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Register a new userRR-Lyrae-type pulsations from a 0.26-solar-mass star in a binary system
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Added by
Grzegorz Pietrzynski prof.
Publication date
2012
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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RR Lyrae pulsating stars have been extensively used as tracers of old stellar populations for the purpose of determining the ages of galaxies, and as tools to measure distances to nearby galaxies. There was accordingly considerable interest when the RR Lyr star OGLE-BLG-RRLYR-02792 was found to be a member in an eclipsing binary system4, as the mass of the pulsator (hitherto constrained only by models) could be unambiguously determined. Here we report that RRLYR-02792 has a mass of 0.26 M_sun and therefore cannot be a classical RR Lyrae star. Through models we find that its properties are best explained by the evolution of a close binary system that started with 1.4 M_sun and 0.8 M_sun stars orbiting each other with an initial period of 2.9 days. Mass exchange over 5.4 Gyr produced the observed system, which is now in a very short-lived phase where the physical properties of the pulsator happen to place it in the same instability strip of the H-R diagram occupied by RR Lyrae stars. We estimate that samples of RR Lyr stars may contain a 0.2 percent contamination with systems similar to this one, implying that distances measured with RR Lyrae stars should not be significantly affected by these binary interlopers.
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We present the results of a photometry campaign of TU Com performed over a five-year time span. The analysis showed that the possible Blazhko period of 75 days published by the General Catalogue of Variable Stars is not correct. We identified two Blazhko periods of 43.6 and 45.5 days. This finding is based on measurement of 124 light maxima. A spectral analysis of the complete light curve confirmed these two periods. Besides the Blazhko amplitude and phase modulations, another long term periodic phase variation has been identified. This long term periodic variation affects the times of maximum light only and can be attributed to a light-travel time effect due to orbital motion of a binary system. The orbital parameters have been estimated by a nonlinear least-square fit applied to the set of (O-C) values. The Levenberg-Marquart algorithm has been used to perform the nonlinear least-square fit. The tentative orbital parameters include an orbital period of 1676 days, a minimal semi-major axis of 1.55 AU and a small eccentricity of 0.22. The orbital parameter estimation also used 33 (O-C) values obtained from the SWASP survey database. Spectroscopic radial velocity measurements are needed to confirm this binarity. If confirmed, TU Com would be the first Blazhko RR Lyrae star detected in a binary system.
RR Lyrae stars are classical pulsating stars. They pulsate mostly in the radial fundamental mode (RRab stars), in the radial first overtone mode (RRc stars), or in both modes simultaneously (RRd stars). Collection of variable stars from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) contains more than 38 000 RR Lyrae stars from the Galactic bulge. We analysed these data for RRc and RRd stars. We have found new members of radial-non-radial double-mode RR Lyrae stars, with characteristic period ratio of the two modes around 0.61. We increased the number of known RR Lyrae stars of this type by a factor of 8. We have also discovered another group of double-mode RR Lyrae stars. They pulsate in the first overtone and in another, unidentified mode, which has period longer than period of the undetected fundamental mode. The period ratios tightly cluster around 0.686. These proceedings are focused on this puzzling group. In particular, we report eight new members of the group.
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Despite their importance, very few RR Lyrae (RRL) stars have been known to reside in binary systems. We report on a search for binary RRL in the OGLE-III Galactic bulge data. Our approach consists in the search for evidence of the light-travel time effect in so-called observed minus calculated ($O-C$) diagrams. Analysis of 1952 well-observed fundamental-mode RRL in the OGLE-III data revealed an initial sample of 29 candidates. We used the recently released OGLE-IV data to extend the baselines up to 17 years, leading to a final sample of 12 firm binary candidates. We provide $O-C$ diagrams and binary parameters for this final sample, and also discuss the properties of 8 additional candidate binaries whose parameters cannot be firmly determined at present. We also estimate that $gtrsim 4$ per cent of the RRL reside in binary systems.
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