585 research outputs found
A new seismic analysis of Alpha Centauri
Models of alpha Cen A & B have been computed using the masses determined by
Pourbaix et al. (2002) and the data derived from the spectroscopic analysis of
Neuforge and Magain (1997). The seismological data obtained by Bouchy and
Carrier (2001, 2002) do help improve our knowledge of the evolutionary status
of the system. All the constraints are satisfied with a model which gives an
age of about 6 Gyr for the binary.Comment: to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysic
An asteroseismic study of the beta Cephei star 12 Lacertae: multisite spectroscopic observations, mode identification and seismic modelling
We present the results of a spectroscopic multisite campaign for the beta
Cephei star 12 (DD) Lacertae. Our study is based on more than thousand
high-resolution high S/N spectra gathered with 8 different telescopes in a time
span of 11 months. In addition we make use of numerous archival spectroscopic
measurements. We confirm 10 independent frequencies recently discovered from
photometry, as well as harmonics and combination frequencies. In particular,
the SPB-like g-mode with frequency 0.3428 1/d reported before is detected in
our spectroscopy. We identify the four main modes as (l1,m1) = (1, 1), (l2,m2)
= (0, 0), (l3,m3) = (1, 0) and (l4,m4) = (2, 1) for f1 = 5.178964 1/d, f2 =
5.334224 1/d, f3 = 5.066316 1/d and f4 = 5.490133 1/d, respectively. Our
seismic modelling shows that f2 is likely the radial first overtone and that
the core overshooting parameter alpha_ov is lower than 0.4 local pressure scale
heights.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, accepted in MNRA
First HARPSpol discoveries of magnetic fields in massive stars
In the framework of the Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) project, a
HARPSpol Large Program at the 3.6m-ESO telescope has recently started to
collect high-resolution spectropolarimetric data of a large number of Southern
massive OB stars in the field of the Galaxy and in many young clusters and
associations. In this Letter, we report on the first discoveries of magnetic
fields in two massive stars with HARPSpol - HD 130807 and HD 122451, and
confirm the presence of a magnetic field at the surface of HD 105382 that was
previously observed with a low spectral resolution device. The longitudinal
magnetic field measurements are strongly varying for HD 130807 from -100
G to 700 G. Those of HD 122451 and HD 105382 are less variable with
values ranging from -40 to -80 G, and from -300 to -600 G,
respectively. The discovery and confirmation of three new magnetic massive
stars, including at least two He-weak stars, is an important contribution to
one of the MiMeS objectives: the understanding of origin of magnetic fields in
massive stars and their impacts on stellar structure and evolution.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Lette
New spectroscopic and polarimetric observations of the A0 supergiant HD92207
Our recent search for the presence of a magnetic field in the bright early
A-type supergiant HD92207 using FORS2 in spectropolarimetric mode revealed the
presence of a longitudinal magnetic field of the order of a few hundred Gauss.
However, the definite confirmation of the magnetic nature of this object
remained pending due to the detection of short-term spectral variability
probably affecting the position of line profiles in left- and right-hand
polarized spectra. We present new magnetic field measurements of HD92207
obtained on three different epochs in 2013 and 2014 using FORS2 in
spectropolarimetric mode. A 3sigma detection of the mean longitudinal magnetic
field using the entire spectrum, _all=104+-34G, was achieved in
observations obtained in 2014 January. At this epoch, the position of the
spectral lines appeared stable. Our analysis of spectral line shapes recorded
in opposite circularly polarized light, i.e. in light with opposite sense of
rotation, reveals that line profiles in the light polarized in a certain
direction appear slightly split. The mechanism causing such a behaviour in the
circularly polarized light is currently unknown. Trying to settle the issue of
short-term variability, we searched for changes in the spectral line profiles
on a time scale of 8-10min using HARPS polarimetric spectra and on a time scale
of 3-4min using time series obtained with the CORALIE spectrograph. No
significant variability was detected on these time scales during the epochs
studied.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in
Astronomische Nachrichte
Rotation and Convective Core Overshoot in theta Ophiuchi
(abridged) Recent work on several beta Cephei stars has succeeded in
constraining both their interior rotation profile and their convective core
overshoot. In particular, a recent study focusing on theta$ Oph has shown that
a convective core overshoot parameter of alpha = 0.44 is required to model the
observed pulsation frequencies, significantly higher than for other stars of
this type. We investigate the effects of rotation and overshoot in early type
main sequence pulsators, and attempt to use the low order pulsation frequencies
to constrain these parameters. This will be applied to a few test models and
theta Oph. We use a 2D stellar evolution code and a 2D linear adiabatic
pulsation code to calculate pulsation frequencies for 9.5 Msun models. We
calculate low order p-modes for models with a range of rotation rates and
convective core overshoot parameters. Using these models, we find that the
convective core overshoot has a larger effect on the pulsation frequencies than
the rotation, except in the most rapidly rotating models considered. When the
differences in radii are accounted for by scaling the frequencies, the effects
of rotation diminish, but are not entirely accounted for. We find that
increasing the convective core overshoot decreases the large separation, while
producing a slight increase in the small separations. We created a model
frequency grid which spanned several rotation rates and convective core
overshoot values. Using a modified chi^2 statistic, we are able to recover the
rotation velocity and core overshoot for a few test models. Finally, we discuss
the case of the beta Cephei star theta Oph. Using the observed frequencies and
a fixed mass and metallicity, we find a lower overshoot than previously
determined, with alpha = 0.28 +/- 0.05. Our determination of the rotation rate
agrees well with both previous work and observations, around 30 km/s.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A
Abundance analysis, spectral variability, and search for the presence of a magnetic field in the typical PGa star HD19400
The aim of this study is to carry out an abundance determination, to search
for spectral variability and for the presence of a weak magnetic field in the
typical PGa star HD19400. High-resolution, high signal-to-noise HARPS
spectropolarimetric observations of HD19400 were obtained at three different
epochs in 2011 and 2013. For the first time, we present abundances of various
elements determined using an ATLAS12 model, including the abundances of a
number of elements not analysed by previous studies, such as Ne I, Ga II, and
Xe II. Several lines of As II are also present in the spectra of HD19400. To
study the variability, we compared the behaviour of the line profiles of
various elements. We report on the first detection of anomalous shapes of line
profiles belonging to Mn and Hg, and the variability of the line profiles
belonging to the elements Hg, P, Mn, Fe, and Ga. We suggest that the
variability of the line profiles of these elements is caused by their
non-uniform surface distribution, similar to the presence of chemical spots
detected in HgMn stars. The search for the presence of a magnetic field was
carried out using the moment technique and the SVD method. Our measurements of
the magnetic field with the moment technique using 22 Mn II lines indicate the
potential existence of a weak variable longitudinal magnetic field on the first
epoch. The SVD method applied to the Mn II lines indicates =-76+-25G on
the first epoch, and at the same epoch the SVD analysis of the observations
using the Fe II lines shows =-91+-35G. The calculated false alarm
probability values, 0.008 and 0.003, respectively, are above the value 10^{-3},
indicating no detection.Comment: 13+6 pages, 14 figures, 6+1 tables, including the online-only
material, accepted for publication in MNRA
Multisite spectroscopic seismic study of the beta Cep star V2052 Oph: inhibition of mixing by its magnetic field
We used extensive ground-based multisite and archival spectroscopy to derive
observational constraints for a seismic modelling of the magnetic beta Cep star
V2052 Ophiuchi. The line-profile variability is dominated by a radial mode
(f_1=7.14846 d^{-1}) and by rotational modulation (P_rot=3.638833 d). Two
non-radial low-amplitude modes (f_2=7.75603 d^{-1} and f_3=6.82308 d^{-1}) are
also detected. The four periodicities that we found are the same as the ones
discovered from a companion multisite photometric campaign (Handler et al.
2012) and known in the literature. Using the photometric constraints on the
degrees l of the pulsation modes, we show that both f_2 and f_3 are prograde
modes with (l,m)=(4,2) or (4,3). These results allowed us to deduce ranges for
the mass (M \in [8.2,9.6] M_o) and central hydrogen abundance (X_c \in
[0.25,0.32]) of V2052 Oph, to identify the radial orders n_1=1, n_2=-3 and
n_3=-2, and to derive an equatorial rotation velocity v_eq \in [71,75] km
s^{-1}. The model parameters are in full agreement with the effective
temperature and surface gravity deduced from spectroscopy. Only models with no
or mild core overshooting (alpha_ov \in [0,0.15] local pressure scale heights)
can account for the observed properties. Such a low overshooting is opposite to
our previous modelling results for the non-magnetic beta Cep star theta Oph
having very similar parameters, except for a slower surface rotation rate. We
discuss whether this result can be explained by the presence of a magnetic
field in V2052 Oph that inhibits mixing in its interior.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures and 5 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS
on 2012 August 1
Analysis of MERCATOR data Part I: variable B stars
We re-classified 31 variable B stars which were observed more than 50 times
in the Geneva photometric system with the P7 photometer attached to the
MERCATOR telescope (La Palma) during its first 3 years of scientific
observations. HD89688 is a possible beta Cephei/slowly pulsating B star hybrid
and the main mode of the COROT target HD180642 shows non-linear effects. The
Maia candidates are re-classified as either ellipsoidal variables or spotted
stars. Although the mode identification is still ongoing, all the
well-identified modes so far have a degree l = 0, 1 or 2.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in: Proceedings of JENAM 2005 'Distant
worlds', Communications in Asteroseismolog
Dynamical Spot Evolution in HD 11753
Our recent studies of HD 11753, a late B-type star showing a HgMn peculiarity for the first time revealed the presence of a fast dynamical evolution of chemical spots on the surface of this chemically peculiar early-type star. These observations suggest a hitherto unknown physical process operating in stars with outer radiative envelopes. Furthermore, we have also discovered existence of magnetic fields on HgMn stars that were up to now considered non-magnetic. Here we will discuss the dynamical spot evolution in HD 11753 in detail, and also summarize our new results on the magnetic fields of the AR Aur binary system
Ground-based observations of the beta Cephei CoRoT main target HD 180642: abundance analysis and mode identification
The known beta Cephei star HD 180642 was observed by the CoRoT satellite in
2007. From the very high-precision light curve, its pulsation frequency
spectrum could be derived for the first time (Degroote and collaborators). In
this paper, we obtain additional constraints for forthcoming asteroseismic
modeling of the target. Our results are based on both extensive ground-based
multicolour photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy. We determine T_eff =
24 500+-1000 K and log g = 3.45+-0.15 dex from spectroscopy. The derived
chemical abundances are consistent with those for B stars in the solar
neighbourhood, except for a mild nitrogen excess. A metallicity Z =
0.0099+-0.0016 is obtained. Three modes are detected in photometry. The degree
l is unambiguously identified for two of them: l = 0 and l = 3 for the
frequencies 5.48694 1/d and 0.30818 1/d, respectively. The radial mode is
non-linear and highly dominant with an amplitude in the U-filter about 15 times
larger than the strongest of the other modes. For the third frequency of
7.36673 1/d found in photometry, two possibilities remain: l = 0 or 3. In the
radial velocities, the dominant radial mode presents a so-called stillstand but
no clear evidence of the existence of shocks is observed. Four low-amplitude
modes are found in spectroscopy and one of them, with frequency 8.4079 1/d, is
identified as (l,m)=(3,2). Based on this mode identification, we finally deduce
an equatorial rotational velocity of 38+-15 km/s.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic
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