IRAS\,11472-0800: an extremely depleted pulsating binary post-AGB star

TL;DR

IRAS11472-0800 is a highly evolved, chemically depleted pulsating binary post-AGB star with a circumstellar disc, whose optical variability is dominated by scattered light, providing insights into dust trapping and binary evolution.

Contribution

This study provides a comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis revealing the star's binary nature, circumstellar disc, and extreme chemical depletion, linking it to dusty RV Tauri stars.

Findings

IRAS11472-0800 has a pulsation period of 31.16 days.

It exhibits extreme chemical depletion with [Fe/H] = -2.7.

The star is surrounded by a stable circumbinary disc.

Abstract

We focus here on one particular and poorly studied object, IRAS11472-0800. It is a highly evolved post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (post-AGB) star of spectral type F, with a large infrared excess produced by thermal emission of circumstellar dust. We deploy a multi-wavelength study which includes the analyses of optical and IR spectra as well as a variability study based on photometric and spectroscopic time-series. The spectral energy distribution (SED) properties as well as the highly processed silicate N-band emission show that the dust in IRAS11472-0800 is likely trapped in a stable disc. The energetics of the SED and the colour variability show that our viewing angle is close to edge-on and that the optical flux is dominated by scattered light. With photospheric abundances of [Fe/H] = -2.7 and [Sc/H]=-4.2, we discovered that IRAS11472-0800 is one of the most chemically-depleted objects known to date. Moreover, IRAS11472-0800 is a pulsating star with a period of 31.16 days and a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.6 mag in V. The radial velocity variability is strongly influenced by the pulsations, but the significant cycle-to-cycle variability is systematic on a longer time scale, which we interpret as evidence for binary motion. We conclude that IRAS11472-0800 is a pulsating binary star surrounded by a circumbinary disc. The line-of-sight towards the object lies close the the orbital plane making that the optical light is dominated by scattered light. IRAS11472-0800 is one of the most chemically-depleted objects known so far and links the dusty RV\,Tauri stars to the non-pulsating class of strongly depleted objects.