Identification and characterization of 15265 super-Nyquist frequencies in 1309 {\delta} Scuti stars from Kepler photometry

TL;DR

This study systematically identifies over 15,000 super-Nyquist frequencies in 1,309 deltaScuti stars using Kepler data, revealing their distribution and implications for asteroseismic analysis.

Contribution

Introduces a novel technique to detect super-Nyquist frequencies in deltaScuti stars and provides a comprehensive catalog for future research.

Findings

SNFs are more prevalent in young deltaScuti stars.

The number of SNFs decreases as stars evolve.

Detection rate of SNFs increases with frequency, reaching 23% near the Nyquist limit.

Abstract

The frequency of pressure (p) mode in $\delta$~Scuti stars can exceed the Nyquist limit of \textit{Kepler} long-cadence photometry. {These 'super-Nyquist frequencies' (SNFs) are observed as 'reflected' peaks at lower frequencies, i.e., they are Nyquist aliases that pose} a threat to asteroseismic diagnostics. Their impact on $\delta$~Scuti p modes has yet to be comprehensively explored. We performed a systematic survey to search for SNFs in 1,838 \textit{Kepler} $\delta$~Scuti stars through a novel technique based on sliding Lomb-Scargle periodogram, identifying 15,265 confirmed SNFs in 1,309 stars, from a total of 259,883 frequencies. We observe that the total number of detected frequencies per star remains featureless across the $\delta$~Scuti instability strip; however, young stars pulsate in higher frequencies and so have significantly more SNFs on average. Both the number and the rate of SNFs diminishes accordingly as $\delta$~Scuti stars become more evolved, which is consistent with both observation and stellar models. Furthermore, our method detects a greater fraction of modes as SNFs at higher frequencies, rising from approximately 1\% at 20 \(\mu \)Hz to 23\% at the Nyquist limit. The rate of underdetection is highest amongst low-amplitude modes. The SNF modulation patterns can be well distinguished from phase modulations induced by binarity or nonlinear mode interactions. We provide a frequency catalog for future asteroseismic studies of $\delta$~Scuti stars, wherein we identify each peak as being real or an alias, enabling further investigations into regular patterns of pulsation modes, linear combination frequencies, and theoretical modeling.