Catching the fish - Constraining stellar parameters for TX Piscium using spectro-interferometric observations

Context. Stellar parameter determination is a challenging task when dealing with galactic giant stars. The combination of different investigation techniques has proven to be a promising approach. Aims: We analyse archive spectra obtained with the Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) onboard ISO, and new interferometric observations from the Very Large Telescope MID-infrared Interferometric instrument (VLTI/MIDI) of a very well studied carbon-rich giant: TX Psc. The aim of this work is to determine stellar parameters using spectroscopy and interferometry. <BR /> Methods: The observations are used to constrain the model atmosphere, and eventually the stellar evolutionary model in the region where the tracks map the beginning of the carbon star sequence. Two different approaches are used to determine stellar parameters: (i) the ''classic'' interferometric approach where the effective temperature is fixed by using the angular diameter in the N-band (from interferometry) and the apparent bolometric magnitude; (ii) parameters are obtained by fitting a grid of state-of-the-art hydrostatic models to spectroscopic and interferometric observations. Results: We find good agreement between the parameters of the two methods. The effective temperature and luminosity clearly place TX Psc in the carbon-rich AGB star domain in the H-R-diagram. Current evolutionary tracks suggest that TX Psc became a C-star just recently, which means that the star is still in a ''quiet'' phase compared to the subsequent strong-wind regime. This agrees with the C/O ratio being only slightly greater than one. Based on observations made with ESO telescopes at Paranal Observatory under program IDs 74.D-0601, 60.A-9224, 77.C-0440, 60.A-9006, 78.D-0112, 84.D-0805.