astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

, chemically peculiar stars (CP stars) are stars with distinctly unusual

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

abundances, at least in their surface layers.

Classification

Chemically peculiar stars are common among hot

main-sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Hert ...

(hydrogen-burning) stars. These hot peculiar stars have been divided into 4 main classes on the basis of their spectra, although two classification systems are sometimes used: * non-magnetic metallic-lined (Am, CP1) *

magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...

(Ap, CP2) * non-magnetic mercury-manganese (HgMn, CP3) * helium-weak (He-weak, CP4). The class names provide a good idea of the peculiarities that set them apart from other stars on or near the

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...

. The Am stars (CP1 stars) show weak lines of singly ionized Ca and/or Sc, but show enhanced abundances of heavy metals. They also tend to be slow rotators and have an

effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...

between 7000 and . The Ap stars (CP2 stars) are characterized by strong magnetic fields, enhanced abundances of elements such as Si, Cr, Sr and Eu, and are also generally slow rotators. The

of these stars is stated to be between 8000 and , but the issue of calculating effective temperatures in such peculiar stars is complicated by atmospheric structure. The HgMn stars (CP3 stars) are also classically placed within the Ap category, but they do not show the strong magnetic fields associated with classical Ap stars. As the name implies, these stars show increased abundances of singly ionized Hg and Mn. These stars are also very slow rotators, even by the standards of CP stars. The

range for these stars is quoted at between and . The He-weak stars (CP4 stars) show weaker He lines than would be expected classically from their observed Johnson ''UBV'' colours. A rare class of He-weak stars are, paradoxically, the helium-rich stars, with temperatures of –.

Cause of the peculiarities

It is generally thought that the peculiar surface compositions observed in these hot main-sequence stars have been caused by processes that happened after the star formed, such as diffusion or magnetic effects in the outer layers of the stars. These processes cause some elements, particularly He, N and O, to "settle" out in the atmosphere into the layers below, while other elements such as Mn, Sr, Y and Zr are "levitated" out of the interior to the surface, resulting in the observed spectral peculiarities. It is assumed that the centers of the stars, and the bulk compositions of the entire star, have more normal chemical abundance mixtures which reflect the compositions of the gas clouds from which they formed. In order for such diffusion and levitation to occur and the resulting layers to remain intact, the atmosphere of such a star must be stable enough to convection that convective mixing does not occur. The proposed mechanism causing this stability is the unusually large magnetic field that is generally observed in stars of this type. Approximately 5–10% of hot main sequence stars show chemical peculiarities. Of these, the vast majority are Ap (or Bp) stars with strong magnetic fields. Non-magnetic, or only weakly magnetic, chemically peculiar stars mostly fall into the Am or HgMn categories. A much smaller percentage show stronger peculiarities, such as the dramatic under-abundance of

iron peak The iron peak is a local maximum in the vicinity of Fe ( Cr, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni) on the graph of the abundances of the chemical elements. For elements lighter than iron on the periodic table, nuclear fusion releases energy. For iron, and for ...

elements in λ Boötis stars.

''sn'' stars

Another group of stars sometimes considered to be chemically peculiar are the 'sn' stars. These hot stars, usually of spectral classes B2 to B9, show

Balmer line The Balmer series, or Balmer lines in atomic physics, is one of a set of six named series describing the spectral line emissions of the hydrogen atom. The Balmer series is calculated using the Balmer formula, an empirical equation discovered b ...

s with sharp (''s'') cores, sharp metallic

absorption line A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from emission or absorption of light in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies. Spectral lines are often used to iden ...

s, and contrasting broad (nebulous, ''n'') neutral helium absorption lines. These may be combined with the other chemical peculiarities more commonly seen in B-type stars. It was originally proposed that the unusual helium lines were created in a weak shell of material around the star, but are now thought to be caused by the

Stark effect The Stark effect is the shifting and splitting of spectral lines of atoms and molecules due to the presence of an external electric field. It is the electric-field analogue of the Zeeman effect, where a spectral line is split into several compon ...

Other stars

There are also classes of chemically peculiar cool stars (that is, stars with

spectral type In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...

G or later), but these stars are typically not main-sequence stars. These are usually identified by the name of their class or some further specific label. The phrase ''chemically peculiar star'' without further specification usually means a member of one of the hot main sequence types described above. Many of the cooler chemically peculiar stars are the result of the mixing of nuclear fusion products from the interior of the star to its surface; these include most of the

carbon stars A carbon star (C-type star) is typically an asymptotic giant branch star, a luminous red giant, whose atmosphere contains more carbon than oxygen. The two elements combine in the upper layers of the star, forming carbon monoxide, which consumes mos ...

and

S-type star An S-type star (or just S star) is a cool giant with approximately equal quantities of carbon and oxygen in its atmosphere. The class was originally defined in 1922 by Paul Merrill for stars with unusual absorption lines and molecular bands no ...

s. Others are the result of

mass transfer Mass transfer is the net movement of mass from one location (usually meaning stream, phase, fraction or component) to another. Mass transfer occurs in many processes, such as absorption, evaporation, drying, precipitation, membrane filtration, ...

in a

binary star A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

system; examples of these include the

barium star Barium stars are spectral class G to K stars whose spectra indicate an overabundance of s-process elements by the presence of singly ionized barium, Ba II, at λ 455.4 nm. Barium stars also show enhanced spectral features of carbon, the b ...

s and some S stars.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peculiar Star Star types

Classification

Cause of the peculiarities

''sn'' stars

Other stars

See also

References