We present the results of a 5.5-year CCD photometric campaign that monitored 261 bright, southern, semi-regular variables with relatively precise Hipparcos parallaxes. The data are supplemented with independent photoelectric observations of 34 of the brightest stars, including 11 that were not part of the CCD survey, and a previously unpublished long time-series of VZ Cam. Pulsation periods and amplitudes are established for 247 of these stars, the majority of which have not been determined before. All M giants with sufficient observations for period determination are found to be variable, with 87% of the sample (at S/N >= 7.5) exhibiting multi-periodic behaviour. The period ratios of local SRVs are in excellent agreement with those in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Apparent K-band magnitudes are extracted from multiple NIR catalogues and analysed to determine the most reliable values. We review the effects of interstellar and circumstellar extinction and calculate absolute K-band magnitudes using revised Hipparcos parallaxes.
We present a study of photometric properties of very crowded stellar fields toward the Galactic Bulge. We performed a search for pulsating stars among thousands of variable stars from the OGLE-II survey supplementing the variability study with photometric measurements in four Johnson-Cousins $UBVI_{\rm C}$ passbands. Using these data, we analysed the properties of objects located at different distances and, whenever possible, classified them.
We report a time-series analysis of satellite photometry of the non-radially pulsating Oe star zeta Oph, principally using data from SMEI obtained 2003--2008, but augmented with MOST and WIRE results. Amplitudes of the strongest photometric signals, at 5.18, 2.96, and 2.67/d, each vary independently over the 6-year monitoring period (from ca. 30 to <2 mmag at 5.18/d), on timescales of hundreds of days. Signals at 7.19/d and 5.18/d have persisted (or recurred) for around two decades. Supplementary spectroscopic observations show an H-alpha emission episode in 2006; this coincided with small inc…
In a few years the Kepler and TESS missions will provide ultra-precise photometry for thousands of RR Lyrae and hundreds of Cepheid stars. In the extended Kepler mission all targets are proposed in the Guest Observer (GO) Program, while the TESS space telescope will work with full frame images and a ~15-16th mag brightness limit with the possibility of short cadence measurements for a limited number of pre-selected objects. This paper highlights some details of the enormous and important work of the target selection process made by the members of Working Group 7 (WG#7) of the Kepler and TESS A…
We present the analysis of 71 hours of high quality time-series CCD photometry of the helium atmosphere pulsating white dwarf (DBV) EC 04207-4748 obtained using the facilities at Mt John University Observatory in New Zealand. The photometric data set consists of four week-long observing sessions covering the period March to November 2011. A Fourier analysis of the lightcurves yielded clear evidence of four independent eigenmodes in the star with the dominant mode having a period of 447 s. The lightcurve variations exhibit distinct nonsinusoidal shapes, which results in significant harmonics of…
We present candidates for non-pulsating stars lying in the classical Cepheid instability strip based on OGLE photometric maps combined with Strömgren photometry obtained with the 4.1-m SOAR telescope, and Gaia DR2 data in four fields in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We selected 19 candidates in total. After analysis of their light curves from OGLE surveys we found that all these stars appear to be photometrically stable at the level of a few mmag. Our results show that non-pulsating stars might constitute to about 21%-30% of the whole sample of giant stars located in the classical instability st…
Developments of this far-reaching research field are summarized from an observational point of view, mentioning important and interesting phenomena discovered recently by photometry of stellar oscillations of any kind. A special emphasis is laid on Cepheids and RR Lyrae type variables.
We present a method for finding binaries among pulsating stars that were observed by the Kepler Mission. We use entire four-year light curves to accurately measure the frequencies of the strongest pulsation modes, then track the pulsation phases at those frequencies in 10-d segments. This produces a series of time-delay measurements in which binarity is apparent as a periodic modulation whose amplitude gives the projected light travel time across the orbit. Fourier analysis of this time-delay curve provides the parameters of the orbit, including the period, eccentricity, angle of ascending nod…
BlackGEM observations of compact pulsating stars: Mode identification for the DOV PG 1159-035 using multi-colour photometry
Radboud University（拉德堡德大学）；KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik（马克斯·普朗克天体物理学研究所）；University of Cape Town（开普敦大学）；South African Astronomical Observatory（南非天文台）；The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, University of Cape Town（开普敦大学数据密集型天文学跨大学研究所）；Hamburger Sternwarte, University of Hamburg（汉堡大学汉堡天文台）；Texas Tech University（德克萨斯理工大学）
Continuous and precise space-based photometry has made it possible to measure the orbital frequency modulation of pulsating stars in binary systems with extremely high precision over long time spans. Frequency modulation caused by binary orbital motion manifests itself as a multiplet with equal spacing of the orbital frequency in the Fourier transform. The amplitudes and phases of the peaks in these multiplets reflect the orbital properties, hence the orbital parameters can be extracted by analysing such precise photometric data alone. We derive analytically the theoretical relations between t…
We present an analysis of oscillation mode variability in the hot B subdwarf star EPIC~220422705, a new pulsator discovered from $\sim78$~days of {\em K}2 photometry. The high-quality light curves provide a detection of 66 significant independent frequencies, from which we identified 9 incomplete potential triplets and 3 quintuplets. Those {\sl g-} and {\sl p-}multiplets give rotation periods of $\sim$ 36 and 29 days in the core and at the surface, respectively, potentially suggesting a slightly differential rotation. We derived a period spacing of 268.5\,s and 159.4\,s for the sequence of dip…
We present preliminary results of multi-colour photometry of Beta Cephei stars observed in the LMC and in NGC 6200. Tentative identifications of pulsation modes have been made, and a number of new B pulsators have been noted. Interesting features have also been discovered in the light curves of some of these stars.
Time-resolved low resolution Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet spectra together with ground-based optical photometry and spectra are used to constrain the temperatures and pulsation properties of six cataclysmic variables containing pulsating white dwarfs. Combining our temperature determinations for the five pulsating white dwarfs that are several years past outburst with past results on six other systems shows that the instability strip for accreting pulsating white dwarfs ranges from 10,500-15,000K, a wider range than evident for ZZ Ceti pulsators. Analysis of the UV/optical pulsation prop…
Our photometric-hydrodynamic method is generalized to determine fundamental parameters of multiperiodic radially pulsating stars. We report 302 UBV(RI)_C Johnson-Kron-Cousins observations of GSC 4868-0831. Using these and published photometric data of V372 Ser, their metallicity, reddening, distance, mass, radius, equilibrium luminosity, effective temperature are determined. The results underline the necessity of using multicolour photometry including an ultraviolet band to classify properly subgroups of RR Lyrae stars: our U observations could reveal that GSC 4868-0831 is a subgiant star puls…
We present the methodology and some preliminary results of our study of the relationship between a Mira's pulsating photosphere and its surrounding molecular layer(s) throughout several pulsation cycles, based on spatially resolved data. Our dataset consists of archival narrow-band observations in the near-infrared H and K bands obtained with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer between 1999 and 2006, extended with a few nights of VLTI AMBER low spectral resolution data and near-infrared SAAO photometry. The fitted model is the geometric star + layer model proposed by Perrin et al. (2004), in wh…
We report on Kepler photometry of the hot sdB star B4 in the open cluster NGC 6791. We confirm that B4 is a reflection effect binary with an sdB component and a low-mass main sequence companion with a circular 0.3985 d orbit. The sdB star is a g-mode pulsator (a V1093 Her star) with periods ranging from 2384 s to 7643 s. Several of the pulsation modes show symmetric splitting by 0.62 microHz. Attributing this to rotational splitting, we conclude that the sdB component has a rotation period of approximately 9.63 d, indicating that tidal synchronization has not been achieved in this system. Comp…
The unparalleled photometric data obtained by NASA's Kepler space telescope led to an improved understanding of red giant stars and binary stars. Seismology allows us to constrain the properties of red giants. In addition to eclipsing binaries, eccentric non-eclipsing binaries, exhibiting ellipsoidal modulations, have been detected with Kepler. We aim to study the properties of eccentric binary systems containing a red giant star and derive the parameters of the primary giant component. We apply asteroseismic techniques to determine masses and radii of the primary component of each system. For…
Binary systems anchor many of the fundamental relations relied upon in asteroseismology. Masses and radii are rarely constrained better than when measured via orbital dynamics and eclipse depths. Pulsating binaries have much to offer. They are clocks, moving in space, that encode orbital motion in the Doppler-shifted pulsation frequencies. They offer twice the opportunity to obtain an asteroseismic age, which is then applicable to both stars. They enable comparative asteroseismology -- the study of two stars by their pulsation properties, whose only fundamental differences are the mass and rot…
We present photometry and spectroscopy for 27 pulsating hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarfs (DAVs, a.k.a. ZZ Ceti stars) observed by the Kepler space telescope up to K2 Campaign 8, an extensive compilation of observations with unprecedented duration (>75 days) and duty cycle (>90%). The space-based photometry reveals pulsation properties previously inaccessible to ground-based observations. We observe a sharp dichotomy in oscillation mode linewidths at roughly 800 s, such that white dwarf pulsations with periods exceeding 800 s have substantially broader mode linewidths, more reminiscent of a dam…
We report the discovery of a new 13th magnitude variable in Cassiopeia close to the variable KP Cas. Analysis of 6 days of intensive photometry shows a regular, near sinusoidal modulation with an amplitude of 0.024 magnitudes and a period of 0.43815(31) d. Although its colour indicates a spectral type around F0 the star probably suffers up to 2 - 2.5 magnitudes of extinction so could be an A- or B-type star. Given the period, the low amplitude, the shape of the light curve and the probable spectral type we consider it most likely to be a slowly pulsating B-type (SPB) star. The variable has bee…
A spectroscopic analysis of SDSS J160043.6+074802.9, a binary system containing a pulsating subdwarf-O (sdO) star with a late-type companion, yields Teff = 70 000 +/- 5000 K and log g = 5.25 +/- 0.30, together with a most likely type of K3V for the secondary star. We compare our results with atmospheric parameters derived by Fontaine et al. (2008) and in the context of existing evolution models for sdO stars. New and more extensive photometry is also presented which recovers most, but not all, frequencies found in an earlier paper. It therefore seems probable that some pulsation modes have var…
RAT0455+1305 was discovered during the Rapid Temporal Survey which aims in finding any variability on timescales of a few minutes to several hours. The star was found to be another sdBV star with one high amplitude mode and relatively long period. These features along with estimation of T_eff and log g makes this star very similar to Balloon 090100001. Encouraged by prominent results obtained for the latter star we have decided to perform white light photometry on RAT0455+1305. In 2009 we used the 1.5m telescope located in San Pedro Martir Observatory in Mexico. Fourier analysis confirmed the …
The role of episodic mass loss in massive star evolution is one of the most important open questions of current stellar evolution theory. Episodic mass loss produces dust and therefore causes evolved massive stars to be very luminous in the mid-infrared and dim at optical wavelengths. We aim to increase the number of investigated luminous mid-IR sources to shed light on the late stages of these objects. To achieve this we employed mid-IR selection criteria to identity dusty evolved massive stars in two nearby galaxies. The method is based on mid-IR colors, using 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm photometry fr…
A search programme for pulsating subdwarf B stars was conducted with the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma over 59 nights between 1999 and 2009. The purpose of the programme was to significantly extend the number of rapidly pulsating sdB stars to better understand the properties of this new group of variable compact stars. Candidates were selected initially from the HS and HE surveys, but were supplemented with additional objects from other surveys. Short sequences of time-series photometry were made on the candidates to determine the presence of rapid pulsations. In total twenty new pulsat…
Astrometric modeling of unresolved variable binary systems. II. Application to Gaia epoch astrometry of nearby pulsating and convective red giants
KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS（巴黎天文台，巴黎文理研究大学，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学，塞吉-蓬图瓦兹大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；French-Chilean Laboratory for Astronomy, IRL 3386, CNRS and U. de Chile（法智利天文学联合实验室，法国国家科学研究中心和智利大学）
Rigel (beta Ori, B8 Ia) is a nearby blue supergiant displaying alpha Cyg type variability, and is one of the nearest type-II supernova progenitors. As such it is an excellent test bed to study the internal structure of pre core-collapse stars. In this study, for the first time, we present 28 days of high precision MOST photometry and over 6 years of spectroscopic monitoring. We report nineteen significant pulsation modes of SNR>4.6 from radial velocities, with variability time scales ranging from 1.21 to 74.7 days, which are associated with high order low degree gravity modes. While the radial…
We present analysis of a new pulsating helium-atmosphere (DB) white dwarf, EPIC~228782059, discovered from 55.1~days of {\em K2} photometry. The long duration, high quality light curves reveal 11 independent dipole and quadruple modes, from which we derive a rotational period of $34.1 \pm 0.4$~hr for the star. An optimal model is obtained from a series of grids constructed using the White Dwarf Evolution Code, which returns $M_{*} = 0.685 \pm 0.003 M_{\odot}$, $T_{\rm{eff}}= 21{,}910 \pm 23$\,K and $\log g = 8.14 \pm0.01$\,dex. These values are comparable to those derived from spectroscopy by …
We present an extensive survey for rapid pulsators among Extreme Horizontal Branch (EHB) stars in omega Cen. The observations performed consist of nearly 100 hours of time-series photometry, as well as low-resolution spectroscopy. We obtained photometry for some 300 EHB stars. Based on the spectroscopy, we derive reliable values of log g, Teff and log(N(He)/N(H)) for 38 targets, as well as estimates of the effective temperature for another nine targets. The survey uncovered a total of five rapid variables with multi-periodic oscillations between 85 and 125 s. Spectroscopically, they form a hom…
Stellar Variability and Distance Indicators in the Near-infrared in Nearby Galaxies. II. Pulsating Stars in the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal
National Central University（中央大学）；Taiwan Astronomical Research Alliance (TARA)（台湾天文研究联盟）；Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA)（星际天文与天体物理中心）
The field of asteroseismology has enjoyed a large swath of data coming from recent missions (e.g., CoRoT, Kepler, K2). This wealth of new data has allowed the field to expand beyond the previous limitation of a few extremely bright and evolved stars. Asteroseismology relies on accurate surface measurements for boundary conditions, but the predicted physical parameters in the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) are unreliable for hot stars. We present stellar parameters of 25 candidate pulsating B star candidates in the Kepler field. We use blue optical spectra to measure the projected rotational veloci…
The RV Tauri stars constitute a small group of classical pulsating stars with some dozen known members in the Milky Way. The light variation is caused predominantly by pulsations, but these alone do not explain the full complexity of the light curves. High quality photometry of RV Tau-type stars is very rare. DF Cygni is the only member of this class of stars in the original Kepler field, hence allowing the most accurate photometric investigation of an RV Tauri star to date. The main goal is to analyse the periodicities of the RV Tauri-type star DF Cygni by combining four years of high-quality…
We introduce a near-IR monitoring campaign of the Local Group spiral galaxy M33, carried out with the UK IR Telescope (UKIRT). The pulsating giant stars are identified and their distributions are used to derive the star formation rate as a function of age. We here present the star formation history for the central square kiloparsec. These stars are also important dust factories; we measure their dust production rates from a combination of our data with Spitzer Space Telescope mid-IR photometry.
Red giants are unstable to radial pulsation. About a third of them also show a long secondary period, 5 to 10 times the pulsation period. The long secondary periods were recently ascribed to eclipses of the red giant by a low-mass dust-enshrouded companion. Long secondary periods have been known for over a century. In this paper, I use primarily American Association of Variable Star Observers visual and photoelectric observations to look for evidence of long secondary periods in 103 red giant stars listed by Nancy Houk in 1963 as having long secondary periods, based mostly on photographic phot…
The project Massive Unseen Companions to Hot Faint Underluminous Stars from SDSS (muchfuss) aims to discover subdwarf-B stars with massive compact companions such as overmassive white dwarfs (M > 1.0 M_sun), neutron stars or black holes. From the 127 subdwarfs with substantial radial-velocity variations discovered in the initial survey, a number of interesting objects have been selected for extensive follow-up. After an initial photometry run with BUSCA revealed that FBS 0117+396 is photometrically variable both on long and short timescales, we chose it as an auxiliary target during a 6-night …
We present B band photometry of the $δ$ Scuti star HD 40372 using the ARIES three channel fast photometer attached to the 104-cm Sampurnanand telescope in high-speed photometric mode. The star was observed for $\sim$ 5 hours on December 13, 2008. Based on the high quality photometric data, we have done period analysis by various periodogram analysis techniques. The best estimate of the period is found to be $\sim 0.067$ days. With this period and the other stellar parameters determined from $uvbyβ$ photometry available in the literature, we have calculated the $Q$ value for the star. Compariso…
From TESS photometry, 493 mid- to late-B stars with high frequencies (Maia variables) have been identified. The distribution of projected rotational velocities shows that the rotation rates of Maia variables are no different from those of SPB stars. Moreover, many Maia stars pulsate with frequencies exceeding 60 c/d. Rapid rotation is ruled out as a possible factor in understanding the Maia variables. There is clearly a serious problem with current pulsational models. Not only are the models unable to account for the Maia stars, but they also fail to account for the fact that SPB and gamma Dor…
Knowledge of the geometry of pulsational modes is a prerequisite for seismic modelling of stars. In the case of slowly pulsating B-type (SPB) pulsators, the simple zero-rotation approach so far used for mode identification is usually not valid because pulsational frequencies are often of the order of the rotational frequency. Moreover, this approach allows us to determine only the spherical harmonic degree, $\ell$, while the azimuthal order, $m$, is beyond its reach. On the other hand, because of the density of oscillation spectra of SPB stars, knowledge of $m$ is indispensable if one wants to…
We used Johnson UBV photometric CCD observations to identify pulsating and other variable stars in the young open cluster NGC 6231. The multi-color information was used to classify pulsating variables, perform frequency analysis, and - where possible - to compare observed to theoretical amplitude ratios for mode identification. The data reduction was performed with standard IRAF tools. Differential light curves have been obtained by identifying a set of suitable comparison stars and the frequency analysis was then conducted on the basis of Fourier methods. Our classification of pulsating stars…
We have used AAVSO visual and photoelectric V data, and the AAVSO time-series package VSTAR and the Lomb-Scargle time-series algorithm to determine improved pulsation periods, "long secondary periods" (LSPs). and their amplitudes in 51 shorter-period pulsating red giants in the AAVSO photoelectric photometry program, and the AAVSO LPV (long period variable) binocular program. As is well known, radial pulsation becomes detectable in red giants at about spectral type M0, with periods of about 20 days. We find that the LSP phenomenon is also first detectable at about M0. Pulsation and LSP amplitu…
Asteroseismology offers the possibility of probing stellar interiors and testing evolutionary and seismic models. Precise photometry and spectroscopy obtained during multi-site campaigns on young open clusters allows discovering rich samples of pulsating stars and using them in a simultaneous seismic modelling called ensemble asteroseismology. The aim of this study is to obtain the age of the open cluster NGC 6910 by means of ensemble asteroseismology of the early-type pulsating members, to derive their stellar parameters, and to classify the excited modes. We used time-series analysis, perfor…
The δ Sct stars are a diverse group of intermediate-mass pulsating stars located on and near the main sequence within the classical instability strip in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Many of these stars are hybrid stars pulsating simultaneously with pressure and gravity modes that probe the physics at different depths within a star's interior. Using two large ensembles of δ Sct stars observed by the Kepler Space Telescope, the instrumental biases inherent to Kepler mission data and the statistical properties of these stars are investigated. An important focus of this work is an analysis of …
KIC 9851944 is a short period ($P=2.16$ days) eclipsing binary in the {\it Kepler} field of view. By combining the analysis of {\it Kepler} photometry and phase resolved spectra from Kitt Peak National Observatory and Lowell Observatory, we determine the atmospheric and physical parameters of both stars. The two components have very different radii ($2.27R_{\odot}$, $3.19R_{\odot}$) but close masses ($1.76 M_{\odot}$, $1.79M_{\odot}$) and effective temperatures ($7026$K, $6902$K), indicating different evolutionary stages. The hotter primary is still on the main sequence (MS), while the cooler …
We report the discovery of the first pulsating extremely low mass (ELM) white dwarf (WD), SDSS J184037.78+642312.3 (hereafter J1840). This DA (hydrogen-atmosphere) WD is by far the coolest and the lowest-mass pulsating WD, with Teff = 9100 \pm 170 K and log g = 6.22 \pm 0.06, which corresponds to a mass ~ 0.17 Msun. This low-mass pulsating WD greatly extends the DAV (or ZZ Ceti) instability strip, effectively bridging the log g gap between WDs and main sequence stars. We detect high-amplitude variability in J1840 on timescales exceeding 4000 s, with a non-sinusoidal pulse shape. Our observatio…
Studying stellar pulsations in open clusters offers the possibility to perform ensemble asteroseismology. The reasonable assumption that the cluster members have the same age, distance, and overall metallicity aids in the seismic modelling process and tightly constrains it. Therefore it is important to identify open clusters with many pulsators. New pulsating stars of the Beta Cephei type were searched for among the members of the open cluster NGC 637. Thirty-one hours of time resolved V filter CCD photometry were obtained. The measurements confirmed two previously known variables, and reveale…
The interior physics of stars is currently not well constrained for early-type stars. This is particularly pertinent for multiple systems as binary interaction becomes more prevalent for more massive stars, which strongly affects their evolution. High-precision photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission offers the opportunity to remedy the dearth of observations of pulsating stars that show evidence of binary interaction, specifically pulsating mass-accreting components of semi-detached Algol-type eclipsing binary (oEA) systems. We present the TESS light curve of …
Radial velocity measurements, $BVR_C$ photometry, and high-resolution spectroscopy in the wavelength region from blue to near infrared are employed in order to clarify the evolutionary status of the carbon-enhanced metal-poor star HD112869 with unique ratio of carbon isotopes in the atmosphere. An LTE abundance analysis was carried out using the method of spectral synthesis and new self consistent 1D atmospheric models. The radial velocity monitoring confirmed semiregular variations with a peak-to-peak amplitude of about 10 km $s^{-1}$ and a dominating period of about 115 days. The light, colo…
We present the results of a photometric variability survey in the young open cluster Stock 14 and the surrounding fields. In total, we detected 103 variable stars of which 88 are new discoveries. We confirm short-period, low-amplitude light variations in two eclipsing members of the cluster, HD 101838 and HD 101794. In addition, we find two new beta Cephei stars of which one, HD 101993, is also a member. The sample of pulsating cluster members is supplemented by one multimode slowly pulsating B-type star and several single-mode candidates of this type. The other pulsating stars in our sample a…
The space-missions MOST, CoRoT, and Kepler deliver a huge amount of high-quality photometric data suitable to study numerous pulsating stars. Our ultimate goal is a detection and analysis of an extended sample of Gamma Dor-type pulsating stars with the aim to search for observational evidence of non-uniform period spacings and rotational splittings of gravity modes in main-sequence stars typically twice as massive as the Sun. We applied an automated supervised photometric classification method to select a sample of 69 Gamma Doradus candidate stars. We used an advanced method to extract the Kep…
The combination of photometry, spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry of the chemically peculiar stars often aims to study the complex physical phenomena such as stellar pulsation, chemical inhomogeneity, magnetic field and their interplay with stellar atmosphere and circumstellar environment. The prime objective of the present study is to determine the atmospheric parameters of a set of Am stars to understand their evolutionary status. Atmospheric abundances and basic parameters are determined using full spectrum fitting technique by comparing the high-resolution spectra to the synthetic spectra…
The parallax of pulsation, and its implementations such as the Baade-Wesselink method and the infrared surface bright- ness technique, is an elegant method to determine distances of pulsating stars in a quasi-geometrical way. However, these classical implementations in general only use a subset of the available observational data. Freedman & Madore (2010) suggested a more physical approach in the implementation of the parallax of pulsation in order to treat all available data. We present a global and model-based parallax-of-pulsation method that enables including any type of observational data…
We have analyzed OGLE-III photometry for stars in the SMC cluster NGC 299. Two eclipsing binaries and one intrinsic variable (most likely a Be star) are identified. Unlike other young SMC clusters, no low-amplitude pulsating variables are present.
