We present a detailed analysis of the UV spectrum of the calibration star Bd+28 4211 using high-quality spectra obtained with the HST and FUSE satellites. To this aim, we compare quantitatively the observed data with model spectra obtained from state-of-the-art NLTE metal line-blanketed model atmospheres and synthetic spectra calculated with TLUSTY and SYNSPEC. We thus determine in a self-consistent way the abundances of eleven elements with well-defined lines in the UV, namely those of C, N, O, F, Mg, Si, P, S, Ar, Fe, and Ni. The derived abundances range from about solar to 1/10 solar. We find that the overall quality of the derived spectral fits is very satisfying. Our spectral analysis can be used to constrain rather tigthly the effective temperature of Bd+28 to a value of teff = 82,000 +/- 5000 K. We also estimate conservatively that its surface gravity falls in the range log g = 6.2 -0.1/+0.3. Assuming that the Hipparcos measurement for Bd+28 is fully reliable and that our model atmospheres are reasonably realistic, we can reconcile our spectroscopic constraints with the available parallax measurement only if the mass of Bd+28 is significantly less than the canonical value of 0.5 msun for a representative post-EHB star.
We calculate NLTE models of stellar winds of hot compact stars (central stars of planetary nebulae and subdwarf stars). The studied range of subdwarf parameters is selected to cover a large part of these stars. The models predict the wind hydrodynamical structure and provide mass-loss rates for different abundances. Our models show that CNO elements are important drivers of subdwarf winds, especially for low-luminosity stars. We study the effect of X-rays and instabilities on these winds. Due to the line-driven wind instability, a significant part of the wind could be very hot.
Subdwarf B (sdB) stars are core helium-burning stars with stratified atmospheres. Their atmospheres are dominated by hydrogen (H) while the helium (He) and metal abundances are shaped by an interplay of gravitational settling and radiative levitation. However, a small fraction of these show spectra dominated by He I absorption lines. In between these groups of He-deficient and extreme He-rich sdBs, some are found to have intermediate surface He abundances. These objects are proposed to be young "normal" (He-deficient) sdBs for which the dynamical stratification of the atmosphere is still ongoi…
Hot subdwarfs represent a poorly understood late phase of stellar evolution. While binary evolution plays an important role for B-subdwarfs (sdB), the origin of the He dominated O-subdwarfs (He-sdO) is unknown. We search for chemical signatures of their genesis by means of quantitative analyses of visual and FUV spectra. Using Tlusty/Synspec to compute line blanketed NLTE model atmospheres, Teff/log g and abundances have been derived for 4 prototypical He-sdO stars. Final models included H,He,C,N,O,Ne,Mg,Al,Si,P,S,Fe&Ni. Because of the enrichment of either N or C, models including these elemen…
In the framework of the Virtual Observatory (VO), the German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO) developed the registered service TheoSSA (Theoretical Stellar Spectra Access). It provides easy access to stellar spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and is intended to ingest SEDs calculated by any model-atmosphere code, generally for all effective temperature, surface gravities, and elemental compositions. We will establish a database of SEDs of flux standards that are easily accessible via TheoSSA's web interface. The OB-type subdwarf Feige 110 is a standard star for flux calibration. Stat…
We present the second part of our detailed analysis of the hot sdO and spectroscopic standard star BD+28 4211, in which we focus on the optical spectrum. In the first part of our study, we determined the abundances of some 11 metals detected in the atmosphere of BD+28 4211 using UV spectra of the star and corroborated the fundamental parameters estimated in past studies (Teff $\sim$ 82,000 K, log g $\sim$ 6.2, and solar N(He)/N(H)). In this work, we aim at rederiving these secured parameters on the sole basis of high-quality optical spectra. A first grid of non-LTE line-blanketed model atmosph…
In this study, we concentrate on the formation and evolution of hot subdwarfs binaries through the stable Roche lobe overflow (RLOF) channel of intermediate-mass binaries. We aim at setting out the properties of hot subdwarfs and their progenitors, so that we can understand the formation and evolution of hot subdwarfs comprehensively. We have obtained the ranges of the initial parameters of progenitor binaries and the properties of hot subdwarfs through the stable RLOF channel of intermediate-mass binaries, e.g. mass, envelope mass and age of hot subdwarfs. We have found that hot subdwarfs cou…
We present a grid of optical (3200--7200 Å) synthetic spectra calculated with Tlusty/Synspec. The new NLTE model atmospheres include the most recent hydrogen Stark broadening profiles; were calculated in opacity sampling and limited to pure H/He composition. The grid covers the observed parameter space of (He-)sdB and (He-)sdO stars, therefore it is suitable for the homogeneous spectral analyses of such evolved stars.
Employing a new machine learning method, named hierarchical extreme learning machine (HELM) algorithm, we identified 56 hot subdwarf stars in the first data release (DR1) of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) survey. The atmospheric parameters of the stars are obtained by fitting the profiles of hydrogen (H) Balmer lines and helium (He) lines with synthetic spectra calculated from non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) model atmospheres. Five He-rich hot subdwarf stars were found in our sample with their log(nHe/nH) > -1 , while 51 stars are He-poor sdB,…
Hot subdwarfs are core-helium burning stars that show lower masses and higher temperatures than canonical horizontal branch stars. They are believed to be formed when a red giant suffers an extreme mass-loss episode. Binary interaction is suggested to be the main formation channel, but the high fraction of apparently single hot subdwarfs (up to 30%) has prompted single star formation scenarios to be proposed. If such formation scenarios without interaction were possible, that would also imply the existence of hot subdwarfs in wide binaries that have undergone no interaction. We probe the exist…
This work is dedicated to a search for new pulsating hot subdwarfs in TESS photometric data which could have been missed in previous searches. By matching catalogues of hot subdwarfs with TESS targets and using luminosities from Gaia parallaxes, a list of 1389 candidate hot subdwarfs observed by TESS was created. The periodograms of these stars were inspected, and the stars were classified according to variability type. An updated catalogue of all known pulsating hot subdwarfs is presented. A number of probable pulsating binaries have been identified, which might prove useful for verifying the…
We have completed a survey of twenty-two ultraviolet-selected hot subdwarfs using the Fiber-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS) and the 2.2-m telescope at La Silla. The sample includes apparently single objects as well as hot subdwarfs paired with a bright, unresolved companion. The sample was extracted from our GALEX catalogue of hot subdwarf stars. We identified three new short-period systems (P=3.5 hours to 5 days) and determined the orbital parameters of a long-period (P=62.66 d) sdO plus G III system. This particular system should evolve into a close double degenerate system f…
Masses are a fundamental parameter, but they are not well known for most hot subdwarfs. In general, the mass of a hot subdwarf is derived with asteroseismology or dynamical methods, for which it is often difficult to obtain the necessary data from observations. We intend to find an approach to deriving the masses of hot subdwarfs from observational data in the literature. We presented full evolutionary calculations for hot subdwarfs in a wide mass range (0.33 $M_\odot$ to 1.4 $M_\odot$) for a Population I metallicity of $Z$=0.02, and obtained a relation between $M_{\rm p}$ and $\log (\frac{T_{…
The mergers of double helium white dwarfs are believed to form isolated helium-rich hot subdwarfs. Observation shows that the helium-rich hot subdwarfs can be divided into two subgroups based on whether the surface is carbon-rich or carbon-normal. But it is not clear whether this distribution directly comes from binary evolution. We adopt the binary population synthesis (BPS) to obtain the population of single helium-rich hot subdwarfs according to the channel of double helium white dwarfs merger. We find that the merger channel can represent the two subgroups in the $T_{\rm{eff}}-\log g$ plan…
In the last decade or so, there have been numerous searches for hot subdwarfs in close binaries. There has been little to no attention paid to wide binaries however. The advantages of understanding these systems can be many. The stars can be assumed to be coeval, which means they have common properties. The distance and metallicity, for example, are both unknown for the subdwarf component, but may be determinable for the secondary, allowing other properties of the subdwarf to be estimated. With this in mind, we have started a search for common proper motion pairs containing a hot subdwarf comp…
Combing Gaia DR2 with LAMOST DR5, we spectroscopically identified 924 hot subdwarf stars, among which 32 stars exhibit strong double-lined composite spectra. We measured the effective temperature $T_{\rm eff}$, surface gravity $\log\,g$, helium abundance $y=n{\rm He}/n{\rm H}$, and radial velocities of 892 non-composite spectra hot subdwarf stars by fitting LAMOST observations with Tlusty/Synspec non-LTE synthetic spectra. We outlined four different groups in the $T_{\rm eff}-\log\,g$ diagram with our helium abundance classification scheme and two nearly parallel sequences in the $T_{\rm eff}-…
We present results of our calculations of NLTE model stellar atmospheres for hot Population III stars composed of hydrogen and helium. We use our own computer code for calculation of spherically symmetric NLTE model atmospheres in hydrostatic and radiative equilibrium. The model atmospheres are then used for calculation of emergent fluxes. These fluxes serve for the evaluation of the flow of high-energy photons for energies higher than ionization energies of hydrogen and helium, the so-called ionizing photon fluxes. We also present the time evolution of the ionizing photon fluxes.
The discovery of extremely zirconium- and lead-rich surfaces amongst a small subgroup of hot subdwarfs has provoked questions pertaining to chemical peculiarity in hot star atmospheres and about their evolutionary origin. With only three known in 2014, a limited search for additional `heavy-metal' subdwarfs was initiated with the Subaru telescope. Five hot subdwarfs having intermediate to high surface enrichment of helium were observed at high-resolution and analyzed for surface properties and abundances. This paper reports the analyses of four of these stars. PG1559+048 and FBS 1749+373, havi…
In this work, we present the first results of an ongoing survey to search for planetary nebulae (PNe) around hot subdwarf stars (sdOs). Deep images and intermediate-resolution long-slit spectra of RWT 152, the only confirmed PN+sdO system in the northern hemisphere, as well as preliminary results for other sdO+PN candidate are presented.
Deep learning-driven atmospheric parameter prediction for hot subdwarf stars with synthetic and observed spectra
Key Laboratory of Stars and Interstellar Medium, Xiangtan University（湘潭大学恒星与星际介质重点实验室）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Shandong University, Weihai（山东大学威海数学与统计学院）；Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家天文台光学天文重点实验室）
Hot subdwarfs are evolved low--mass stars that have survived core helium ignition and are now in (or recently finished with) the core helium burning stage. At the hot end of the Horizontal Branch (HB), many of these stars are multiperiodic pulsators. These pulsations have revealed details of their global and internal structure, and provide important constraints on the origin of hot HB stars. While many features of their structure deduced from seismic fits have confirmed what we expected from evolutionary considerations, there have been some surprises as well.
The formation of hot subdwarf stars is still unclear. Both single-star and binary scenarios have been proposed to explain the properties of these evolved stars situated at the extreme blue end of the horizontal branch. The observational evidence gathered in the last decade, which revealed high fractions of binaries, shifted the focus from the single-star to the binary formation scenarios. Common envelope ejection, stable Roche lobe overflow and the merger of helium white dwarfs seemed to be sufficient to explain the formation of both the binary as well as the remaining single hot subdwarfs. Ho…
We measured the magnetic field of the bright, evolved hot subdwarf HD 76431 by means of high-resolution spectropolarimetry. In contrast to previous measurements we were not able to detect a significant magnetic field. We discuss the possibility that this field may be variable. Our search for a possible companion star to HD 76431 led to inconclusive results.
182 single-lined hot subdwarf stars are identified by using spectra from the sixth and seventh data release (DR6 and DR7) of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) survey. We classified all the hot subdwarf stars using a canonical classification scheme, and got 89 sdB, 37 sdOB, 26 sdO, 24 He-sdOB, 3 He-sdO and 3 He-sdB stars, respectively. Among these stars, 108 hot subdwarfs are newly discovered, while 74 stars were reported by previous catalogs. The atmospheric parameters of these stars were obtained by fitting the hydrogen (H) and helium (He) lines with non-l…
About half of the hot subdwarfs are found to have spectra of composite types, indicating a main sequence companion of spectral type F-K, and the pulsators are no exception to this rule. The spectroscopic contamination from the main sequence stars makes it hard to reliably establish physical parameters for the hot component, and also makes pulsations harder to detect as the amplitudes are depressed. The binary fraction of the observed sample of hot subdwarf pulsators is discussed, as are the biases that are affecting it. Spectroscopic evidence is presented that clearly demonstrates that the wel…
Subluminous B stars (sdBs) form the extremely hot end of the horizontal branch and are therefore related to the blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars. While the rotational properties of BHB stars have been investigated extensively, studies of sdB stars have concentrated on close binaries that are influenced by tidal interactions between their components. Here we present a study of 105 sdB stars, which are either single stars or in wide binaries where tidal effects become negligible. The projected rotational velocities have been determined by measuring the broadening of metal lines using high-reso…
We selected 4593 hot subdwarf candidates from the Gaia DR2 Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. By combining the sample with LAMOST DR5, we identified 294 hot subdwarf stars, including 169 sdB, 63 sdOB, 31 He-sdOB, 22 sdO, 7 He-sdO and 2 He-sdB stars. The atmospheric parameters (e.g., T_{eff} , log g, log(nHe/nH)) are obtained by fitting the hydrogen (H) and helium (He) line profiles with synthetic spectra. Two distinct He sequences of hot subdwarf stars are clearly presented in the T_{eff} - log g diagram. We found that the He-rich sequence consists of the bulk of sdB and sdOB stars as well as a…
We have analyzed a sample of hot subdwarfs (sdB, sdO) selected from the GALEX ultraviolet sky survey. Applying a model atmosphere analysis we determined the temperature, surface gravity, and helium-to-hydrogen abundance ratio, and obtained preliminary constraints on the CNO abundance for a sample of 181 stars. Adopting colourimetric (ultraviolet-infrared) and quantitative spectral decomposition we also investigated the incidence of solar type or earlier (A, F, G) companions.
Diffusion of elements in the atmosphere and envelope of a star can drastically alter its surface composition, leading to extreme chemical peculiarities. We consider the case of hot subdwarfs, where surface helium abundances range from practically zero to almost 100 percent. Since hot subdwarfs can form via a number of different evolution channels, a key question concerns how the formation mechanism is connected to the present surface chemistry. A sequence of extreme horizontal branch star models was generated by producing post-common envelope stars from red giants. Evolution was computed with …
Hot subdwarf stars are faint, blue objects, and are the main contributors to the far-UV excess observed in elliptical galaxies. They offer an excellent laboratory to study close and wide binary systems, and to scrutinize their interiors through asteroseismology, as some of them undergo stellar oscillations. However, their origins are still uncertain, and increasing the number of detections is crucial to undertake statistical studies. In this work, we aim at defining a strategy to find new, uncatalogued hot subdwarfs. Making use of Virtual Observatory tools we thoroughly search stellar catalogu…
A medium- and high-resolution spectroscopic survey of helium-rich hot subdwarfs is being carried out using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). Objectives include the discovery of exotic hot subdwarfs and of sequences connecting chemically-peculiar subdwarfs of different types. The first phase consists of medium-resolution spectroscopy of over 100 stars selected from low-resolution surveys. This paper describes the selection criteria, and the observing, classification and analysis methods. It presents 107 spectral classifications on the MK-like Drilling system and 106 coarse analyses (…
We started a program to construct several grids of suitable model atmospheres and synthetic spectra for hot subdwarf O stars computed, for comparative purposes, in LTE, NLTE, with and without metals. For the moment, we use our grids to perform fits on our spectrum of SDSS J160043.6+074802.9 (J1600+0748 for short), this unique pulsating sdO star. Our best fit is currently obtained with NLTE model atmospheres including carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in solar abundances, which leads to the following parameters for SDSS J1600+0748 : Teff = 69 060 +/- 2080 K, log g = 6.00 +/- 0.09 and log N(He)/N(H) =…
Hot subdwarfs represent a group of low-mass helium-burning stars formed through binary-star interactions and include some of the most chemically-peculiar stars in the Galaxy. Stellar evolution theory suggests that they should have helium-rich atmospheres but, because radiation causes hydrogen to diffuse upwards, a majority are extremely helium poor. Questions posed include: when does the atmosphere become chemically stratified and at what rate? The existence of several helium-rich subdwarfs suggests further questions; are there distinct subgroups of hot subdwarf, or do hot subdwarfs change the…
About a third of the hot subdwarfs of spectral type B, which are mostly core-helium burning objects on the extreme horizontal branch, are found in close binaries with cool, low-mass stellar, substellar, or white dwarf companions. They can show light variations due to different phenomena. We used light curves from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the \textit{K2} space mission to look for more sdB binaries. Their light curves can be used to study the hot subdwarf primaries and their companions and get orbital, atmospheric, and absolute parameters for those systems. By classifying th…
We investigate statistical equilibrium of Cr in the atmospheres of late-type stars. The main goal is to ascertain the reason for a systematic abundance discrepancy between Cr I and Cr II lines, which is often encountered in spectroscopic analyses of metal-poor stars. Up to now, all these studies relied on the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) in the spectrum modelling. For the first time, we perform NLTE calculations in subdwarfs and subgiants of different metallicities. We show that the LTE assumption is inadequate to describe excitation-ionization equilibrium of Cr I/Cr II …
HD 49798 is a hydrogen depleted subdwarf O6 star and has an X-ray pulsating companion (RX J0648.0-4418). The X-ray pulsating companion is a massive white dwarf. Employing Eggleton's stellar evolution code with the optically thick wind assumption, we find that the hot subdwarf HD 49798 and its X-ray pulsating companion could produce a type Ia supernova (SN Ia) in future evolution. This implies that the binary system is a likely candidate of SN Ia progenitors. We also discussed the possibilities of some other WD + He star systems (e.g. V445 Pup and KPD 1930+2752) for producing SNe Ia.
We report the discovery of an extremely close, eclipsing binary system. A white dwarf is orbited by a core He-burning compact hot subdwarf star with a period as short as $\simeq0.04987 {\rm d}$ making this system the most compact hot subdwarf binary discovered so far. The subdwarf will start to transfer helium-rich material on short timescales of less than $50 {\rm Myr}$. The ignition of He-burning at the surface may trigger carbon-burning in the core although the WD is less massive than the Chandrasekhar limit ($>0.74\,M_{\rm \odot}$) making this binary a possible progenitor candidate for a s…
Magnetic fields can play an important role in stellar evolution. Among white dwarfs, the most common stellar remnant, the fraction of magnetic systems is more than 20 per cent. The origin of magnetic fields in white dwarfs, which show strengths ranging from 40 kG to hundreds of MG, is still a topic of debate. In contrast, only one magnetic hot subdwarf star has been identified out of thousands of known systems. Hot subdwarfs are formed from binary interaction, a process often associated with the generation of magnetic fields, and will evolve to become white dwarfs, which makes the lack of dete…
388 hot subdwarf stars have been identified by using the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram built from the second data release (DR2) of the Gaia mission. By analyzing their observed LAMOST spectra, we characterized 186 sdB, 73 He-sdOB, 65 sdOB, 45 sdO, 12 He-sdO and 7 He-sdB stars. The atmospheric parameters of these stars (e.g., T eff , log g, log(nHe/nH)) are obtained by fitting the hydrogen (H) and helium (He) line profiles with synthetic spectra calculated from non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (non-LTE) model atmospheres. Among these stars, we have 135 new identified hot subdwarfs which h…
Recently, a class of Roche-lobe-filling binary systems consisting of hot subdwarf stars and white dwarfs with sub-hour periods has been discovered. At present, the hot subdwarf is in a shell He burning phase and is transferring some of its remaining thin H envelope to its white dwarf companion. As the evolution of the hot subdwarf continues, it is expected to detach, leaving behind a low mass C/O core white dwarf secondary with a thick He layer. Then, on a timescale of $\sim 10$ Myr, gravitational wave radiation will again bring the systems into contact. If the mass transfer is unstable and re…
Hot subdwarf B stars are core-helium burning objects that have undergone envelope stripping, likely by a binary companion. Using high-speed photometry from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, we have discovered the hot subdwarf BPM 36430 is a hybrid sdBV_rs pulsator exhibiting several low-amplitude g-modes and a strong p-mode pulsation. The latter shows a clear, periodic variation in its pulse arrival times. Fits to this phase oscillation imply BPM 36430 orbits a barycenter approximately 10 light-seconds away once every 3.1 d. Using the CHIRON echelle spectrograph on the CTIO 1.5-m tele…
Post-merger rotational evolution of magnetised single hot subdwarfs results in slow rotation due to magnetic braking
Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)（拉普拉塔天文物理研究所）；Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP)（拉普拉塔国立大学天文与地球物理学院）；Heidelberger Institut für Theoretische Studien (HITS)（海德堡理论研究所）；London Centre for Stellar Astrophysics（伦敦恒星天体物理学中心）
Hot subdwarf B stars (sdBs) are the stripped cores of red giants located at the bluest extension of the horizontal branch. Several different kinds of pulsators are found among those stars. The mechanism that drives those pulsations is well known and the theoretically predicted instability regions for both the short-period p-mode and the long-period g-mode pulsators match the observed distributions fairly well. However, it remains unclear why only a fraction of the sdB stars pulsate, while stars with otherwise very similar parameters do not show pulsations. From an observers perspective I revie…
Isolated hot subdwarfs might be formed by the merging of two helium-core white dwarfs. Before merging, helium-core white dwarfs have hydrogen-rich envelopes and some of this hydrogen may survive the merger. We calculate the mass of hydrogen that is present at the start of such mergers and, with the assumption that hydrogen is mixed throughout the disrupted white dwarf in the merger process, estimate how much can survive. We find a hydrogen mass of up to about $2 \times 10^{-3}\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ in merger remnants. We make model merger remnants that include the hydrogen mass appropriate to t…
Hot subdwarfs are considered to be the compact helium cores of red giants, which lost almost their entire hydrogen envelope. What causes this enormous mass loss is still unclear. Binary interactions are invoked and a significant fraction of the hot subdwarf population is indeed found in close binaries. In a large project we search for the close binary sdBs with the most and the least massive companions. Significantly enhancing the known sample of close binary sdBs we performed the first comprehensive study of this population. Triggered by the discovery of two sdB binaries with close brown dwar…
We present a method to select hot subdwarf stars with A to M-type companions using photometric selection criteria. We cover a wide range in wavelength by combining GALEX ultraviolet data, optical photometry from the SDSS and the Carlsberg Meridian telescope, near-infrared data from 2MASS and UKIDSS. We construct two complimentary samples, one by matching GALEX, CMC and 2MASS, as well as a smaller, but deeper, sample using GALEX, SDSS and UKIDSS. In both cases, a large number of composite subdwarf plus main-sequence star candidates were found. We fit their spectral energy distributions with a c…
We have performed a detailed spectral analysis of the helium-rich hot subdwarf EC 20187-4939 using data obtained in the SALT survey of helium-rich hot subdwarfs. We have measured its effective temperature, surface gravity and chemical abundances from the spectrum. Its radius has also been determined by fitting the spectral energy distribution using photometric data, from which a mass of 0.44 Msun has been inferred using the measurement of surface gravity. This star is particularly abundant in helium and nitrogen, whilst being both carbon and oxygen-weak. The surface abundances and mass have be…
We started a new project which aims to find compact hot subdwarf binaries at low Galactic latitudes. Targets are selected from several photometric surveys and a spectroscopic follow-up campaign to find radial velocity variations on timescales as short as tens of minutes has been started. Once radial variations are detected phase-resolved spectroscopy is obtained to measure the radial velocity curve and the mass function of the system. The observing strategy is described and the discovery of two short period hot subdwarf binaries is presented. UVEXJ032855.25+503529.8 contains a hot subdwarf B s…
Recent massive sky surveys in different bandwidths are providing new opportunities to modern astronomy. The Virtual Observatory (VO) represents the adequate framework to handle the huge amount of information available and filter out data according to specific requirements. In this work, we applied a selection strategy to find new, uncatalogued hot subdwarfs making use of VO tools. We used large area catalogues (GALEX, SDSS, SuperCosmos, 2MASS) to retrieve photometric and astrometric information of stellar objects. To these objects, we applied colour and proper motion filters, together with an …
Hot subdwarf stars (sdO/Bs) are evolved core helium-burning stars with very thin hydrogen envelopes, which can be formed by common envelope ejection. Close sdB binaries with massive white dwarf (WD) companions are potential progenitors of thermonuclear supernovae type Ia (SN Ia). We discovered such a progenitor candidate as well as a candidate for a surviving companion star, which escapes from the Galaxy. More candidates for both types of objects have been found by crossmatching known sdB stars with proper motion and light curve catalogues. The Gaia mission will provide accurate astrometry and…
The estimation of the binary fraction of hot subdwarfs is key to shed light on the different evolution scenarios proposed to explain the loss of the hydrogen envelope during the red giant branch phase. In this paper we analyse the spectral energy distribution of the hot subdwarfs included in a recent and comprehensive catalogue with the aim of identifying companions. Our methodology shows a performance superior to the photometric criteria used in that study, identifying 202 objects wrongly classified as binaries according to their spectral energy distributions, and finding 269 new binaries. Ou…
In the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of globular clusters, when the locus of stars on the horizontal branch (HB) extends to hot temperatures, discontinuities are observed at colors corresponding to ~12,000 K and ~18,000 K. The former is the "Grundahl jump" that is associated with the onset of radiative levitation in the atmospheres of hot subdwarfs. The latter is the "Momany jump" that has remained unexplained. Using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have obtained ultraviolet and blue spectroscopy of six hot subdwarfs straddling the Momany jump in the…
TESS photometry of the extremely helium-rich hot subdwarfs BD+37 442 and BD+37 1977 demonstrates multi-periodic low-amplitude variability with principal periods of 0.56 and 1.14 d, respectively, and with both first and second harmonics present. The lightcurves are not perfectly regular, implying additional periodic and/or non-periodic content. Possible causes are examined, including the binary hypothesis originally introduced to explain X-ray observations, differentially rotating surface inhomogeneities, and pulsations. If the principal photometric periods correspond to the rotation periods, t…
Neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of massive stars, which ended their lives in supernova explosions. These exotic objects can only be studied in relatively rare cases. If they are interacting with close companions they become bright X-ray sources. If they are neutron stars, they may be detected as pulsars. Only a few hundred such systems are presently known in the Galaxy. However, there should be many more binaries with basically invisible compact objects in non-interacting binaries. Here we report the discovery of unseen compact companions to hot subdwarfs in close b…
Hot subdwarf stars are particularly challenging for asteroseismology due to their rapid pulsation periods, intrinsic faintness and relative rarity both in the field and in clusters. These features have ensured that the preferred method of observation up to now has been white-light photometry, and all asteroseismological solutions to date have been made by model fitting of the frequency spectrum. Several attempts have been made to perform asteroseismology using time-resolved spectroscopy on the brightest of these stars, but with modest results. A few attempts at simultaneous multi-color photome…
