A&A Supplement Series, Vol. 125, October II 1997, 313-319
Received September 13, 1996; accepted January 15, 1997
J. Fernley
- T.G. Barnes
Send offprint request: J. Fernley; jaf@vilspa.esa.es
IUE Observatory, P.O. Box 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain
McDonald Observatory, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, U.S.A.
We present systemic velocities and iron abundances for 56 RR Lyraes, the
majority of which have been observed by the HIPPARCOS satellite. Comparison
between our systemic velocities and previous values identifies several
binary candidates only one of which, TU UMa, was previously suspected of
being a binary. However, spectra of the unusual RR Lyrae BB Vir show no
evidence of line doubling and hence do not support the recent claims that
this star may have a Blue Horizontal Branch companion. Comparison between
our abundances and previous determinations shows reasonable agreement
except with the recent work of Layden (1994) where we find systematic
differences. Several of the stars included on the HIPPARCOS observing list
as RR Lyraes are shown to be mis-classified. Of particular interest are the
stars V363 Cas and AT And which, by analogy with XZ Cet, may be anomalous
Cepheids
.
keywords: stars: abundances; V 363 Cas; AT And -- stars: binaries spectroscopic -- stars: variable -- stars: kinematics