γ Columbae as a recently stripped pulsating core of a massive star

Abstract

A vital condition for life on Earth is the steady supply of radiative heat by the Sun. Like all other stars, the Sun generates its emitted energy in its central regions where densities and temperatures are high enough for nuclear fusion processes to take place. Because stellar cores are usually covered by an opaque envelope, most of our knowledge about them and their life-giving nuclear processes comes from theoretical modelling or from indirect observations such as the detection of solar neutrinos and the study of stellar pulsations, respectively. Only in very rare cases, stars may expose their cores, e.g., when a tiny fraction of them evolves into Wolf-Rayet or helium hot subdwarf stars. However, for the vast majority of stars, namely unevolved stars that burn hydrogen to helium in their centres, direct observational clues on the cores are still missing. Based on a comprehensive spectroscopic and asteroseismic analysis, we show here that the bright B-type star $\gamma$ Columbae is the stripped pulsating core (with a mass of $4$-$5\,M_\odot$, where $M_\odot$ is the mass of the Sun) of a previously much more massive star of roughly $12\,M_\odot$ that just finished central hydrogen fusion. The star's inferred parameters indicate that it is still in a short-lived post-stripping structural readjustment phase, making it an extremely rare object. The discovery of this unique star paves the way to obtain invaluable insights into the physics of both single and binary stars with respect to nuclear astrophysics and common-envelope evolution. In particular, it provides first observational constraints on the structure and evolution of stripped envelope stars.