Issue |
A&A
Volume 576, April 2015
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A65 | |
Number of page(s) | 8 | |
Section | Stellar structure and evolution | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201425251 | |
Published online | 30 March 2015 |
The enigmatic He-sdB pulsator LS IV-14°116: new insights from the VLT⋆
1
ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2,
85748
Garching bei München,
Germany
e-mail:
srandall@eso.org
2
Armargh Observatory, College Hill, Armargh BT61 9DG, Northern Ireland,
UK
3
Dr. Remeis-Observatory & ECAP, Astronomical Institute,
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Sternwartstr. 7, 96049
Bamberg,
Germany
4
Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, CP 6128,
Succ. Centre-Ville,
Montréal, QC
H3C 3J7,
Canada
Received: 31 October 2014
Accepted: 18 February 2015
The intermediate helium subdwarf B star LS IV-14°116 is a unique object showing extremely peculiar atmospheric abundances as well as long-period pulsations that cannot be explained in terms of the usual opacity mechanism. One hypothesis invoked was that a strong magnetic field may be responsible. We discredit this possibility on the basis of FORS2 spectro-polarimetry, which allows us to rule out a mean longitudinal magnetic field down to 300 G. Using the same data, we derive the atmospheric parameters for LS IV-14°116 to be Teff = 35 150 ± 111 K, log g = 5.88 ± 0.02 and log N(He) /N(H) = −0.62 ± 0.01. The high surface gravity in particular is at odds with the theory that LS IV-14°116 has not yet settled onto the helium main sequence, and that the pulsations are excited by an ϵ mechanism acting on the helium-burning shells present after the main helium flash. Archival UVES spectroscopy reveals LS IV-14°116 to have a radial velocity of 149.1 ± 2.1 km s-1. Running a full kinematic analysis, we find that it is on a retrograde orbit around the Galactic centre, with a Galactic radial velocity component U = 13.23 ± 8.28 km s-1 and a Galactic rotational velocity component V = −55.56 ± 22.13 km s-1. This implies that LS IV-14°116 belongs to the halo population, an intriguing discovery.
Key words: stars: individual: LS IV-14°116 / stars: magnetic field / stars: kinematics and dynamics / stars: atmospheres / stars: oscillations / subdwarfs
© ESO, 2015
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