A Coordinated X-ray and Optical Campaign of the Nearby Massive Binary δ
Orionis Aa:
III. Analysis of Optical Photometric MOST and Spectroscopic (Ground Based)
Variations
Herbert Pablo, Noel D. Richardson, Anthony F. J. Moffat, Michael Corcoran, Tomer Shenar, Omar Benvenuto, Jim Fuller, Yael Naze, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Anatoly Miroshnichenko, Jesus Maiz Apellaniz, Nancy Evans, Thomas Eversberg, Ken Gayley, Ted Gull, Kenji Hamaguch, Wolf-Rainer Hamann, Huib Henrichs, Tabetha Hole, Richard Ignace, Rosina Iping, Jennifer Lauer, Maurice Leutenegger, Jamie Lomax, Joy Nichols, Lida Oskinova, Stan Owocki, Andy Pollock, Christopher M. P. Russell, Wayne Waldron, Christian Buil, Thierry Garrel, Keith Graham, Bernard Heathcote, Thierry Lemoult, Dong Li, Benjamin Mauclaire, Mike Potter, Jose Ribeiro, Jaymie Matthews, Chris Cameron, David Guenther, Rainer Kuschnig, Jason Rowe, Slavek Rucinski, Dimitar Sasselov, Werner Weiss
We report on both high-precision photometry from the MOST space telescope and ground-based spectroscopy of the triple system delta Ori A consisting of a binary O9.5II+early-B (Aa1 and Aa2) with P = 5.7d, and a more distant tertiary (O9 IV P > 400 yrs). This data was collected in concert with X-ray spectroscopy from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Thanks to continuous coverage for 3 weeks, the MOST light curve reveals clear eclipses between Aa1 and Aa2 for the ?first time in non-phased data. From the spectroscopy we have a well constrained radial velocity curve of Aa1. While we are unable to recover radial velocity variations of the secondary star, we are able to constrain several fundamental parameters of this system and determine an approximate mass of the primary using apsidal motion. We also detected second order modulations at 12 separate frequencies with spacings indicative of tidally influenced oscillations. These spacings have never been seen in a massive binary, making this system one of only a handful of such binaries which show evidence for tidally induced pulsations.