Research Programme: Helium-Rich Subdwarfs and Connections in Stellar Evolution Summary. the Chemical Structure of Early-Type
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Research Programme: Helium-rich subdwarfs and connections in stellar evolution Summary. The chemical structure of early-type stars is susceptible to atomic diffusion driven by radiative levitation and gravitational settling on timescales comparable with stellar evolution. Such diffusion can lead to chemical stratification of the stellar atmosphere and envelope, to the formation of extremely chemically peculiar stars and to the existence of undiscovered classes of pulsating stars. This is particularly true for evolved stars and especially hot subdwarfs and related objects. Most remarkable are the heavy-metal subdwarfs, which present extreme surface chemistries, undetectable surface rotation, pulsations indicative of a C+O dominated interior, and galactic halo-like orbits. Challenges lie in identifying and characterising new classes of chemically peculiar and/or pulsating stars, in creating self-consistent models of the stellar atmosphere, envelope and pulsations with appropriate atomic data, and, most significantly, in placing these stars in the broader context of their origin, evolution and their relationship to other classes of evolved star. The goals of this project and the associated work packages (WP) are to: i) better characterise the hot helium-rich (He-rich) subdwarfs and related objects (WP1); ii) build new models for their atmospheres and envelopes including self-consistent atomic diffusion theory and new atomic data (WP2); iii) explain the distribution of chemical peculiarities and how these align with new classes of pulsating star (e.g. zirconium-rich pulsators) (WP2+3); iv) identify the origin of the most exotic classes of He-rich subdwarf and their connections with other evolved stars (WP3); and v) develop new models to better exploit information from pulsating subdwarfs (WP4). Background Early calculations of stellar opacities demonstrated the possible existence of a high temperature bump (Carson+ 1981). Whilst premature (Carson+ 1984), major efforts to recalculate stellar opacities (OP 1987, OPAL 1992) revealed a significant contribution from iron-group elements at temperatures of ≈ 2 × 105 K. This ‘iron bump’ provided the long- searched for explanation of pulsation observed in many B stars, (β Cep: Moskalik & Dziembowski 1992, V652 Her: Saio 1993) and led to the prediction of pulsation in hot subdwarfs (Charpinet+ 1997). The many classes of pulsating early type variable (Fig. 1) include p- and g-mode pulsations in subdwarf B stars (EC14026: Kilkenny+ 1997, PG1716: Green+ 2003), low-amplitude pulsations in low-mass pre-white dwarfs (WDs) (EL CVn: Maxted+ 2014), He-rich subdwarfs (V366Aqr: Ahmad & Jeffery 2005, Green+ 2011), and large amplitude pulsations in faint blue stars (BLAPs: Pietrukowicz+ 2017, Kupfer+ 2019). In all cases, significant features in opacity are responsible for driving the pulsations (Jeffery & Saio 2006, 2013, 2016, Saio & Jeffery 2019, Byrne & Jeffery 2020). For low-mass hot stars, the opacity bump from iron and nickel (in particular) provides the driving mechanism, with carbon and oxygen opacity driving pulsations in the hottest stars. In most cases the opacity bump is only effective as a pulsation driver if coupled with either depletion of background opacity from hydrogen or high concentrations of specific elements. Radiative opacities in faint blue stars also mediate gravitational settling and radiative levitation, with increased opacity due to ionisation providing a nett upward force on specific ions. The maximum value of this force occurs at the same temperature as the peak in 1 Figure 1: Hertzsprung–Russell diagram showing locations of principal classes of pulsating star. Normal stellar evolution from the main-sequence is illustrated, tracks labelled by mass. Classes are coloured roughly by spectral type. Shadings represent opacity-driven p modes (\), g modes (/) and strange modes (|) and acoustically driven modes (−) [after J. Christensen- Dalsgard]. opacity and, if undisturbed, leads to high concentrations of these elements, effectively amplifying the local opacity. Conversely, low specific opacities lead to low concentrations. These phenomena are enhanced at high surface gravities, i.e. in hot WDs and subdwarfs. The latter dominate the ultraviolet component of evolved stellar systems including globular clusters and giant elliptical galaxies (Brown+ 2003). The largest class of hot subdwarf, the subluminous B (sdB) stars, are conventionally core-burning helium stars of ≈ 0.5 M⊙which have helium- poor atmospheres; settling dominates, but the surface helium fraction increases with Teff(Heber , Edelmann+ 2003). Meanwhile, multiple classes of helium- enriched hot subdwarf (Drilling+ 2013) merit special attention, despite the extreme rarity of 2 Figure2: The distribution of heavy metal (filled symbols; Zr:maroon, Pb:blue and yellow), metal- normal(open symbols), He-rich and normal hot subdwarfs with effective temperature (Teff), surface gravity (g: left) and surface He/H ratio (y: right) some species. In about 10% of hot subdwarfs, hydrogen is so deficient there is insufficient to conceal the helium; an origin that destroys hydrogen seems probable (Zhang & Jeffery 2012). In the gap between helium- poor and hydrogen-poor subdwarfs (Fig. 2) lies a sparse group of intermediate helium subdwarfs (Naslim+ 2012). This group consistently displays remarkable properties. Their surfaces are super-abundant in trans-iron elements and form two groups, the cooler zirconium-rich and the hotter lead-rich (heavy-metal subdwarfs; Naslim+ 2011, Naslim+ 2013, Jeffery+ 2017a, Dorsch+ 2019, Latour+ 2019, Jeffery & Miszalski 2019, Naslim+ 2020). All show very sharp absorption lines indicative of low surface rotation (ibid.). The zirconium stars pulsate in g-modes driven by carbon and oxygen opacities at ≈ 106 K (Saio & Jeffery 2019). The majority are in high-energy galactic (halo?) orbits (Martin 2018). These remarkable stars form the primary focus of this proposal; why are their surfaces hydrogen/helium poor? why are they chemically peculiar? how did they form? what is their internal structure? do they have C+O-rich cores? what gave them their high velocities? why do they lie at the upper Teff boundary of normal sdB stars? how are they connected with other classes of hot subdwarfs and hydrogen-deficient stars? WP1. The SALT survey of chemically peculiar subdwarfs: PI Year 1 - 2. The PI is leading a spectroscopic survey of all southern He-rich hot ‘subdwarfs’ using SALT with resolution and S/N sufficient to measure atmospheric properties (mV ≤ 16) and detailed surface composition (mV ≤ 14.5). The survey has discovered several new extreme helium stars, a heavy-metal subdwarf and other stars of interest (Fig. 3: Jeffery 2017, Jeffery+ 2017b, Jeffery & Miszalski 2019). This WP covers classification, parameterization and a spectroscopic atlas of the entire sample (≈ 200 stars), together with follow-up analyses of interesting objects and will be carried out by the PI and an STFC-PhD student (Ted Snowdon). The PI is also a LAMOST consortium member and will extend the survey to the northern hemisphere using data already available. WP2. Stratified model atmospheres for heavy-metal subdwarfs: PDRA Year 1 – 2. 3 Current abundance analyses of heavy-metal subdwarfs indicate surface abundances of trans-iron elements which are ≈ 104 times solar. Surface enrichment of material produced by the s-process is possible but unlikely; these are not post-AGB stars. Alternatively, the enriched material forms a thin layer supported by radiative levitation. If centered at the line- forming depth in the photosphere, Figure 3: Surface properties of selected SALT an abundance measurement would subdwarfs (red), extreme helium stars (black reflect the abundance in that layer, squares), extreme helium subdwarfs (black diamonds) but not the mean abundance in the and intermediate helium subdwarfs (violet photosphere. diamonds). The Eddington limit, LM contours (solar Two tests will be made using model units), zero-age helium main-sequence, a He+He WD atmospheres with a non-uniform post-merger track (Zhang & Jeffery 2012) (maroon), chemical distribution; i) the and a ’late hot flasher’ track (Miller Bertolami et al. distribution will be assigned 2008) (orange) are also shown. parametrically assuming discontinuities above and/or below the enriched layer. Theoretical line profiles will be compared with observed profiles to established the allowed range at which these discontinuities might occur. ii) our existing model atmosphere code (sterne: Behara+ 2006) includes provision for self-consistent radiative levitation and gravitational settling (Behara 2007). We will upgrade this code to incorporate additional opacities for trans-iron species (Fernandez-Menchero+ 2020, in prep) and hence determine whether radiative levitation can produce the observed concentrations. A key test will be to demonstrate how effective temperature affects different species; the peak concentration temperatures or Pb3+ and Zr3+ should reflect Pb- rich subdwarfs occurring at higher Teff than Zr-rich subdwarfs (Fig. 2). Data for these tests exist in the form of high signal-to-noise échelle spectra of several Zr- and Pb-rich subdwarfs. Information about stratification of less exotic elements will be equally important. Atomic data are being generated through a collaboration with Queens University Belfast. Fine analyses will be supplemented by analyses of spectral energy distributions and Gaia distances to determine radii and masses more precisely than hitherto, and to confront