36,723 research outputs found
Improved Astrometry and Photometry for the Luyten Catalog. II. Faint Stars and the Revised Catalog
We complete construction of a catalog containing improved astrometry and new
optical/infrared photometry for the vast majority of NLTT stars lying in the
overlap of regions covered by POSS I and by the second incremental 2MASS
release, approximately 44% of the sky. The epoch 2000 positions are typically
accurate to 130 mas, the proper motions to 5.5 mas/yr, and the V-J colors to
0.25 mag. Relative proper motions of binary components are measured to 3
mas/yr. The false identification rate is ~1% for 11 < V < 18 and substantially
less at brighter magnitudes. These improvements permit the construction of a
reduced proper motion diagram that, for the first time, allows one to classify
NLTT stars into main-sequence (MS) stars, subdwarfs (SDs), and white dwarfs
(WDs). We in turn use this diagram to analyze the properties of both our
catalog and the NLTT catalog on which it is based. In sharp contrast to popular
belief, we find that NLTT incompleteness in the plane is almost completely
concentrated in MS stars, and that SDs and WDs are detected almost uniformly
over the sky DEC > -33 deg. Our catalog will therefore provide a powerful tool
to probe these populations statistically, as well as to reliably identify
individual SDs and WDs.Comment: 16 figures. We will make the revised NLTT publicly available on
acceptance of the paper, or no later than July 18, 200
Strong Lensing Analysis of A1689 from Deep Advanced Camera Images
We analyse deep multi-colour Advanced Camera images of the largest known
gravitational lens, A1689. Radial and tangential arcs delineate the critical
curves in unprecedented detail and many small counter-images are found near the
center of mass. We construct a flexible light deflection field to predict the
appearance and positions of counter-images. The model is refined as new
counter-images are identified and incorporated to improve the model, yielding a
total of 106 images of 30 multiply lensed background galaxies, spanning a wide
redshift range, 1.0z5.5. The resulting mass map is more circular in
projection than the clumpy distribution of cluster galaxies and the light is
more concentrated than the mass within . The projected mass profile
flattens steadily towards the center with a shallow mean slope of
, over the observed range,
r, matching well an NFW profile, but with a relatively high
concentration, . A softened isothermal profile
(\arcs) is not conclusively excluded, illustrating that
lensing constrains only projected quantities. Regarding cosmology, we clearly
detect the purely geometric increase of bend-angles with redshift. The
dependence on the cosmological parameters is weak due to the proximity of
A1689, , constraining the locus, .
This consistency with standard cosmology provides independent support for our
model, because the redshift information is not required to derive an accurate
mass map. Similarly, the relative fluxes of the multiple images are reproduced
well by our best fitting lens model.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. For high quality figures see
http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/~kerens/A168
Ensemble Properties of Comets in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We present the ensemble properties of 31 comets (27 resolved and 4
unresolved) observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This sample of
comets represents about 1 comet per 10 million SDSS photometric objects.
Five-band (u,g,r,i,z) photometry is used to determine the comets' colors,
sizes, surface brightness profiles, and rates of dust production in terms of
the Af{\rho} formalism. We find that the cumulative luminosity function for the
Jupiter Family Comets in our sample is well fit by a power law of the form N(<
H) \propto 10(0.49\pm0.05)H for H < 18, with evidence of a much shallower fit
N(< H) \propto 10(0.19\pm0.03)H for the faint (14.5 < H < 18) comets. The
resolved comets show an extremely narrow distribution of colors (0.57 \pm 0.05
in g - r for example), which are statistically indistinguishable from that of
the Jupiter Trojans. Further, there is no evidence of correlation between color
and physical, dynamical, or observational parameters for the observed comets.Comment: 19 pages, 8 tables, 11 figures, to appear in Icaru
The Local Volume HI Survey: star formation properties
We built a multi-wavelength dataset for galaxies from the Local Volume HI
Survey (LVHIS), which comprises 82 galaxies. We also select a sub-sample of ten
large galaxies for investigating properties in the galactic outskirts. The
LVHIS sample covers nearly four orders of magnitude in stellar mass and two
orders of magnitude in HI mass fraction (fHI). The radial distribution of HI
gas with respect to the stellar disc is correlated with fHI but with a large
scatter. We confirm the previously found correlations between the total HI mass
and star formation rate (SFR), and between HI surface densities and SFR surface
densities beyond R25. However, the former correlation becomes much weaker when
the average surface densities rather than total mass or rate are considered,
and the latter correlation also becomes much weaker when the effect of stellar
mass is removed or controlled. Hence the link between SFR and HI is
intrinsically weak in these regions, consistent with what was found on kpc
scales in the galactic inner regions. We find a strong correlation between the
SFR surface density and the stellar mass surface density, which is consistent
with the star formation models where the gas is in quasi-equilibrium with the
mid-plane pressure. We find no evidence for HI warps to be linked with
decreasing star forming efficiencies.Comment: 31 pages, 20 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication at MNRA
Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Observations of T Dwarfs: Brown Dwarf Multiplicity and New Probes of the L/T Transition
We present the results of a Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS imaging survey of
22 T-type field brown dwarfs. Five are resolved as binary systems with angular
separations of 0"05-0"35, and companionship is established on the basis of
component F110W-F170M colors (indicative of CH4 absorption) and low
probabilities of background contamination. Prior ground-based observations show
2MASS 1553+1532AB to be a common proper motion binary. The properties of these
systems - low multiplicity fraction (11[+7][-3]% resolved, as corrected for
sample selection baises), close projected separations (a = 1.8-5.0 AU) and
near-unity mass ratios - are consistent with previous results for field brown
dwarf binaries. Three of the binaries have components that span the
poorly-understood transition between L dwarfs and T dwarfs. Spectral
decomposition analysis of one of these, SDSS 1021-0304AB, reveals a peculiar
flux reversal between its components, as its T5 secondary is ~30% brighter at
1.05 and 1.27 micron than its T1 primary. This system, 2MASS 0518-2828AB and
SDSS 1534+1615AB all demonstrate that the J-band brightening observed between
late-type L to mid-type T dwarfs is an intrinsic feature of this spectral
transition, albeit less pronounced than previously surmised. We also find that
the resolved binary fraction of L7 to T3.5 dwarfs is twice that of other L and
T dwarfs, an anomaly that can be explained by a relatively rapid evolution of
brown dwarfs through the L/T transition, perhaps driven by dynamic
(nonequilibrium) depletion of photospheric condensates.Comment: ~40 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication to ApJ. Note that
emulateapj style file cuts off part of Table
Circular polarization signals of cloudy (exo)planets
The circular polarization of light that planets reflect is often neglected
because it is very small compared to the linear polarization. It could,
however, provide information on a planet's atmosphere and surface, and on the
presence of life, because homochiral molecules that are the building blocks of
life on Earth are known to reflect circularly polarized light.
We compute , the degree of circular polarization, for light that is
reflected by rocky (exo)planets with liquid water or sulfuric acid solution
clouds, both spatially resolved across the planetary disk and, for planets with
patchy clouds, integrated across the planetary disk, for various planetary
phase angles .
The optical thickness and vertical distribution of the atmospheric gas and
clouds, the size parameter and refractive index of the cloud particles, and
all influence . Spatially resolved, varies between (the sign indicates the polarization direction). Only for small gas
optical thicknesses above the clouds do significant sign changes (related to
cloud particle properties) across the planets' hemispheres occur. For patchy
clouds, the disk--integrated is typically smaller than ,
with maximums for between and , and
to . As expected, the disk--integrated is virtually zero at
and 180. The disk--integrated is also very small
at .
Measuring circular polarization signals appears to be challenging with
current technology. The small atmospheric circular polarization signal could,
however, allow the detection of circular polarization due to homochiral
molecules. Confirmation of the detectability of such signals requires better
knowledge of the strength of circular polarization signals of biological
sources.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Synthetic Galaxy Images and Spectra from the Illustris Simulation
We present our methods for generating a catalog of 7,000 synthetic images and
40,000 integrated spectra of redshift z = 0 galaxies from the Illustris
Simulation. The mock data products are produced by using stellar population
synthesis models to assign spectral energy distributions (SED) to each star
particle in the galaxies. The resulting synthetic images and integrated SEDs
therefore properly reflect the spatial distribution, stellar metallicity
distribution, and star formation history of the galaxies. From the synthetic
data products it is possible to produce monochromatic or color-composite
images, perform SED fitting, classify morphology, determine galaxy structural
properties, and evaluate the impacts of galaxy viewing angle. The main
contribution of this paper is to describe the production, format, and
composition of the image catalog that makes up the Illustris Simulation
Obsevatory. As a demonstration of this resource, we derive galactic stellar
mass estimates by applying the SED fitting code FAST to the synthetic galaxy
products, and compare the derived stellar masses against the true stellar
masses from the simulation. We find from this idealized experiment that
systematic biases exist in the photometrically derived stellar mass values that
can be reduced by using a fixed metallicity in conjunction with a minimum
galaxy age restriction.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcom
MASSIV: Mass Assembly Survey with SINFONI in VVDS. IV. Fundamental relations of star-forming galaxies at 1<z< 1.6
How mass assembly occurs in galaxies and which process(es) contribute to this
activity are among the most highly debated questions in galaxy formation
theories. This has motivated our survey MASSIV of 0.9<z<1.9 star-forming
galaxies selected from the purely flux-limited VVDS redshift survey. For the
first time, we derive the relations between galaxy size, mass, and internal
velocity, and the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, from a statistically
representative sample of star-forming galaxies. We find a dynamical mass that
agrees with those of rotating galaxies containing a gas fraction of ~20%,
perfectly consistent with the content derived using the Kennicutt-Schmidt
formulation and the expected evolution. Non-rotating galaxies have more compact
sizes for their stellar component, and are less massive than rotators, but do
not have statistically different sizes for their gas-component. We measure a
marginal evolution in the size-stellar mass and size-velocity relations in
which discs become evenly smaller with cosmic time at fixed stellar mass or
velocity, and are less massive at a given velocity than in the local Universe.
The scatter in the Tully-Fisher relation is smaller when we introduce the S05
index, which we interpret as evidence of an increase in the contribution to
galactic kinematics of turbulent motions with cosmic time. We report a
persistently large scatter for rotators in our relations, that we suggest is
intrinsic, and possibly caused by complex physical mechanism(s) at work in our
stellar mass/luminosity regime and redshift range. Our results consistently
point towards a mild, net evolution of these relations, comparable to those
predicted by cosmological simulations of disc formation for at least 8Gyr and a
dark halo strongly coupled with galactic spectrophotometric properties
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