Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:50:19.291Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Variable Red Giants in the LMC: Pulsating Stars and Binaries?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

P. R. Wood*
Affiliation:
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Private Bag, Weston Creek PO, Canberra ACT 2611, Australia; wood@mso.anu.edu.au
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Infrared J and K photometry has been obtained of all red giants in the half square degree region of the LMC bar searched for variables using the MACHO database byWood et al. (1999). The K–log P diagram shows the five distinct period–luminositysequences which are also evident in the MACHO photometry. The K–log P plot allowsidentification of the Mira sequence from among the five observed sequences. As shown in Wood et al. (1999), comparison of observed periods, luminosities and period ratios with theoretical models identifies Miras unambiguously as radial fundamental mode pulsators, while semi-regular variables can be pulsating in the first, second or third overtone, or even the fundamental mode. All these variables lie on just three of the five distinct sequences, and they all appear to be on the AGB. The nature of the variability of stars on the other two sequences is currently unknown. Possibilities include contact and semi-detached binaries, rotating stars with giant star spots, episodic dust formation, rotationally stabilised non-radial g modes and strange pulsation modes caused by convection–pulsation interaction. These possibilities are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2000

References

Alcock, C., et al. 2000, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Bedding, T. R., & Zijlstra, A. A. 1998, ApJL, 506, 47L CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedding, T. R., Zijlstra, A. A., Jones, A., & Foster, G. 1998, MNRAS, 301, 1073 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feast, M. W., Glass, I. S., Whitelock, P. A., & Catchpole, R. M. 1989, MNRAS, 241, 375 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feast, M. W., Robertson, B. S. C., Catchpole, R. M., Lloyd Evans, T., Glass, I. S., & Carter, B. S. 1982, MNRAS, 201, 439 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haniff, C. A., Scholz, M., & Tuthill, P. G. 1995, MNRAS, 276, 640 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Höfner, S., Feuchtinger, M. U., & Dorfi, E. A. 1995, A&A, 297, 815 Google Scholar
Houck, N. 1963, AJ, 68, 253 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, S. M. G., & Wood, P. R. 1990, AJ, 99, 784 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGregor, P., Hart, J., Hoadley, D., & Bloxham, G. 1994, in Infrared Astronomy with Arrays, ed. I. McLean (Dordrecht: Kluwer), p. 299 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Belle, G. T., Dyck, H. M., Benson, J. A., & Lacasse, M. G. 1996, AJ, 112, 2147 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winters, J. M., Fleischer, A. J., Gauger, A., & Sedlmayr, E. 1994, A&A, 290, 623 Google Scholar
Wood, P. R. 1995, in Astrophysical Applications of Stellar Pulsation, ed. R. S. Stobie & P. A. Whitelock, ASP Conf. Ser. 83 (San Francisco: ASP), p. 127 Google Scholar
Wood, P. R. 1999, in The Impact of Large-scale Surveys on Pulsating Star Research, IAU Colloquium 176, ed. L. Szabados & D. Kurtz, ASP Conf. Series (San Francisco: ASP), in pressGoogle Scholar
Wood, P. R., & Sebo, K. M. 1996, MNRAS 282, 958 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, P. R., Bessell, M. S., & Fox, M. W. 1983, ApJ, 272, 99 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, P. R., et al. 1999, in Asymptototic Giant Branch Stars, IAU Symposium 191, ed. T. Le Bertre et al. (San Francisco: ASP), p. 151 Google Scholar