Abundance Analyses of RV Tauri Variables

DOI

Analyses of the photospheric compositions of the four field RV Tauri stars, EP Lyr, DY Ori, AR Pup, and R Sge, indicate that to varying degrees they have experienced fractionation processes that have preferentially depleted their atmospheres of elements with high condensation temperatures. The depletion, as indicated by, for instance, [S/Fe], is greatest for DY Ori, [S/Fe]=2.5, and least for R Sge, [S/Fe]=0.9. The initial composition, presumably indicated by the sulfur abundance, was nearly solar for AR Pup, R Sge, and DY Ori, while it was about 0.6--- less than solar for EP Lyr. This implies that the RV Tauri stars as a group may not be as metal-poor as previously thought---they are instead ``metal-depleted''. The field RV Tauri's are not halo stars, but probably belong to the thick disk. This brings to seven the number of type II Cepheids that show such a trend; the other three are IW Car and V1 in omega Cen, RV Tauri stars, and ST Pup, a W Virginis star. The 12C/13C ratios for EP Lyr and DY Ori are 9+/-1 and 6+/-3, respectively, indicating that CN-cycled material has been mixed with their surface layers. This is consistent with the general consensus that RV Tau stars are in a post-AGB evolutionary stage. There is also evidence that EP Lyr has a stellar mass companion, but additional observations are required to calculate an orbit; hence, EP Lyr could be a link to the group of metal-depleted, high-latitude A-F supergiants, all of which are binaries.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.14790427
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/479/427
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/479/427
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/479/427
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/479/427
Provenance
Creator Gonzalez G.; Lambert D.L.; Giridhar S.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 1997
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Physics; Stellar Astronomy