High-degree gravity modes in the single sdB star HD 4539

Abstract

ABSTRACT HD 4539 (alias PG 0044 + 097 or EPIC 220641886) is a bright (V  = 10.2) long-period V1093 Her-type subdwarf B (sdB) pulsating star that was observed by the Kepler spacecraft in its secondary (K2) mission. We use the K2 light curve (78.7 d) to extract 169 pulsation frequencies, 124 with a robust detection. Most of these frequencies are found in the low-frequency region typical of gravity (g-)modes, but some higher frequencies corresponding to pressure (p-)modes are also detected. Therefore HD 4539 is a hybrid pulsator and both the deep and surface layers of the star can potentially be probed through asteroseismology. The lack of any frequency splitting in its amplitude spectrum suggests that HD 4539 has a rotation period longer than the K2 run and/or that it is seen pole-on. From asymptotic period spacing we see many high-degree modes, up to l  = 12, in the spectrum of HD 4539, with amplitudes as low as a few ppm. A large fraction of these modes can be identified and for ∼29 per cent of them we obtain a unique and robust identification corresponding to l ≤ 8. Our study includes also a new determination of the atmospheric parameters of the star. From low-resolution spectroscopy we obtain Teff  = 22 800 ± 160 K, log g  = 5.20 ± 0.02, and log(N(He)/N(H))  = −2.34 ± 0.05. By fitting the SED we obtain Teff  = 23 470$^{+650}_{-210}$ K, R⋆  = 0.26 ± 0.01 R⊙, and M⋆  = 0.40 ± 0.08 M⊙. Moreover, from 11 high-resolution spectra we see the radial velocity variations caused by the stellar pulsations, with amplitudes of ≈150 m s−1 for the main modes, and we can exclude the presence of a companion with a minimum mass higher than a few Jupiter masses for orbital periods below ∼300 d.