1,272 research outputs found
Getting a kick out of the stellar disk(s) in the galactic center
Recent observations of the Galactic center revealed a nuclear disk of young
OB stars, in addition to many similar outlying stars with higher eccentricities
and/or high inclinations relative to the disk (some of them possibly belonging
to a second disk). Binaries in such nuclear disks, if they exist in
non-negligible fractions, could have a major role in the evolution of the disks
through binary heating of this stellar system. We suggest that interactions
with/in binaries may explain some (or all) of the observed outlying young stars
in the Galactic center. Such stars could have been formed in a disk, and later
on kicked out from it through binary related interactions, similar to ejection
of high velocity runaway OB stars in young clusters throughout the galaxy.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figs. To be published in the proceedings of the IAU 246
symposium on "Dynamical evolution of dense stellar systems
A refurbished convergent point method for finding moving groups in the Hipparcos Catalogue
The Hipparcos data allow a major step forward in the research of `moving
groups' in the Solar neighbourhood, as the common motion of group members
causes converging proper motions. Previous knowledge on these coherent
structures in velocity space has always been limited by the availability,
reliability, and accuracy of ground-based proper motion measurements.
A refurbishment of Jones' convergent point method is presented which takes
full advantage of the quality of the Hipparcos data. The original
implementation of this method determines the maximum likelihood convergent
point on a grid on the sky and simultaneously selects group members from a
given set of stars with positions and proper motions. The refurbished procedure
takes into account the full covariance matrix of the Hipparcos measurements
instead of standard errors only, allows for internal motions of the stars, and
replaces the grid-based approach by a direct minimization. The method is tested
on Monte Carlo simulations of moving groups, and applied to the Hyades. Despite
the limited amount of data used by the convergent point method, the results for
stars in and around the cluster- centre region agree very well with those of
the recent comprehensive study by Perryman et al. (1998).Comment: 14 pages, 7 Postscript figures, LaTeX using mn.sty and psfig.sty;
accepted for publication in MNRA
Radial velocities of early-type stars in the Perseus OB2 association
We present radial velocities for 29 B- and A-type stars in the field of the
nearby association Perseus OB2. The velocities are derived from spectra
obtained with AURELIE, via cross correlation with radial velocity standards
matched as closely as possible in spectral type. The resulting accuracy is ~2 -
3 km s. We use these measurements, together with published values for a
few other early-type stars, to study membership of the association. The mean
radial velocity (and measured velocity dispersion) of Per OB2 is 23.5 \pm 3.9
km s, and lies ~15 km s away from the mean velocity of the local
disk field stars. We identify a number of interlopers in the list of possible
late-B- and A-type members which was based on Hipparcos parallaxes and proper
motions, and discuss the colour-magnitude diagram of the association.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&A, minor revision
The origin of runaway stars
Milli-arcsecond astrometry provided by Hipparcos and by radio observations
makes it possible to retrace the orbits of some of the nearest runaway stars
and pulsars to determine their site of origin. The orbits of the runaways AE
Aurigae and mu Columbae and of the eccentric binary iota Orionis intersect each
other about 2.5 Myr ago in the nascent Trapezium cluster, confirming that these
runaways were formed in a binary-binary encounter. The path of the runaway star
zeta Ophiuchi intersects that of the nearby pulsar PSR J1932+1059, about 1 Myr
ago, in the young stellar group Upper Scorpius. We propose that this neutron
star is the remnant of a supernova that occurred in a binary system which also
contained zeta Oph, and deduce that the pulsar received a kick velocity of
about 350 km/s in the explosion. These two cases provide the first specific
kinematic evidence that both mechanisms proposed for the production of runaway
stars, the dynamical ejection scenario and the binary-supernova scenario,
operate in nature.Comment: 5 pages, including 2 eps-figures and 1 table, submitted to the ApJ
Letters. The manuscript was typeset using aaste
The impact of basic and social infrastructure investment on economic growth and social development in South Africa’s urban and rural municipalities
Abstract: South Africa is characterised by widespread inequality and divided societies, which impede economic growth and social development. Basic and social infrastructure investment can assist in addressing these challenges by promoting economic growth and social development. The aim of this study is to determine if basic and social infrastructure investment differently effect economic growth and social development indicators of urban and rural municipalities respectively. We use a balanced panel data set containing infrastructure, economic, demographic and social indicators for rural and urban municipalities for the period from 1996 to 2012. To address the research question we construct synthetic indices of basic and social infrastructure, using principal component analysis, to be used in panel regression estimations. To estimate our economic growth and social development functions we make use of restricted within LSDV estimation techniques. We use the results on the respective elasticities to evaluate whether the differences between urban and rural municipalities are statistically significant. Our results show that the elasticities of basic and social infrastructure investment generally are more pronounced for economic growth and social development indicators in rural municipalities than in urban municipalities. These findings could potentially influence policy decisions in terms of infrastructure investment in favour of rural municipalities to increase economic growth and social development in these regions, which could contribute to the reduction of spatial inequalities in South Africa
A Hipparcos census of the nearby OB associations
A comprehensive census of the stellar content of the nearby OB associations
is presented, based on Hipparcos positions, proper motions, and parallaxes.
Moving groups are identified by combining de Bruijne's refurbished convergent
point method with the `Spaghetti method' of Hoogerwerf & Aguilar. Monte Carlo
simulations are used to estimate the expected number of interloper field stars.
Astrometric members are listed for 12 young stellar groups, out to a distance
of ~650 pc. These are the 3 subgroups Upper Scorpius, Upper Centaurus Lupus and
Lower Centaurus Crux of Sco OB2, as well as Vel OB2, Tr 10, Col 121, Per OB2,
alpha Persei (Per OB3), Cas-Tau, Lac OB1, Cep OB2, and a new group designated
as Cep OB6. The selection procedure corrects the list of previously known
astrometric and photometric B- and A-type members, and identifies many new
members, including a significant number of F stars, as well as evolved stars,
e.g., the Wolf-Rayet stars gamma^2 Vel (Vel OB2) and EZ CMa (Col 121), and the
classical Cepheid delta Cep in Cep OB6. In the nearest associations the
later-type members include T Tauri objects and other pre-main sequence stars.
Astrometric evidence for moving groups in the fields of R CrA, CMa OB1, Mon
OB1, Ori OB1, Cam OB1, Cep OB3, Cep OB4, Cyg OB4, Cyg OB7, and Sct OB2, is
inconclusive, due to their large distance or unfavorable kinematics.
The mean distances of the well-established groups are systematically smaller
than previous estimates. The mean motions display a systematic pattern, which
is discussed in relation to the Gould Belt. Six of the 12 detected moving
groups do not appear in the classical list of nearby OB associations. The
number of unbound young stellar groups in the Solar neighbourhood may be
significantly larger than thought previously.Comment: 51 pages, 30 PostScript figures, 6 tables in PostScript format,
default LaTeX using psfig.sty; accepted for publication in the Astronomical
Journal, scheduled for January 1999 issue. Abbreviated abstrac
OB Associations
Since the previous (1990) edition of this meeting enormous progress in the
field of OB associations has been made. Data from X-ray satellites have greatly
advanced the study of the low-mass stellar content of associations, while
astrometric data from the Hipparcos satellite allow for a characterization of
the higher-mass content of associations with unprecedented accuracy. We review
recent work on the OB associations located within 1.5 kpc from the Sun, discuss
the Hipparcos results at length, and point out directions for future research.Comment: To appear in The Physics of Star Formation and Early Stellar
Evolution II, eds C.J. Lada & N. Kylafis (Kluwer Academic), 30 pages, 9
EPS-figures, LaTeX using crckapb.sty, epsfig.sty, amssymb.st
Geochronological database and classification system for age uncertainties in Neotropical pollen records.
The newly updated inventory of palaeoecological research in Latin America offers an important overview of sites available for multi-proxy and multi-site purposes. From the collected literature supporting this inventory, we collected all available age model metadata to create a chronological database of 5116 control points (e.g. 14C, tephra, fission track, OSL, 210Pb) from 1097 pollen records. Based on this literature review, we present a summary of chronological dating and reporting in the Neotropics. Difficulties and recommendations for chronology reporting are discussed. Furthermore, for 234 pollen records in northwest South America, a classification system for age uncertainties is implemented based on chronologies generated with updated calibration curves. With these outcomes age models are produced for those sites without an existing chronology, alternative age models are provided for researchers interested in comparing the effects of different calibration curves and age-depth modelling software, and the importance of uncertainty assessments of chronologies is highlighted. Sample resolution and temporal uncertainty of ages are discussed for different time windows, focusing on events relevant for research on centennial- to millennial-scale climate variability. All age models and developed R scripts are publicly available through figshare, including a manual to use the scripts
On the origin of the O and B-type stars with high velocities II Runaway stars and pulsars ejected from the nearby young stellar groups
We use milli-arcsecond accuracy astrometry (proper motions and parallaxes)
from Hipparcos and from radio observations to retrace the orbits of 56 runaway
stars and nine compact objects with distances less than 700 pc, to identify the
parent stellar group. It is possible to deduce the specific formation scenario
with near certainty for two cases. (i) We find that the runaway star zeta
Ophiuchi and the pulsar PSR J1932+1059 originated about 1 Myr ago in a
supernova explosion in a binary in the Upper Scorpius subgroup of the Sco OB2
association. The pulsar received a kick velocity of about 350 km/s in this
event, which dissociated the binary, and gave zeta Oph its large space
velocity. (ii) Blaauw & Morgan and Gies & Bolton already postulated a common
origin for the runaway-pair AE Aur and mu Col, possibly involving the massive
highly-eccentric binary iota Ori, based on their equal and opposite velocities.
We demonstrate that these three objects indeed occupied a very small volume
\sim 2.5Myr ago, and show that they were ejected from the nascent Trapezium
cluster.
We identify the parent group for two more pulsars: both likely originate in
the 50 Myr old association Per OB3, which contains the open cluster alpha
Persei. At least 21 of the 56 runaway stars in our sample can be linked to the
nearby associations and young open clusters. These include the classical
runaways 53 Arietis (Ori OB1), xi Persei (Per OB2), and lambda Cephei (Cep
OB3), and fifteen new identifications, amongst which a pair of stars running
away in opposite directions from the region containing the lambda Ori cluster.
Other currently nearby runaways and pulsars originated beyond 700 pc, where our
knowledge of the parent groups is very incomplete.Comment: Accepted for publication in the A&A. 29 pages, 19 figure
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