No abstract

Planets that orbit their parent star at less than about one astronomical unit (1 AU is the Earth-Sun distance) are expected to be engulfed when the star becomes a red giant. Previous observations have revealed the existence of post-red-giant host stars with giant planets orbiting as close as 0.116 AU or with brown dwarf companions in tight orbits, showing that these bodies can survive engulfment. What has remained unclear is whether planets can be dragged deeper into the red-giant envelope without being disrupted and whether the evolution of the parent star itself could be affected. Here we report the presence of two nearly Earth-sized bodies orbiting the post-red-giant, hot B subdwarf star KIC 05807616 at distances of 0.0060 and 0.0076 AU, with orbital periods of 5.7625 and 8.2293 hours, respectively. These bodies probably survived deep immersion in the former red-giant envelope. They may be the dense cores of evaporated giant planets that were transported closer to the star during the engulfment and triggered the mass loss necessary for the formation of the hot B subdwarf, which might also explain how some stars of this type did not form in binary systems.

We examine 4-yr almost continuous Kepler photometry of 115 B stars. We find that the light curves of 39 percent of these stars are simply described by a low-frequency sinusoid and its harmonic, usually with variable amplitudes, which we interpret as rotational modulation. A large fraction (28 percent) of B stars might be classified as ellipsoidal variables, but a statistical argument suggests that these are probably rotational variables as well. About 8 percent of the rotational variables have a peculiar periodogram feature which is common among A stars. The physical cause of this is very likely related to rotation. The presence of so many rotating variables indicates the presence of star spots. This suggests that magnetic fields are indeed generated in radiative stellar envelopes. We find five β Cep variables, all of which have low frequencies with relatively large amplitudes. The presence of these frequencies is a puzzle. About half the stars with high frequencies are cooler than the red edge of the β Cep instability strip. These stars do not fit into the general definition of β Cep or SPB variables. We have therefore assumed they are further examples of the anomalous pulsating stars which in the past have been called "Maia" variables. We also examined 300 B stars observed in the K2 Campaign 0 field. We find 11 β Cep/Maia candidates and many SPB variables. For the stars where the effective temperature can be measured, we find at least two further examples of Maia variables.

We investigate the possibility of nearly equally spaced periods in 13 hot subdwarf B (sdB) stars observed with the Kepler spacecraft and one observed with CoRoT. Asymptotic limits for gravity (g-)mode pulsations provide relationships between equal-period spacings of modes with differing degrees and relationships between periods of the same radial order n but differing degrees . Period transforms, Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and linear least-squares fits have been used to detect and determine the significance of equal-period spacings. We have also used Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the likelihood that the detected spacings could be produced randomly.Period transforms for nine of the Kepler stars indicate = 1 period spacings, with five also showing peaks for = 2 modes. 12 stars indicate = 1 modes using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test while another shows solely = 2 modes. Monte Carlo results indicate that equal-period spacings are significant in 10 stars above 99 per cent confidence, and 13 of the 14 are above 94 per cent confidence. For 12 stars, the various methods find consistent period spacings to within the errors, two others show some inconsistencies, likely caused by binarity, and the last has significant detections but the mode assignment disagrees between the methods.We use asymptotic period spacing relationships to associate observed periods of variability with pulsation modes for = 1 and 2. From the Kepler first-year survey sample of 13 multiperiodic g-mode pulsators, five stars have several consecutive overtones making period spacings easy to detect, six others have fewer consecutive overtones but period spacings are readily detected, and two stars show marginal indications of equal-period spacings. We also