HD 97394: a magnetic Ap star with high cerium overabundance

We report a spectroscopic analysis of the chemically peculiar Ap star HD 97394. The stellar spectrum is rich in lines of rare earth elements with large overabundances, especially cerium, gadolinium and europium. Enhancement of the abundances of these rare earths shows this star to be one of the most peculiar stars. Very large overabundances were found for lines of Ce iii and Eu iii. Abundances obtained from second ionization lines of Nd, Ce and Eu are about 2 dex higher than for those of the first ionization. From partially split Zeeman components of the Fe ii 6149.258 Å line and from synthetic modelling, a global magnetic field of 3.1 kG was measured. We tested for pulsation of the star with high time resolution spectroscopy obtained with the ESO Very Large Telescope. We place an upper limit to any pulsation amplitude of 30–40 m s−1 for individual lines of rare earth elements, of 10–20 m s−1 for the combination of several lines, and of 6–10 m s−1 for cross-correlation over large spectral bands

Ap stars with resolved magnetically split lines: Magnetic field determinations from Stokes II and VV spectra

We present the results of a systematic study of the magnetic fields and other properties of the Ap stars with resolved magnetically split lines. This study is based on new measurements of the mean magnetic field modulus, the mean longitudinal magnetic field, the crossover, the mean quadratic magnetic field, and the radial velocity of 43 stars, complemented by magnetic data from the literature for 41 additional stars. Stars with resolved magnetically split lines represent a significant fraction, of the order of several percent, of the whole population of Ap stars. Most of them are genuine slow rotators, whose consideration provides new insight into the long-period tail of the distribution of the periods of the Ap stars. Emerging correlations between rotation periods and magnetic properties provide important clues for the understanding of the braking mechanisms that have been at play in the early stages of stellar evolution. The geometrical structures of the magnetic fields of Ap stars with magnetically resolved lines appear in general to depart slightly, but not extremely, from centred dipoles. However, there are a few remarkable exceptions, which deserve further consideration. We suggest that pulsational crossover can be observed in some stars; if confirmed, this would open the door to the study of non-radial pulsation modes of degree $\ell$ too high for photometric or spectroscopic observations. How the lack of short orbital periods among binaries containing an Ap component with magnetically resolved lines is related with their (extremely) slow rotation remains to be fully understood, but the very existence of acorrelation between the two periods lends support to the merger scenario for the origin of Ap stars.Comment: 90 pages, 92 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Magnetic chemically peculiar stars

Chemically peculiar (CP) stars are main-sequence A and B stars with abnormally strong or weak lines for certain elements. They generally have magnetic fields and all observables tend to vary with the same period. Chemically peculiar stars provide a wealth of information; they are natural atomic and magnetic laboratories. After a brief historical overview, we discuss the general properties of the magnetic fields in CP stars, describe the oblique rotator model, explain the dependence of the magnetic field strength on the rotation, and concentrate at the end on HgMn stars.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, chapter in "Determination of Atmospheric Parameters of B-, A-, F- and G-Type Stars", Springer (2014), eds. E. Niemczura, B. Smalley, W. Pyc

Constraining the fundamental parameters of the O-type binary CPD-41degr7733

Using a set of high-resolution spectra, we studied the physical and orbital properties of the O-type binary CPD-41 7733, located in the core of \ngc. We report the unambiguous detection of the secondary spectral signature and we derive the first SB2 orbital solution of the system. The period is 5.6815 +/- 0.0015 d and the orbit has no significant eccentricity. CPD-41 7733 probably consists of stars of spectral types O8.5 and B3. As for other objects in the cluster, we observe discrepant luminosity classifications while using spectroscopic or brightness criteria. Still, the present analysis suggests that both components display physical parameters close to those of typical O8.5 and B3 dwarfs. We also analyze the X-ray light curves and spectra obtained during six 30 ks XMM-Newton pointings spread over the 5.7 d period. We find no significant variability between the different pointings, nor within the individual observations. The CPD-41 7733 X-ray spectrum is well reproduced by a three-temperature thermal mekal model with temperatures of 0.3, 0.8 and 2.4 keV. No X-ray overluminosity, resulting e.g. from a possible wind interaction, is observed. The emission of CPD-41 7733 is thus very representative of typical O-type star X-ray emission.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, 15 pages, 9 figure

A rival for Babcock's star: the extreme 30-kG variable magnetic field in the Ap star HD 75049

The extraordinary magnetic Ap star HD 75049 has been studied with data obtained with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope and 2.2-m telescopes. Direct measurements reveal that the magnetic field modulus at maximum reaches 30 kG. The star shows photometric, spectral and magnetic variability with a rotation period of 4.049 d. Variations of the mean longitudinal magnetic field can be described to first order by a centred dipole model with an inclination i= 25°, an obliquity β= 60° and a polar field Bp= 42 kG. The combination of the longitudinal and surface magnetic field measurements implies a radius of R= 1.7 R⊙, suggesting that the star is close to the zero-age main sequence. HD 75049 displays moderate overabundances of Si, Ti, Cr, Fe and large overabundances of rare earth elements. This star has the second strongest magnetic field of any main-sequence star after Babcock's star, HD 215441, which it rivals

Magnetic stars from a FEROS cool Ap star survey

New magnetic Ap stars with split Zeeman components are presented. These stars were discovered from observations with the Fibre-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS) spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2.2-m telescope. 15 new magnetic stars are analysed here. Several stars with very strong magnetic fields were found, including HD 70702 with a 15-kG magnetic field strength, and HD 168767 with a 16.5-kG magnetic field strength measured using split Zeeman components of spectral lines and by comparison with synthetic calculations. The physical parameters of the stars were estimated from photometric and spectroscopic data. Together with previously published results for stars with strong magnetic fields, the relationship between magnetic field strength and rotation period is discussed