J/AJ/134/1877       Spectropolarimetry of R CrB in 1998-2003   (Kawabata+, 2007)

Spectropolarimetry of R Coronae Borealis in 1998-2003: discovery of transient polarization at maximum brightness. Kawabata K.S., Ikeda Y., Akitaya H., Isogai M., Matsuda K., Matsumura M., Nagae O., Seki M. <Astron. J., 134, 1877-1889 (2007)> =2007AJ....134.1877K 2007AJ....134.1877K
ADC_Keywords: Stars, variable ; Polarization Keywords: circumstellar matter - dust, extinction - stars: individual (R Coronae Borealis) - stars: mass loss - techniques: polarimetric Abstract: We present an extended optical spectropolarimetry of R CrB from 1998 January to 2003 September. The polarization was almost constant in the phase of maximum brightness, being consistent with past observations. We detected, however, temporary changes of the polarization (∼0.5%) in 2001 March and August, which were the first detections of large polarization variability in R CrB near maximum brightness. The amplitude and the position angle of the "transient polarization" were almost constant with wavelength in both events. There was a difference of about 20° in the position angle between the two events. Each event could be explained by light scattering due to a short-lived dust puff occasionally ejected off the line of sight. Description: The data were obtained with the low-resolution spectropolarimeter HBS (an acronym for "Henkou-Bunkou-Sokkou-Ki," which means spectropolarimeter in Japanese) from 1998 January 28 to 2003 September 29 at the Dodaira Observatory and the Okayama Astrophysical Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). Objects: ------------------------------------------- RA (2000) DE Designation(s) ------------------------------------------- 15 48 34.4 +28 09 24 R CrB = HD 141527 ------------------------------------------- File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ReadMe 80 . This file table1.dat 97 84 Polarimetry of R CrB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See also: J/A+A/353/287 : The R CrB stars (Asplund+, 2000) J/A+A/394/617 : UBVJHKLM photometry of R Corona Borealis (Yudin+, 2002) J/A+A/412/405 : Polarimetry of evolved stars. III. (Yudin+, 2003) Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 10 A10 "YYYY/MM/DD" ObsDate Date of the observation 12- 21 F10.2 d JD Julian date 23- 27 F5.2 mag DVmag Change from normal V magnitude of 6.11mag (1) 29- 31 A3 --- Tel Telescope code (2) 33- 34 A2 --- Ap Aperture description code (3) 36 A1 --- CCD CCD, as T=TI CCD, or S = SITe CCD 38- 42 I5 s Exptime Exposure time 44- 45 I2 0.1nm EW ? Equivalent width of C2 (5165Å) (5) 47- 50 F4.2 % Pobs Observed polarization in the V band (6) 52- 55 F4.2 % e_Pobs Uncertainty in Pobs 57- 61 F5.1 deg PAobs Observed polarization angle in the V band (6) 63- 65 F3.1 deg e_PAobs Uncertainty in PAobs 67- 70 F4.2 % Pvar Variable component polarization in the V band 72- 75 F4.2 % e_Pvar Uncertainty in Pvar 77- 81 F5.1 deg PAvar Variable component polarization angle in the V band 83- 87 F5.1 deg e_PAvar Uncertainty in PAvar 89- 91 I3 10-5 Fpol Polarized flux fraction (7) 93- 97 F5.1 10-5 e_Fpol Uncertainty in Fpol -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note (1): Visual magnitude averaged for all data within ±2.5-days in VSNET database. Note (2): Telescope code as follows: D36 = 0.91m at Dodaira O36 = 0.91m at Okayama O74 = 1.88m at Okayama Note (3): Aperture description code: D1 = 1.4mm diameter circle D2 = 0.2mmx1.4mm rectangle Note (5): Measured between 4970Å and 5200Å for D2 observations. Note (6): Observed polarization is considered as a vectorial summation of a constant component and a variable component (see text). Note (7): Polarized flux pvar*10-0.4DVmagF* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History: From electronic version of the journal
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Patricia Vannier [CDS] 08-Jan-2010
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