Publication details

The nature of the photometric variability of HgMn stars: a test of simulated light curves of phi Phe against the TESS data

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Authors

PRVÁK Milan KRTIČKA Jiří KORHONEN Heidi

Year of publication 2020
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz3564
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz3564
Keywords radiative transfer; stars: atmospheres; stars: chemically peculiar; stars: early-type; stars: individual: phi Phe; stars: variables: general
Description The inhomogeneous surface distribution of heavy elements is known to cause periodic light variability of magnetic chemically peculiar stars. It is unclear to what extent the same paradigm applies to mercury-manganese (HgMn)stars. We aim to model the photometric variability of the HgMn star phi Phe using abundance maps obtained from high-resolution spectroscopy and to study how this variability evolves with time. We compute a grid of ATLAS12 model atmospheres and the corresponding SYNSPEC synthetic spectra. Interpolating within this grid and integrating the specific intensity over the visible stellar surface at different rotational phases, we obtain theoretical light curves of the star. We predict the variability of phi Phe in the ultraviolet and in the visible spectral regions with amplitude of the order of millimagnitudes, mainly caused by absorption in lines of yttrium, chromium, and titanium. We also show how this variability is affected by changes of the distribution of the heavy elements over time. The main characteristics of the predicted light variability of phi Phe correspond roughly to the variability of the star observed with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
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