Photometric identification of the periods of the first candidate extragalactic magnetic massive stars

Abstract

Galactic stars belonging to the Of?p category are all strongly magnetic objects exhibiting rotationally modulated spectral and photometric changes on timescales of weeks to years. Five candidate Of?p stars in the Magellanic Clouds have been discovered, notably in the context of ongoing surveys of their massive star populations. Here we describe an investigation of their photometric behaviour, revealing significant variability in all studied objects on timescales of one week to more than four years, including clearly periodic variations for three of them. Their spectral characteristics along with these photometric changes provide further support for the hypothesis that these are strongly magnetized O stars, analogous to the Of?p stars in the Galaxy.

9pages, accepted by A&A

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• The MiMeS survey of magnetism in massive stars: Magnetic analysis of the O-type stars
• Magnetic OB[A] Stars with TESS: probing their Evolutionary and Rotational properties (MOBSTER) - I. First-light observations of known magnetic B and A stars
• A Modern Search for Wolf-Rayet Stars in the Magellanic Clouds. III. A Third Year of Discoveries
• A search for strong magnetic fields in massive and very massive stars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Detection of extragalactic magnetic massive stars
• MOBSTER -- VII. Using light curves to infer magnetic and rotational properties of stars with centrifugal magnetospheres
• Discovery of a 310-day Period from the Enshrouded Massive System NaSt1 (WR 122)