Issue |
A&A
Volume 643, November 2020
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A22 | |
Number of page(s) | 29 | |
Section | Stellar atmospheres | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038859 | |
Published online | 27 October 2020 |
Heavy-metal enrichment of intermediate He-sdOB stars: the pulsators Feige 46 and LS IV–14°116 revisited★
1
Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam,
Haus 28, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25,
14476
Potsdam-Golm, Germany
2
Dr. Karl Remeis-Observatory & ECAP, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg,
Sternwartstr. 7,
96049
Bamberg, Germany
e-mail: matti.dorsch@fau.de
3
Institute for Astrophysics, Georg-August-University,
Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1,
37077
Göttingen, Germany
4
Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNES,
14 avenue Edouard Belin,
31400
Toulouse, France
5
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, College Hill,
Armagh
BT61 9DG,
UK
Received:
6
July
2020
Accepted:
5
September
2020
Hot subdwarf stars of spectral types O and B represent a poorly understood phase in the evolution of low-mass stars, in particular of close compact binaries. A variety of phenomena are observed, which make them important tools for several astronomical disciplines. For instance, the richness of oscillations of many subdwarfs are important for asteroseismology. Furthermore, hot subdwarfs are among the most chemically peculiar stars known. Two intermediate He-rich hot subdwarf stars, LS IV–14°116 and Feige 46, are particularly interesting, because they show extreme enrichments of heavy elements such as Ge, Sr, Y, and Zr, which are strikingly similar in both stars. In addition, both stars show light oscillations at periods incompatible with standard pulsation theory and form the class of V366 Aqr variables. We investigated whether the similar chemical compositions extend to more complete abundance patterns in both stars and validate the pulsations in Feige 46 using its recent TESS light curve. High-resolution optical and near-ultraviolet spectroscopy are combined with non-local thermodynamical-equilibrium model atmospheres and synthetic spectra calculated with TLUSTY and SYNSPEC to consistently determine detailed metal abundance patterns in both stars. Many previously unidentified lines were identified for the first time with transitions originating from Ga III, Ge III-IV, Se III, Kr III, Sr II-III, Y III, Zr III-IV, and Sn IV, most of which have not yet been observed in any star. The abundance patterns of 19 metals in both stars are almost identical, light metals being only slightly more abundant in Feige 46, while Zr, Sn, and Pb are slightly less enhanced compared to LS IV–14°116. Both abundance patterns are distinctively different from those of normal He-poor hot subdwarfs of a similar temperature. The extreme enrichment in heavy metals of more than 4 dex compared to the Sun is likely the result of strong atmospheric diffusion processes that operate similarly in both stars while their similar patterns of C, N, O, and Ne abundances might provide clues to their as yet unclear evolutionary history. Finally, we find that the periods of the pulsation modes in Feige 46 are stable to better than Ṗ ≲ 10−8 s s−1. This is not compatible with Ṗ predicted for pulsations driven by the ɛ-mechanism and excited by helium-shell flashes in a star that is evolving, for example, onto the extended horizontal branch.
Key words: stars: abundances / stars: chemically peculiar / stars: oscillations / subdwarfs / stars: individual: LS IV–14°116 / stars: individual: Feige 46
The UVES spectra are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/643/A22
© ESO 2020
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.