Wra 751 is a Luminous Blue Variable that lately exhibits strong changes in light and colour. We summarize the available photometry of Wra 751, present new photometric observations, and discuss these data with special attention on the systematic differences between the various data sources. In addition, we establish an empirical relationship between b-y and B-V for this class of stars. Wra 751 is a strong-active member of the S Dor class exhibiting very-long term S Doradus phases with an amplitude of about two magnitudes in V and a cycle length of several decades. The associated B-V colour-index amplitude is about 0.4mag. At this moment this LBV, which is the reddest member of the class, goes through the bright (and red) stage of a long-term S Dor cycle. The S Dor behaviour of this system shows some resemblance to the temporal characteristics of the Galactic LBV AG Car: time scales and amplitudes of light and colour variability are very similar.
We present new multiband CCD photometry for WZ Cyg made on 22 nights in two observing seasons of 2007 and 2008. Our light-curve synthesis indicates that the system is in poor thermal contact with a fill-out factor of 4.8% and a temperature difference of 1447K. Including our 40 timing measurements, a total of 371 times of minimum light spanning more than 112yr were used for a period study. Detailed analysis of the O-C diagram showed that the orbital period has varied by a combination of an upward parabola and a sinusoid.
Combining all available photometric data from various surveys and literature with our observations, we present 10 sets of light curves for the eclipsing binary V0599 Aur covering a timescale of 20 yr. During the last two decades, the O'Connell effect continuously varied and went through at least two flips between positive and negative effects. The photometric solutions from our two sets of multicolored light curves show that V0599 Aur is a W-type shallow contact binary with an active spot on the secondary. Its absolute parameters are determined by combining the Gaia distance with the photometric solutions. The period investigation reveals a secular decrease and a cyclic variation in its orbital period. The former mainly originates from the mass transfer from the more massive secondary to the less massive primary. The latter can be preferentially explained as a result of cyclic magnetic activity of the secondary, with three observational supports: (1) the existence and evolution of an active spot suggested by the long-term photometry, (2) periodic variation in both the O'Connell effect and relative luminosity, and (3) weak correlations between O'Connell effect/relative luminosity changes and cyclic period variation. Together with the cyclic period variation and its theoretical reasonability by Applegate's mechanism, we suggest that the secondary of V0599 Aur is a solar-type magnetic-activity star with an approximately 11 yr active cycle. Furthermore, by combining the secular period decrease with the Roche-lobe model, we infer that V0599 Aur is evolving from the marginal contact state controlled by thermal relaxation oscillation theory to the overcontact state.
Compact hierarchical systems are important because the effects caused by the dynamical interaction among its members occur ona human timescale. These interactions play a role in the formation of close binaries through Kozai cycles with tides. One such system is xi Tauri: it has three hierarchical orbits: 7.14d (eclipsing components Aa, Ab), 145d (components Aa+Ab, B), and 51yr (components Aa+Ab+B, C). We aim to obtain physical properties of the system and to study the dynamical interaction between its components. Our analysis is based on a large series of spectroscopic photometric (including space-borne) observations and long-baseline optical and infrared spectro-interferometric observations. We used two approaches to infer the system properties: a set of observation-specific models, where all components have elliptical trajectories, and an N-body model, which computes the trajectory of each component by integrating Newton's equations of motion.
We studied X-ray emission from young stars by analyzing the deep XMM-Newton observations of two regions of the Upper Scorpius association with an age of 5Myr. Based on near infrared and optical photometry we identified 22 Upper Scorpius photometric members among the 224 detected X-ray sources. We derived coronal properties of Upper Scorpius stars by performing X-ray spectral and timing analyses. The study of four strong and isolated stellar flares allowed us to derive the length of the flaring loops.
We report the results of an XMM-Newton observation of the Lagoon Nebula (M 8). Our EPIC images of this region reveal a cluster of point sources, most of which have optical counterparts inside the very young open cluster NGC 6530. The bulk of these X-ray sources are probably associated with low and intermediate mass pre-main sequence stars.
We studied the X-ray properties of the young (~1-8Myr) open cluster around the hot (O8 III) star {lambda} Ori and compared them with those of the similarly-aged sigma Ori cluster to investigate possible effects of the different ambient environment. We analysed an XMM-Newton observation of the cluster using EPIC imaging and low-resolution spectral data. We studied the variability of detected sources, and performed a spectral analysis of the brightest sources in the field using multi-temperature models.
The following tables describe the results of a survey for X-ray (0.3-3 keV) sources in the young (30Myr) NGC 2547 open cluster using the XMM-Newton EPIC instrument. Table 1 lists the details of X-ray sources which are correlated with optical cluster members. Table 2 catalogues the cross-identifications with optical catalogues for the sources in Table 1 and derives their X-ray luminosities and X-ray to bolometric flux ratios. Table 3 lists the X-ray properties of sources which are uncorrelated with cluster members. Table 7 lists the correlations between cluster members detected by XMM-Newton and those detected 7 years earlier by the ROSAT HRI instrument, along with the X-ray luminosities and flux ratios as determined by the HRI.
We present the characteristics of the X-ray variability of stars in the cluster NGC 2516 as derived from XMM-Newton/EPIC/pn data. The X-ray variations on short (hours), medium (months), and long (years) time scales have been explored. We detected 303 distinct X-ray sources by analysing six EPIC/pn observations; 194 of them are members of the cluster. Stars of all spectral types, from the early-types to the late-M dwarfs, were detected.
In this second paper of the series, we focus on the X-ray properties of the OB star population of NGC 6231. As a tool for our analysis, we performed a literature-based census of the OB stars in the field of view. More than one hundred objects are found, among which 30% can be associated with an X-ray source. All the O-type stars are detected in the X-ray domain as soft and reasonably strong emitters. [...] Among B-type stars, the detection rate is only about 25% in the sub-type range B0-B4 and remains mostly uniform throughout the different sub-populations while it drops significantly at later sub-types. The associated X-ray spectra are harder than those of O-type stars. Our analysis points towards the emission being rather associated with a physical (in a multiple system) PMS companion. However, we still observe a correlation between the bolometric luminosity of the B stars and the measured X-ray luminosity. [...]
