347 research outputs found
Observable form of pulses emitted from relativistic collapsing objects
In this work, we discuss observable characteristics of the radiation emitted
from a surface of a collapsing object. We study a simplified model in which a
radiation of massless particles has a sharp in time profile and it happens at
the surface at the same moment of comoving time. Since the radiating surface
has finite size the observed radiation will occur during some finite time. Its
redshift and bending angle are affected by the strong gravitational field. We
obtain a simple expression for the observed flux of the radiation as a function
of time. To find an explicit expression for the flux we develop an analytical
approximation for the bending angle and time delay for null rays emitted by a
collapsing surface. In the case of the bending angle this approximation is an
improved version of the earlier proposed Beloborodov-Leahy-approximation. For
rays emitted at the accuracy of the proposed improved approximations
for the bending angle and time delay is of order (or less) than 2-3%. By using
this approximation we obtain an approximate analytical expression for the
observed flux and study its properties.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures;Typos in equations and refrences are corrected.
No change in the results and discussion
Thermal evolution and lifetime of intrinsic magnetic fields of Super Earths in habitable zones
We have numerically studied the thermal evolution of various-mass terrestrial
planets in habitable zones, focusing on duration of dynamo activity to generate
their intrinsic magnetic fields, which may be one of key factors in
habitability on the planets. In particular, we are concerned with super-Earths,
observations of which are rapidly developing. We calculated evolution of
temperature distributions in planetary interior, using Vinet equations of
state, Arrhenius-type formula for mantle viscosity, and the astrophysical
mixing length theory for convective heat transfer modified for mantle
convection. After calibrating the model with terrestrial planets in the Solar
system, we apply it for 0.1-- rocky planets with surface
temperature of 300~\mbox{K} (in habitable zones) and the Earth-like
compositions. With the criterion for heat flux at the CMB (core-mantle
boundary), the lifetime of the magnetic fields is evaluated from the calculated
thermal evolution. We found that the lifetime slowly increases with the
planetary mass () independent of initial temperature gap at the
core-mantle boundary () but beyond a critical value
() it abruptly declines by the mantle viscosity
enhancement due to the pressure effect. We derived as a function of
and a rheological parameter (activation volume, ).
Thus, the magnetic field lifetime of super-Earths with
sensitively depends on , which reflects planetary
accretion, and , which has uncertainty at very high pressure. More
advanced high-pressure experiments and first-principle simulation as well as
planetary accretion simulation are needed to discuss habitability of
super-Earths.Comment: 19pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Convection, Thermal Bifurcation, and the Colors of A stars
Broad-band ultraviolet photometry from the TD-1 satellite and low dispersion
spectra from the short wavelength camera of IUE have been used to investigate a
long-standing proposal of Bohm-Vitense that the normal main sequence A- and
early-F stars may divide into two different temperature sequences: (1) a high
temperature branch (and plateau) comprised of slowly rotating convective stars,
and (2) a low temperature branch populated by rapidly rotating radiative stars.
We find no evidence from either dataset to support such a claim, or to confirm
the existence of an "A-star gap" in the B-V color range 0.22 <= B-V <= 0.28 due
to the sudden onset of convection. We do observe, nonetheless, a large scatter
in the 1800--2000 A colors of the A-F stars, which amounts to ~0.65 mags at a
given B-V color index. The scatter is not caused by interstellar or
circumstellar reddening. A convincing case can also be made against binarity
and intrinsic variability due to pulsations of delta Sct origin. We find no
correlation with established chromospheric and coronal proxies of convection,
and thus no demonstrable link to the possible onset of convection among the A-F
stars. The scatter is not instrumental. Approximately 0.4 mags of the scatter
is shown to arise from individual differences in surface gravity as well as a
moderate spread (factor of ~3) in heavy metal abundance and UV line blanketing.
A dispersion of ~0.25 mags remains, which has no clear and obvious explanation.
The most likely cause, we believe, is a residual imprecision in our correction
for the spread in metal abundances. However, the existing data do not rule out
possible contributions from intrinsic stellar variability or from differential
UV line blanketing effects owing to a dispersion in microturbulent velocity.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, AAS LaTex, to appear in The
Astrophysical Journa
Two Boehm-Vitense gaps in the main sequence of the Hyades
Hipparcos proper motions and trigonometric parallaxes allow the derivation of
secular parallaxes which fix the distances to individual stars in the Hyades
cluster to an accuracy of \sim 2 percent. The resulting color-absolute
magnitude diagram for 92 high-fidelity single members of the cluster displays a
very narrow main sequence, with two turn-offs and associated gaps. These occur
at the locations where the onset of surface convection affects the B-V colors,
as predicted by Boehm-Vitense thirty years ago. The new distances provide
stringent constraints on the transformations of colors and absolute magnitudes
to effective temperatures and luminosities, and on models of stellar interiors.Comment: 4 pages, 2 PostScript figures, LaTeX using aastex and
emulateapj5.sty; accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter
A large stellar evolution database for population synthesis studies. II. Stellar models and isochrones for an alpha-enhanced metal distribution
[Abridged] We present a large, new set of stellar evolution models and
isochrones for an alpha-enhanced metal distribution typical of Galactic halo
and bulge stars; it represents a homogeneous extension of our stellar model
library for a distribution already presented in Pietrinferni et al.(2004). The
effect of the alpha-element enhancement has been properly taken into account in
the nuclear network, opacity, equation of state and, for the first time, the
bolometric corrections, and color transformations. This allows us to avoid the
inconsistent use - common to all alpha-enhanced model libraries currently
available - of scaled-solar bolometric corrections and color transformations
for alpha-enhanced models and isochrones. We show how bolometric corrections to
magnitudes obtained for the U,B portion of stellar spectra for T_{eff}<=6500K,
are significantly affected by the metal mixture, especially at the higher
metallicities. We also provide complete sets of evolutionary models for
low-mass, He-burning stellar structures covering the whole metallicity range,
to enable synthetic horizontal branch simulations. We compare our database with
several widely used stellar model libraries from different authors, as well as
with various observed color magnitude and color-color diagrams (Johnson-Cousins
BVI and near infrared magnitudes, Stromgren colors) of Galactic field stars and
globular clusters. We also test our isochrones comparing integrated optical
colors and Surface Brightness Fluctuation magnitudes with selected globular
cluster data. We find a general satisfactory agreement with the empirical
constraints.Comment: 46 pages, 20 figures, ApJ in press, the whole database presented in
this paper can be foud at http://www.te.astro.it/BASTI/index.ph
NLTE effects on Fe I/II in the atmospheres of FGK stars and application to abundance analysis of their spectra
We describe the first results from our project aimed at large-scale
calculations of NLTE abundance corrections for important astrophysical atoms
and ions. In this paper, the focus is on Fe which is a proxy of stellar
metallicity and is commonly used to derive effective temperature and gravity.
We present a small grid of NLTE abundance corrections for Fe I lines and
discuss how NLTE effects influence determination of effective temperature,
surface gravity, and metallicity for late-type stars.Comment: 6 pages, to be published in IOP The Journal of Physics: Conference
Series, proceedings of the Workshop: 'Stellar Atmospheres in the Gaia Era:
Quantitative Spectroscopy and Comparative Spectrum Modelling', Brussels, June
201
A new Bohm-Vitense gap in the temperature range 5560 to 5610K in the Main Sequence
Highly precise temperatures (sigma = 10-15 K) have been determined from line
depth ratios for a set of 248 F-K field dwarfs of about solar metallicity (-0.5
< [Fe/H] < +0.4), based on high resolution (R=42000), high S/N echelle spectra.
A new gap has been discovered in the distribution of stars on the Main Sequence
in the temperature range 5560 to 5610 K. This gap coincides with a jump in the
microturbulent velocity Vt and the well-known Li depression near 5600 K in
field dwarfs and open clusters. As the principal cause of the observed
discontinuities in stellar properties we propose the penetration of the
convective zone into the inner layers of stars slightly less massive than the
Sun and related to it, a change in the temperature gradient.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 electronic table, in press in A&
Stellar mass and age determinations - I. Grids of stellar models from Z=0.006 to 0.04 and M=0.5 to 3.5 Msun
We present dense grids of stellar models suitable for comparison with
observable quantities measured with great precision, such as those derived from
binary systems or planet-hosting stars. We computed new Geneva models without
rotation at metallicities Z=0.006, 0.01, 0.014, 0.02, 0.03 and 0.04 (i.e.
[Fe/H] from -0.33 to +0.54) and with mass in small steps from 0.5 to 3.5 Msun.
Great care was taken in the procedure for interpolating between tracks in order
to compute isochrones. Several properties of our grids are presented as a
function of stellar mass and metallicity. Those include surface properties in
the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, internal properties including mean stellar
density, sizes of the convective cores, and global asteroseismic properties. We
checked our interpolation procedure and compared interpolated tracks with
computed tracks. The deviations are less than 1% in radius and effective
temperatures for most of the cases considered. We also checked that the present
isochrones provide nice fits to four couples of observed detached binaries and
to the observed sequences of the open clusters NGC 3532 and M67. Including
atomic diffusion in our models with M<1.1 Msun leads to variations in the
surface abundances that should be taken into account when comparing with
observational data of stars with measured metallicities. For that purpose,
iso-Zsurf lines are computed. These can be requested for download from a
dedicated web page together with tracks at masses and metallicities within the
limits covered by the grids. The validity of the relations linking Z and FeH is
also re-assessed in light of the surface abundance variations in low-mass
stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
A Preliminary Seismic Analysis of 51 Peg: Large and Small Spacings from Standard Models
We present a preliminary theoretical seismic study of the astronomically
famous star 51 Peg. This is done by first performing a detailed analysis within
the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD). Using the Yale stellar evolution code
(YREC), a grid of stellar evolutionary tracks has been constructed for the
masses 1.00 M_sun, 1.05 M_sun and 1.10 M_sun, in the metallicity range
Z=0.024-0.044, and for values of the Galactic helium enrichment ratio DY/DZ in
the range 0-2.5. Along these evolutionary tracks, we select 75 stellar model
candidates that fall within the 51 Peg observational error box in the HRD (all
turn out to have masses of 1.05 M_sun and 1.10 M_sun. The corresponding
allowable age range for these models, which depends sensitively on the
parameters of the model, is relatively large and is ~2.5 - 5.5 Gyr. For each of
the 75 models, a non-radial pulsation analysis is carried out, and the large
and small frequency spacings are calculated. The results show that just
measuring the large and small frequency spacings will greatly reduce the
present uncertainties in the derived physical parameters and in the age of 51
Peg. Finally we discuss briefly refinements in the physics of the models and in
the method of analysis which will have to be included in future models to make
the best of the precise frequency determinations expected from space
observations.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publicaton by Ap
The yellow hypergiants HR 8752 and rho Cassiopeiae near the evolutionary border of instability
High-resolution near-ultraviolet spectra of the yellow hypergiants HR 8752
and rho Cassiopeiae indicate high effective temperatures placing both stars
near the T_eff border of the ``yellow evolutionary void''. At present, the
temperature of HR 8752 is higher than ever. For this star we found
Teff=7900+-200 K, whereas rho Cassiopeiae has Teff=7300+-200 K. Both, HR 8752
and rho Cassiopeiae have developed strong stellar winds with Vinf ~ 120 km/s
and Vinf ~ 100 km/s, respectively. For HR 8752 we estimate an upper limit for
the spherically symmetric mass-loss of 6.7X10^{-6}M_solar/yr. Over the past
decades two yellow hypergiants appear to have approached an evolutionary phase,
which has never been observed before. We present the first spectroscopic
evidence of the blueward motion of a cool super/hypergiant on the HR diagram.Comment: 13 pages including 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
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