Hot subdwarf stars (sdBs, sdOs) are core helium-burning stars at the blue end of the horizontal branch or have evolved even beyond that stage. They are found in all Galactic stellar populations and are sufficiently common to account for the UV-upturn of early-type galaxies. About half of the sdBs reside in close binaries; companions are white dwarfs or low-mass main-sequence stars. Binary population-synthesis models explain naturally the actual sdB binary fractions of field and globular cluster stars as well as of He-sdOs if white-dwarf mergers are considered. Hot helium flashes explain the chemical composition of He-sdOs. Asteroseismology of a dozen pulsating sdB stars allowed determination of their masses and detection of a planet to V391 Peg. The discoveries of an sdO star unbound to the Galaxy, potential SN Ia progenitors and probably a hidden population of neutron stars or black hole companions have great impact on astrophysics at large.

(Abbreviated) We have used precise radial velocity measurements of subdwarf-B stars from the Palomar-Green catalogue to look for binary extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars. We identify 36 EHB stars in our sample and find that at least 21 of these stars are binaries. All but one or two of these are new identifications. The minimum binary fraction for EHB stars implied by our survey is 60+-8%. Our survey is sensitive to binaries with orbital periods P less than about 10d. For reasonable assumptions concerning the period distribution and the mass ratio distribution of the binaries, we find that the mean detection efficiency of our survey over this range of orbital periods is 87%. Allowing for this estimated detection efficiency, the fraction of EHB stars which are short-period binaries ($0.03 < P <10d, approximately) is 69+-9%. The value is not strongly dependent on the period distribution below P=10d or the mean companion mass for these short-period binaries. The orbital separation of the stars in these binaries is much less than the size of the red giant from which the EHB star has formed. This is strong evidence that binary star evolution is fundamental to the formation of the majority of EHB stars. If there are also binary EHB stars whose orbital periods are more than about 10d, the fraction of EHB stars whose evolution has been affected by the presence of a companion may be much higher.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Hot subluminous stars of spectral type B and O are core helium-burning stars at the blue end of the horizontal branch or have evolved even beyond that stage. Most hot subdwarf stars are chemically highly peculiar and provide a laboratory to study diffusion processes that cause these anomalies. The most obvious anomaly lies with helium, which may be a trace element in the atmosphere of some stars (sdB, sdO) while it may be the dominant species in others (He-sdB, He-sdO). Strikingly, the distribution in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of He-rich versus He-poor hot subdwarf stars of the globular clusters ω Cen and NGC2808 differ from that of their field counterparts. The metal-abundance patterns of hot subdwarfs are typically characterized by strong deficiencies of some lighter elements as well as large enrichments of heavy elements. A large fraction of sdB stars are found in close binaries with white dwarf or very low-mass main sequence companions, which must have gone through a common-envelope (CE) phase of evolution. Because the binaries are detached they provide a clean-cut laboratory to study this important but yet poorly understood phase of stellar evolution. Hot subdwarf binaries with sufficiently massive white dwarf companions are viable candidate progenitors of type Ia supernovae both in the double degenerate as well as in the single degenerate scenario as helium donors for double detonation supernovae. The hyper-velocity He-sdO star US708 may be the surviving donor of such a double detonation supernova. Substellar companions to sdB stars have also been found. For HWVir systems the companion mass distribution extends from the stellar into the brown dwarf regime. A giant planet to the acoustic-mode pulsator V391 Peg was the first discovery of a planet that survived the red giant evolution of its host star. Evidence for Earth-size planets to two pulsating sdB stars have been reported and circumbinary giant planets or brown dwarfs have been found around HWVir systems from eclipse timings. The high incidence of circumbinary substellar objects suggests that most of the planets are formed from the remaining CE material (second generation planets). Several types of pulsating star have been discovered among hot subdwarf stars, the most common are the gravity-mode sdB pulsators (V1093 Her) and their hotter siblings, the p-mode pulsating V361 Hya stars. Another class of multi-periodic pulsating hot subdwarfs has been found in the globular cluster ω Cen that is unmatched by any field star. Asteroseismology has advanced enormously thanks to the high-precision Kepler photometry and allowed stellar rotation rates to be determined, the interior structure of gravity-mode pulsators to be probed and stellar ages to be estimated. Rotation rates turned out to be unexpectedly slow calling for very efficient angular momentum loss on the red giant branch or during the helium core flash. The convective cores were found to be larger than predicted by standard stellar evolution models requiring very efficient angular momentum tr...

Abstract. Four members of the new class of pulsating sdB stars are analysed from Keck HIRES spectra using NLTE and LTE model atmospheres. Atmospheric parameters (T e ff, logg, log(He/H)), metal abundances and rotational velocities are determined. Balmer line fitting is found to be consistent with the helium ionization equilibrium for PG 1605+072 but not for PG 1219+534 indicating that systematic errors in the model atmosphere analysis of the latter have been underestimated previously. All stars are found to be helium deficient probably due to diffusion. The metals are also depleted with the notable exception of iron which is solar to within error limits in all four stars, confirming predictions from diffusion calculations of Charpinet et al. (1997). While three of them are slow rotators (wsin i <10km/s), PG 1605+072 displays considerable rotation (usini = 39km/s, P<8.7h) and is predicted to evolve into an unusually fast rotating white dwarf. This nicely confirms a prediction by Kawaler (1999) who deduced a rotation velocity of 130km/s from the power spectrum of the pulsations which implies a low inclination angle of the rotation axis.

We report the discovery of a 16 th magnitude star, HE 0437−5439, with a heliocentric radial velocity of +723 ± 3 km s −1 . A quantitative spectral analysis of high-resolution optical spectra obtained with the VLT and the UVES * Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla and Paranal, Chile (Proposal No. 68.D-0192 and 70.D-0334). spectrograph shows that HE 0437−5439 is a main sequence B-type star with T eff =20 350 K, log(g) = 3.77, solar within a factor of a few helium abundance and metal content, rotating at v sin(i) = 54 km s −1 . Using appropriate evolutionary tracks we derive a mass of 8 M ⊙ and a corresponding distance of 61 kpc. Its galactic rest frame velocity is at least 563 km s −1 , almost twice the local Galactic escape velocity, indicating that the star is unbound to the Galaxy. Numerical kinematical experiments are carried out to constrain its place of birth. It has been suggested that such hyper-velocity stars can be formed by the tidal disruption of a binary through interaction with the super-massive black hole at the Galactic center (GC). HE 0437−5439 needs about 100 Myrs to travel from the GC to its present position, much longer than its main sequence lifetime of 25 Myrs. This can only be reconciled if HE 0437−5439 is a blue straggler star. In this case, the predicted proper motion is so small that it can only be measured by future space missions. Since the star is much closer to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC, 18 kpc) than to the GC, it can reach its position from the center of the LMC. The proper motion predicted in this case is about 2 mas yr −1 (relative to the LMC), large enough to be measurable with conventional techniques from the ground. The LMC origin could also be tested by a high-precision abundance analysis.