Poster abstract details

Eclipsing binaries containing non-radially pulsating stars are doubly advantageous targets for astroseismologic studies: not only can we determine the absolute stellar parameters of the pair with high precision – we can also use the phenomenon of the eclipse to gain more information about the pulsation modes.
Eclipse Mapping (EM), a tomographic method, can be used to reconstruct the surface intensity patterns of the pulsations even for modes that are rotationally distorted, provided that the direction of the rotation axis is known a priori. Another approach, the direct fitting of spherical harmonics (DF), can simultaneously identify undistorted pulsation modes and the direction of the rotation axis.
Since most pulsators found in binaries are of delta Scuti type and many of their single counterparts rotate rapidly, and since in detached systems, the rotation axis may not be perpendicular to the orbit, a mixed scenario with both an inclined axis and distorted pulsations can be expected in many binaries. Neither EM, nor DF can cope with such cases independently, but using a combination of both methods leads to successful reconstruction and identification of the pulsation modes. We demonstrate the capabilities and limitations of this combined mode identification method.