Beyond binarity in A stars II. Disentangling the four stars in the vicinity of the triple HIP 87813 within the quintuple system HJ2814

TL;DR

This study uses multi-technique observations to disentangle a complex multiple star system near HIP 87813, revealing new companions and orbital details, and providing insights into the evolution of A-star systems and their white dwarf descendants.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive analysis combining spectroscopy, adaptive optics, interferometry, and astrometry to resolve and characterize the multiple stellar components of the HIP 87813 system, including discovering a new companion.

Findings

Identified a background source near HIP 87813

Discovered a new 0.74 solar mass star with a 60-year orbit

Detected a close 0.85 solar mass companion with a 13.4-day orbit

Abstract

A-stars are the progenitors of about half of the white dwarfs (WDs) that currently exist. The connection between the multiplicity of A-stars and that of WDs is not known and both multiplicities are still poorly explored. We are in the process of obtaining tight constraints on a sample of 108 southern A-type stars that are part of the nearby VAST sample \citep{DeRosa14} by conducting near-infrared interferometric follow-up observations to the (twenty) stars among them which have large $Gaia$-$Hipparcos$ accelerations. In this paper, we combine spectroscopy, adaptive optics imaging, NIR interferometry and $Gaia$-$Hipparcos$ astrometry in order to disentangle the stars in the complicated HIP 87813 = HJ2814A system. We show that (i) a previously discovered faint star that is separated by 2" from the A star is actually a background source; (ii) the $Gaia$-$Hipparcos$ acceleration is caused by a newly discovered $0.74 M_{\odot}$ star that was missed in previous AO images and we solve for its $P \approx 60 \text{ yrs}$ astrometric orbit; (iii) by combining previously obtained spectra we show that the A star has a very close $0.85 M_{\odot}$ companion on a 13.4-day period orbit. The radial velocity curve combined with NIR interferometry constrains its orbit allowing Kozai-Lidov oscillations in the hierarchical triple to be ruled out. The system HJ2814 is one of only about fifteen known 5+ systems with an A star primary, and will result in a system of between two to five bound WDs within around a Hubble time.