Shishir Dholakia

A catalog of binary stars from pulsation timing in TESS photometry

We present a catalog of binary companions to delta Scuti stars, detected through pulsation phase modulations in the first four years of TESS data. We discovered 53 new binaries and present orbital parameters and mass functions for 24 systems. For the brightest star in our sample Alpha Pictoris, we perform a joint fit of the pulsation timing and Hipparcos astrometry. We present the first orbit for the Alpha Pictoris system, obtaining a period of 1300 days and component masses for both stars. We revisit Kepler pulsation timing binaries with Gaia kinematics, finding four systems in the Galactic thick disk/halo. This suggests that they have been rejuvenated by mass transfer, and their companions are now white dwarfs. Further follow-up may constrain the galactic blue straggler population. We demonstrate promise for the detection of brown dwarfs and exoplanets with this technique in the future of TESS.