24 research outputs found
Barium & related stars and their white-dwarf companions I. Giant stars
This paper provides long-period and revised orbits for barium and S stars
adding to previously published ones. The sample of barium stars with strong
anomalies comprise all such stars present in the Lu et al. catalogue. We find
orbital motion for all barium and extrinsic S stars monitored. We obtain the
longest period known so far for a spectroscopic binary involving an S star,
namely 57 Peg with a period of the order of 100 - 500 yr. We present the mass
distribution for the barium stars, which ranges from 1 to 3 Msun, with a tail
extending up to 5 Msun in the case of mild barium stars. This high-mass tail
comprises mostly high-metallicity objects ([Fe/H] >= -0.1). Mass functions are
compatible with WD companions and we derive their mass distribution which
ranges from 0.5 to 1 Msun. Using the initial - final mass relationship
established for field WDs, we derived the distribution of the mass ratio q' =
MAGB,ini / MBa (where MAGB, ini is the WD progenitor initial mass, i.e., the
mass of the system former primary component) which is a proxy for the initial
mass ratio. It appears that the distribution of q' is highly non uniform, and
significantly different for mild and strong barium stars, the latter being
characterized by values mostly in excess of 1.4, whereas mild barium stars
occupy the range 1 - 1.4. We investigate as well the correlation between
abundances, orbital periods, metallicities, and masses (barium star and WD
companion). The 105 orbits of post-mass-transfer systems presented in this
paper pave the way for a comparison with binary-evolution models.Comment: This version 2 is the one accepted by A&A, after language edition.
Paper II about dwarf-Ba and subgiant-CH orbits by Escorza et al. is
arXiv:1904.0409
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and mass distribution of barium stars
With the availability of parallaxes provided by the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric
Solution, it is possible to construct the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD) of
barium and related stars with unprecedented accuracy. A direct result from the
derived HRD is that subgiant CH stars occupy the same region as barium dwarfs,
contrary to what their designations imply. By comparing the position of barium
stars in the HRD with STAREVOL evolutionary tracks, it is possible to evaluate
their masses, provided the metallicity is known. We used an average metallicity
[Fe/H] = -0.25 and derived the mass distribution of barium giants. The
distribution peaks around 2.5 Msun with a tail at higher masses up to 4.5 Msun.
This peak is also seen in the mass distribution of a sample of normal K and M
giants used for comparison and is associated with stars located in the red
clump. When we compare these mass distributions, we see a deficit of low-mass
(1 - 2 Msun) barium giants. This is probably because low-mass stars reach large
radii at the tip of the red giant branch, which may have resulted in an early
binary interaction. Among barium giants, the high-mass tail is however
dominated by stars with barium indices of less than unity, based on a visual
inspection of the barium spectral line; that is, these stars have a very
moderate barium line strength. We believe that these stars are not genuine
barium giants, but rather bright giants, or supergiants, where the barium lines
are strengthened because of a positive luminosity effect. Moreover, contrary to
previous claims, we do not see differences between the mass distributions of
mild and strong barium giants.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure
Constraints of the Physics of Low-mass AGB Stars from CH and CEMP Stars
We analyze a set of published elemental abundances from a sample of CH stars which are based on high resolution spectral analysis of ELODIE and SUBARU/HDS spectra. All the elemental abundances were derived from local thermodynamic equilibrium analysis using model atmospheres, and thus they represent the largest homogeneous abundance data available for CH stars to date. For this reason, we can use the set to constrain the physics and the nucleosynthesis occurring in low mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) s.tars. CH stars have been polluted in the past from an already extinct AGB companion and thus show s-process enriched surfaces. We discuss the effects induced on the surface AGB s-process distributions by different prescriptions for convection and rotation. Our reference theoretical FRUITY set fits only part of the observations. Moreover, the s-process observational spread for a fixed metallicity cannot be reproduced. At [Fe/H] > -1, a good fit is found when rotation and a different treatment of the inner border of the convective envelope are simultaneously taken into account. In order to increase the statistics at low metallicities, we include in our analysis a selected number of CEMP stars and, therefore, we compute additional AGB models down to [Fe/H] = -2.85. Our theoretical models are unable to attain the large [hs/ls] ratios characterizing the surfaces of those objects. We speculate on the reasons for such a discrepancy, discussing the possibility that the observed distribution is a result of a proton mixing episode leading to a very high neutron density (the so-called I-process)
Low-mass low-metallicity AGB stars as an efficient i-process site explaining CEMP-rs stars
Among Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) stars, some are found to be enriched
in s-process elements (CEMP-s), in r-process elements (CEMP-r) or in both s-
and r-process elements (CEMP-rs). The origin of the abundance differences
between CEMP-s and CEMP-rs stars is presently unknown. It has been claimed that
the i-process, whose site still remains to be identified, could better
reproduce CEMP-rs abundances than the s-process. We analyze high-resolution
spectra of 25 metal-poor stars, observed with the high-resolution HERMES
spectrograph mounted on the Mercator telescope, La Palma, or with the UVES/VLT
and HIRES/KECK spectrographs. We propose a new, robust classification method
for CEMP-s and CEMP-rs stars using eight heavy element abundances. The
abundance profiles of CEMP-s and CEMP-rs stars are derived and there appears to
be an abundance continuum between the two stellar classes. CEMP-rs stars
present most of the characteristics of extrinsic stars such as CEMP-s, CH,
Barium and extrinsic S stars, with an even larger binarity rate among CEMP-rs
stars than among CEMP-s stars. Stellar evolutionary tracks of an enhanced
carbon composition (consistent with our abundance determinations) are necessary
to explain the position of CEMP-s and CEMP-rs stars in the HR diagram using
Gaia DR2 parallaxes; they are found to lie mostly on the RGB. CEMP-rs stars can
be explained as being polluted by a low-mass, low-metallicity TP-AGB companion
experiencing i-process nucleosynthesis after proton ingestion during its first
convective thermal pulses. The global fitting of our i-process models to
CEMP-rs stars is as good as the one of our s-process models to CEMP-s stars. As
such, CEMP-rs stars could be renamed as CEMP-sr stars, since they represent a
particular manifestation of the s-process at low-metallicities. For these
objects a call for an exotic i-process site may not necessarily be required
anymore.Comment: 35 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A, Final versio
Barium & related stars and their white-dwarf companions II. Main-sequence and subgiant stars
Barium (Ba) dwarfs and CH subgiants are the less-evolved analogues of Ba and
CH giants. They are F- to G-type main-sequence stars polluted with heavy
elements by a binary companion when the latter was on the Asymptotic Giant
Branch (AGB). This companion is now a white dwarf that in most cases cannot be
directly detected. We present a large systematic study of 60 objects classified
as Ba dwarfs or CH subgiants. Combining radial-velocity measurements from
HERMES and SALT high-resolution spectra with radial-velocity data from CORAVEL
and CORALIE, we determine the orbital parameters of 27 systems. We also derive
their masses by comparing their location in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
with evolutionary models. We confirm that Ba dwarfs and CH subgiants are not at
different evolutionary stages and have similar metallicities, despite their
different names. Additionally, Ba giants appear significantly more massive than
their main-sequence analogues. This is likely due to observational biases
against the detection of hotter main-sequence post-mass-transfer objects.
Combining our spectroscopic orbits with the Hipparcos astrometric data, we
derive the orbital inclinations and the mass of the WD companion for four
systems. Since this cannot be done for all systems in our sample yet (but
should be with upcoming Gaia data releases), we also analyse the mass-function
distribution of our binaries. We can model this distribution with very narrow
mass distributions for the two components and random orbital orientation on the
sky. Finally, based on BINSTAR evolutionary models, we suggest that the orbital
evolution of low-mass Ba systems can be affected by a second phase of
interaction along the Red Giant Branch of the Ba star, impacting on the
eccentricities and periods of the giants.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A on the 5th of April, 201
Does the i-process operate at nearly solar metallicity?
A sample of 895 s-process-rich candidates has been found among the 454180
giant stars surveyed by LAMOST at low spectral resolution (R~1800). In a
previous study, taking advantage of the higher resolution (R~86 000) offered by
the the HERMES-Mercator spectrograph, we performed the re-analysis of 15 among
the brightest stars of this sample. Among these 15 program stars, having
close-to-solar metallicities, 11 showed mild to strong heavy element
overabundances. The nucleosynthesis process(es) at the origin of these
overabundances were however not questioned in our former study. We derive the
abundances in s- and r-process elements of the 15 targets in order to
investigate whether some stars also show an i-process signature, as sometimes
found in their lower metallicity counterparts (namely, the Carbon-Enhanced
Metal-Poor (CEMP)-rs stars). Abundances are derived from the high-resolution
HERMES spectra for Pr, Nd, Sm, and Eu, using the TURBOSPECTRUM radiative
transfer LTE code with MARCS model atmospheres. Using the new classification
scheme proposed in our recent study we find that two stars show overabundances
in both s- and r-process elements well above the level expected from the
Galactic chemical evolution, an analogous situation to the one of CEMP-rs stars
at lower metallicities. We compare the abundances of the most enriched stars
with the nucleosynthetic predictions from the STAREVOL stellar evolutionary
code and find abundances compatible with an i-process occurring in AGB stars.
Despite a larger number of heavy elements to characterize the enrichment
pattern, the limit between CEMP-s and CEMP-rs stars remains fuzzy. It is
however interesting to note that an increasing number of extrinsic stars are
found to have abundances better reproduced by an i-process pattern even at
close-to-solar metallicities.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 9 pages, 9 figures including the two
in appendi
A neutron star candidate in the long-period binary 56 UMa
56 UMa is a wide binary system that contains a chemically peculiar red giant
and a faint companion. Due to its surface chemical abundances, the red giant
was classified as a barium (Ba) star. This implies that the companion has to be
a white dwarf, since Ba stars form when mass is transferred to them from an
s-process rich Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) star. However, in the case of 56
UMa, the companion might be too massive to be the progeny of an AGB star that
efficiently produced s-process elements such as barium. In this Letter, we
revisit the orbital parameters of the system and perform a full spectral
analysis with the goal of investigating the Ba-star classification of the giant
and unravelling the nature of its faint companion. We combined radial-velocity
and astrometric data to refine the orbital parameters of the system, including
the orbital inclination and the companion mass. Then, we re-determined the
stellar parameters of the giant and its chemical abundances using
high-resolution HERMES spectra. Finally, we investigated the morphology of the
interstellar gas in the vicinity of the system. The faint component in 56 UMa
has a mass of M, which, together with the mixed s+r
abundance profile of the red giant, confirms that the giant is not a standard
barium star. Additionally, the clear identification of a cavity surrounding 56
UMa could indicate that a supernova explosion occurred about 10 5 years ago in
the system, suggesting that the faint companion might be a neutron star.
However, finding an evolutionary scenario that explains all the observables is
not trivial, so we discuss different possible configurations of the system and
their respective merits.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A
Study of chemically peculiar stars – I. High-resolution spectroscopy and K2 photometry of Am stars in the region of M44
ABSTRACT We present a study based on the high-resolution spectroscopy and K2 space photometry of five chemically peculiar stars in the region of the open cluster M44. The analysis of the high-precision photometric K2 data reveals that the light variations in HD 73045 and HD 76310 are rotational in nature and caused by spots or cloud-like co-rotating structures, which are non-stationary and short-lived. The time-resolved radial velocity measurements, in combination with the K2 photometry, confirm that HD 73045 does not show any periodic variability on time-scales shorter than 1.3 d, contrary to previous reports in the literature. In addition to these new rotational variables, we discovered a new heartbeat system, HD 73619, where no pulsational signatures are seen. The spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric analyses indicate that HD 73619 belongs to the peculiar Am class, with either a weak or no magnetic field, considering the 200-G detection limit of our study. The least-squares deconvolution profiles for HD 76310 indicate a complex structure in its spectra, suggesting that this star is either part of a binary system or surrounded by a cloud shell. When placed in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, all studied stars are evolved from the main sequence and situated in the δ Scuti instability strip. This work is relevant for further detailed studies of chemically peculiar stars, for example on inhomogeneities (including spots) in the absence of magnetic fields and the origin of the pulsational variability in heartbeat systems
Highly magnetized white dwarfs: Implications and current status
Over the last decade or so, we have been developing the possible existence of
highly magnetized white dwarfs with analytical stellar structure models. While
the primary aim was to explain the nature of the peculiar overluminous type Ia
supernovae, later on, these magnetized stars were found to have even wider
ranging implications including those for white dwarf pulsars, soft gamma-ray
repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars, as well as gravitational radiation. In
particular, we have explored in detail the mass-radius relations for these
magnetized stars and showed that they can be significantly different from the
Chandrasekhar predictions which essentially leads to a new super-Chandrasekhar
mass-limit. Recently, using the stellar evolution code STARS, we have
successfully modelled their formation and cooling evolution directly from the
magnetized main sequence progenitor stars. Here we briefly discuss all these
findings and conclude with their current status in the scientific community