Asteroseismic properties of young pulsators in the Perseus Molecular Cloud. Discovery of period-spacing patterns in HD 281229
Abstract
Very young pulsating stars, including pre-main sequence pulsators, provide a rare opportunity to probe stellar interiors and investigate rotation during the earliest phases of stellar evolution. However, they remain relatively unexplored, particularly in the intermediate-mass regime. We aim to identify and characterise young pulsating stars in the Perseus Molecular Cloud using photometric data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). We compiled Gaia-based membership catalogues for the Perseus Molecular Cloud, applied selection criteria to isolate young intermediate-mass stars, and extracted light curves from TESS full-frame images. Variability classification was performed using Lomb-Scargle periodograms and iterative pre-whitening. For confirmed pressure-mode pulsators, we estimated the frequency of maximum pulsation power, νmax. For gravity-mode candidates, we searched for period-spacing patterns and fit them using the traditional approximation of rotation. From 148 membership-selected targets, we identified eight pressure-mode pulsators and two objects showing possible gravity-mode pulsations. We analysed the previously known δ Sct star V705 Per, bringing the total sample to 149 targets. One of the gravity-mode pulsators, HD 281229, is the youngest star known to date with a detected and modelled period-spacing pattern. By simultaneously fitting the dipole and quadrupole period-spacing patterns, we estimate an asymptotic period spacing of Π0=4776±400 s and a near-core rotation frequency of frot=1.317±0.05 d−1. These results highlight the potential of asteroseismology to probe the internal structure and rotation of very young stars. The detected period-spacing pattern in HD 281229 shows that gravity-mode asteroseismology can provide meaningful constraints on the properties of stars at early evolutionary stages.
Related
- Asteroseismic forward modelling of 36 β Cep pulsators and inferences on their internal differential rotation
- Orbital and stellar parameter determination of eclipsing β Cep pulsators
- Characterizing bright δ Scuti pulsators using TESS light curves:II. Pulsation amplitude and energy distributions
- Asteroseismic analysis of the merger product red giant in the γ Persei system
- Orbital and stellar parameter determination of eclipsing β Cep pulsators
BibTeX
@misc{wadhwa2026asteroseismic,
title = {{Asteroseismic properties of young pulsators in the Perseus Molecular Cloud. Discovery of period-spacing patterns in HD 281229}},
author = {Saakshi Wadhwa and Dario J. Fritzewski and Gang Li and Simon J. Murphy},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.38264},
eprint = {2610.38264},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38264},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Asteroseismic properties of young pulsators in the Perseus Molecular Cloud. Discovery of period-spacing patterns in HD 281229
AU - Saakshi Wadhwa
AU - Dario J. Fritzewski
AU - Gang Li
AU - Simon J. Murphy
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.38264
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38264
AB - Very young pulsating stars, including pre-main sequence pulsators, provide a rare opportunity to probe stellar interiors and investigate rotation during the earliest phases of stellar evolution. However, they remain relatively unexplored, particularly in the intermediate-mass regime. We aim to identify and characterise young pulsating stars in the Perseus Molecular Cloud using photometric data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). We compiled Gaia-based membership catalogues for the Perseus Molecular Cloud, applied selection criteria to isolate young intermediate-mass stars, and extracted light curves from TESS full-frame images. Variability classification was performed using Lomb-Scargle periodograms and iterative pre-whitening. For confirmed pressure-mode pulsators, we estimated the frequency of maximum pulsation power, ν_max. For gravity-mode candidates, we searched for period-spacing patterns and fit them using the traditional approximation of rotation. From 148 membership-selected targets, we identified eight pressure-mode pulsators and two objects showing possible gravity-mode pulsations. We analysed the previously known δ Sct star V705 Per, bringing the total sample to 149 targets. One of the gravity-mode pulsators, HD 281229, is the youngest star known to date with a detected and modelled period-spacing pattern. By simultaneously fitting the dipole and quadrupole period-spacing patterns, we estimate an asymptotic period spacing of Π_0=4776±400 s and a near-core rotation frequency of f_rot=1.317±0.05 d^−1. These results highlight the potential of asteroseismology to probe the internal structure and rotation of very young stars. The detected period-spacing pattern in HD 281229 shows that gravity-mode asteroseismology can provide meaningful constraints on the properties of stars at early evolutionary stages.
ER -