X-ray Observations of the Peculiar Cepheid V473 Lyr Identify A Low-Mass Companion

V473 Lyr is a classical Cepheid which is unique in having substantial amplitude variations with a period of approximately 3.3 years, thought to be similar to the Blazhko variations in RR Lyrae stars. We obtained an {\it XMM-Newton} observation of this star to followup a previous detection in X-rays....

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Veröffentlicht in:arXiv.org 2020-01
Hauptverfasser: Evans, Nancy Remage, Pillitteri, Ignazio, Molnar, Laszlo, Szabados, Laszlo, Plachy, Emese, Szabo, Robert, Engle, Scott, Guinan, Ed, Wolk, Scott, H Moritz Guenther, Neilson, Hilding, Marengo, Massimo, Matthews, Lynn D, Moschou, Sofia, Drake, Jeremy J, Kashyap, Vinay, Kervella, Pierre, Tordai, Tamas, Somogyi, Peter, Burki, Gilbert
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:V473 Lyr is a classical Cepheid which is unique in having substantial amplitude variations with a period of approximately 3.3 years, thought to be similar to the Blazhko variations in RR Lyrae stars. We obtained an {\it XMM-Newton} observation of this star to followup a previous detection in X-rays. Rather than the X-ray burst and rapid decline near maximum radius seen in \(\delta\) Cephei itself, the X-ray flux in V473 Lyr remained constant for a third of the pulsation cycle covered by the observation. Thus the X-rays are most probably not produced by the changes around the pulsation cycle. The X-ray spectrum is soft (kT = 0.6 keV), with X-ray properties which are consistent with a young low mass companion. Previously there was no evidence of a companion in radial velocities or in {\it Gaia} and {\it Hipparcos} proper motions. While this rules out companions which are very close or very distant, a binary companion at a separation between 30 and 300 AU is possible. This is an example of an X-ray observation revealing evidence of a low mass companion, which is important in completing the mass ratio statistics of binary Cepheids. Furthermore, the detection of a young X-ray bright companion is a further indication that the Cepheid (primary) is a Population I star, even though its pulsation behavior differs from other classical Cepheids.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2001.02253