Short Term Variability of Evolved Massive Stars with TESS II: A New Class of Cool, Pulsating Supergiants

TL;DR

This study identifies a new class of pulsating yellow supergiants, FYPS, observed with TESS, providing insights into post-RSG stellar evolution and internal pulsation mechanisms.

Contribution

The paper reports the discovery of FYPS, a new class of pulsating supergiants, and analyzes their pulsation properties and evolutionary implications.

Findings

Five FYPS stars with pulsation periods under 1 day identified

FYPS occupy a unique region in the HR diagram not previously associated with pulsations

All stars show stochastic low-frequency variability linked to internal gravity waves

Abstract

Massive stars briefly pass through the yellow supergiant (YSG) phase as they evolve redward across the HR diagram and expand into red supergiants (RSGs). Higher-mass stars pass through the YSG phase again as they evolve blueward after experiencing significant RSG mass loss. These post-RSG objects offer us a tantalizing glimpse into which stars end their lives as RSGs, and why. One telltale sign of a post-RSG object may be an instability to pulsations, depending on the star's interior structure. Here we report the discovery of five YSGs with pulsation periods faster than 1 day, found in a sample of 76 cool supergiants observed by \tess at two-minute cadence. These pulsating YSGs are concentrated in a HR diagram region not previously associated with pulsations; we conclude that this is a genuine new class of pulsating star, Fast Yellow Pulsating Supergiants (FYPS). For each FYPS, we extract frequencies via iterative prewhitening and conduct a time-frequency analysis. One FYPS has an extracted frequency that is split into a triplet, and the amplitude of that peak is modulated on the same timescale as the frequency spacing of the triplet; neither rotation nor binary effects are likely culprits. We discuss the evolutionary status of FYPS and conclude that they are candidate post-RSGs. All stars in our sample also show the same stochastic low-frequency variability (SLFV) found in hot OB stars and attributed to internal gravity waves. Finally, we find four $\alpha$ Cygni variables in our sample, of which three are newly discovered.