Astronomical Cardiology: A Search For Heartbeat Stars Using $\textit{Gaia}$ and $\textit{TESS}$

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Callahan, Jowen, Rowan, D. M., Kochanek, C. S., Stanek, K. Z.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909691130413056
author Callahan, Jowen
Rowan, D. M.
Kochanek, C. S.
Stanek, K. Z.
author_facet Callahan, Jowen
Rowan, D. M.
Kochanek, C. S.
Stanek, K. Z.
contents Heartbeat stars are a subclass of binary stars with short periods, high eccentricities, and phase-folded light curves that resemble an electrocardiogram. We start from the $\textit{Gaia}$ catalogs of spectroscopic binaries and use $\textit{TESS}$ photometry to identify 112 new heartbeat star systems. We fit their phase-folded light curves with an analytic model to measure their orbital periods, eccentricities, inclinations, and arguments of periastron. We then compare these orbital parameters to the $\textit{Gaia}$ spectroscopic orbital solution. Our periods and eccentricities are consistent with the $\textit{Gaia}$ solutions for 85$\%$ of the single-line spectroscopic binaries but only 20$\%$ of the double-line spectroscopic binaries. For the two double-line spectroscopic binary heartbeat stars with consistent orbits, we combine the $\textit{TESS}$ phase-folded light curve and the $\textit{Gaia}$ velocity semi-amplitudes to measure the stellar masses and radii with $\texttt{PHOEBE}$. In a statistical analysis of the heartbeat star population, we find that non-giant heartbeat stars have evolved off the main sequence and that the fraction of the systems that are heartbeat stars rises rapidly with effective temperature.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_14869
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Astronomical Cardiology: A Search For Heartbeat Stars Using $\textit{Gaia}$ and $\textit{TESS}$
Callahan, Jowen
Rowan, D. M.
Kochanek, C. S.
Stanek, K. Z.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Heartbeat stars are a subclass of binary stars with short periods, high eccentricities, and phase-folded light curves that resemble an electrocardiogram. We start from the $\textit{Gaia}$ catalogs of spectroscopic binaries and use $\textit{TESS}$ photometry to identify 112 new heartbeat star systems. We fit their phase-folded light curves with an analytic model to measure their orbital periods, eccentricities, inclinations, and arguments of periastron. We then compare these orbital parameters to the $\textit{Gaia}$ spectroscopic orbital solution. Our periods and eccentricities are consistent with the $\textit{Gaia}$ solutions for 85$\%$ of the single-line spectroscopic binaries but only 20$\%$ of the double-line spectroscopic binaries. For the two double-line spectroscopic binary heartbeat stars with consistent orbits, we combine the $\textit{TESS}$ phase-folded light curve and the $\textit{Gaia}$ velocity semi-amplitudes to measure the stellar masses and radii with $\texttt{PHOEBE}$. In a statistical analysis of the heartbeat star population, we find that non-giant heartbeat stars have evolved off the main sequence and that the fraction of the systems that are heartbeat stars rises rapidly with effective temperature.
title Astronomical Cardiology: A Search For Heartbeat Stars Using $\textit{Gaia}$ and $\textit{TESS}$
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14869