Paper detail

The fundamental parameters of the roAp star 10 Aql

Due to the strong magnetic field and related abnormal surface layers existing in rapidly oscillating Ap stars, systematic errors are likely to be present when determining their effective temperatures, which potentially compromises asteroseismic studies of these pulsators. Using long-baseline interferometry, our goal is to determine accurate angular diameters of a number of roAp targets to provide a temperature calibration for these stars. We obtained interferometric observations of 10 Aql with the visible spectrograph VEGA at the CHARA array. We determined a limb-darkened angular diameter of 0.275+/-0.009 mas and deduced a linear radius of 2.32+/-0.09 R_sun. We estimated the star's bolometric flux and used it, in combination with its parallax and angular diameter, to determine the star's luminosity and effective temperature. For two data sets of bolometric flux we derived an effective temperature of 7800+/-170 K and a luminosity of 18+/-1 L_sun or of 8000+/-210 K and 19+/-2 L_sun. We used these fundamental parameters together with the large frequency separation to constrain the mass and the age of 10 Aql, using the CESAM stellar evolution code. Assuming a solar chemical composition and ignoring all kinds of diffusion and settling of elements, we obtained a mass of 1.92 M_sun and an age of 780 Gy or a mass of 1.95 M_sun and an age of 740 Gy, depending on the considered bolometric flux. For the first time, we managed to determine an accurate angular diameter for a star smaller than 0.3 mas and to derive its fundamental parameters. In particular, by only combining our interferometric data and the bolometric flux, we derived an effective temperature that can be compared to those derived from atmosphere models. Such fundamental parameters can help for testing the mechanism responsible for the excitation of the oscillations observed in the magnetic pulsating stars.