E. Niemczura

HD 181068: A Red Giant in a Triply Eclipsing Compact Hierarchical Triple System

The Kepler satellite reveals details of the oscillations patterns of an evolved star in an exotic triple-star system. Hierarchical triple systems comprise a close binary and a more distant component. They are important for testing theories of star formation and of stellar evolution in the presence of nearby companions. We obtained 218 days of Kepler photometry of HD 181068 (magnitude of 7.1), supplemented by ground-based spectroscopy and interferometry, which show it to be a hierarchical triple with two types of mutual eclipses. The primary is a red giant that is in a 45-day orbit with a pair of red dwarfs in a close 0.9-day orbit. The red giant shows evidence for tidally induced oscillations that are driven by the orbital motion of the close pair. HD 181068 is an ideal target for studies of dynamical evolution and testing tidal friction theories in hierarchical triple systems.

HD 50844: a new look at

Context. Aims. This work presents the results obtained by CoRoT on HDxa050844, the only δ Sct star observed in the CoRoT initial run (57.6xa0d). The aim of these CoRoT observations was to investigate and characterize for the first time the pulsational behaviour of a δ Sct star, when observed at a level of precision and with a much better duty cycle than from the ground. Methods. The 140u2009016 datapoints were analysed using independent approaches (SigSpec software and different iterative sine-wave fittings) and several checks performed (splitting of the timeseries in different subsets, investigation of the residual light curves and spectra). A level of 10 -5 xa0mag was reached in the amplitude spectra of the CoRoT timeseries. The space monitoring was complemented by ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy, which allowed the mode identification of 30xa0terms. Results. The frequency analysis of the CoRoT timeseries revealed hundreds of terms in the frequency range 0–30xa0d -1 . All the cross-checks confirmed this new result. The initial guess that δ Sct stars have a very rich frequency content is confirmed. The spectroscopic mode identification gives theoretical support since very high-degree modes (up to

\delta

ell=14

Scuti stars from CoRoT space photometry

) are identified. We also prove that cancellation effects are not sufficient in removing the flux variations associated to these modes at the noise level of the CoRoT measurements. The ground-based observations indicate that HDxa050844 is an evolved star that is slightly underabundant in heavy elements, located on the Terminal Age Main Sequence. Probably due to this unfavourable evolutionary status, no clear regular distribution is observed in the frequency set. The predominant term (

HD 174884: a strongly eccentric, short-period early-type binary system discovered by CoRoT ⋆

f_1=6.92

The γ Doradus CoRoT target HD 49434: I. Results from the ground-based campaign

xa0d -1 ) has been identified as the fundamental radial mode combining ground-based photometric and spectroscopic data.u2029 Conclusions.

CoRoT high-precision photometry of the B0.5 IV star HD 51756

Accurate photometric CoRoT space observations of a secondary seismological target, HD 174884, led to the discovery that this star is an astrophysically important double-lined eclipsing spectroscopic binary in an eccentric orbit (e ∼ 0.3), unusual for its short 3. 65705 orbital period. The high eccentricity, coupled with the orientation of the binary orbit in space, explains the very unusual observed light curve with strongly unequal primary and secondary eclipses having the depth ratio of 1-to-100 in the CoRoT “seismo” passband. Without the high accuracy of the CoRoT photometry, the secondary eclipse, 1.5 mmag deep, would have gone unnoticed. A spectroscopic follow-up program provided 45 high dispersion spectra. The analysis of the CoRoT light curve was performed with an adapted version of PHOEBE that supports CoRoT passbands. The final solution was obtained by a simultaneous fitting of the light and the radial velocity curves. Individual star spectra were obtained by spectrum disentangling. The uncertainties of the fit were achieved by bootstrap resampling and the solution uniqueness was tested by heuristic scanning. The results provide a consistent picture of the system composed of two late B stars. The Fourier analysis of the light curve fit residuals yields two components, with orbital frequency multiples and an amplitude of ∼0.1 mmag, which are tentatively interpreted as tidally induced pulsations. An extensive comparison with theoretical models is carried out by means of the Levenberg-Marquardt minimization technique, and the discrepancy between the models and the derived parameters is discussed. The best fitting models yield a young system age of 125 million years which is consistent with the eccentric orbit and synchronous component rotation at periastron.

Abundance analysis of prime B-type targets for asteroseismology - II. B6–B9.5 stars in the field of view of the CoRoT satellite

Context. We present an extensive ground-based photometric and spectroscopic campaign of the γ Dor CoRoT target HD 49434. This campaign was a preparatory step of the CoRoT satellite observations, which occurred between October 2007 and March 2008. Aims. With satellite data, detection of low-degree pulsation modes only is achievable, and, as no filters are available, with poor identification. Ground-based data promise eventually to identify additional modes and provide extra input for the identification: spectroscopic data allows the detection of high-degree modes and an estimate of the azimuthal number m. We attempt to detect and identify as many pulsation modes as possible from the ground-based dataset of the γ Dor star HD 49434, and anticipate the CoRoT results. Methods. We searched for frequencies in the multi-colour variations, the pixel-to-pixel variations across the line profiles, and the moments variations in a large dataset, consisting of both multi-colour photometric and spectroscopic data from different observatories, using different frequency analysis methods. We performed a tentative mode identification of the spectroscopic frequencies using the Moment Method and the Intensity Period Search Method. We also completed an abundance analysis. Results. The frequency analysis clearly indicates the presence of four frequencies in the 0.2−1.7 d −1 interval, as well as six frequencies in the 5−12 d −1 domain. The low frequencies are typical of γ Dor variables, while the high frequencies are common to δ Sct pulsators. We propose that the frequency 2.666 d −1 is the rotational frequency. All modes, for which an identification was possible, appear to be high-degree modes (3 ≤ � ≤ 8). We did not find evidence for a possible binary nature of the star HD 49434. The element abundances that we derived are consistent with values obtained in previous analyses. Conclusions. We classify the γ Dor star HD 49434 as a hybrid pulsator, which pulsates simultaneously in p -a ndg-modes. This implies that HD 49434 is an extremely interesting target for asteroseismic modelling.

Asteroseismology of the

Context. OB stars are important constituents for the ecology of the Universe, and there are only a few studies on their pulsational properties detailed enough to provide important feedback on current evolutionary models. Aims. Our goal is to analyse and interpret the behaviour present in the CoRoT light curve of the B0.5 IV star HD 51756 observed during the second long run of the space mission and to determine the fundamental stellar parameters from ground-based spectroscopy gathered with the Coralie and Harps instruments after checking for signs of variability and binarity, thus making a step further in mapping the top of the β Cep instability strip. Methods. We compared the newly obtained high-resolution spectra with synthetic spectra of late O-type and early B-type stars computed on a grid of stellar parameters. We matched the results with evolutionary tracks to estimate stellar parameters. We used various time series analysis tools to explore the nature of the variations present in the light curve. Additional calculations were carried out based on distance and historical position measurements of the components to impose constraints on the binary orbit. Results. We find that HD 51756 is a wide binary with both a slow (v sini ≈ 28 km s −1 )a nd af ast (v sini ≈ 170 km s −1 ) early-B rotator whose atmospheric parameters are similar (Teff ≈ 30 000 K and log g ≈ 3.75). We are unable to detect pulsation in any of the components, and we interpret the harmonic structure in the frequency spectrum as a sign of rotational modulation, which is compatible with the observed and deduced stellar parameters of both components. Conclusions. The non-detection of pulsation modes provides a feedback on the theoretical treatment, given that non-adiabatic computations applied to appropriate stellar models predict the excitation of both pressure and gravity modes for the fundamental parameters of this star.

\beta

Aims. The main goal of the ground-based seismology support program for the CoRoT mission was to obtain photometric and spectroscopic data for stars in the fields monitored by the satellite. These ground-based observations were collected in the GAUDI archive. High-resolution spectra of more than 200 B-type stars are available in this database, and about 45% of them is analysed here. Methods. To derive the effective temperature of the stars, we used photometric indices. Surface gravities were obtained by comparing observed and theoretical Balmer line profiles. To determine the chemical abundances and rotational velocities, we used a spectrum synthesis method, which consisted of comparing the observed spectrum with theoretical ones based on the assumption of LTE. Results. Atmospheric parameters, chemical abundances, and rotational velocities were determined for 89 late-B stars. The dominant species in their spectra are iron-peak elements. The average Fe abundance is 7.24 ± 0.45 dex. The average rotational velocity is 126 km s −1 , but there are 13 and 20 stars with low and moderate V sini values, respectively. The analysis of this sample of 89 late B-type stars reveals many chemically peculiar (CP) stars. Some of them were previously known, but at least 9 new CP candidates, among which at least two HgMn stars, are identified in our study. These CP stars as a group exhibit V sini values lower than the stars with normal surface chemical composition.