How long can luminous blue variables sleep? A long-term photometric variability and spectral study of the Galactic candidate luminous blue variable MN 112

0558172 - ASÚ 2023 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Maryeva, Olga - Karpov, Sergey - Kniazev, A. - Gvaramadze, V. V.
How long can luminous blue variables sleep? A long-term photometric variability and spectral study of the Galactic candidate luminous blue variable MN 112.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Roč. 513, č. 4 (2022), s. 5752-5765. ISSN 0035-8711. E-ISSN 1365-2966
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) LM2018102; GA MŠMT LTT18004; GA MŠMT EF16_013/0001402; GA MŠMT(CZ) EF18_046/0016010; GA MŠMT EF15_003/0000437
EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 823734 - POEMS
Institutional support: RVO:67985815 ; RVO:68378271
Keywords : hot star winds * massive stars * h-alpha
OECD category: Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science); Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science) (FZU-D)
Impact factor: 4.8, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1249

Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are massive stars that show strong spectral and photometric variability. The questions of what evolutionary stages they represent and what exactly drives their instability are still open, and thus it is important to understand whether LBVs without significant ongoing activity exist, and for how long such dormant LBVs may 'sleep'. In this paper we investigate the long-term variability properties of the LBV candidate MN 112, by combining its optical and infrared spectral data covering 12 years with photometric data covering nearly a century, as acquired from both modern time-domain sky surveys and historical photographic plates. We analyse the spectra, derive the physical properties of the star by modelling its atmosphere, and use a new distance estimate from Gaia data release 3 (DR3) to determine the position of MN 112 both inside the Galaxy and in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. The distance estimation has almost doubled in comparison with Gaia DR2. Because of this, MN 112 moved to upper part of the diagram, and according to our modelling it lies on an evolutionary track for a star with initial mass M-*( )= 70 M-circle dot near the Humphreys-Davidson limit. Given the absence of any significant variability, we conclude that the star is a dormant LBV that has now been inactive for at least a century.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0332247