Beta Cephei stars from ASAS: a new look at hot pulsators

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a large sample of Beta Cephei stars discovered by ASAS, providing new insights into their distribution in the Galaxy and their pulsational properties, significantly expanding the known population for statistical and asteroseismic studies.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive analysis of nearly 300 Beta Cephei stars from ASAS, doubling the known sample and enabling detailed statistical and galactic distribution studies.

Findings

Expanded the known Beta Cephei star sample to about 300 stars.

Analyzed their distribution in the Galaxy relative to spiral arms.

Characterized pulsational properties such as periods and amplitudes.

Abstract

The All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) data, covering nearly 70% of the whole sky south of declination +28 deg, were recently used to discover about 300 Beta Cephei stars brighter than V~11.5 mag. As this means a nearly fourfold increase in the number of known stars of this type, new possibilities in studying these pulsators open up, including statistical work. The homogeneity of the ASAS survey allows us to study their distribution in the local Galaxy. We discuss this distribution in the context of the location of nearby spiral arms. In addition, we show pulsational (periods, amplitudes) properties of the whole sample of known Beta Cephei stars. Some objects interesting from the point of view of asteroseismology are also indicated.