Bright OB stars in the Galaxy. IV. Stellar and wind parameters of early to late B supergiants
Context: B-type supergiants represent an important phase in theevolution of massive stars. Reliable estimates of their stellar and windparameters, however, are scarce, especially at mid and late spectralsubtypes. Aims: We apply the NLTE atmosphere code FASTWIND toperform a spectroscopic study of a small sample of GalacticB-supergiants from B0 to B9. By means of the resulting data andincorporating additional datasets from alternative studies, weinvestigate the properties of OB-supergiants and compare our findingswith theoretical predictions. Methods: Stellar and wind parametersof our sample stars are determined by line profile fitting, based onsynthetic profiles, a Fourier technique to investigate the individualcontributions of stellar rotation and “macro-turbulence” andan adequate approach to determine the Si abundances in parallel withmicro-turbulent velocities. Results: Due to the combined effectsof line- and wind-blanketing, the temperature scale of GalacticB-supergiants needs to be revised downward, by 10 to 20%, the lattervalue being appropriate for stronger winds. Compared to theoreticalpredictions, the wind properties of OB-supergiants indicate a number ofdiscrepancies. In fair accordance with recent results, our sampleindicates a gradual decrease in v_? over the bi-stability region,where the limits of this region are located at lower T_eff than thosepredicted. Introducing a distance-independent quantity Q' related towind-strength, we show that this quantity is a well defined,monotonically increasing function of T_eff outside this region. Insideand from hot to cool, dot M changes by a factor (in between 0.4 and 2.5)which is much smaller than the predicted factor of 5. Conclusions: The decrease in v_? over the bi-stability region isnot over-compensated by an increase of dot M , as frequently argued,provided that wind-clumping properties on both sides of this region donot differ substantially.
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β Cephei stars in the ASAS-3 data. II. 103 new β Cephei stars and a discussion of low-frequency modes
Context: The β Cephei stars have been studied for over a hundredyears. Despite this, many interesting problems related to this class ofvariable stars remain unsolved. Fortunately, these stars seem to bewell-suited to asteroseismology. Hence, the results of seismic analysisof β Cephei stars should help us to better understand pulsationsand the main sequence evolution of massive stars, particularly theeffect of rotation on mode excitation and internal structure. It istherefore extremely important to increase the sample of known βCephei stars and select targets that are useful for asteroseismology. Aims: We analysed ASAS-3 photometry of bright early-type stars with thegoal of finding new β Cephei stars. We were particularly interestedin β Cephei stars that would be good for seismic analysis, i.e.,stars that (i) have a large number of excited modes; (ii) showrotationally split modes; (iii) are components of eclipsing binarysystems; (iv) have low-frequency modes, that is, are hybrid βCephei/SPB stars. Methods: Our study was made with a homogeneous sampleof over 4100 stars having MK spectral type B5 or earlier. For thesestars, the ASAS-3 photometry was analysed by means of a Fourierperiodogram. Results: We have discovered 103 β Cephei stars,nearly doubling the number of previously known stars of this type. Amongthese stars, four are components of eclipsing binaries, seven have modesequidistant or nearly equidistant in frequency. In addition, we foundfive β Cephei stars that show low-frequency periodic variations,very likely due to pulsations. We therefore regard them as candidatehybrid β Cephei/SPB pulsators. All these stars are potentially veryuseful for seismic modeling. Moreover, we found β Cephei-typepulsations in three late O-type stars and fast period changes in one, HD168050.Table 2 and Figs. 2-14 are only available in electronic form athttp://www.aanda.org The V photometry for all 103 stars is available inelectronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr(130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/477/917
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Statistical properties of a sample of periodically variable B-type supergiants. Evidence for opacity-driven gravity-mode oscillations
Aims.We have studied a sample of 28 periodically variable B-typesupergiants selected from the HIPPARCOS mission and 12 comparison starscovering the whole B-type spectral range. Our goal is to test if theirvariability is compatible with opacity-driven non-radialoscillations. Methods: .We have used the NLTE atmosphere codeFASTWIND to derive the atmospheric and wind parameters of the completesample through line profile fitting. We applied the method to selectedH, He, and Si line profiles, measured with the high resolution CESspectrograph attached to the ESO CAT telescope in La Silla, Chile.Results: .From the location of the stars in the (log T_eff, log g)diagram, we suggest that variability of our sample supergiants is indeeddue to the gravity modes resulting from the opacity mechanism. We findnine of the comparison stars to be periodically variable as well, andsuggest them to be new α Cyg variables. We find marginal evidenceof a correlation between the amplitude of the photometric variabilityand the wind density. We investigate the wind momentum-luminosityrelation for the whole range of B spectral type supergiants, and findthat the later types (>B5) perfectly follow the relation for Asupergiants. Additionally, we provide a new spectral type - T_effcalibration for B supergiants. Conclusions: .Our results imply thepossibility of probing internal structure models of massive stars ofspectral type B through seismic tuning of gravity modes.Figures of the spectral line fits and discussion of the individualobjects, Appendices A, B and Table 6 are only available in electronicform at http://www.aanda.org
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Pulkovo compilation of radial velocities for 35495 stars in a common system.
Not Available
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New Estimates of the Solar-Neighborhood Massive Star Birthrate and the Galactic Supernova Rate
The birthrate of stars of masses >=10 Msolar is estimatedfrom a sample of just over 400 O3-B2 dwarfs within 1.5 kpc of the Sunand the result extrapolated to estimate the Galactic supernova ratecontributed by such stars. The solar-neighborhood Galactic-plane massivestar birthrate is estimated at ~176 stars kpc-3Myr-1. On the basis of a model in which the Galactic stellardensity distribution comprises a ``disk+central hole'' like that of thedust infrared emission (as proposed by Drimmel and Spergel), theGalactic supernova rate is estimated at probably not less than ~1 normore than ~2 per century and the number of O3-B2 dwarfs within the solarcircle at ~200,000.
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Catalog of Galactic OB Stars
An all-sky catalog of Galactic OB stars has been created by extendingthe Case-Hamburg Galactic plane luminous-stars surveys to include 5500additional objects drawn from the literature. This work brings the totalnumber of known or reasonably suspected OB stars to over 16,000.Companion databases of UBVβ photometry and MK classifications forthese objects include nearly 30,000 and 20,000 entries, respectively.
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The total-to-selective extinction ratio determined from near IR photometry of OB stars
The paper presents an extensive list of the total to selectiveextinction ratios R calculated from the infrared magnitudes of 597 O andB stars using the extrapolation method. The IR magnitudes of these starswere taken from the literature. The IR colour excesses are determinedwith the aid of "artificial standards" - Wegner (1994). The individualand mean values of total to selective extinction ratios R differ in mostcases from the average value R=3.10 +/-0.05 - Wegner (1993) in differentOB associations. The relation between total to selective extinctionratios R determined in this paper and those calculated using the "methodof variable extinction" and the Cardelli et al. (1989) formulae isdiscussed. The R values presented in this paper can be used to determineindividual absolute magnitudes of reddened OB stars with knowntrigonometric parallaxes.
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New periodic variables from the Hipparcos epoch photometry
Two selection statistics are used to extract new candidate periodicvariables from the epoch photometry of the Hipparcos catalogue. Theprimary selection criterion is a signal-to-noise ratio. The dependenceof this statistic on the number of observations is calibrated usingabout 30000 randomly permuted Hipparcos data sets. A significance levelof 0.1 per cent is used to extract a first batch of candidate variables.The second criterion requires that the optimal frequency be unaffectedif the data are de-trended by low-order polynomials. We find 2675 newcandidate periodic variables, of which the majority (2082) are from theHipparcos`unsolved' variables. Potential problems with theinterpretation of the data (e.g. aliasing) are discussed.
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The 75th Name-List of Variable Stars
We present the next regular Name-List of variable stars containinginformation on 916 variable stars recently designated in the system ofthe General Catalogue of Variable Stars.
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UBV beta Database for Case-Hamburg Northern and Southern Luminous Stars
A database of photoelectric UBV beta photometry for stars listed in theCase-Hamburg northern and southern Milky Way luminous stars surveys hasbeen compiled from the original research literature. Consisting of over16,000 observations of some 7300 stars from over 500 sources, thisdatabase constitutes the most complete compilation of such photometryavailable for intrinsically luminous stars around the Galactic plane.Over 5000 stars listed in the Case-Hamburg surveys still lackfundamental photometric data.
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Study of an unbiased sample of B stars observed with Hipparcos: the discovery of a large amount of new slowly pulsating B stars
We present a classification of 267 new variable B-type stars discoveredby Hipparcos. We have used two different classification schemes and theyboth result in only a few new beta Cephei stars, a huge number of newslowly pulsating B stars, quite some supergiants with alpha Cyg-typevariations and variable CP stars, and further some new periodic Be starsand eclipsing binaries. Our results clearly point out the biased naturetowards short-period variables of earlier, ground-based surveys ofvariable stars. The position of the new beta Cephei stars and slowlypulsating B stars in the HR diagram is determined by means of Genevaphotometry and is confronted with the most recent calculations of theinstability strips for both groups of variables. We find that the newbeta Cephei stars are situated in the blue part of the instability stripand that the new slowly pulsating B stars almost fully cover thetheoretical instability domain determined for such stars. Thesupergiants with alpha Cyg-type variations are situated between theinstability strips of the beta Cephei and the slowly pulsating B starson the one hand and previously known supergiants that exhibitmicrovariations on the other hand. This suggests some connection betweenthe variability caused by the kappa mechanism acting in a zone ofpartially ionised metals and the unknown cause of the variations insupergiants.
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Red and infrared colours of B stars and the reddening law in the Galaxy
The red and infrared intrinsic colours of B stars are derived fromphotometric observations through the UBV(RI)_CJHK and Hβ filters of257 early-type stars. Those stars for which the UBV and Hβmeasurements match the published spectral class, and which show no othersigns of peculiarity, are used to determine the intrinsic photometriccolours of B stars in the red and infrared. From these intrinsic coloursthe interstellar reddening relationships for the red and infraredcolours are evaluated, and the results are compared with previousestimates of these quantities. The values of R, E(B-V) and the distanceare then determined for the individual stars. R is confirmed to be closeto 3.1 in most cases, but was found to be much larger in somedirections. The relationship between R and the location of a star in theGalaxy is investigated. Usually the abnormally reddened stars seemed tobe associated with known regions of star formation. The paper alsoidentifies seven likely variable stars and a number of stars withpossible dust shells.
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A Radial Velocity Database for Stephenson-Sanduleak Southern Luminous Stars
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1997AJ....113..823R&db_key=AST
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Vitesses radiales. Catalogue WEB: Wilson Evans Batten. Subtittle: Radial velocities: The Wilson-Evans-Batten catalogue.
We give a common version of the two catalogues of Mean Radial Velocitiesby Wilson (1963) and Evans (1978) to which we have added the catalogueof spectroscopic binary systems (Batten et al. 1989). For each star,when possible, we give: 1) an acronym to enter SIMBAD (Set ofIdentifications Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) ofthe CDS (Centre de Donnees Astronomiques de Strasbourg). 2) the numberHIC of the HIPPARCOS catalogue (Turon 1992). 3) the CCDM number(Catalogue des Composantes des etoiles Doubles et Multiples) byDommanget & Nys (1994). For the cluster stars, a precise study hasbeen done, on the identificator numbers. Numerous remarks point out theproblems we have had to deal with.
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A spectroscopic database for Stephenson-Sanduleak Southern Luminous Stars
A database of published spectral classifications for objects in theStepenson-Sanduleak Luminous Stars in the Southern Milky Way catalog hasbeen compiled from the literature. A total of 6182 classifications for2562 stars from 139 sources are incorporated.
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UBV photometry of OB+ stars in the southern Milky Way
One thousand two hundred and twenty six new observations are combinedwith previously published results of the author to yield an internalyconsistent set of magnitudes and colors on the international UBV systemfor 666 stars classified as OB+ in the Stephenson-Sanduleak OB starsurvey. The U - B, B - V diagram indicates that these stars consistprimarily of O-type stars and early B-type supergiants, reddened by upto E(B - V) = 2.1 mag.
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Catalogue of the energy distribution data in spectra of stars in the uniform spectrophotometric system.
Not Available
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UBV photometry for southern OB stars
New UBV photometry of 1227 OB stars in the southern Milky Way ispresented. For 1113 of these stars, MK spectral types have been reportedpreviously in a comprehensive survey to B = 10.0 mag.
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Very broadband structure in the extinction curves of southern Milky Way stars
Very broadband structure (VBS), previously detected in the interstellarextinction curve, is examined in detail for 22 reddened stars in thesouthern Milky Way. The VBS, which takes the form of a shallowdepression in the 5200-6000 A region, appears to be a widespread featureof the general galactic extinction, with the central depth amounting toabout 0.02 mag per magnitude of visual extinction for stars with longpath-length reddening. Two stars in the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud exhibita modified form of VBS which may reflect chemical changes occurring onthe grain surfaces. A possible identification of the VBS with solidmagnetite (Fe3O4) in the grain material is discussed.
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The Diffuse Interstellar Line at 4430A
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1981A&A....94...16T&db_key=AST
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Infrared photometry of southern early-type stars
The paper presents infrared photometry tied to the JHKL (1.2-3.5microns) broadband photometric system for 229 southern early-type stars.To determine data for stars of low reddening intrinsic visual-IR colorindices were used; the E(V-K)/E(B-V) diagram was applied to evaluate theratio of total selective extinction. A mean value of R = 3.12 plus orminus 0.05 was found for stars close to the galactic plane, but a highervalue of R (about 4.0) applies to the Orion and Sco-Oph regions.Infrared two-color diagrams were used to investigate the occurrence ofinfrared excess emission in different classes of shell star; no excesseswere found for supergiants or Of stars. It is concluded that theanomalous position HD 164740 in the two-color diagrams is produced bystrong infrared excess and not by a peculiar extinction law.
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The diffuse interstellar line at 6284 A
The diffuse interstellar feature at 6284 A has been studied in thespectra of 42 early-type stars. The equivalent width is stronglycorrelated with E(B-V), but still shows much scatter: W equals (1.40 +or - 0.10) E (B-V) /A/ indicating that the reddening scale is correct.Substracting the error contributions of reddening and equivalent width,the remaining scatter of + or - 0.22 A turns out to be of cosmic origin.
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MK spectral classifications for southern OB stars
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1977ApJS...35..111G&db_key=AST
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Infrared photometry, extinction curves and R values for stars in the southern Milky Way.
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1976MNRAS.177..625W&db_key=AST
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Equivalent widths and rotational velocities of southern early-type stars
Not Available
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The space distribution and kinematics of supergiants
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1970AJ.....75..602H&db_key=AST
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Interstellar extinction anomalies and the diffuse interstellar bands.
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1969AJ.....74.1061W&db_key=AST
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A method for identifying high-velocity OB stars.
Not Available
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Radial velocities of Southern B stars determined at the Radcliffe Observatory.
Not Available
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INHABITED SKY
