Pulsating Stars

Modern long-baseline interferometers are capable of resolving stellar diameters in the range of one to several milli-arcseconds with measurement precision approaching a few percent. This level of precision allows astronomers to directly resolve diameter changes associated with pulsation for various classesc of stars, including Cepheids and Miras. For several nearby Cepheids itis relatively straightforward to apply a Baade-Wesselink analysis and hence directly measure the distance to the Cepheid with a high degree of precision. This field is still quite new; I expect that in the near term several new interferometers will provide direct Cepheid distances to perhaps a few tens of Galactic Cepheids. However, equally important will be direct measurements of the atmospheric properties (in particular limb darkening) of these stars. Such measurements should help reduce the considerable systematic uncertainties that remain. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Present Observational Status of Solar-type stars

Observing stellar oscillations provides a powerful probe for studying stellarinteriors. The frequencies of these modes depend on the properties of the star and give strong constraints on stellar models and evolution theories. The five-minute oscillations in the Sun, induced by stochastic excitation of its convective zone, have provided a wealth of information about the solar interior and has led to significant revisions to solar models. Until recently, the Sun was the only star in which solar-like oscillations were clearly established and characterized. The most important difficulty lies in the extremely small amplitude of the acoustic modes. Thanks in great part to high precision ground based Doppler measurements, solar-like oscillations have been now clearly detected in a growing list of main sequence and subgiant stars (Procyon, Hyi, Her A, Cen A, Eri and Boo). In some of them, p-modes were identified and characterized. New results and prospects in this field are presented.     

Wave Propagation in Pulsating Stars

Lissajous diagrams are used to detect phase lags between radial velocity curves associated with different ions. Present in many kind of variable stars, this effect provides an important tool to study the atmosphere dynamics. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

脉动变星数据库的建立

为了方便国内学者对脉动变星进行研究,建立了一个数据库,目前包含了时间长达10 yr左右的巡天项目MAssive Compact Halo Objects(大质量致密银晕天体,MACHO)和Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment(光学引力透镜实验,OGLE)发现的脉动变星,一共容纳了来自银河系核球与大小麦哲伦云中的共近23万颗变星.采用的软件是LAMP,即Linux+Apache+MySQL+PHP.数据库的使用通过网页的简单搜索界面实现,搜索参数主要是天体的赤经、赤纬和半径.鉴于本数据库的灵活性,将来很方便加入其他的变星数据.     

Construction of the Database for Pulsating Variable Stars

A database for pulsating variable stars is constructed to favor the study of variable stars in China. The database includes about 230,000 variable stars in the Galactic bulge, LMC and SMC observed in an about 10 yr period by the MACHO(MAssive Compact Halo Objects) and OGLE(Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) projects. The software used for the construction is LAMP, i.e., Linux+Apache+MySQL+PHP. A web page is provided for searching the photometric data and light curves in the database through the right ascension and declination of an object. Because of the flexibility of this database, more up-to-date data of variable stars can be incorporated into the database conveniently.     

Progress on the Front of Pulsating Subdwarf B Stars

We briefly review the recent advances that have been made on the front of pulsating subdwarf B (sdB) stars. The first family of sdB pulsators, the EC 14026 stars, was discovered a few years ago and consists of short-period (～100?200 s) p-mode variables. The second type of pulsating sdB’s consists of the PG 1716+426 stars, a group of variables showing long-period (～1 h) g-mode pulsations. The existence of the latter was first reported less than a year ago. While the two types of sdB pulsators differ markedly in their observational characteristics, we recently found a unifying property in the sense that the observed modes in these objects are excited through the same driving process, a classic kappa mechanism associated with the radiative levitation of iron in the stellar envelope.     

Discovery of A New Class of Pulsating Stars: Gravity-mode Pulsators among Subdwarf B Stars

During the course of an ongoing CCD monitoring program to investigate low-level light variations in subdwarf B (sdB) stars, weserendipitously discovered a new class of multimode pulsators withperiods of the order of an hour. These periods are a factor of tenlonger than those of previously known multimode sdB pulsators (EC14026 stars), implying the new pulsations are due to gravity modes rather than pressure modes. The iron opacity instability that drives the short period EC 14026 stars is effective in hot sdB's. Thelong period pulsators are found only among cooler sdB stars, wherethey are surprisingly common. The mechanism responsible for excitingthe deeper g-modes in cool sdB's is currently unknown, but thetemperature and gravity range in which these stars occur must be animportant clue. We present the first observational results for thisnew class of pulsating sdB stars, and discuss some possible implications.     

Dust Around Solar Mass Stars

The DEBRIS project is a search for infrared excess around Sun-like main sequence stars, and other types of stellar targets, using the Infrared Space Observatory. Some results, calibration issues, and changes to our original program are presented. Future platforms for advancing this project after the conclusion of the ISO mission are indicated. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Pulsating sdB Stars: A New Approach to Probing their Interiors

Horizontal branch stars should show significant differential rotation with depth. Models that assume systematic angular momentum exchange in the convective envelope and local conservation of angular momentum in the core produce HB models that preserve a rapidly rotating core. A direct probe of core rotation is available. The nonradial pulsations of the EC14026 stars frequently show rich pulsation spectra. Thus their pulsations probe the internal rotation of these stars, and should show the effects of rapid rotation in their cores. Using models of sdB stars that include angular momentum evolution, we explore this possibility and show that some of the sdB pulsators may indeed have rapidly rotating cores.     

STARE Results on a Single Field: Tens of New Pulsating Stars

We present preliminary results on variable stars of aSTARE's three month observational run centered at the Cygnus constellation.A total amount of aprox. 14000 stars with 9^2 FOV, have been analyzed to obtainlightcurves for each of these stars.The data spans for 90 nights.In this single field, we detect more that 40 stars withpulsation modes between 5 and 40 c/d, the vast mayoritypreviously unknown to be variables.     

氦白矮星与小质量主序星并合及脉动热亚矮星的形成

sdBVrs型热亚矮星是一类特殊的热亚矮星,观测显示它们同时具有p模和g模的脉动.目前这一类热亚矮星的演化起源仍然缺乏完备的解释.对氦白矮星与小质量主序星并合模型进行详细计算表明,并合模型的结果符合sdBVrs型热亚矮星的表面有效温度、重力加速度等观测特征,并且能够激发出稳定的p模和g模脉动.因此,氦白矮星与小质量主序星并合是形成sdBVrs型热亚矮星可能的渠道之一.     

Photometric Mass Ratios of Eclipsing Binary Stars

Following a brief history of measurement of eclipsing binary mass ratios from light curves, we show that photometric mass ratios for overcontact and semi-detached binaries are reliable because the relative stellar radii, R/a, are accurately measured and not, as commonly claimed, because of information in the light variation outside eclipse. We explore the accuracy of photometric mass ratios by solving synthetic data of typical precisions for a semi-detached and an overcontact binary for orbital inclinations from 89^∘ down into the partial eclipse range.     

Flip-Flops as Observational Signatures of Different Dynamo Modes in Cool Stars

Cool, rapidly rotating stars exhibit enhanced magnetic activity with cyclic behavior on various time scales. In particular, the longitude of the dominant activity region switches quasi-periodically by 180^∘, which is known as the “flip-flop” phenomenon. In the present paper we introduce a new approach for the interpretation of stellar cycles based on light curve modeling with dipole and quadrupole dynamo modes. We discuss the observational signatures of different combinations of the dynamo modes. The proposed simple model is able to reproduce the basic properties of long-term photometric behavior of active stars and allows us to study different mechanisms resulting in flip-flops.     

恒星绝热物质损失模型

双星间的快速物质交换是一个非常复杂的过程,它涉及到双星演化的两个基本问题:物质交换的动力学不稳定性和公共包层的形成和演化.这两个问题是双星演化中最不清楚的两个基本问题.本论文通过建立相互作用双星之间的快速(绝热)物质损失模型,研究双星演化中物质交换的不稳定性判据和对公共包层的演化结局作出理论限制.利用恒星绝热物质损失模型得到的结果,还有很多潜在应用.比如,促进含双星的大样本恒星演化研究,改进演化星族合成方法等.恒星绝热物质损失模型的建立,基于主星在快速物质损失过程中,恒星内部的热量来不及交换,     

Early Pre-Main Sequence Evolution of Low Mass Stars

Evolution of the gravitational contraction phase of stars having masses 0.3 < M/M⊙ < 1.5 were studied along with deuterium burning. The equation of state developed by Mihalas et al. (1988) and OPAL opacity tables were used in our investigation. The theoretical time lines were compared with observations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Gasdynamical Treatment of Mass Transfer in Symbiotic Stars

The results of two-dimensional, non-adiabatic gas dynamical simulations of gas flows in symbiotic stars are presented. It is shown that for a binary system with components that do not fill their Roche lobes, the structure of the gaseous stream is determined not only by the flow from the vicinity of the inner Lagrangian point, but also by the flow of matter caused by the orbital motion of the accretor through the gas of the stellar wind.The calculated gaseous flow structure consists of a set of shocks and tangential discontinuities. It is found that for all considered cases two bow shocks exist. One of the bow shocks is located in front of the accretor in the path of its orbital motion, and the second one is between the components.It is found that matter is accreted in a spiral fashion, forming an accretion disk. In steady-state simulations, a structure with shocks (both trailing and leading) in the disk was observed. Gas dynamical perturbations of the disk's outer edge by the accreting gas inflow lead to the formation of two intensive trailing shocks propagating inward. Gas dynamical perturbations of the inner part of the disk result in the occurrence of leading shocks. One possible mechanism for the generation of spiral shocks is dissipative instability. The existence of spiral shocks results in a redistribution of the angular momentum of the disk material and an increase of the accretion rate.     

Observational Results of Full-Disc Helioseismology: Implications for Seismology of Sun-like Stars

A brief review of observational full-disc helioseismology is carried out with emphasis on issues of interest in the developing field of seismology of Sun-like stars. The frequency precision obtained from extended full-disc helioseismic data sets and the activity cycle variation of solar p-mode parameters are summarised and related to recent and potential asteroseismic studies. The potential advantages of sharing approaches to the analysis of real and simulated data between helio- and astero-seismology groups are discussed.     

日冕物质抛射的观测性质

综述日冕物质抛射的观测和持性，简短的前言之后，给出ＣＭＥ的发现经过及统计特性，着重介绍ＣＭＥ与其他种类太阳活动的相关。然后介绍ＣＭＥ的一般特性，包括可能与ＣＭＥ相关的一些物理过程的观测特性。初步结论是：ＣＭＥ是一种演变中的磁结构现象。