Pulsating B and Be Stars in the Magellanic Clouds

Author(s): Diago, P. D.; Gutierrez-Soto, J.; Fabregat, J.; et al.

Book Editor(s): Diego, JM; Goicoechea, LJ; GonzalezSerrano, JI; et al.

Conference: 8th Scientific Meeting of the Spanish-Astronomical-Society (SEA) Location: Univ Cantabria, Inst Fisica Cantabria, Santander, SPAIN Date: JUL 07-11, 2008

Sponsor(s): Spanish Astronom Soc

Source: HIGHLIGHTS OF SPANISH ASTROPHYSICS V  Book Series: Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings   Pages: 401-401   DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-11250-8_99   Published: 2010

Stellar pulsations in main-sequence B-type stars are driven by the kappa-mechanism due to the Fe-group opacity bump. The current models do not predict the presence of instability strips in the B spectral domain at very low metallicities. As the metallicity of the Magellanic Clouds (MC) has been measured to be around Z = 0.002 for the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and Z = 0.007 for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), they constitute a very suitable objects to test these predictions. The aim of this work is to investigate the existence of B-type pulsators at low metallicities, searching for short-term periodic variability in a large sample of B and Be stars from the MC with accurately determined fundamental astrophysical parameters.