1,236 research outputs found
Polarization in the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows
Synchrotron is considered the dominant emission mechanism in the production
of gamma-ray burst photons in the prompt as well as in the afterglow phase.
Polarization is a characteristic feature of synchrotron and its study can
reveal a wealth of information on the properties of the magnetic field and of
the energy distribution in gamma-ray burst jets. In this paper I will review
the theory and observations of gamma-ray bursts polarization. While the theory
is well established, observations have prove difficult to perform, due to the
weakness of the signal. The discriminating power of polarization observations,
however, cannot be overestimated.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in the New Journal of
Physics focus issue on Gamma Ray Burst
Estimates of Active Region Area Coverage through Simultaneous Measurements of He I 5876 and 10830 Lines
Simultaneous, high-quality measurements of the neutral helium triplet
features at 5876~\AA\ and 10830~\AA, respectively, in a sample of solar-type
stars are presented. The observations were made with ESO telescopes at the La
Silla Paranal Observatory under program ID 088.D-0028(A) and MPG Utility Run
for FEROS 088.A-9029(A). The equivalent widths of these features combined with
chromospheric models are utilized to infer the fractional area coverage, or
filling factor, of magnetic regions outside of spots. We find that the majority
of the sample is characterized by filling factors less than unity. However,
discrepancies occur among the coolest K-type and warmest and most rapidly
rotating F-type dwarf stars. We discuss these apparently anomalous results and
find that in the case of K-type stars they are an artifact of the application
of chromospheric models best suited to the Sun than to stars with significantly
lower . The case of the F-type rapid rotators can be explained
with the measurement uncertainties of the equivalent widths, but they may also
be due to a non-magnetic heating component in their atmospheres. With the
exceptions noted above, preliminary results suggest that the average heating
rates in the active regions are the same from one star to the other, differing
in the spatially integrated, observed level of activity due to the area
coverage. Hence, differences in activity in this sample are mainly due to the
filling factor of active regions.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa
X-Shooter spectroscopy of FU Tau A
We have analyzed a broad-band optical and near-infrared spectrum of FU Tau A,
a presumed young brown dwarf in the Taurus star forming region that has
intrigued both theorists and observers by its over-luminosity in the HR diagram
with respect to standard pre-main sequence evolutionary models. The new data,
obtained with the X-Shooter spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope, include
an unprecedented wealth of information on stellar parameters and simultaneously
observed accretion and outflow indicators for FU Tau A. We present the first
measurements of gravity (log g = 3.5 +- 0.5), radial velocity (RV = 22.5 +- 2.9
km/s), rotational velocity (v sin(i) = 20 +- 5 km/s) and lithium equivalent
width (W_Li = 430 +- 20 mAA) for FUTau A. From the rotational velocity and the
published period we infer a disk inclination of i ~ 50^deg. The lithium content
is much lower than theoretically expected for such a young very low mass
object, adding another puzzling feature to this object's properties. We
determine the mass accretion rate of FU Tau A from comparison of the
luminosities of 24 emission lines to empirical calibrations from the literature
and find a mean of log (dM/dt)_acc [M_sun/yr] = -9.9 +- 0.2. The accretion rate
determined independently from modeling of the excess emission in the Balmer and
Paschen continua is consistent with this value. The corresponding accretion
luminosity is too small to make a significant contribution to the bolometric
luminosity. The existence of an outflow in FU Tau A is demonstrated through the
first detection of forbidden emission lines from which we obtain an estimate
for the mass loss rate, log (dM/dt)_out [M_sun/yr] < -10.4. The mass outflow
and inflow rates can be combined to yield (dM/dt)_out / (dM/dt)_acc ~ 0.3, a
value that is in agreement with jet launching models.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in A&
X-Shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects: V - Slow winds in T Tauri stars
Disks around T Tauri stars are known to lose mass, as best shown by the
profiles of forbidden emission lines of low ionization species. At least two
separate kinematic components have been identified, one characterised by
velocity shifts of tens to hundreds km/s (HVC) and one with much lower velocity
of few km/s (LVC). The HVC are convincingly associated to the emission of jets,
but the origin of the LVC is still unknown. In this paper we analyze the
forbidden line spectrum of a sample of 44 mostly low mass young stars in Lupus
and -Ori observed with the X-Shooter ESO spectrometer. We detect
forbidden line emission of [OI], [OII], [SII], [NI], and [NII], and
characterize the line profiles as LVC, blue-shifted HVC and red-shifted HVC. We
focus our study on the LVC. We show that there is a good correlation between
line luminosity and both L and the accretion luminosity (or the
mass-accretion rate) over a large interval of values (L L; L L;
M/yr). The lines show the presence of a slow
wind ( cm), warm (T K), mostly neutral. We estimate the mass of the emitting gas and
provide a value for the maximum volume it occupies. Both quantities increase
steeply with the stellar mass, from M and
AU for M M, to
M and AU for M M, respectively.
These results provide quite stringent constraints to wind models in low mass
young stars, that need to be explored further
X-Shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects in Lupus. Atmospheric parameters, membership and activity diagnostics
A homogeneous determination of basic stellar parameters of young stellar
object (YSO) candidates is needed to confirm their evolutionary stage,
membership to star forming regions (SFRs), and to get reliable values of the
quantities related to chromospheric activity and accretion. We used the code
ROTFIT and synthetic BT-Settl spectra for the determination of the atmospheric
parameters (Teff and logg), the veiling, the radial (RV) and projected
rotational velocity (vsini), from X-Shooter spectra of 102 YSO candidates in
the Lupus SFR. We have shown that 13 candidates can be rejected as Lupus
members based on their discrepant RV with respect to Lupus and/or the very low
logg values. At least 11 of them are background giants. The spectral
subtraction of inactive templates enabled us to measure the line fluxes for
several diagnostics of both chromospheric activity and accretion. We found that
all Class-III sources have H fluxes compatible with a pure
chromospheric activity, while objects with disks lie mostly above the boundary
between chromospheres and accretion. YSOs with transitional disks displays both
high and low H fluxes. We found that the line fluxes per unit surface
are tightly correlated with the accretion luminosity () derived
from the Balmer continuum excess. This rules out that the relationships between
and line luminosities found in previous works are simply due to
calibration effects. We also found that the CaII-IRT flux ratio,
, is always small, indicating an optically thick emission
source. The latter can be identified with the accretion shock near the stellar
photosphere. The Balmer decrement reaches instead, for several accretors, high
values typical of optically thin emission, suggesting that the Balmer emission
originates in different parts of the accretion funnels with a smaller optical
depth.Comment: 28 pages, 26 figures, accepted by A&
Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era: 4th Workshop
We introduce the volume that collects the papers presented at the 4th Workshop Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era, held in Rome on October 18-22, 2004. After a general introduction and description of theWorkshop, we briefly
review the hot topics in GRB science which were discussed during the conference and are the subject of many articles included in these proceedings. Finally, we focus on future prospects for GRB science at the beginning of the Swift era and beyond
A photometric study of the young open cluster NGC 1220
We present UBV CCD observations obtained in the field of the northern open
cluster NGC 1220, for which little information is available. We provide also BV
CCD photometry of a field 5 northward of NGC 1220 to take into
account field star contamination. We argue that NGC 1220 is a young compact
open cluster, for which we estimate a core radius in the range
arcmin. We identify 26 likely candidate members with spectral type earlier than
, down to =15.00 mag on the basis of the position in the two-colour
Diagram and in the Colour Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs). By analyzing the
distribution of these stars in the colour-colour and CMDs, we find that NGC
1220 has a reddening E mag, is placed pc
distant from the Sun, and has an age of about 60 Myrs. The cluster turns out to
be located about 120 pc above the Galactic plane, relatively high with respect
to its age.Comment: 7 pages, 8 eps figures, accepted for publication in A&
Prospects for multiwavelength polarization observations of GRB afterglows and the case GRB 030329
We explore the prospects for simultaneous, broad-band, multiwavelength
polarimetric observations of GRB afterglows. We focus on the role of cosmic
dust in GRB host galaxies on the observed percentage polarization of afterglows
in the optical/near-infrared bands as a function of redshift. Our driving point
is the afterglow of GRB 030329, for which we obtained polarimetric data in the
R band and K band simultaneously about 1.5 days after the burst. We argue that
polarimetric observations can be very sensitive to dust in a GRB host, because
dust can render the polarization of an afterglow wavelength-dependent. We
discuss the consequences for the interpretation of observational data and
emphasize the important role of very early polarimetric follow-up observations
in all bands, when afterglows are still bright, to study the physical
properties of dust and magnetic fields in high-z galaxies.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
An energetic blast wave from the December 27 giant flare of the soft gamma-ray repeater 1806-20
Recent follow-up observations of the December 27 giant flare of SGR 1806-20
have detected a multiple-frequency radio afterglow from 240 MHz to 8.46 GHz,
extending in time from a week to about a month after the flare. The angular
size of the source was also measured for the first time. Here we show that this
radio afterglow gives the first piece of clear evidence that an energetic blast
wave sweeps up its surrounding medium and produces a synchrotron afterglow, the
same mechanism as established for gamma-ray burst afterglows. The optical
afterglow is expected to be intrinsically as bright as at t\la
0.1 days after the flare, but very heavy extinction makes the detection
difficult because of the low galactic latitude of the source. Rapid infrared
follow-up observations to giant flares are therefore crucial for the
low-latitude SGRs, while for high-latitude SGRs (e.g. SGR 0526-66), rapid
follow-ups should result in identification of their possible optical
afterglows. Rapid multi-wavelength follow-ups will also provide more detailed
information of the early evolution of a fireball as well as its composition.Comment: Updated version, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
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