Context. Additional low-amplitude signals are observed in many RR Lyrae stars, beside the pulsations in radial modes. The most common ones are short-period signals forming a period ratio of around 0.60-0.65 with the first overtone, or long-period signals forming a period ratio of around 0.68. The RR Lyrae stars may also exhibit quasi-periodic modulation of the light curves, known as the Blazhko effect. Aims. We used the extensive sample of the first-overtone RR Lyrae stars observed by the Kepler telescope during the K2 mission to search for and characterize these low-amplitude additional signals. K2 data provides space-based photometry for a statistically significant sample. Hence this data is excellent to study in detail pulsation properties of RR Lyrae stars. Methods. We used K2 space-based photometry for RR Lyrae candidates from Campaigns 0-19. We selected RR Lyrae stars pulsating in the first overtone and performed a frequency analysis for each star to characterize their frequency contents. Results. We classified 452 stars as first-overtone RR Lyrae. From that sample, we selected 281 RR 0.61 stars, 67 RR 0.68 stars, and 68 Blazhko stars. We found particularly interesting stars which show all of the above phenomena simultaneously. We detected signals in RR 0.61 stars that form period ratios lower than observed for the majority of stars. These signals likely form a new sequence in the Petersen diagram, around a period ratio of 0.60. In 32 stars we detected additional signals that form a period ratio close to that expected in RRd stars, but the classification of these stars as RRd is uncertain. We also report a discovery of additional signals in eight stars that form a new group in the Petersen diagram around the period ratio of 0.465-0.490. The nature of this periodicity remains unknown.
Context. Additional low-amplitude signals have been observed in many RR Lyrae stars separate from pulsations in radial modes. The most common of these are short-period signals forming a period ratio of around 0.60–0.65 with the first overtone and long-period signals forming a period ratio of around 0.68. The RR Lyrae stars may also exhibit quasi-periodic modulation in their light curves, the so-called Blazhko effect. Aims. We used the extensive sample of the first-overtone RR Lyrae stars observed by the Kepler telescope during the K2 mission to search for and characterize additional low-amplitude signals. The K2 data provides space-based photometry for a statistically significant sample. Hence, this data is excellent for studying the pulsation properties of RR Lyrae stars in detail. Methods. We used K2 space-based photometry for RR Lyrae candidates from Campaigns 0–19. We selected RR Lyrae stars pulsating in the first overtone and performed a frequency analysis for each star to characterize their frequency contents. Results. We classified 452 stars as first-overtone RR Lyrae. From that sample, we selected 281 RR0.61 stars, 67 RR0.68 stars, and 68 Blazhko stars. We found particularly interesting stars that show all of the above phenomena simultaneously. We detected signals in RR0.61 stars that form period ratios lower than those observed for the majority of stars of this type. These signals likely form a new sequence in the Petersen diagram, around a period ratio of 0.60. In 32 stars, we detected additional signals that form a period ratio close to that expected in RRd stars, but the classification of these stars as RRd is uncertain. We also report a discovery of additional signals in eight stars that form a new group in the Petersen diagram around the period ratio of 0.465–0.490. The nature of this periodicity remains unknown.
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