Effects of galaxy-halo alignment and adiabatic contraction on gravitational lens statistics

We study the strong gravitational lens statistics of triaxial cold dark matter (CDM) halos occupied by central early-type galaxies. We calculate the image separation distribution for double, cusp and quad configurations. The ratios of image multiplicities at large separations are consistent with the triaxial NFW model, and at small separations are consistent with the singular isothermal ellipsoid (SIE) model. At all separations, the total lensing probability is enhanced by adiabatic contraction. If no adiabatic contraction is assumed, naked cusp configurations become dominant at approximately 2.5'', which is inconsistent with the data. We also show that at small-to-moderate separations, the image multiplicities depend sensitively on the alignment of the shapes of the luminous and dark matter projected density profiles. In constrast to other properties that affect these ratios, the degree of alignment does not have a significant effect on the total lensing probability. These correlations may therefore be constrained by comparing the theoretical image separation distribution to a sufficiently large lens sample from future wide and deep sky surveys such as Pan-Starrs, LSST and JDEM. Understanding the correlations in the shapes of galaxies and their dark matter halo is important for future weak lensing surveys.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Detecting Unresolved Binaries in TESS Data with Speckle Imaging

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is conducting a two-year wide-field survey searching for transiting exoplanets around nearby bright stars that will be ideal for follow-up characterization. To facilitate studies of planet compositions and atmospheric properties, accurate and precise planetary radii need to be derived from the transit light curves. Since 40 - 50% of exoplanet host stars are in multiple star systems, however, the observed transit depth may be diluted by the flux of a companion star, causing the radius of the planet to be underestimated. High angular resolution imaging can detect companion stars that are not resolved in the TESS Input Catalog, or by seeing-limited photometry, to validate exoplanet candidates and derive accurate planetary radii. We examine the population of stellar companions that will be detectable around TESS planet candidate host stars, and those that will remain undetected, by applying the detection limits of speckle imaging to the simulated host star populations of Sullivan et al. (2015) and Barclay et al. (2018). By detecting companions with contrasts of delta m < 7 - 9 and separations of ~0.02 - 1.2'', speckle imaging can detect companion stars as faint as early M stars around A - F stars and stars as faint as mid-M around G - M stars, as well as up to 99% of the expected binary star distribution for systems located within a few hundred parsecs.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal; 16 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Long-term stability of the HR 8799 planetary system without resonant lock

HR 8799 is a star accompanied by four massive planets on wide orbits. The observed planetary configuration has been shown to be unstable on a timescale much shorter than the estimated age of the system (~ 30 Myr) unless the planets are locked into mean motion resonances. This condition is characterised by small-amplitude libration of one or more resonant angles that stabilise the system by preventing close encounters. We simulate planetary systems similar to the HR 8799 planetary system, exploring the parameter space in separation between the orbits, planetary masses and distance from the Sun to the star. We find systems that look like HR 8799 and remain stable for longer than the estimated age of HR 8799. None of our systems are forced into resonances. We find, with nominal masses and in a narrow range of orbit separations, that 5 of 100 systems match the observations and lifetime. Considering a broad range of orbit separations, we find 12 of 900 similar systems. The systems survive significantly longer because of their slightly increased initial orbit separations compared to assuming circular orbits from the observed positions. A small increase in separation leads to a significant increase in survival time. The low eccentricity the orbits develop from gravitational interaction is enough for the planets to match the observations. With lower masses, but still comfortably within the estimated planet mass uncertainty, we find 18 of 100 matching and long-lived systems in a narrow orbital separation range. In the broad separation range, we find 82 of 900 matching systems. Our results imply that the planets in the HR 8799 system do not have to be in strong mean motion resonances.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Charge Transfer from Regularized Symmetry-Adapted Perturbation Theory

16 pages, 16 figure

The Effects of Close Companions (and Rotation) on the Magnetic Activity of M Dwarfs

We present a study of close white dwarf and M dwarf (WD+dM) binary systems and examine the effect that a close companion has on the magnetic field generation in M dwarfs. We use a base sample of 1602 white dwarf -- main sequence binaries from Rebassa et al. to develop a set of color cuts in GALEX, SDSS, UKIDSS, and 2MASS color space to construct a sample of 1756 WD+dM high-quality pairs from the SDSS DR8 spectroscopic database. We separate the individual WD and dM from each spectrum using an iterative technique that compares the WD and dM components to best-fit templates. Using the absolute height above the Galactic plane as a proxy for age, and the H{\alpha} emission line as an indicator for magnetic activity, we investigate the age-activity relation for our sample for spectral types \leqM7. Our results show that early-type M dwarfs (\leqM4) in close binary systems are more likely to be active and have longer activity lifetimes compared to their field counterparts. However, at a spectral type of M5 (just past the onset of full convection in M dwarfs), the activity fraction and lifetimes of WD+dM binary systems becomes more comparable to that of the field M dwarfs. One of the implications of having a close binary companion is presumed to be increased stellar rotation through disk-disruption, tidal effects, or angular momentum exchange. Thus, we interpret the similarity in activity behavior between late-type dMs in WD+dM pairs and late-type field dMs to be due to a decrease in sensitivity in close binary companions (or stellar rotation), which has implications for the nature of magnetic activity in fully-convective stars. (Abridged)Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, emulateapj style, accepted to Astronomical Journal June 28, 201

f(R)f(R) gravity theories in the Palatini Formalism constrained from strong lensing

$f(R)$ gravity, capable of driving the late-time acceleration of the universe, is emerging as a promising alternative to dark energy. Various $f(R)$ gravity models have been intensively tested against probes of the expansion history, including type Ia supernovae (SNIa), the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). In this paper we propose to use the statistical lens sample from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search Data Release 3 (SQLS DR3) to constrain $f(R)$ gravity models. This sample can probe the expansion history up to $z\sim2.2$, higher than what probed by current SNIa and BAO data. We adopt a typical parameterization of the form $f(R)=R-\alpha H^2_0(-\frac{R}{H^2_0})^\beta$ with $\alpha$ and $\beta$ constants. For $\beta=0$ ($\Lambda$CDM), we obtain the best-fit value of the parameter $\alpha=-4.193$, for which the 95% confidence interval that is [-4.633, -3.754]. This best-fit value of $\alpha$ corresponds to the matter density parameter $\Omega_{m0}=0.301$, consistent with constraints from other probes. Allowing $\beta$ to be free, the best-fit parameters are $(\alpha, \beta)=(-3.777, 0.06195)$. Consequently, we give $\Omega_{m0}=0.285$ and the deceleration parameter $q_0=-0.544$. At the 95% confidence level, $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are constrained to [-4.67, -2.89] and [-0.078, 0.202] respectively. Clearly, given the currently limited sample size, we can only constrain $\beta$ within the accuracy of $\Delta\beta\sim 0.1$ and thus can not distinguish between $\Lambda$CDM and $f(R)$ gravity with high significance, and actually, the former lies in the 68% confidence contour. We expect that the extension of the SQLS DR3 lens sample to the SDSS DR5 and SDSS-II will make constraints on the model more stringent.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA