Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-12T16:58:48.547Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chemical peculiarities in magnetic and non-magnetic pre-main sequence A and B stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

C. P. Folsom
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Toulouse, France email: [email protected] Armagh Observatory, Armagh, Northern Ireland
S. Bagnulo
Affiliation:
Armagh Observatory, Armagh, Northern Ireland
G. A. Wade
Affiliation:
Department of Phyics, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Canada
J. D. Landstreet
Affiliation:
Armagh Observatory, Armagh, Northern Ireland Physics & Astronomy Department, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
E. Alecian
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In A- and late B-type stars, strong magnetic fields are always associated with Ap and Bp chemical peculiarities. However, it is not clear at what point in a star's evolution those peculiarities develop. Strong magnetic fields have been observed in pre-main sequence A and B stars (Herbig Ae and Be stars), and these objects have been proposed to be the progenitors of Ap and Bp stars. However, the photospheric chemical abundances of these magnetic Herbig stars have not been studied carefully, and furthermore the chemical abundances of 'normal' non-magnetic Herbig stars remain poorly characterized. To investigate this issue, we have studied the photospheric compositions of 23 Herbig stars, four of which have confirmed magnetic fields. Surprisingly, we found that half the non-magnetic stars in our sample show λ Bootis chemical peculiarities to varying degrees. For the stars with detected magnetic fields, we find one chemically normal star, one star with λ Boo peculiarities, one star displaying weak Ap/Bp peculiarities, and one somewhat more evolved star with somewhat stronger Ap/Bp peculiarities. These results suggests that Ap/Bp peculiarities are preceded by magnetic fields, and that these peculiarities develop over the pre-main sequence lives of A and B stars. The incidence of λ Boo stars we find is much higher than that seen on the main sequence. We argue that a selective accretion model for the formation of λ Boo peculiarities is a natural explanation for this remarkably large incidence.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2014 

References

Acke, B. & Waelkens, C. 2004, A&A 427, 1009Google Scholar
Alecian, E., Catala, C., Wade, G. A., Donati, J.-F., Petit, P., Landstreet, J. D., Böhm, T., Bouret, J.-C., Bagnulo, S., Folsom, C., Grunhut, J., & Silvester, J. 2008, MNRAS 385, 391Google Scholar
Alecian, E., Wade, G. A., Catala, C., Grunhut, J. H., Landstreet, J. D., Bagnulo, S., Böhm, T., Folsom, C. P., Marsden, S., & Waite, I. 2013, MNRAS 429, 1001Google Scholar
Aurière, M., Wade, G. A., Silvester, J., Lignières, F., Bagnulo, S., Bale, K., Dintrans, B., Donati, J. F., Folsom, C. P., Gruberbauer, M., et al. 2007, A&A 475, 1053Google Scholar
Charbonneau, P. 1993, ApJ 405, 720Google Scholar
Folsom, C. P., Wade, G. A., Kochukhov, O., Alecian, E., Catala, C., Bagnulo, S., Böhm, T., Bouret, J.-C., Donati, J.-F., Grunhut, J., Hanes, D. A., & Landstreet, J. D. 2008, MNRAS 391, 901CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folsom, C. P., Bagnulo, S., Wade, G. A., Alecian, E., Landstreet, J. D., Marsden, S. C., & Waite, I. A. 2012, MNRAS 422, 2072CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landstreet, J. D. 1988, ApJ 326, 967Google Scholar
Paunzen, E. 2001, A&A 373, 633Google Scholar
Venn, K. A. & Lambert, D. L. 1990, ApJ 363, 234Google Scholar
Wade, G. A., Bagnulo, S., Kochukhov, O., Landstreet, J. D., Piskunov, N., & Stift, M. J. 2001, A&A 374, 265Google Scholar
Wade, G. A., Bagnulo, S., Drouin, D., Landstreet, J. D., & Monin, D. 2007, MNRAS 376, 1145CrossRefGoogle Scholar