dust shells of AQ Andromedae, U Antliae, and TT Cygni

Abstract

Detached circumstellar dust shells are detected around three carbon variables using <i>Herschel<i/>-PACS. Two of them are already known on the basis of their thermal CO emission and two are visible as extensions in IRAS imaging data. By model fits to the new data sets, physical sizes, expansion timescales, dust temperatures, and more are deduced. A comparison with existing molecular CO material shows a high degree of correlation for TT Cyg and U Ant but a few distinct differences with other observables are also found.