High resolution spectroscopy of HgMn stars: a time of surprises

Abstract

We present the results of a high spectral resolution study of a few spectroscopic binaries with HgMn primary stars. We detect for the first time in the spectra of HgMn stars that for many elements the line profiles are variable over the rotation period. The strongest profile variations are found for the elements Pt, Hg, Sr, Y, Zr, Mn, Ga, He and Nd. The slight variability of He and Y is also confirmed from the study of high resolution spectra of another HgMn star, alpha And.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, to appear in "Precision Spectroscopy in Astrophysics