We report the analysis of the double-mode RR Lyrae star EPIC 205209951, the first modulated RRd star observed from space. The amplitude and phase modulation are present in both modes.
We present 29 likely members of the young $rho$ Oph or Upper Sco regions of recent star formation that exhibit accretion burst type light curves in $K2$ time series photometry. The bursters were identified by visual examination of their ~80 day light
curves, though all satisfy the $M < -0.25$ flux asymmetry criterion for burst behavior defined by Cody et al. (2014). The burst sources represent $approx$9% of cluster members with strong infrared excess indicative of circumstellar material. Higher amplitude burster behavior is correlated with larger inner disk infrared excesses, as inferred from $WISE$ $W1-W2$ color. The burst sources are also outliers in their large H$alpha$ emission equivalent widths. No distinction between bursters and non-bursters is seen in stellar properties such as multiplicity or spectral type. The frequency of bursters is similar between the younger, more compact $rho$ Oph region, and the older, more dispersed Upper Sco region. The bursts exhibit a range of shapes, amplitudes (~10-700%), durations (~1-10 days), repeat time scales (~3-80 days), and duty cycles (~10-100%). Our results provide important input to models of magnetospheric accretion, in particular by elucidating the properties of accretion-related variability in the low state between major longer duration events such as EX Lup and FU Ori type accretion outbursts. We demonstrate the broad continuum of accretion burst behavior in young stars -- extending the phenomenon to lower amplitudes and shorter timescales than traditionally considered in the theory of pre-main sequence accretion history.
Starting in December 2014, Kepler K2 observed Neptune continuously for 49 days at a 1-minute cadence. The goals consisted of studying its atmospheric dynamics (Simon et al. 2016), detecting its global acoustic oscillations (Rowe et al., submitted), a
nd those of the Sun, which we report on here. We present the first indirect detection of solar oscillations in intensity measurements. Beyond the remarkable technical performance, it indicates how Kepler would see a star like the Sun. The result from the global asteroseismic approach, which consists of measuring the oscillation frequency at maximum amplitude nu_max and the mean frequency separation between mode overtones Delta nu, is surprising as the nu_max measured from Neptune photometry is larger than the accepted value. Compared to the usual reference nu_max_sun = 3100 muHz, the asteroseismic scaling relations therefore make the solar mass and radius appear larger by 13.8 +/- 5.8 % and 4.3 +/- 1.9 % respectively. The higher nu_max is caused by a combination of the value of nu_max_sun, being larger at the time of observations than the usual reference from SOHO/VIRGO/SPM data (3160 +/- 10 muHz), and the noise level of the K2 time series, being ten times larger than VIRGOs. The peak-bagging method provides more consistent results: despite a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), we model ten overtones for degrees l=0,1,2. We compare the K2 data with simultaneous SOHO/VIRGO/SPM photometry and BiSON velocity measurements. The individual frequencies, widths, and amplitudes mostly match those from VIRGO and BiSON within 1 sigma, except for the few peaks with lowest SNR.
We report the discovery and characterization of HD 89345b (K2-234b; EPIC 248777106b), a Saturn-sized planet orbiting a slightly evolved star. HD 89345 is a bright star ($V = 9.3$ mag) observed by the K2 mission with one-minute time sampling. It exhib
its solar-like oscillations. We conducted asteroseismology to determine the parameters of the star, finding the mass and radius to be $1.12^{+0.04}_{-0.01}~M_odot$ and $1.657^{+0.020}_{-0.004}~R_odot$, respectively. The star appears to have recently left the main sequence, based on the inferred age, $9.4^{+0.4}_{-1.3}~mathrm{Gyr}$, and the non-detection of mixed modes. The star hosts a warm Saturn ($P = 11.8$~days, $R_p = 6.86 pm 0.14~R_oplus$). Radial-velocity follow-up observations performed with the FIES, HARPS, and HARPS-N spectrographs show that the planet has a mass of $35.7 pm 3.3~M_oplus$. The data also show that the planets orbit is eccentric ($eapprox 0.2$). An investigation of the rotational splitting of the oscillation frequencies of the star yields no conclusive evidence on the stellar inclination angle. We further obtained Rossiter-McLaughlin observations, which result in a broad posterior of the stellar obliquity. The planet seems to conform to the same patterns that have been observed for other sub-Saturns regarding planet mass and multiplicity, orbital eccentricity, and stellar metallicity.
Space-based photometric measurements first revealed low-amplitude irregularities in the pulsations of Cepheid stars, but their origins and how commonly they occur remain uncertain. To investigate this phenomenon, we present MOST space telescope photo
metry of two Cepheids. V473 Lyrae is a second-overtone, strongly modulated Cepheid, while U Trianguli Australis is a Cepheid pulsating simultaneously in the fundamental mode and first overtone. The nearly continuous, high-precision photometry reveals alternations in the amplitudes of cycles in V473 Lyr, the first case of period doubling detected in a classical Cepheid. In U TrA, we tentatively identify one peak as the $f_X$ or 0.61-type mode often seen in conjunction with the first radial overtone in Cepheids, but given the short length of the data, we cannot rule out that it is a combination peak instead. Ground-based photometry and spectroscopy were obtained to follow two modulation cycles in V473 Lyr and to better specify its physical parameters. The simultaneous data yield the phase lag parameter (the phase difference between maxima in luminosity and radial velocity) of a second-overtone Cepheid for the first time. We find no evidence for a period change in U TrA or an energy exchange between the fundamental mode and the first overtone during the last 50 years, contrary to earlier indications. Period doubling in V473 Lyr provides a strong argument that mode interactions do occur in some Cepheids and we may hypothesise that it could be behind the amplitude modulation, as recently proposed for Blazhko RR Lyrae stars.
$gamma$ Doradus is the prototype star for the eponymous class of pulsating stars that consists of late A-early F main-sequence stars oscillating in low-frequency gravito-inertial modes. Being among the brightest stars of its kind (V = 4.2), $gamma$ D
or benefits from a large set of observational data that has been recently completed by high-quality space photometry from the TESS mission. With these new data, we propose to study $gamma$ Dor as an example of possibilities offered by synergies between multi-technical ground and space-based observations. Here, we present the preliminary results of our investigations.