Rapidly Rotating, X-Ray Bright Stars in the Kepler Field
Abstract
We present Kepler light curves and optical spectroscopy of twenty X-ray bright stars located in the Kepler field of view. The stars, spectral type F-K, show evidence for rapid rotation including chromospheric activity 100 times or more above the Sun at maximum and flaring behavior in their light curves. Eighteen of our objects appear to be (sub)giants and may belong to the class of FK Com variables, which are evolved rapidly spinning single stars with no excretion disk and high levels of chromospheric activity. Such stars are rare and are likely the result of W UMa binary mergers, a process believed to produce the FK Com class of variable and their descendants. The FK Com stage, including the presence of an excretion disk, is short lived but leads to longer-lived stages consisting of single, rapidly rotating evolved (sub)giants with high levels of stellar activity.
Additional Information
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2016 July 31; revised 2016 August 24; accepted 2016 August 24; published 2016 October 25. We wish to thank the staff of the Kepler project at NASA Ames research Center, the NASA Exoplanet Archive, and the Mt. Palomar Observatory for their continued support of the Kepler mission and its follow-up work. K.L.S. acknowledges support from the NASA Earth and Space Sciences Fellowship (NESSF). Facilities: Hale 200'' telescope - , Kepler - , SWIFT - , and NASA Exoplanet Archive - .Attached Files
Published - Howell_2016_ApJ_831_27.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 71446
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20161025-110144993
- NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
- Created
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2016-10-25Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)