2024/03/12 by Kaitlyn M. Chen, Chen, Kaitlyn M., Trevor Z. Dorn-Wallenstein +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2403.08048
openalex publication_date 2024/03/12 · openalex created_date 2024/03/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Yellow supergiants (YSGs) are rare and poorly understood, and studying them is critical to constraining massive star evolution. We obtained flux-calibrated Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) high-resolution spectra of 40 YSGs in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC); this sample likely contains post-red supergiants (RSGs). Fitting these data with ATLAS9 model atmospheres, we determined fundamental parameters for these stars. We measure the first spectroscopic luminosities for YSGs above 20 M_\odot, providing us a novel probe of the luminosity-to-mass ratio. Many stars in our sample appear to have anomalously high surface gravities, despite being confirmed LMC supergiants. We manually inspected our data finding evidence for binary companions and ongoing mass loss. Our work demonstrates the valuable role of high-resolution spectroscopy in interpreting the evolutionary status of cool supergiants.