Hot subdwarfs: Small stars marking important events in stellar evolution: Ludwig Biermann Award Lecture 2014

Abstract

Hot subdwarfs are considered to be the compact helium cores of red giants which lost almost their entire hydrogen envelope. What causes this enormous mass loss is still unclear. Binary interactions are invoked, and a significant fraction of the hot subdwarf population is indeed found in close binaries. In a large project we search for close binary sdBs with the most and the least massive companions. Significantly enhancing the known sample of close binary sdBs we performed the first comprehensive study of this population. Triggered by the discovery of two sdB binaries with close brown dwarf companions in the course of this project, we were able to show that the interaction of stars with substellar companions is an important channel to form sdB stars. Finally, we discovered a unique and very compact binary system consisting of an sdB and a massive white dwarf which qualifies as a progenitor candidate for a supernova of type Ia. In addition to that, we could connect those explosions to the class of hypervelocity hot subdwarf stars which we consider as the surviving companions of such events. Being the stripped cores of red giants, hot subdwarfs turned out to be important markers of peculiar events in stellar evolution ranging all the way from star-planet interactions to the progenitors of stellar explosions used to measure the expansion of our Universe. (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim).