The history of KZ Hya and its unseen companions

Abstract

KZ Hya is a short-period high amplitude metal pool population II pulsating variable. Its spectral type is B9-A7 III/IV. Its average effective temperature is 7640K. But its mass is only 0.97 solar mass. From normal stellar evolution and H-R diagram, we can not get such a solar mass star at post main sequence stage with so high effective temperature and so early type spectra. We observe this star since 1984 till now, 23years past. Finally we prove it is inside a binary with at least 2 unseen companions. The most massive companion has mass larger than 0.76 solar mass, mostly may be 0.99 to 3.99 solar mass. That means this companion must be a massive white dwarf. The distance between tow companions is about 10 AU. If the companion is white dwarf, this binary are fairly inside the nebula. This system is very old, older than 7.59 billion years. The nebula should be already diluted to very low density so that we can see the nebula directly. As its spectra type is B9III/VI at some time of maximum light and the visual absolute magnitude is 2.78, about 2 magnitudes higher than our sun. We can image that at the end of AGB stage of the companion, the strong fast winds from hot central core push away the outer atmosphere of KZ Hya. Later KZ Hya absorbed a part of Helium rich material from the companion. This will cause hydrogen content X decrease from 0.75 to about 0.62. Then KZ Hya looks like a hot post main sequence star