Published in

Oxford University Press, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2(514), p. 2269-2277, 2022

DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac1455

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Multiple variability time-scales of the early nitrogen-rich Wolf–Rayet star WR 7

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present the analysis of the optical variability of the early, nitrogen-rich Wolf–Rayet (WR) star WR 7. The analysis of multisector Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) light curves and high-resolution spectroscopic observations confirm multiperiodic variability that is modulated on time-scales of years. We detect a dominant period of 2.6433 ± 0.0005 d in the TESS sectors 33 and 34 light curves in addition to the previously reported high-frequency features from sector 7. We discuss the plausible mechanisms that may be responsible for such variability in WR 7, including pulsations, binarity, co-rotating interaction regions (CIRs), and clumpy winds. Given the lack of strong evidence for the presence of a stellar or compact companion, we suggest that WR 7 may pulsate in quasi-coherent modes in addition to wind variability likely caused by CIRs on top of stochastic low-frequency variability. WR 7 is certainly a worthy target for future monitoring in both spectroscopy and photometry to sample both the short (≲1 d) and long (≳1000 d) variability time-scales.