Spectroscopic monitoring of the Herbig Ae star HD 104237. I. Multiperiodic stellar oscillations

International audience; We present the results of multisite observations spanning two years of the pre-main-sequence Herbig Ae star HD 104237. The star was observed in high resolution spectroscopy (R >= 35 000) for a total of 157.3 h of effective exposure time, over 42 nights, corresponding to a data base of 1888 individual echelle spectra. We confirm that the HD 104237 system includes a spectroscopic binary, whose primary component HD 104237 A is pulsating. The resulting high quality radial velocity curve allows us to detect for the first time by spectroscopic means multiperiodic oscillations in a pre-main sequence star. Five different modes are detected with very high confidence, with frequencies ranging between 28.5 and 35.6 d-1, typical of delta Scuti pulsations; an additional 3 frequencies have been extracted from the data, but with a lower level of confidence. The pattern of frequencies indicates that at least some of the detected modes are non-radial. The precise orbit determination and the measurement of the double line spectroscopic binary observed around periastron enabled us to determine a mass ratio of 1.29 ± 0.02 between the primary and the secondary; based on the primary mass of 2.2 ± 0.1 M&sun; we conclude that the spectroscopic secondary HD 104237 b should have a mass of 1.7 ± 0.1 M&sun; and lie outside the pre-main sequence instability strip towards later spectral types. A search for pulsations in the radial velocity curve of the much weaker secondary component was not conclusive at this stage. The location of the primary in the HR diagram and its position with respect to recent pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks and isochrones implies a location of the secondary indicative of spectral type K3.