Very regular high-frequency pulsation modes in young intermediate-mass stars
Timothy R. Bedding, Simon J. Murphy, Daniel R. Hey, Daniel Huber, Tanda Li, Barry Smalley, Dennis Stello, Timothy R. White, Warrick H. Ball, William J. Chaplin,… 展开作者
Timothy R. Bedding, Simon J. Murphy, Daniel R. Hey, Daniel Huber, Tanda Li, Barry Smalley, Dennis Stello, Timothy R. White, Warrick H. Ball, William J. Chaplin, Isabel L. Colman, Jim Fuller, Eric Gaidos, Daniel R. Harbeck, J. J. Hermes, Daniel L. Holdsworth, Gang Li, Yaguang Li, Andrew W. Mann, Daniel R. Reese, Sanjay Sekaran, Jie Yu, Victoria Antoci, Christoph Bergmann, Timothy M. Brown, Andrew W. Howard, Michael J. Ireland, Howard Isaacson, Jon M. Jenkins, Hans Kjeldsen, Curtis McCully, Markus Rabus, Adam D. Rains, George R. Ricker, Christopher G. Tinney, Roland K. Vanderspek
Asteroseismology is a powerful tool for probing the internal structures of stars by using their natural pulsation frequencies. It relies on identifying sequences of pulsation modes that can be compared with theoretical models, which has been done successfully for many classes of pulsators, including low-mass solar-type stars, red giants, high-mass stars and white dwarfs. However, a large group of pulsating stars of intermediate mass--the so-called delta Scuti stars--have rich pulsation spectra for which systematic mode identification has not hitherto been possible. This arises because only a seemingly random subset of possible modes are excited, and because rapid rotation tends to spoil the regular patterns. Here we report the detection of remarkably regular sequences of high-frequency pulsation modes in 60 intermediate-mass main-sequence stars, allowing definitive mode identification. Some of these stars have space motions that indicate they are members of known associations of young stars, and modelling of their pulsation spectra confirms that these stars are indeed young.
In 2005, Palla & Baraffe proposed that brown dwarfs (BDs) and very low mass stars (VLMSs; <0.1 solar masses) may be unstable to radial oscillations during the pre-main-sequence deuterium burning phase. With associated periods of 1-4 hours, this potentially new class of pulsation offers unprecedented opportunities to probe the interiors and evolution of low-mass objects in the 1-15 million year age range. Following up on reports of short-period variability in young clusters, we designed a high-cadence photometric monitoring campaign to search for deuterium-burning pulsation among a sample of 34…
The bRing robotic observatory network was built to search for circumplanetary material within the transiting Hill sphere of the exoplanet $β$ Pic b across its bright host star $β$ Pic. During the bRing survey of $β$ Pic, it simultaneously monitored the brightnesses of thousands of bright stars in the southern sky ($V$ $\simeq$ 4-8, $δ$ $\lesssim$ -30$^{\circ}$). In this work, we announce the discovery of $δ$ Scuti pulsations in the A-type star HD 156623 using bRing data. HD 156623 is notable as it is a well-studied young star with a dusty and gas-rich debris disk, previously detected using ALM…
Context: The pre-main sequence evolution is often simplified by choosing classical initial models. These have large initial radii and sufficient uniform contraction to make them fully convective. Contrary to that, real stars are born as small protostellar seeds in collapsing molecular clouds and obtain their final mass by means of accretion. Aims: We aim to constrain the input physics of accretion on protostellar seeds with observed spectroscopic parameters and stellar pulsations of young stellar objects and pre-main sequence stars. Methods: We conducted a literature search for spectroscopic s…
Space photometric time series of the most massive members of the young open cluster NGC 2264 allow us to study their different sources of variability down to the millimagnitude level and permits a search for Slowly Pulsating B (SPB) type pulsation among objects that are only a few million years old. Our goal is to conduct a homogeneous study of young B type stars in the cluster NGC 2264 using photometric time series from space in combination with high-resolution spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry obtained from the ground. The latter will be presented in a separate follow-up article. We perfor…
The long-time photometric surveys in a few young open clusters allowed to identify the light variability in stars located on the HR diagram between the well defined $δ$ Scuti variables and Slowly Pulsating B-type stars. Several objects of this type were suggested also from the analysis of the Kepler data. Assuming the pulsational origin of this variability, we try to explain the observed frequencies with pulsational models involving rotation and/or modification of the mean opacity profile.
We collected a sample of ten hitherto unidentified SPB stars with the aim of describing their pulsational properties and identifying pulsational modes. Photometric time series data from various surveys were collected and analyzed using diverse frequency search algorithms. We calculated astrophysical parameters and investigated the location of our sample stars in the \logTeff\ versus \logl\ diagram. Current pulsational models were calculated and used for the identification of pulsational modes in our sample stars. An extensive grid of stellar models along with their g-mode eigenfrequencies was …
We study the pulsational properties of rapidly rotating main-sequence B-type stars using linear non-adiabatic analysis of non-radial low-frequency modes taking into account the effect of rotation. We compare the properties of prograde sectoral $g$ and retrograde $r$ modes excited by the $κ$ mechanism at the Fe opacity peak with the newly discovered period-luminosity relation that is obeyed by a group of fast-rotating B-type stars in the young open cluster NGC 3766. The observed relation consists of two sequences in the period versus magnitude diagram, at periods shorter than 0.5 days. We find …
gamma Doradus pulsation in two pre-main sequence stars discovered by CoRoT
在过去的几年里，在前主序星中的脉动已经被发现了好几次。但几乎所有的这些反射器都是盾牌座三角洲型的。年轻恒星中的剑鱼座γ型脉动已被理论预测，但缺乏观测证据。我们提出了调查的变化所造成的旋转和（gammaDoradus型）脉动在两个前主序成员的年轻疏散星团NGC 2264使用高精度的时间序列测光从CoRoT卫星和专用的高分辨率光谱。2008年3月，在专用的短期运行SRa 01期间，CoRoT卫星获得了NGC 2264 VAS 20和NGC 2264 VAS 87的时间序列测光。在2011年12月和2012年1月的短期SRa 05期间，CoRoT重新观察了NGC 2264 VAS 87。使用Period 04和SigSpec进行频率分析。使用等效宽度和光谱合成进行光谱分析。频率分析得出了10个和14个固有频率的NGC 2264 VAS 20和NGC 2264 VAS 87，分别从0到1.5c/d的范围内，这是由于旋转和脉动的组合所造成的。推导出NGC 2264 VAS 20的有效温度为6380 $\pm$ 150 K，NGC 2264 VAS 87的有效温度为6220 $\pm$ 150 K。这两颗恒星的星团成员资格是独立确认使用X射线通量，径向速度测量和自行在文献中。推导出的NGC 2264 VAS 20和NGC 2264 VAS 87的Li丰度分别为log n（Li）=3.34和3.…
Stars do not simply pop up on the main sequence. Before the stars arrive on the zero-age main sequence, they form in the collapses of molecular clouds, gain matter through accretion processes, and compress their cores until hydrogen can burn in full equilibrium. Although this evolutionary phase lasts a relatively short time, it is the imprint of these important physical processes that is often ignored by simplified assumptions. While asteroseismology offers a great tool to investigate these physical processes, studying pre-MS oscillations in turn has the potential to further advance the field.…
Modelling $δ$ Scuti pulsations: A new grid of p, g, and f modes across pre-main-sequence to post-main-sequence evolution
Centre for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland（南昆士兰大学天体物理中心）；Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney（悉尼大学物理学院悉尼天文研究所）
New infrared spectra of 33 Galactic carbon stars from FORCAST on SOFIA reveal strong connections between stellar pulsations and the dust and molecular chemistry in their circumstellar shells. A sharp boundary in overall dust content, which predominantly measures the amount of amorphous carbon, separates the semi-regular and Mira variables, with the semi-regulars showing little dust in their spectra and the Miras showing more. In semi-regulars, the contribution from SiC dust increases rapidly as the overall dust content grows, but in Miras, the SiC dust feature grows weaker as more dust is adde…
As many as 10\% of OB-type stars have global magnetic fields, which is surprising given their internal structure is radiative near the surface. A direct probe of internal structure is pulsations, and some OB-type stars exhibit pressure modes ($β$ Cep pulsators) or gravity modes (slowly pulsating B-type stars; SPBs); a few rare cases of hybrid $β$ Cep/SPBs occupy a narrow instability strip in the H-R diagram. The most precise fundamental properties of stars are obtained from eclipsing binaries (EBs), and those in clusters with known ages and metallicities provide the most stringent constraints …
KIC8264293 is a fast rotating B-type pulsator observed by Kepler satellite. Its photometric variability is mainly due to pulsations in high-order g modes. Besides, we detected a weak H$α$ emission. Thus, the second source of variability is the fluctuation in a disk around the star. The pulsational spectrum of KIC8264293 reveals a frequency grouping and period spacing pattern. Here, we present the thorough seismic analysis of the star based on these features. Taking into account the position of the star in the HR diagram and fitting the 14 frequencies that form the period spacing we constrain t…
Extended main-sequence turn-offs (eMSTO) are a commonly observed property of young clusters. A global theoretical interpretation for the eMSTOs is still lacking, but stellar rotation is considered a necessary ingredient to explain the eMSTO. We aim to assess the importance of core-boundary and envelope mixing in stellar interiors for the interpretation of eMSTOs in terms of one coeval population. We construct isochrone-clouds based on interior mixing profiles of stars with a convective core calibrated from asteroseismology of isolated galactic field stars. We fit these isochrone-clouds to the …
Context: Observations of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars with increasing spatial resolution reveal new layers of complexity of atmospheric processes on a variety of scales. Aim: To analyze the physical mechanisms that cause asymmetries and surface structures in observed images, we use detailed 3D dynamical simulations of AGB stars; these simulations self-consistently describe convection and pulsations. Methods: We used the CO5BOLD radiation-hydrodynamics code to produce an exploratory grid of global "star-in-a-box" models of the outer convective envelope and the inner atmosphere of AGB sta…
Semi-regular variables (SRVs) are similar to Miras in brightness, and they also follow PLRs, though not necessarily the same as Miras. As potential standard candles they are more challenging than Miras due to their smaller variability amplitudes and less regular light curves, but they are substantially more numerous and especially promising to probe old stellar populations. We aim to characterize the variability of SRVs, with focus on their connection with Miras, in order to prepare the ground for investigating their potential as distance indicators. We examine SRVs and Miras in the Magellanic…
V473 Lyr is a classical Cepheid which is unique in having substantial amplitude variations with a period of approximately 3.3 years, thought to be similar to the Blazhko variations in RR Lyrae stars. We obtained an {\it XMM-Newton} observation of this star to followup a previous detection in X-rays. Rather than the X-ray burst and rapid decline near maximum radius seen in $δ$ Cephei itself, the X-ray flux in V473 Lyr remained constant for a third of the pulsation cycle covered by the observation. Thus the X-rays are most probably not produced by the changes around the pulsation cycle. The X-ra…
Very high precision seismic space missions such as CoRoT and Kepler provide the means for testing the modelling of transport processes in stellar interiors. For some stars, such as $δ$ Scuti $γ$ Doradus and Be stars, for instance, the observed pulsation spectra are modified by rotation to such an extent that it prevents any fruitful interpretation. Our aim is to characterise acoustic pulsation spectra of realistic stellar models in order to be able to interpret asteroseismic data from such stars. The 2-dimensional oscillation code ACOR, which treats rotation in a non-perturbative manner, is us…
The search of secondary pulsations is carried out to understand the possible relations among the known parameters of variables of the cluster, NGC 6866. These pulsations arise due to the various ongoing physical phenomena of the variables. Moreover, pulsations of the variables are identified through the visual inspection of their frequency-amplitude distributions. A total of 18 variables among the 28 known variables are showing the secondary pulsation modes. Furthermore, these pulsation modes do not occur for PV, EA, EB, Elliptical and semi-regular. In addition, the field variables seem to be …
We perform mode identification for five $δ$ Scuti stars in the Pleiades star cluster, using custom light curves from K2 photometry. By creating échelle diagrams, we identify radial and dipole mode ridges, comprising a total of 28 radial and 16 dipole modes across the five stars. We also suggest possible identities for those modes that lie offset from the radial and dipole ridges. We calculate non-rotating stellar pulsation models to verify our mode identifications, finding good agreement within the age and metallicity constraints of the cluster. We also find that for all stars, the least dense…
Regular intrinsic brightness variations observed in many stars are caused by pulsations. These pulsations provide information on the global and structural parameters of the star. The pulsation periods range from seconds to years, depending on the compactness of the star and properties of the matter that forms its outer layers. Here, we report the discovery of more than a dozen of previously unknown short-period variable stars: blue large-amplitude pulsators. These objects show very regular brightness variations with periods in the range of 20-40 min and amplitudes of 0.2-0.4 mag in the optical…
Pulsation period decrease during the initial stage of the thermal pulse in the helium-burning shell of the Mira-type variable T UMi is investigated with numerical methods of stellar evolution and radiation hydrodynamics. To this end, a grid of evolutionary tracks was calculated for stars with masses on the main sequence $1M_\odot\le M_\textrm{ZAMS}\le 2.2M_\odot$ and metallicity $Z=0.01$. Selected models of AGB evolutionary sequences were used for determination of the initial conditions and the time--dependent inner boundary conditions for the equations of hydrodynamics describing evolutionary…
The semi-regular variable star RU Vulpeculae (RU Vul) is being observed visually since 1935. Its pulsation period and amplitude are declining since $\sim1954$. A leading hypothesis to explain the period decrease in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars such as RU Vul is an ongoing flash of the He-burning shell, also called a thermal pulse (TP), inside the star. In this paper, we present a CCD photometric light curve of RU Vul, derive its fundamental parameters, and test if the TP hypothesis can describe the observed period decline. We use CCD photometry to determine the present-day pulsation per…
The superslow pulsation X-ray pulsars in high mass X-ray binaries
在高质量X射线双星（HMXB）中存在一类特殊的X射线双星，它们的$P_{\rm spin}>1000$ s脉动非常慢。我们用积分观测研究了这些超低脉动中子星双星在硬X射线波段的时间和光谱性质。长期监测观测发现了两个源的自旋周期演化：4U 2206+54（$P_{\rm spin}\sim 5560$ s with $\dot{P}_{\rm spin}\sim 4.9\times 10^{-7}$ s s $^{-1}$）的自旋下降趋势和2S 0114+65（$P_{\rm spin}\sim 9600$ s with $\dot{P}_{\rm spin}\sim -1\times 10^{-6}$ s $^{-1}$）的长期自旋上升趋势。一个Be X射线瞬变，SXP 1062（$P_{\rm spin}\sim 1062$ s），也显示了一个快速的自旋下降率$\dot{P}_{\rm spin}\sim 3\times 10^{-6}$ s $^{-1}$在爆发。在标准的X射线双星演化模型中，除非中子星具有更强的表面磁场（$B>10^{14}$ G），否则这些超低速脉动中子星是不可能产生的。超低速自旋周期的物理起源仍然不清楚。讨论了超低速脉动X射线暴的可能成因和演化通道。超低速脉动X射线双星可能是较年轻的X射线双星系统，仍处于最终平衡态之前的快速演化阶段。或者，它们可能是一类新…
We analyse TESS light curves for 70 southern $λ$ Boo stars to identify binaries and to determine which of them pulsate as $δ$ Scuti stars. We find two heartbeat stars and two eclipsing binaries among the sample. We calculate that 81 percent of $λ$ Boo stars pulsate as $δ$ Sct variables, which is about twice that of normal stars over the same parameter space. We determine the temperatures and luminosities of the $λ$ Boo stars from photometry and Gaia DR2 parallaxes. A subset of 40 $λ$ Boo stars have 2-min TESS data, reliable temperatures and luminosities, and $δ$ Sct pulsation. We use Petersen …
Evolutionary tracks of stars with masses on the main sequence $0.84M_\odot\le M_\textrm{ZAMS}\le 0.95M_\odot$ and initial metal abundances $Z=0.006$ and $Z=0.01$ were computed under various assumptions about the mass loss rate at the red giant stage as well as at the AGB and the post--AGB stages. Among 160 evolutionary sequences we selected nearly 30 sequences where the final thermal flash of the helium shell source occurs in the early post--AGB stage when the ratio of the hydrogen envelope mass to the stellar mass ranges from 0.01 to 0.08. Selected evolutionary sequences were used for calcula…
Mira variables are asymptotic giant branch pulsating stars with long pulsation periods and large amplitudes in optical bands. By applying the random forest algorithm to the I-band light curves for the Miras in the Magellanic Clouds, we have classified these Miras into regular Miras and non-regular Miras. Wherein non-regular Miras exhibit a long-term variation in addition to their primary pulsation periods. Our results confirm that the period-luminosity relation for maximum light has a smaller dispersion, but only occurs on the regular oxygen-rich (O-rich) Miras, which we recommend to be applie…
We present the discovery of three new $β$ Cep pulsators, three new pulsators with frequency groupings, and frequency patterns in a B3Ib star, all of which show pulsations with frequencies as high as about 17 d$^{-1}$, with K2 space mission photometry. Based on a Fourier analysis and iterative pre-whitening we present a classification and evaluate the potential for asteroseismic modelling. We include the lists of pulsation frequencies for three new $β$ Cep pulsators, CD-28 12286, CD-27 10876, LS 3978, and additional pulsation mode frequencies for the known $β$ Cep pulsator HD 164741. In additio…
Radio pulsars exhibit an enormous diversity of single pulse behaviour that involves sudden changes in pulsation mode and nulling occurring on timescales of tens or hundreds of spin periods. The pulsations appear both chaotic and quasi-regular, which has hampered their interpretation for decades. Here I show that the pseudo-chaotic complexity of single pulses is caused by the viewing of a relatively simple radio beam that has a sector structure traceable to the magnetospheric charge distribution. The slow ExB drift of the sector beam, when sampled by the line of sight, produces the classical dr…
In the earliest phases of their evolution, stars gain mass through the acquisition of matter from their birth clouds. The widely accepted classical concept of early stellar evolution neglects the details of this accretion phase and assumes the formation of stars with large initial radii that contract gravitationally. In this picture, the common idea is that once the stars begin their fusion processes, they have forgotten their past. By analysing stellar oscillations in recently born stars, we show that the accretion history leaves a potentially detectable imprint on the stars' interior structu…
Learned et. al. proposed that a sufficiently advanced extra-terrestrial civilization may tickle Cepheid and RR Lyrae variable stars with a neutrino beam at the right time, thus causing them to trigger early and jogging the otherwise very regular phase of their expansion and contraction. This would turn these stars into beacons to transmit information throughout the galaxy and beyond. The idea is to search for signs of phase modulation (in the regime of short pulse duration) and patterns, which could be indicative of intentional, omnidirectional signaling. We have performed such a search among …
