2024/07/11 by Viraj Karambelkar, Karambelkar, Viraj R., M. M. Kasliwal +38 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #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)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2407.08653
openalex publication_date 2024/07/11 · openalex created_date 2024/07/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present results from a systematic infrared (IR) census of R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars in the Milky Way, using data from the Palomar Gattini IR (PGIR) survey. R Coronae Borealis stars are dusty, erratic variable stars presumably formed from the merger of a He-core and a CO-core white dwarf (WD). PGIR is a 30 cm J-band telescope with a 25 deg2 camera that surveys 18000 deg2 of the northern sky (δ>-28o) at a cadence of 2 days. Using PGIR J-band lightcurves for ∼60 million stars together with mid-IR colors from WISE, we selected a sample of 530 candidate RCB stars. We obtained near-IR spectra for these candidates and identified 53 RCB stars in our sample. Accounting for our selection criteria, we find that there are a total of ≈350+150-100 RCB stars in the Milky Way. Assuming typical RCB lifetimes, this corresponds to an RCB formation rate of 0.8 - 5 × 10-3 yr-1, consistent with observational and theoretical estimates of the He-CO WD merger rate. We searched for quasi-periodic pulsations in the PGIR lightcurves of RCB stars and present pulsation periods for 16 RCB stars. We also examined high-cadenced TESS lightcurves for RCB and the chemically similar, but dustless hydrogen-deficient carbon (dLHdC) stars. We find that dLHdC stars show variations on timescales shorter than RCB stars, suggesting that they may have lower masses than RCB stars. Finally, we identified 3 new spectroscopically confirmed and 12 candidate Galactic DY Per type stars - believed to be colder cousins of RCB stars - doubling the sample of Galactic DY Per type stars.