Search

The existence of pulsations in HgMn stars is still being debated. To provide the first unambiguous observational detection of pulsations in this class of chemically peculiar objects, the bright star HD 45975 was monitored for nearly two months by the CoRoT satellite. Independent analyses of the light curve provide evidence of monoperiodic variations with a frequency of 0.7572 d-1 and a peak-topeak amplitude of ~2800 ppm. Multisite, ground-based spectroscopic observations overlapping the CoRoT observations show the star to be a long-period, single-lined binary. Furthermore, with the notable exception of mercury, they reveal the same periodicity as in photometry in the line moments of chemical species exhibiting strong overabundances (e.g., Mn and Y). In contrast, lines of other elements do not show significant variations. As found in other HgMn stars, the pattern of variability consists in an absorption bump moving redwards across the line profiles. We argue that the photometric and spectroscopic changes are more consistent with an interpretation in terms of rotational modulation of spots at the stellar surface. In this framework, the existence of pulsations producing photometric variations above the ~50 ppm level is unlikely in HD 45975. This provides strong constraints on the excitation/damping of pulsation modes in this HgMn star. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulsating stars in eclipsing binary systems are powerful tools to test stellar models. Binarity enables us to constrain the pulsating component's physical parameters and this knowledge drastically improves the input physics for asteroseismic studies. The study of stellar oscillations then allows us to improve our understanding of stellar interiors and stellar evolution. The space mission CoRoT discovered several promising objects suitable for these studies. They were photometrically observed with unprecedented accuracy, but needed spectroscopic follow-up. A promising target was the relatively bright eclipsing system CoRoT 102918586, which turned out to be a double-lined spectroscopic binary and also showed clear evidence of γ Dor type pulsations. With the aim of combining the information from binarity and pulsation and fully exploiting the potential of CoRoT photometry we obtained phase resolved high-resolution spectroscopy with the Sandiford spectrograph at the McDonald 2.1m telescope and the FEROS spectrograph at the ESO 2.2 m telescope. Spectroscopy yielded both the radial velocity curves and, after spectra disentangling, the component effective temperatures, metallicity, and line-of-sight projected rotational velocities. The CoRoT light curve was analyzed with an iterative procedure, devised to disentangle eclipses from pulsations. The eclipsing binary light curve analysis, combined with the spectroscopic results, provided an accurate determination of the system parameters, and the comparison with evolutionary models provided strict constraints on the system age. Finally, the residuals obtained after subtraction of the best-fitting eclipsing binary model were analyzed to determine the pulsator properties. We achieved a complete and consistent description of the system. The primary star pulsates with typical γ Dor frequencies and shows a splitting in period that is consistent with high order g-mode pulsations in a star of the corresponding physical parameters. The value of the splitting, in particular, is consistent with pulsations in ι = 1 modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. The Baade-Wesselink method of distance determination is based on the oscillations of pulsating stars. The key parameter of this method is the projection factor used to convert the radial velocity into the pulsation velocity. Our analysis was aimed at deriving for the first time the projection factor of δ Scuti stars, using high-resolution spectra of the high-amplitude pulsator AI Vel and of the fast rotator β Cas. Methods. The geometric component of the projection factor (i.e. p0) was calculated using a limb-darkening model of the intensity distribution for AI Vel, and a fast-rotator model for β Cas. Then, using SOPHIE/OHP data for β Cas and HARPS/ESO data for AI Vel, we compared the radial velocity curves of several spectral lines forming at different levels in the atmosphere and derived the velocity gradient associated to the spectral-line-forming regions in the atmosphere of the star. This velocity gradient was used to derive a dynamical projection factor p. Results. We find a flat velocity gradient for both stars and finally p = p0 = 1.44 for AI Vel and p = p0 = 1.41 for β Cas. By comparing Cepheids and δ Scuti stars, these results bring valuable insights into the dynamical structure of pulsating star atmospheres. They suggest that the period-projection factor relation derived for Cepheids is also applicable to δ Scuti stars pulsating in a dominant radial mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. OB stars are important building blocks of the Universe, but we have only a limited sample of them well understood enough from an asteroseismological point of view to provide feedback on the current evolutionary models. Our study adds one special case to this sample, with more observational constraints than for most of these stars. Aims. Our goal is to analyse and interpret the pulsational behaviour of the B3?IV star HD?43317 using the CoRoT light curve along with the ground-based spectroscopy gathered by the HARPS instrument. This way we continue our efforts to map the β?Cep and SPB instability strips. Methods. We used different techniques to reveal the abundances and fundamental stellar parameters from the newly-obtained high-resolution spectra. We used various time-series analysis tools to explore the nature of variations present in the light curve. We calculated the moments and used the pixel-by-pixel method to look for line profile variations in the high-resolution spectra. Results. We find that HD?43317 is a single fast rotator (vrot ≈ 50% ? vcrit) and hybrid SPB/β?Cep-type pulsator with Solar metal abundances. We interpret the variations in photometry and spectroscopy as a result of rotational modulation connected to surface inhomogeneities, combined with the presence of both g and p mode pulsations. We detect a series of ten consecutive frequencies with an almost constant period spacing of 6339?s as well as a second shorter sequence consisting of seven frequencies with a spacing of 6380?s. The dominant frequencies fall in the regime of gravito-inertial modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]