This outstanding thesis by Dominic Bowman provides a thorough investigation of long-standing questions as to whether amplitude modulation is astrophysical, whether it offers insights into pulsating stars, and whether simple beating of modes with stable amplitudes is unrecognised because of a lack of frequency resolution. In this thesis, the author studied a uniform sample of 983 delta Scuti stars—the most common type of main-sequence heat engine pulsator—that were observed nearly continuously for 4 years at stunning photometric precision of only a few parts per million by the Kepler space mission. With no mission planned to supersede the Kepler 4-year data set, this thesis will stand as the definitive study of these questions for many years. With revolutionary photometric data from the planet-hunting Kepler space mission, asteroseismic studies have been carried out on many hundreds of main-sequence solar-type stars and about 10,000 red giants. It is easy to understand why those stochastically driven stars have highly variable amplitudes. Over much of the rest of the Hertzsprung–Russell (HR) diagram, stellar pulsations are driven by heat mechanisms, which are much more regular than the stochastic driving in solar-like pulsators. Yet for decades, amplitude and frequency modulation of pulsation modes have been observed in almost all types of heat-driven pulsating stars. The author shows that the amplitude and frequency modulation are astrophysical, and he has investigated their implications and prospects to provide new insights into the delta Scuti stars and the many other types of heat-engine pulsators across the HR diagram.

This is the final report of a three-year Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The objective is to learn more about the internal structure of two classes of variable stars, by using the observational data afforded by their pulsation properties. The authors updated the one-dimensional computer codes to calculate the evolution and pulsation frequencies of representative delta Scuti and LBV models. They compared the observed pulsation properties with model predictions in an iterative process to find a model (or models) with interior structures that matched the observational constraints for several delta Scuti stars. They carried out nonlinear hydrodynamic modeling of LBV envelopes and proposed a mechanism for their periodic outbursts. Finally, they began validation of a two-dimensional stellar evolution code that will be used to investigate the effects of rotation and hydrodynamic instabilities on the interior structure of these stars.

We have detected 90 objects with periods and lightcurve structure similar to those of field [delta] Scuti stars, using the Massive Compact Halo Object (MACHO) Project database of Galactic bulge photometry. If we assume similar extinction values for all candidates and absolute magnitudes similar to those of other field high-amplitude [delta] Scuti stars (HADS), the majority of these objects lie in or near the Galactic bulge. At least two of these objects are likely foreground [delta] Scuti stars, one of which may be an evolved nonradial pulsator, similar to other evolved, disk-population [delta] Scuti stars. We have analyzed the light curves of these objects and find that they are similar to the light curves of field [delta] Scuti stars and the [delta] Scuti stars found by the Optical Gravitational Lens Experiment (OGLE). However, the amplitude distribution of these sources lies between those of low- and high-amplitude [delta] Scuti stars, which suggests that they may be an intermediate population. We have found nine double-mode HADS with frequency ratios ranging from 0.75 to 0.79, four probable double- and multiple-mode objects, and another four objects with marginal detections of secondary modes. The low frequencies (5-14 cycles d−1) and the observed period ratios of ≈0.77 suggest that the majority of these objects are evolved stars pulsating in fundamental or first overtone radial modes.

Annotation Contains 35 papers presented as part of the August 1999 workshop. The opening papers review photometric techniques, spectroscopic techniques, and theoretical modeling of the pulsations. Shorter contributions discuss such topics as double-mode SX phoenicis variables in globular clusters, convective effects on p-mode stability in delta Scuti stars, problems encountered in the Hipparcos variable stars analysis, and a list of delta Scuti stars and their associated parameters. No subject index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)