New Beta Cephei stars with KELT

TL;DR

This study identifies 113 Beta Cephei stars, including 86 new ones, using KELT data, significantly expanding the known sample and providing valuable targets for future asteroseismic research.

Contribution

The paper reports the discovery of 86 new Beta Cephei stars and 96 candidates, greatly increasing the known population and highlighting their potential for detailed stellar interior studies.

Findings

113 Beta Cephei stars identified, 86 are new discoveries

96 additional candidates for Beta Cephei stars

Detection of stars with rotational splitting and eclipsing binaries

Abstract

We present the results of a search for Galactic Beta Cephei stars, which are massive pulsating stars with both pressure modes and mixed modes. Thus, these stars can serve as benchmarks for seismological studies of the interiors of massive stars. We conducted the search by performing a frequency analysis on the optical light curves of known O- and B-type stars with data from the KELT exoplanet survey. We identify 113 Beta Cephei stars, of which 86 are new discoveries, which altogether represents a ~70% increase in the number presently known. An additional 96 candidates are identified. Among our targets, we find five new eclipsing binaries and 22 stars with equal frequency spacings suggestive of rotational splitting of nonradial pulsation modes. Candidates for runaway stars among our targets and a number of interesting individual objects are discussed. Most of the known and newly discovered Beta Cephei stars will be observed by the TESS mission, providing by far the most comprehensive observational data set of massive main sequence pulsating stars of sufficient quality for detailed asteroseismic studies. Future analysis of these light curves has the potential to dramatically increase our understanding of the structure of stellar interiors and the physical processes taking place therein.