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Register a new userActive red giants: close binaries versus single rapid rotators
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The objective of this work is to determine what fraction of red-giant (RG) stars shows photometric rotational modulation, and understand its origin. One of the underlying questions is the role of close binarity in this population, standing upon the fact that RGs in short-period binary systems (<150 days or so) have been observed to display strong rotational modulation. We select a sample of about 4500 relatively bright RGs observed by Kepler, and show that 370 of them (8%) display rotational modulation. Almost all have oscillation amplitudes below the median of the sample, while 30 of them are not oscillating at all. Of the 85 of these RGs with rotational modulation chosen for follow-up radial-velocity observation and analysis, 34 show clear evidence of spectroscopic binarity. Surprisingly, 26 of the 30 non-oscillators are in this group of binaries. To the contrary, about 85% of the active RGs with detectable oscillations are not part of close binaries. With the help of stellar masses and evolutionary states computed from the oscillation properties, it appears that low-mass red-giant branch stars tend to be magnetically inactive, while intermediate-mass ones tend to be highly active. The opposite trends are true for helium-core burning (red clump) stars, whereby the lower-mass clump stars are comparatively more active and the higher-mass ones less so. In other words, we find that low-mass red-giant branch stars gain angular momentum as they evolve to clump stars, while higher-mass ones lose angular momentum. The trend observed with low-mass stars leads to possible scenarios of planet engulfment or other merging events during the shell-burning phase. Regarding intermediate-mass stars, the rotation periods are long with respect to theoretical expectations reported in the literature, which reinforces the existence of an unidentified sink of angular momentum after the main sequence.
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[Abridged] We test the evolutionary model of cool close binaries on the observed properties of near contact binaries (NCBs). Those with a more massive component filling the Roche lobe are SD1 binaries whereas in SD2 binaries the Roche lobe filling component is less massive. Our evolutionary model assumes that, following the Roche lobe overflow by the more massive component (donor), mass transfer occurs until mass ratio reversal. A binary in an initial phase of mass transfer, before mass equalization, is identified with SD1 binary. We show that the transferred mass forms an equatorial bulge around the less massive component (accretor). Its presence slows down the mass transfer rate to the value determined by the thermal time scale of the accretor, once the bulge sticks out above the Roche lobe. It means, that in a binary with a (typical) mass ratio of 0.5 the SD1 phase lasts at least 10 times longer than resulting from the standard evolutionary computations neglecting this effect. This is why we observe so many SD1 binaries. Our explanation is in contradiction to predictions identifying the SD1 phase with a broken contact phase of the Thermal Relaxation Oscillations model. The continued mass transfer, past mass equalization, results in mass ratio reversed. SD2 binaries are identified with this phase. Our model predicts that the time scales of SD1 and SD2 phases are comparable to one another. Analysis of the observations of 22 SD1 binaries, 27 SD2 binaries and 110 contact binaries (CBs) shows that relative number of both types of NCBs favors similar time scales of both phases of mass transfer. Total masses, orbital angular momenta and orbital periods of SD1 and SD2 binaries are indistinguishable from each other whereas they differ substantially from the corresponding parameters of CBs. We conclude that the results of the analysis fully support the model presented in this paper.
The space-borne missions CoRoT and Kepler are indiscreet. With their asteroseismic programs, they tell us what is hidden deep inside the stars. Waves excited just below the stellar surface travel throughout the stellar interior and unveil many secrets: how old is the star, how big, how massive, how fast (or slow) its core is dancing. This paper intends to emph{paparazze} the red giants according to the seismic pictures we have from their interiors.
Carbon-deficient red giants (CDRGs) are a rare class of peculiar red giants, also called weak G-band or weak-CH stars. Their atmospheric compositions show depleted carbon, a low 12C/13C isotopic ratio, and an overabundance of nitrogen, indicating that the material at the surface has undergone CN-cycle hydrogen-burning. I present Stromgren uvby photometry of nearly all known CDRGs. Barium stars, having an enhanced carbon abundance, exhibit the Bond-Neff effect--a broad depression in their energy distributions at ~4000 A, recently confirmed to be due to the CH molecule. This gives Ba II stars unusually low Stromgren c1 photometric indices. I show that CDRGs, lacking CH absorption, exhibit an anti-Bond-Neff effect: higher c1 indices than normal red giants. Using precise parallaxes from Gaia DR2, I plot CDRGs in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) and compare them with theoretical evolution tracks. Most CDRGs lie in a fairly tight clump in the CMD, indicating initial masses in the range ~2 to 3.5 Msun, if they have evolved as single stars. It is unclear whether they are stars that have just reached the base of the red-giant branch and the first dredge-up of CN-processed material, or are more highly evolved helium-burning stars in the red-giant clump. About 10% of CDRGs have higher masses of ~4 to 4.5 Msun, and exhibit unusually high rotational velocities. I show that CDRGs lie at systematically larger distances from the Galactic plane than normal giants, possibly indicating a role of binary mass-transfer and mergers. CDRGs continue to present a major puzzle for our understanding of stellar evolution.
Eclipsing binaries (EBs) are unique benchmarks for stellar evolution. On the one hand, detached EBs hosting at least one star with detectable solar-like oscillations constitute ideal test objects to calibrate asteroseismic measurements. On the other hand, the oscillations and surface activity of stars that belong to EBs offer unique information about the evolution of binary systems. This paper builds upon previous works dedicated to red giant stars (RG) in EBs -- 20 known systems so far -- discovered by the NASA Kepler mission. Here we report the discovery of 16 RGs in EBs also from the Kepler data. This new sample includes three SB2-EBs with oscillations and six close systems where the RG display a clear surface activity and complete oscillation suppression. Based on dedicated high-resolution spectroscopic observations (Apache Point Observatory, Observatoire de Haute Provence), we focus on three main aspects. From the extended sample of 14 SB2-EBs, we first confirm that the simple application of the asteroseismic scaling relations to RGs overestimates masses and radii of RGs, by about 15% and 5%. This bias can be reduced by employing either new asteroseismic reference values for RGs, or model-based corrections of the asteroseismic parameters. Secondly, we confirm that close binarity leads to a high level of photometric modulation (up to 10%), and a suppression of solar-like oscillations. In particular, we show that it reduces the lifetime of radial modes by a factor of up to 10. Thirdly, we use our 16 new systems to complement previous observational studies that aimed at constraining tidal dissipation in interacting binaries. In particular, we identify systems with circular orbits despite relatively young ages, which suggests exploring complementary tidal dissipation mechanisms in the future. Finally, we report the measurements of mass, radius, and age of three M-dwarf companion stars.
The detection of mixed modes in red giants with space missions CoRoT and Kepler has revealed their deep internal structure. These modes allow us to characterize the pattern of pressure modes (through the measurement of their asymptotic frequency separation $Delta u$) and the pattern of gravity modes (through the determination of their asymptotic period spacing $DeltaPi_1$). It has been shown that red giant branch (RGB) stars regroup on a well-defined sequence in the $Delta u$-$DeltaPi_1$ plane. Our first goal is to theoretically explain the features of this sequence and understand how it can be used to probe the interiors of red giants. Using a grid of red giant models computed with MESA, we demonstrate that red giants join the $Delta u$-$DeltaPi_1$ sequence whenever electron degeneracy becomes strong in the core. We argue that this can be used to estimate the central densities of these stars, and potentially to measure the amount of core overshooting during the main sequence part of the evolution. We also investigate a puzzling subsample of red giants that are located below the RGB sequence, in contradiction with stellar evolution models. After checking the measurements of the asymptotic period spacing for these stars, we show that they are mainly intermediate-mass red giants. This is doubly peculiar because these stars should have non-degenerate cores and are expected to be located well above the RGB sequence. We show that these peculiarities are well accounted for if these stars result from the interaction between two low-mass ($Mlesssim2,M_odot$) close companions during the red giant branch phase. If the secondary component has already developed a degenerate core before mass transfer begins, it becomes an intermediate-mass giant with a degenerate core. The secondary star is then located below the degenerate sequence, in agreement with the observations.
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