Modeling the Dust Shell of V4334 Sgr

Abstract

The central star V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's Nova) of the planetary nebula PN G010.4+04.4 underwent in 1995-1996 the rare event of a very late helium flash. It is only one of two such events during the era of modern astronomy (the second event was V605 Aql = Nova Aql 1919). All other prominent objects of that type originate from events several thousands of years ago (e.g. A30, A78). Hence, only snapshots can be modeled for those objects. V4334 Sgr allows for the first time a dynamic consideration of the formation of the dust shell from the beginning. We present here a model which is able to describe the complete photometric behavior of the object, including the fine structure dips of the optical light curve during the first two years of the mass loss and the dust formation.