Spectroscopic diagnostics of dust formation and evolution in classical nova ejecta

A fraction of classical novae form dust during the early stages of their outbursts. The classical CO nova V5668 Sgr (Nova Sgr. 2015b) underwent a deep photometric minimum about 100 days after outburst that was covered across the spectrum. A similar event was observed for an earlier CO nova, V705 Cas (Nova Cas 1993) and a less optically significant event for the more recent CO nova V339 Del (Nova Del 2013). This study provides a “compare and contrast” of these events to better understand the very dynamical event of dust formation. We show the effect of dust formation on multiwavelength high resolution line profiles in the interval 1200 Å–9200 Å using a biconical ballistic structure that has been applied in our previous studies of the ejecta. We find that both V5668 Sgr and V339 Del can be modeled using a grey opacity for the dust, indicating fairly large grains (≳0.1 μ) and that the persistent asymmetries of the line profiles in late time spectra, up to 650 days after the event for V5668 Sgr and 866 days for V339 Del, point to the survival of the dust well into the transparent, nebular stage of the ejecta evolution. This is a general method for assessing the properties of dust forming novae well after the infrared is completely transparent in the ejecta.