Abstract
The Hg–Mn stars constitute a sub-group of the peculiar A stars which have abundance anomalies in their atmospheres. Their distinctive properties are excesses of P, Mn, Ga, Y and Hg1, slow rotation2, a high frequency of double-lined spectroscopic binaries3,4, and a lack of detectable magnetic fields5. It is widely believed that the abundance anomalies are at least partly due to the separation of elements by diffusion under the influence of gravitation and radiation pressure6,7. For the diffusion mechanism to operate the atmosphere has to be extremely quiescent with circulation velocities ≲10−3 m s−1. We point out here that in a spectroscopic binary system with similar components surface streaming velocities greatly in excess of this value are expected due to the mutual irradiation of the components.
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Guthrie, B., Napier, W. Inhibition of diffusion by the reflection effect in binary Hg–Mn stars. Nature 284, 536–537 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/284536a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/284536a0
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