Pulsation Variables in the AF stars of the Case Low-Dispersion Survey

Abstract

AbstractThe AF stars are those of spectral types A and F that have been discovered on objective-prism plates taken with the Burrell Schmidt in the Case Low-Dispersion Northern Sky Survey (Pesch and Sanduleak, 1983). In SA 57, this survey is complete to V = 16.5. In this field and also in the Lick Astrograph RR Lyrae survey field RR 7 (in the anticenter) the AF stars comprise (a) blue horizontal branch stars and RR Lyrae stars of the halo and (b) stars which have the higher surface gravities of main sequence stars. The two groups can be separated primarily by their differing Balmer jumps and Balmer line-widths. The latter group (which may well include blue stragglers of both Pop I and Pop II) extends some 10 kpc above the galactic plane and shows a wide range of metallicity. Photoelectric photometry of this AF star sample has allowed the detection field RR Lyrae stars of lower-amplitudes than could have been found by conventional blinking techniques; this has led to a significant increase in the number of RR Lyrae stars that are known in SA 57 and RR 7. The cooler main sequence and/or blue straggler AF stars lie in the zone of pulsational instability and one higher-amplitude δ-Scuti star was detected in field RR 7. It is suggested that these AF stars provide a good sample for studying the incidence of pulsation in the population of older stars that extends beyond the thin disk.