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arXiv · 2506.14869

Astronomical Cardiology: A Search For Heartbeat Stars Using $\textit{Gaia}$ and $\textit{TESS}$

Jowen Callahan·D. M. Rowan·C. S. Kochanek·K. Z. Stanek
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Abstract

Heartbeat stars are a subclass of binary stars with short periods, high eccentricities, and phase-folded light curves that resemble an electrocardiogram. We start from the $\textit{Gaia}$ catalogs of spectroscopic binaries and use $\textit{TESS}$ photometry to identify 112 new heartbeat star systems. We fit their phase-folded light curves with an analytic model to measure their orbital periods, eccentricities, inclinations, and arguments of periastron. We then compare these orbital parameters to the $\textit{Gaia}$ spectroscopic orbital solution. Our periods and eccentricities are consistent with the $\textit{Gaia}$ solutions for 85$\%$ of the single-line spectroscopic binaries but only 20$\%$ of the double-line spectroscopic binaries. For the two double-line spectroscopic binary heartbeat stars with consistent orbits, we combine the $\textit{TESS}$ phase-folded light curve and the $\textit{Gaia}$ velocity semi-amplitudes to measure the stellar masses and radii with $\texttt{PHOEBE}$. In a statistical analysis of the heartbeat star population, we find that non-giant heartbeat stars have evolved off the main sequence and that the fraction of the systems that are heartbeat stars rises rapidly with effective temperature.

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Jowen Callahan, D. M. Rowan, C. S. Kochanek, K. Z. Stanek. 2025-06-17. Astronomical Cardiology: A Search For Heartbeat Stars Using $\textit{Gaia}$ and $\textit{TESS}$. https://doi.org/10.33232/001c.142226

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