A high-precision search for magnetic field oscillations in the roAp star HD 24712^*

¹ Department of Astronomy and Space Physics, Uppsala University, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden e-mail: oleg@astro.uu.se
² Department of Physics, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario, K7K 4B4, Canada

Received: 24 December 2006
Accepted: 21 February 2007

Abstract

We have obtained a time series of 81 high-cadence circular polarization observations of the rapidly oscillating Ap star HD 24712 with the new ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at CFHT. We used the high-S/N, high-resolution Stokes I and V spectra to investigate possible variation of the mean longitudinal field over the pulsation cycle in this roAp star. Our multiline magnetic field and radial velocity measurements utilized 143 spectral lines of rare-earth elements, attaining precision better than 13 G and 19 m s^-1, respectively. A multiperiodic radial velocity variation with an amplitude of 40–136 m s^-1 is clearly detected at the known pulsation frequencies of HD 24712. At the same time, no evidence for pulsational changes of the magnetic field can be found. We derive a upper limit of 10 G, or about 1% of the mean longitudinal field strength, for magnetic field oscillations in the upper atmosphere of HD 24712. The absence of detectable pulsational variability of the magnetic field provides a valuable constraint for the interaction between pulsations and magnetic field in roAp stars and is compatible with the recent predictions of detailed theoretical models of stellar magnetoacoustic oscillations.