Evidence of amplitude modulation due to resonant mode coupling in the δ Scuti star KIC 5892969

A particular or a general case?

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife Spain
e-mail: sebastia@iac.es
² Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
³ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS (UMR 8109), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Denis Diderot, Pl. J. Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
⁴ Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM − CNRS − Univ. Paris Diderot − IRFU/SAp, Centre de Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

Received: 12 December 2014
Accepted: 28 May 2015

Abstract

A study of the star KIC 5892969 observed by the Kepler satellite is presented. Its three highest amplitude modes present a strong amplitude modulation. The aim of this work is to investigate amplitude variations in this star and their possible cause. Using the 4 years-long observations available, we obtained the frequency content of the full light curve. Then, we studied the amplitude and phase variations with time using shorter time stamps. The results obtained are compared with the predicted ones for resonant mode coupling of an unstable mode with lower frequency stable modes. Our conclusion is that resonant mode coupling is consistent as an amplitude limitation mechanism in several modes of KIC 5892969 and we discuss to which extent it might play an important role for other δ Scuti stars.