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Abstract Hot subdwarf stars are mostly stripped red giants that can exhibit photometric variations due to stellar pulsations, eclipses, the reflection effect, ellipsoidal modulation, and Doppler beaming. Detailed studies of their light curves help constrain stellar parameters through asteroseismological analyses or binary light-curve modeling and generally improve our capacity to draw a statistically meaningful picture of this enigmatic stage of stellar evolution. From an analysis of Gaia DR2 flux errors, we have identified around 1200 candidate hot subdwarfs with inflated flux errors for their magnitudes—a strong indicator of photometric variability. As a pilot study, we obtained 2 minute cadence TESS Cycle 2 observations of 187 candidate hot subdwarfs with anomalous Gaia flux errors. More than 90% of our targets show significant photometric variations in their TESS light curves. Many of the new systems found are cataclysmic variables, but we report the discovery of several new variable hot subdwarfs, including HW Vir binaries, reflection-effect systems, pulsating sdBV s stars, and ellipsoidally modulated systems. We determine atmospheric parameters for select systems using follow-up spectroscopy from the 3 m Shane telescope. Finally, we present a Fourier diagnostic plot for classifying binary light curves using the relative amplitudes and phases of their fundamental and harmonic signals in their periodograms. This plot makes it possible to identify certain types of variables efficiently, without directly investigating their light curves, and may assist in the rapid classification of systems observed in large photometric surveys. 

Binaries consisting of a hot subdwarf star and an accreting white dwarf (WD) are sources of gravitational wave radiation at low frequencies and possible progenitors of Type Ia supernovae if the WD mass is large enough. Here, we report the discovery of the third binary known of this kind: It consists of a hot subdwarf O (sdO) star and a WD with an orbital period of 3.495 h and an orbital shrinkage of 0.1 s in 6 yr. The sdO star overfills its Roche lobe and likely transfers mass to the WD via an accretion disc. From spectroscopy, we obtain an effective temperature of $T_{\mathrm{eff}}=54\, 240\pm 1840$ K and a surface gravity of log g = 4.841 ± 0.108 for the sdO star. From the light curve analysis, we obtain an sdO mass of MsdO = 0.55 M⊙ and a mass ratio of q = MWD/MsdO = 0.738 ± 0.001. Also, we estimate that the disc has a radius of $\sim\!0.41\ \mathrm{R}_\odot$ and a thickness of $\sim\!0.18\ \mathrm{R}_\odot$. The origin of this binary is probably a common envelope ejection channel, where the progenitor of the sdO star is either a red giant branch star or, more likely, an early asymptotic giant branch star; the sdO star will subsequently evolve into a WD and merge with its WD companion, likely resulting in an R Coronae Borealis (R CrB) star. The outstanding feature in the spectrum of this object is strong Ca H&K lines, which are blueshifted by ∼200 km s−1 and likely originate from the recently ejected common envelope, and we estimated that the remnant common envelope (CE) material in the binary system has a density $\sim\!6\times 10^{-10}\ {\rm g\, cm}^{-3}$.