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Register a new userDo Hertzsprung-Gap Stars Show Any Chemical Anomaly?
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With an aim to investigate how the surface abundances of intermediate-mass stars off the main sequence (evolving toward the red-giant stage) are affected by the evolution-induced envelope mixing, we spectroscopically determined the abundances of Li, C, N, O, and Na for selected 62 late A through G subgiants, giants, and supergiants, which are often called Hertzsprung-gap stars, by applying the synthetic spectrumfitting technique to Li I 6708, C I 5380, N I 7460, O I 6156-8, and Na I 6161 lines. A substantially large star-to-star dispersion (> 2 dex) was confirmed for the Li abundances, indicating that this vulnerable element can either suffer significant depletion before the red-giant stage or almost retain the primordial composition. Regarding C, N, O, and Na possibly altered by dredge-up of nuclear-processed products, their abundances turned out to show considerable scatter. This suggests that these abundance results are likely to suffer appreciable uncertainties, the reason for which is not clear but might be due to some kind of inadequate modeling for the atmospheric structure. Yet, paying attention to the fact that the relative abundance ratios between C, N, and O should be more reliable (because systematic errors may be canceled as lines of similar properties are used for these species), we could confirm a positive correlation between [O/C] (ranging from ~0 to ~+0.5 dex) and [N/C] (showing a larger spread from ~0 to ~+1 dex), which is reasonably consistent with the theoretical prediction. This observational detection of C deficiency as well as N enrichment in our program stars manifestly indicates that the dredge-up of H-burning product can take place before entering the red-giant stage, with its extent differing from star to star.
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We study a group of evolved M-stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, characterized by a peculiar spectral energy distribution. While the $9.7~mu$m feature arises from silicate particles, the whole infrared data seem to suggest the presence of an additional featureless dust species. We propose that the circumstellar envelopes of these sources are characterized by a dual dust chemistry, with an internal region, harbouring carbonaceous particles, and an external zone, populated by silicate, iron and alumina dust grains. Based on the comparison with results from stellar modelling that describe the dust formation process, we deduce that these stars descend from low-mass ($M < 2~M_{odot}$) objects, formed $1-4$ Gyr ago, currently evolving either in the post-AGB phase or through an after-pulse phase, when the shell CNO nuclear activity is temporarily extinguished. Possible observations able to confirm or disregard the present hypothesis are discussed.
As the opening review to the focus meeting ``Stellar Behemoths: Red Supergiants across the Local Universe, I here provide a brief introduction to red supergiants, setting the stage for subsequent contributions. I highlight some recent activity in the field, and identify areas of progress, areas where progress is needed, and how such progress might be achieved.
Context: When crossing the Hertzsprung gap, intermediate-mass stars develop a convective envelope. Fast rotators on the main sequence, or Ap star descendants, are expected to become magnetic active subgiants during this evolutionary phase. Aims: We compare the surface magnetic fields and activity indicators of two active, fast rotating red giants with similar masses and spectral class but diferent rotation rates - OU And (Prot=24.2 d) and 31 Com (Prot=6.8 d) - to address the question of the origin of their magnetism and high activity. Methods: Observations were carried out with the Narval spectropolarimeter in 2008 and 2013.We used the least squares deconvolution technique to extract Stokes V and I profiles to detect Zeeman signatures of the magnetic field of the stars. We provide Zeeman-Doppler imaging, activity indicator monitoring, and a precise estimation of stellar parameters. We use stellar evolutionary models to infer the evolutionary status and the initial rotation velocity on the main sequence. Results: The detected magnetic field of OU And is a strong one. Its longitudinal component Bl reaches 40 G and presents an about sinusoidal variation with reversal of the polarity. The magnetic topology of OU And is dominated by large scale elements and is mainly poloidal with an important dipole component, and a significant toroidal component. The detected magnetic field of 31 Com is weaker, with a magnetic map showing a more complex field geometry, and poloidal and toroidal components of equal contributions. The evolutionary models show that the progenitors of OU And and 31 Com must have been rotat Conclusions: OU And appears to be the probable descendant of a magnetic Ap star, and 31 Com the descendant of a relatively fast rotator on the main sequence.
The distribution of stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram narrates their evolutionary history and directly assesses their properties. Placing stars in this diagram however requires the knowledge of their distances and interstellar extinctions, which are often poorly known for Galactic stars. The spectroscopic Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (sHRD) tells similar evolutionary tales, but is independent of distance and extinction measurements. Based on spectroscopically derived effective temperatures and gravities of almost 600 stars, we derive for the first time the observational distribution of Galactic massive stars in the sHRD. While biases and statistical limitations in the data prevent detailed quantitative conclusions at this time, we see several clear qualitative trends. By comparing the observational sHRD with different state-of-the-art stellar evolutionary predictions, we conclude that convective core overshooting may be mass-dependent and, at high mass ($geq 15,M_odot$), stronger than previously thought. Furthermore, we find evidence for an empirical upper limit in the sHRD for stars with $T_{rm{eff}}$ between 10000 and 32000 K and, a strikingly large number of objects below this line. This over-density may be due to inflation expanding envelopes in massive main-sequence stars near the Eddington limit.
People cannot witness the stellar evolution process of a single star obviously in most cases because of its extremely secular time-scale, except for some special time nodes in it (such as the supernova explosion). But in some specific evolutionary phases, we have the chances to witness such process gradually on human times-scales. When a star evolved leaving from the main sequence, the hydrogen nuclei fusion in its core is gradually transferring into the shell. In the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, its evolutionary phase falls into the Hertzsprung gap, which is one of the most rapidly evolving phases in the life of a star. Here we report a discovery of a rapidly evolving high-amplitude $delta$ Scuti star KIC6382916 (J19480292+4146558) which is crossing the Hertzsprung gap. According to the analysis of the archival data, we find three independent pulsation modes of it, whose amplitudes and frequencies are variating distinctly in 4 years. The period variation rates of the three pulsation modes are one or two orders larger than the best seismic model constructed by the standard evolution theory, which indicates the current theory cannot precisely describe the evolution process in this rapidly evolving phase and needs further upgrades. Moreover, the newly introduced Interaction Diagram can help us to find the interactions between the three independent pulsation modes and their harmonics/combinations, which opens a new window to the future asteroseismology.
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