English

2M1938+4603: A rich, multimode pulsating sdB star with an eclipsing dM companion observed with Kepler

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2015-05-19 v1

Abstract

2M1938+4603 (KIC 9472174) displays a spectacular light curve dominated by a strong reflection effect and rather shallow, grazing eclipses. The orbital period is 0.126 days, the second longest period yet found for an eclipsing sdB+dM, but still close to the minimum 0.1-d period among such systems. The phase-folded light curve was used to detrend the orbital effects from the dataset, and the resulting amplitude spectrum shows a rich collection of pulsation peaks spanning frequencies from ~50 to 4500 uHz. The presence of a complex pulsation spectrum in both the p-mode and the g-mode regions has never been seen before in a compact pulsator. Eclipsing sdB+dM stars are very rare, with only seven systems known and only one with a pulsating primary. Pulsating stars in eclipsing binaries are especially important since they permit masses derived from seismological model fits to be cross checked with orbital mass constraints. We present a first analysis of this star based on the Kepler 9.7-day commissioning light curve and extensive ground-based photometry and spectroscopy that allow us to set useful bounds on the system parameters. We derive a radial-velocity amplitude K_1 = 65.7 +/- 0.6 km/s, inclination angle i = 69.45 +/- 0.20 degrees, and find that the masses of the components are M_1 = 0.48 +/- 0.03 and M_2 = 0.12 +/- 0.01 solar masses.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1006.4267,
  title  = {2M1938+4603: A rich, multimode pulsating sdB star with an eclipsing dM companion observed with Kepler},
  author = {R. H. Østensen and E. M. Green and S. Bloemen and T. R. Marsh and J. B. Laird and M. Morris and E. Moriyama and R. Oreiro and M. D. Reed and S. D. Kawaler and C. Aerts and M. Vuckovic and P. Degroote and J. H. Telting and H. Kjeldsen and R. L. Gilliland and J. Christensen-Dalsgaard and W. J. Borucki and D. Koch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.4267},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages with 3 figures, and 4 appendix pages with 2 figures and 3 tables, submitted to MNRAS