A search for hot pulsators similar to PG1159-035 and the central star of K 1-16

The variations of PG1159-035 (GWVir)were discovered by McGraw et al. This object is the prototype of a anew class of pulsating stars located in an instability strip at the left-hand edge of the HR diagram. PG1159-035 and the spectroscopically similar objects PG1707+427 and PG2131+066 display complex non-radial modes with periodicities of order 10 minutes. Grauer and Bond recently discovered that the central star of the planetary nebula Kohoutek 1-16 also exhibits pulsation properties, with dominant periodicities of 25-28 minutes. These four objects display the following characteristics: High effective temperatures (--105Κ) and moderately high surface gravities (log g ≅ 6-8); He II, C IV, and O VI absorption lines in the optical spectra, often reversed with emission cores; No hydrogen lines clearly detected; The pulsational instability has been attributed to partial ionization of carbon and/or oxygen