Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2005

Abstract

We present new high-dispersion spectroscopic and precise photometric observations to identify 11 new γ Doradus variables. Seven of these new γ Doradus stars appear to be single, three are primaries of single-lined binaries, and one has two distant visual companions; none are double-lined or close visual binaries. Several of the stars show spectroscopic line-profile and low-amplitude radial velocity variability indicative of pulsation. All 11 stars are photometrically variable with amplitudes between 8 and 93 mmag in Johnson B and periods between 0.398 and 2.454 days. One star is monoperiodic; the rest have between two and five independent periods. The variability at all periods approximates a sinusoid, although three of the stars exhibit cycle-to-cycle variation in the level of maximum brightness, similar to the Blazhko effect observed in some RR Lyrae stars. We provide a new tabulation of all 54 γ Doradus stars confirmed to date and list some of their properties. All are dwarfs or subgiants and lie within a well-defined region of the H-R diagram that overlaps the cool edge of the δ Scuti instability strip. Four of the new γ Doradus variables from this paper also lie within the δ Scuti instability strip but do not exhibit the additional higher frequency variability typical of δ Scuti stars. The variability type of several of these stars given in the General Catalog of Variable Stars and in SIMBAD should now be revised.

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