A CCD Search for Variable Stars of Spectral Type B in the Northern Hemisphere Open Clusters. IX. NGC 4571

摘要

We present results of a BVIc variability survey in the young open cluster NGC 457 based on observations obtained during three separate runs spanning almost 20 years. In total, we found 79 variable stars, of which 66 are new. The BVIc photometry was transformed to the standard system and used to derive cluster parameters by means of isochrone fitting. The cluster is about 20 Myr old, the mean reddening amounts to about 0.48 mag in terms of the color excess E(B - V). Depending on the metallicity, the isochrone fitting yields a distance between 2.3 kpc and 2.9 kpc, which locates the cluster in the Perseus arm of the Galaxy. Using the complementary H a photometry carried out in two seasons separated by over 10 years, we find that the cluster is very rich in Be stars. In total, 15 stars in the observed field of which 14 are cluster members showed Ha in emission either during our observations or in the past. Most of the Be stars vary in brightness on different time scales including short-period variability related most likely to g-mode pulsations. A single-epoch spectrum of NGC 457-6 shows that this Be star is presently in the shell phase. The inventory of variable stars in the observed field consists of a single β Cep-type star, NGC 457- 8, 13 Be stars, 21 slowly pulsating B stars, seven δ Sct stars, one y Dor star, 16 unclassified periodic stars, 8 eclipsing systems and a dozen of stars with irregular variability, of which six are also B-type stars. As many as 45 variable stars are of spectral type B which is the largest number in all open clusters presented in this series of papers. The most interesting is the discovery of a large group of slowly pulsating B stars which occupy the cluster main sequence in the range between V = 11 mag and 14.5 mag, corresponding to spectral types B3 to B8. They all have very low amplitudes and about half show pulsations with frequencies higher than 3d-l. We argue that these are most likely fast-rotating slowly pulsating B stars, observed also in other open clusters.