Two new pulsating low-mass pre-white dwarfs or SX Phoenicis stars?

• Autor(a) principal: Corti, Mariela Alejandra
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Kanaan Neto, Antonio Nemer, Córsico, Alejandro Hugo, Kepler, Souza Oliveira, Althaus, Leandro Gabriel, Koester, Detlev, Sánchez Arias, J. P.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/150008
• topic: Asterosismologia; Fotometria estelar; Pulsacoes estelares; Anãs brancas; Evolucao estelar; Estrelas variaveis; White dwarfs; Stars: individual: SDSSJ145847.02+070754.46; Stars: individual: SDSSJ173001.94+070600.25; Stars: low-mass

Context. The discovery of pulsations in low-mass stars opens an opportunity to probe their interiors and determine their evolution by employing the tools of asteroseismology. Aims. We aim to analyse high-speed photometry of SDSS J145847.02+070754.46 and SDSS J173001.94+070600.25 and discover brightness variabilities. In order to locate these stars in the Te log g diagram, we fit optical spectra (SDSS) with synthetic nonmagnetic spectra derived from model atmospheres. Methods. To carry out this study, we used the photometric data we obtained for these stars with the 2.15 m telescope at CASLEO, Argentina. We analysed their light curves and applied the discrete Fourier transform (FT) to determine the pulsation frequencies. Finally, we compare both stars in the Te log g diagram, with two known pre-white dwarfs and seven pulsating pre-ELM white dwarf stars, Scuti, and SX Phe stars Results. We report the discovery of pulsations in SDSS J145847.02+070754.46 and SDSS J173001.94+070600.25. We determine their e ective temperature and surface gravity to be Te = 7972 200 K, log g = 4:25 0:5 and Te = 7925 200 K, log g = 4:25 0:5, respectively. With these parameters, these new pulsating low-mass stars can be identified with either ELM white dwarfs (with 0:17 M ) or more massive SX Phe stars. We identified pulsation periods of 3278.7 and 1633.9 s for SDSS J145847.02+070754.46 and a pulsation period of 3367.1 s for SDSS J173001.94+070600.25. These two new objects, together with those of Maxted et al. (2013, 2014), indicate the possible existence of a new instability domain towards the late stages of evolution of low-mass white dwarf stars, although their identification with SX Phe stars cannot be discarded.