[54.20] Discovery of Five New R Coronae Borealis Stars in the MACHO Galactic Bulge Lightcurve Database

AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 54 Pulsating Stars: RR Lyraes, Miras, Cepheids, etc.
Poster, Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[54.20] Discovery of Five New R Coronae Borealis Stars in the MACHO Galactic Bulge Lightcurve Database

A.M. Zaniewski (Maria Mitchell Obs.; West Virginia Univ.), G.C. Clayton (Maria Mitchell Obs.; Louisiana State Univ.), D.L. Welch (McMaster University), K.D. Gordon (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Obs.; Univ. of Arizona), D. Minniti (Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab.; Universidad Catolica), K. Cook (Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab.; Univ. of Calif. Berkeley)

We have identified 5 new R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars in the Galactic bulge, using the MACHO photometry database, raising the total number of known Galactic RCB stars to 40. We have obtained spectra to confirm the identifications. The fact that four out of the 5 newly identified RCB stars are ``cool'' rather than ``warm'' suggests the preponderance of warm RCB stars among the existing sample may be a selection bias. Using the volume of the surveyed field, we estimate the total number of Galactic RCB stars to be about 700. This project was supported by the NSF/REU grant AS T-0097694 and the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: azaniews@mix.wvu.edu

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