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Photometric identification of the periods of the first candidate extragalactic magnetic stars

Naze, Yael; Walborn, Nolan R.; Morrell, Nidia; Wade, Gregg A.; Szymanski, Michal K.
Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 577, id.A107, 9 pp. (2015).
05/2015

ABSTRACT

Galactic stars belonging to the Of?p category are all strongly magnetic objects exhibiting rotationally modulated spectral and photometric changes on timescales of weeks to years. Five candidate Of?p stars in the Magellanic Clouds have been discovered, notably in the context of ongoing surveys of their massive star populations. Here we describe an investigation of their photometric behaviour, revealing significant variability in all studied objects on timescales of one week to more than four years, including clearly periodic variations for three of them. Their spectral characteristics along with these photometric changes provide further support for the hypothesis that these are strongly magnetized O stars, analogous to the Of?p stars in the Galaxy.