2015ApJ...803L..25P

We present the first detection of a rotationally affected series consisting of 36 consecutive high-order sectoral dipole gravity modes in a slowly pulsating B (SPB) star. The results are based on the analysis of four years of virtually uninterrupted photometric data assembled with the Kepler Mission, and high-resolution spectra acquired using the HERMES spectrograph at the 1.2 m Mercator Telescope. The specroscopic measurements place KIC 7760680 inside the SPB instability strip, near the cool edge, given its fundamental parameters of T_eff = 11650 ± 210K, log g = 3.97 ± 0.08 dex, microturbulent velocity ζ_t = 0.0_–0.0^+0.6 km/s, v sin i = 61.5 ± 5.0 km/s, and [M/H] = 0.14 ± 0.09 dex. The photometric analysis reveals the longest unambiguous series of gravity modes of the same degree l with consecutive radial order n, which carries clear signatures of chemical mixing and rotation. With such exceptional observational constraints, this star should be considered as the Rosetta stone of SPBs for future modeling, and brings us a step closer to the much-needed seismic calibration of stellar structure models of massive stars.