Characterization of the magnetic field of the Herbig Be star HD 200775

The origin of the magnetic fields observed in some intermediate-mass and high-mass main-sequence stars is still a matter of vigorous debate. The favoured hypothesis is a fossil field origin, in which the observed fields are the condensed remnants of magnetic fields present in the original molecular cloud from which the stars formed. According to this theory a few percent of the pre-main-sequence (PMS) Herbig Ae/Be star should be magnetic with a magnetic topology similar to that of main-sequence intermediate-mass stars. After our recent discovery of four magnetic Herbig stars, we have decided to study in detail one of them, HD 200775, to determine if its magnetic topology is similar to that of the main-sequence magnetic stars. With this aim, we monitored this star in Stokes I and V over more than 2 yr, using the new spectropolarimeters ESPaDOnS at Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), and Narval at Bernard Lyot Telescope (TBL). By analysing the intensity spectrum we find that HD200775 is a double-lined spectroscopic binary system, whose secondary seems similar, in temperature, to the primary. We have carefully compared the observed spectrum to a synthetic one, and we found no evidence of abundance anomalies in its spectrum. We infer the luminosity ratio of the components from the Stokes I profiles. Then, using the temperature and luminosity of HD 200775 found in the literature, we estimate the age, the mass and the radius of both components from their HR diagram positions. From our measurements of the radial velocities of both stars we determine the ephemeris and the orbital parameters of the system. A Stokes V Zeeman signature is clearly visible in most of the least-squares deconvolution profiles and varies on a time-scale on the order of 1 d. We have fitted the 30 profiles simultaneously, using a chi(2) minimization method, with a centred and a decentred-dipole model. The best-fitting model is obtained with a reduced chi(2) = 1.0 and provides a rotation period of 4.3281 +/- 0.0010 d, an inclination angle of 60 degrees +/- 11 degrees and a magnetic obliquity angle beta = 125 degrees +/- 8 degrees. The polar strength of the magnetic dipole field is 1000 +/- 150 G, which is decentred by 0.05 +/- 0.04 R-* from the centre of the star. The derived magnetic field model is qualitatively identical to those commonly observed in the Ap/Bp stars. Our determination of the inclination of the rotation axis leads to a radius of the primary which is smaller than that derived from the HR diagram position. This can be explained by a larger intrinsic luminosity of the secondary relative to the primary, due to a larger circumstellar extinction of the secondary relative to the primary.