The He-shell flash in action: T Ursae Minoris revisited
Abstract
We present an updated and improved description of the light curve behaviour of T Ursae Minoris, which is a Mira star with the strongest period change (the present rate is an amazing -3.8+/-0.4 days/year corresponding to a relative decrease of about 1% per cycle). Ninety years of visual data were collected from all available databases and the resulting, almost uninterrupted light curve was analysed with the O-C diagram, Fourier analysis and various time-frequency methods. The Choi-Williams and Zhao-Atlas-Marks distributions gave the clearest image of frequency and light curve shape variations. A decrease of the intensity average of the light curve was also found, which is in accordance with a period-luminosity relation for Mira stars. We predict the star will finish its period decrease in the meaningfully near future (c.c. 5 to 30 years) and strongly suggest to closely follow the star's variations (photometric, as well as spectroscopic) during this period.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0211284,
title = {The He-shell flash in action: T Ursae Minoris revisited},
author = {K. Szatmary and L. L. Kiss and Zs. Bebesi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0211284},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
6 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&A