2008ApJ...679.1490E

We have derived new orbits for ζ Aur, 32 Cyg, and 31 Cyg with observations from the Tennessee State University (TSU) Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope, and used them to identify nonorbital velocities of the cool supergiant components of these systems. We measure periods in those deviations, identify unexpected long-period changes in the radial velocities, and place upper limits on the rotation of these stars. These radial-velocity variations are not obviously consistent with radial pulsation theory, given what we know about the masses and sizes of the components. Our concurrent photometry detected the nonradial pulsations driven by tides (ellipsoidal variation) in both ζ Aur and 32 Cyg, at a level and phasing roughly consistent with simple theory to first order, although they seem to require moderately large gravity darkening. However, the K component of 32 Cyg must be considerably bigger than expected, or have larger gravity darkening than ζ Aur, to fit its amplitude. However, again there is precious little evidence for the normal radial pulsation of cool stars in our photometry. Hα shows some evidence for chromospheric heating by the B component in both ζ Aur and 32 Cyg, and the three stars show among them a meager ∼2-3 outbursts in their winds of the sort seen occasionally in cool supergiants. We point out two fundamental questions in the interpretation of these stars: (1) whether it is appropriate to model the surface brightness as gravity darkening and (2) whether much of the nonorbital velocity structure may actually represent changes in the convective flows in the stars' atmospheres.