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Abstract LMCe055-1 was recently discovered in a survey for Wolf–Rayets (WRs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and classified as a WN4/O4, a lower-excitation version of the WN3/O3 class discovered as part of the same survey. Its absolute magnitude precluded it from being a WN4+O4 binary. Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment photometry shows shallow primary and secondary eclipses with a 2.2 days period. The spectral characteristics and short period pointed to a possible origin due to binary stripping. Such stripped WR binaries should be common but have proven elusive to identify conclusively. In order to establish its nature, we obtained Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet and Magellan optical spectra, along with imaging. Our work shows that the WR emission and Heiiabsorption arise in one star, and the Heiabsorption in another. The Heicontributor is the primary of the 2.2 days system and exhibits ∼300 km s⁻¹radial velocity variations on that timescale. However, the WR star shows 30–40 km s⁻¹radial velocity variations, with a likely 35 days period and a highly eccentric orbit. Possibly LMCe055-1 is a physical triple, but that would require the 2.2 days pair to have been captured by the WR star. A more likely explanation is that the WR star has an unseen companion in a 35 days orbit and that the 2.2 days pair is in a longer-period orbit about the two. Such examples of multiple systems are well known among massive stars, such as HD 5980. Regardless, we argue that it is highly unlikely that the WR component of the LMCe055-1 system resulted from stripping. 

Abstract Fast yellow pulsating supergiants (FYPS) are a recently discovered class of evolved massive pulsators. As candidate supergiant objects, and one of the few classes of pulsating evolved massive stars, these objects have incredible potential to change our understanding of the structure and evolution of massive stars. Here we examine the lightcurves of a sample of 126 cool supergiants in the Magellanic Clouds observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite in order to identify pulsating stars. After making quality cuts and filtering out contaminant objects, we examine the distribution of pulsating stars in the Hertzprung–Russel (HR) diagram, and find that FYPS occupy a region above $\log L/L_{\odot }\gtrsim 5.0$. This luminosity boundary corresponds to stars with initial masses of ∼18–20M_⊙, consistent with the most massive red supergiant progenitors of supernovae (SNe) II-P, as well as the observed properties of SNe IIb progenitors. This threshold is in agreement with the picture that FYPS are post-RSG stars. Finally, we characterize the behavior of FYPS pulsations as a function of their location in the HR diagram. We find low-frequency pulsations at higher effective temperatures, and higher-frequency pulsations at lower temperatures, with a transition between the two behaviors at intermediate temperatures. The observed properties of FYPS make them fascinating objects for future theoretical study.