2023RNAAS...7..125W

A-type stars with a large long-term proper motion change and without a known companion to cause it are candidates for being Sirius analogues. However, in most cases the culprit is expected to be a hitherto unknown low mass companion rather than a white dwarf. Here we report the discovery of a 0.50M_⊙ companion to the nearby 1.64M_⊙ star HIP 74696 at a projected separation ρ = 118.9 mas ↔ 6.2 au based on a VLTI/GRAVITY observation. This companion explains the Gaia-Hipparcos proper motion change of the primary. Together with the wide 660 au companion that was found by Gaia DR3 to be a 0.70M_⊙ + 0.20M_⊙ 1.5 au binary, this makes HIP 74696 a quadruple and part of the growing class of high multiplicity systems with an A-type star primary.