Open AccessDetermining temperature amplitude as a function of depth in the atmospheres of rapidly oscillating Ap stars
Author(s) -
Medupe R.,
Kurtz D. W.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.01772.x
Subject(s) - physics , amplitude , adiabatic process , stars , astrophysics , limb darkening , wavelength , light curve , intensity (physics) , function (biology) , optics , thermodynamics , evolutionary biology , biology
We present numerical models based on realistic treatment of the intensity spectrum (from model atmospheres), and demonstrate that they are consistent with Kurtz and Medupe's recent formula in showing that limb darkening is too small an effect to explain the observed sharp decline of pulsation light amplitude with wavelength in rapidly oscillating Ap stars. Kurtz and Medupe's formula is shown to be a special form of Watson's earlier general formula for non‐radial light variations of a star pulsating in any mode ( l m ). Using a technique suggested by Kurtz and Medupe we derive temperature semi‐amplitude as a function of depth in the atmospheres of α Cir and HR 3831, assuming that we can neglect non‐adiabatic effects.