Mode Switching in Two Blue Large-amplitude Pulsators Observed by OGLE, KMTNet, and DREAMS

Abstract

Abstract Blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) are rare, hot, short-period pulsating stars whose rapid oscillations provide a unique probe of stellar interiors and atmospheres. In this paper, we study two short-period BLAPs in the Galactic bulge, Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE)-BLAP-142 ( P ≈ 6.6 minutes) and OGLE-BLAP-148 ( P ≈ 7.5 minutes), by combining light curves from the OGLE, KMTNet, and DREAMS surveys, spanning 17 yr with cadences ranging from minutes to hours to days. We perform generalized Lomb–Scargle periodogram analyses of their light curves and identify, for each BLAP, three closely spaced pulsation modes separated by ∼1%. The dominant mode can switch within timescales of order a year, accompanied by a likely blueward color shift (∼0.1–0.2 mag). The yearly period excursions of the resolved mode families imply apparent ∣ P ̇ / P ∣ values of order 10 −6 –10 −4 yr −1 , large enough to mimic or exceed smooth evolutionary period changes. One mode family in OGLE-BLAP-148 shows a coherent decade-long drift at the ∼10 −5 yr −1 level, but its failure to extrapolate to the earliest and latest epochs suggests a transient mode-family drift rather than secular evolution. Such close-spaced multiple pulsations and mode switching may be common among BLAPs with periods shorter than 10 minutes, and their physical origin remains unclear.