Stellar Systems Group

Handler, G.; Matthews, J. M.; Eaton, J. A.; Daszyńska-Daszkiewicz, J.; Kuschnig, R.; Lehmann, H.; Rodríguez, E.; Pamyatnykh, A. A.; Zdravkov, T.; Lenz, P.; Costa, V.; Díaz-Fraile, D.; Sota, A.; Kwiatkowski, T.; Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A.; Borczyk, W.; Dimitrov, W.; Fagas, M.; Kamiński, K.; Rożek, A.; van Wyk, F.; Pollard, K. R.; Kilmartin, P. M.; Weiss, W. W.; Guenther, D. B.; Moffat, A. F. J.; Rucinski, S. M.; Sasselov, D. D.; Walker, G. A. H.
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 698, Issue 1, pp. L56-L59 (2009).
06/2009

ABSTRACT

We have acquired simultaneous high-precision space photometry and radial velocities of the bright hybrid β Cep/Slowly Pulsating B pulsator γ Peg. Frequency analyses reveal the presence of six gravity (g) modes of high radial order together with eight low-order β Cep oscillations in both data sets. Mode identification shows that all pulsations have spherical degrees ell = 0-2. An 8.5 M _sun model reproduces the observed pulsation frequencies; all theoretically predicted modes in the β Cep domain are detected. We suggest, contrary to previous authors, that γ Peg is a single star; the claimed orbital variations are due to g-mode pulsation. γ Peg is the first hybrid pulsator for which a sufficiently large number of high-order g modes and low-order pressure (p) and mixed modes have been detected and identified to be usable for in-depth seismic modeling.

Based on data from the MOST satellite, a Canadian Space Agency mission operated by Dynacon, Inc., the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies, and the University of British Columbia, with assistance from the University of Vienna, Austria.