557 research outputs found
The lightcurve of the macronova associated with the long-short burst GRB 060614
The {\it Swift}-detected GRB 060614 was a unique burst that straddles an
imaginary divide between long- and short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and
its physical origin has been heavily debated over the years. Recently, a
distinct very-soft F814W-band excess at days after the burst was
identified in a joint-analysis of VLT and HST optical afterglow data of
GRB~060614, which has been interpreted as evidence for an accompanying
Li-Paczynski macronova (also called a kilonova). Under the assumption that the
afterglow data in the time interval of days after the burst are due
to external forward shock emission, when this assumption is extrapolated to
later times it is found that there is an excess of flux in several multi-band
photometric observations. This component emerges at 4 days after the
burst, and it may represent the first time that a multi-epoch/band lightcurve
of a macronova has been obtained. The macronova associated with GRB 060614
peaked at days after the burst, which is significantly earlier
than that observed for a supernova associated with a long-duration GRB. Due to
the limited data, no strong evidence for a temperature evolution is found. We
derive a conservative estimate of the macronova rate of , implying a promising prospect
for detecting the gravitational wave radiation from compact object mergers by
upcoming Advanced LIGO/VIRGO/KAGRA detectors (i.e., the rate is ).Comment: The version published in ApJL. Fig.1 has been updated, main
conclusions are unchange
A kilonova associated with GRB 070809
For on-axis typical short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs), the forward shock
emission is usually so bright that renders the identification of kilonovae
(also known as macronovae) in the early afterglow ( d) phase rather
challenging. This is why previously no thermal-like kilonova component has been
identified at such early time except in the off-axis dim GRB 170817A associated
with GW170817. Here we report the identification of an unusual optical
radiation component in GRB 070809 at d, thanks plausibly to the
very-weak/subdominant forward shock emission. The optical emission with a very
red spectrum is well in excess of the extrapolation of the X-ray emission that
is distinguished by an unusually hard spectrum, which is at odds with the
forward shock afterglow prediction but can be naturally interpreted as a
kilonova. Our finding supports the speculation that kilonovae are ubiquitous ,
and demonstrates the possibility of revealing the neutron star merger origin
with the early afterglow data of some typical sGRBs that take place well beyond
the sensitive radius of the advanced gravitational wave detectors and hence the
opportunity of organizing dedicated follow-up observations for events of
interest.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, published in Nature Astronom
A possible Macronova in the late afterglow of the `long-short' burst GRB 060614
Long-duration ( s) -ray bursts that are believed to originate
from the death of massive stars are expected to be accompanied by supernovae.
GRB 060614, that lasted 102 s, lacks a supernova-like emission down to very
stringent limits and its physical origin is still debated. Here we report the
discovery of near-infrared bump that is significantly above the regular
decaying afterglow. This red bump is inconsistent with even the weakest known
supernova. However, it can arise from a Li-Paczy\'{n}ski macronova the
radioactive decay of debris following a compact binary merger. If this
interpretation is correct GRB 060614 arose from a compact binary merger rather
than from the death of a massive star and it was a site of a significant
production of heavy r-process elements. The significant ejected mass favors a
black hole-neutron star merger but a double neutron star merger cannot be ruled
out.Comment: Minor revision; The version published in Nature Communication
A Method to Measure Photometries of Moderately-Saturated UVOT Sources
For bright transients such as Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), the
Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) operates under event mode at early
phases, which records incident positions and arrival time for each photon. The
event file is able to be screened into many exposures to study the early light
curve of GRBs with a high time resolution, including in particular the rapid
brightening of the UV/Optical emission. Such a goal, however, is hampered for
some extremely bright GRBs by the saturation in UVOT event images. For
moderately saturated UVOT sources, in this work we develop the method proposed
in Jin et al. (2023) to recover their photometries. The basic idea is to assume
a stable point spread function (PSF) of UVOT images, for which the counts in
the core region (i.e., an aperture of a radius of 5 arcsec) and the wing region
(i.e., an annulus ranging from 15 arcsec to 25 arcsec) should be a constant and
the intrinsic flux can be reliably inferred with data in the ring. We
demonstrate that in a given band, a tight correlation does hold among the
background-removed count rates in the core and the wing. With the new method,
the bright limit of measuring range for UVOT V and B bands increases ~ 1.7 mag,
while only ~ 0.7 mag for U band due to the lack of bright calibration sources.
Systematic uncertainties are ~ 0.2 mag for V, B and U bands.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables, accepted to ApJ
Gamma-ray Burst UV/optical afterglow polarimetry as a probe of Quantum Gravity
A possible birefringence effect that arises in quantum gravity leads to a
frequency-dependent rotation of the polarization angle of linearly polarized
emission from distant sources. Here we use the UV/optical polarization data of
the afterglows of GRB 020813 and GRB 021004 to constrain this effect. We find
an upper limit on the Gambini & Pulin birefringence parameter . This limit is of 3 orders better than the previous limits
from observations of AGNs and of the Crab pulsar. Much stronger limits may be
obtained by the future observation of polarization of the prompt -rays.Comment: typos correcte
Crossing the Gould Belt in the Orion vicinity
We present a study of the large-scale spatial distribution of 6482 RASS X-ray
sources in approximately 5000 deg^2 in the direction of Orion. We examine the
astrophysical properties of a sub-sample of ~100 optical counterparts, using
optical spectroscopy. This sub-sample is used to investigate the space density
of the RASS young star candidates by comparing X-ray number counts with
Galactic model predictions. We characterize the observed sub-sample in terms of
spectral type, lithium content, radial and rotational velocities, as well as
iron abundance. A population synthesis model is then applied to analyze the
stellar content of the RASS in the studied area. We find that stars associated
with the Orion star-forming region do show a high lithium content. A population
of late-type stars with lithium equivalent widths larger than Pleiades stars of
the same spectral type (hence younger than ~70-100 Myr) is found widely spread
over the studied area. Two new young stellar aggregates, namely "X-ray Clump
0534+22" (age~2-10 Myr) and "X-ray Clump 0430-08" (age~2-20 Myr), are also
identified. The spectroscopic follow-up and comparison with Galactic model
predictions reveal that the X-ray selected stellar population in the direction
of Orion is characterized by three distinct components, namely the clustered,
the young dispersed, and the widespread field populations. The clustered
population is mainly associated with regions of recent or ongoing star
formation and correlates spatially with molecular clouds. The dispersed young
population follows a broad lane apparently coinciding spatially with the Gould
Belt, while the widespread population consists primarily of active field stars
older than 100 Myr. We expect the "bi-dimensional" picture emerging from this
study to grow in depth as soon as the distance and the kinematics of the
studied sources will become available from the future Gaia mission.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy
and Astrophysics. Abstract shortene
Spectral classification and HR diagram of pre-main sequence stars in NGC6530
Mechanisms involved in the star formation process and in particular the
duration of the different phases of the cloud contraction are not yet fully
understood. Photometric data alone suggest that objects coexist in the young
cluster NGC6530 with ages from ~1 Myr up to 10 Myrs. We want to derive accurate
stellar parameters and, in particular, stellar ages to be able to constrain a
possible age spread in the star-forming region NGC6530. We used low-resolution
spectra taken with VIMOS@VLT and literature spectra of standard stars to derive
spectral types of a subsample of 94 candidate members of this cluster. We
assign spectral types to 86 of the 88 confirmed cluster members and derive
individual reddenings. Our data are better fitted by the anomalous reddening
law with R=5. We confirm the presence of strong differential
reddening in this region. We derive fundamental stellar parameters, such as
effective temperatures, photospheric colors, luminosities, masses, and ages for
78 members, while for the remaining 8 YSOs we cannot determine the interstellar
absorption, since they are likely accretors, and their V-I colors are bluer
than their intrinsic colors. The cluster members studied in this work have
masses between 0.4 and 4 M and ages between 1-2 Myrs and 6-7 Myrs. We
find that the SE region is the most recent site of star formation, while the
older YSOs are loosely clustered in the N and W regions. The presence of two
distint generations of YSOs with different spatial distribution allows us to
conclude that in this region there is an age spread of ~6-7 Myrs. This is
consistent with the scenario of sequential star formation suggested in
literature.Comment: 23 pages, 16 Postscript figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication
in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Sources of Relativistic Jets in the Galaxy
Black holes of stellar mass and neutron stars in binary systems are first
detected as hard X-ray sources using high-energy space telescopes. Relativistic
jets in some of these compact sources are found by means of multiwavelength
observations with ground-based telescopes. The X-ray emission probes the inner
accretion disk and immediate surroundings of the compact object, whereas the
synchrotron emission from the jets is observed in the radio and infrared bands,
and in the future could be detected at even shorter wavelengths. Black-hole
X-ray binaries with relativistic jets mimic, on a much smaller scale, many of
the phenomena seen in quasars and are thus called microquasars. Because of
their proximity, their study opens the way for a better understanding of the
relativistic jets seen elsewhere in the Universe. From the observation of
two-sided moving jets it is inferred that the ejecta in microquasars move with
relativistic speeds similar to those believed to be present in quasars. The
simultaneous multiwavelength approach to microquasars reveals in short
timescales the close connection between instabilities in the accretion disk
seen in the X-rays, and the ejection of relativistic clouds of plasma observed
as synchrotron emission at longer wavelengths. Besides contributing to a deeper
comprehension of accretion disks and jets, microquasars may serve in the future
to determine the distances of jet sources using constraints from special
relativity, and the spin of black holes using general relativity.Comment: 39 pages, Tex, 8 figures, to appear in vol. 37 (1999) of Annual
Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysic
The chemical composition of nearby young associations: s-process element abundances in AB Doradus, Carina-Near, and Ursa Major
Recently, several studies have shown that young, open clusters are
characterised by a considerable over-abundance in their barium content. In
particular, D'Orazi et al. (2009) reported that in some younger clusters
[Ba/Fe] can reach values as high as ~0.6 dex. The work also identified the
presence of an anti-correlation between [Ba/Fe] and cluster age. For clusters
in the age range ~4.5 Gyr-500 Myr, this is best explained by assuming a higher
contribution from low-mass asymptotic giant branch stars to the Galactic
chemical enrichment. The purpose of this work is to investigate the ubiquity of
the barium over-abundance in young stellar clusters. We analysed
high-resolution spectroscopic data, focusing on the s-process elemental
abundance for three nearby young associations, i.e. AB Doradus, Carina-Near,
and Ursa Major. The clusters have been chosen such that their age spread would
complement the D'Orazi et al. (2009) study. We find that while the s-process
elements Y, Zr, La, and Ce exhibit solar ratios in all three associations, Ba
is over-abundant by ~0.2 dex. Current theoretical models can not reproduce this
abundance pattern, thus we investigate whether this unusually large Ba content
might be related to chromospheric effects. Although no correlation between
[Ba/Fe] and several activity indicators seems to be present, we conclude that
different effects could be at work which may (directly or indirectly) be
related to the presence of hot stellar chromospheres.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Time-Series Photometry of Stars in and around the Lagoon Nebula. I. Rotation Periods of 290 Low-Mass Pre-Main-Sequence Stars in NGC 6530
We have conducted a long-term, wide-field, high-cadence photometric
monitoring survey of ~50,000 stars in the Lagoon Nebula \ion{H}{2} region. This
first paper presents rotation periods for 290 low-mass stars in NGC 6530, the
young cluster illuminating the nebula, and for which we assemble a catalog of
infrared and spectroscopic disk indicators, estimated masses and ages, and
X-ray luminosities. The distribution of rotation periods we measure is broadly
uniform for 0.5 < P < 10 d; the short-period cutoff corresponds to breakup. We
observe no obvious bimodality in the period distribution, but we do find that
stars with disk signatures rotate more slowly on average. The stars' X-ray
luminosities are roughly flat with rotation period, at the saturation level
(). However, we find a significant
positive correlation between and co-rotation radius,
suggesting that the observed X-ray luminosities are regulated by centrifugal
stripping of the stellar coronae. The period-mass relationship in NGC 6530 is
broadly similar to that of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), but the slope of the
relationship among the slowest rotators differs from that in the ONC and other
young clusters. We show that the slope of the period-mass relationship for the
slowest rotators can be used as a proxy for the age of a young cluster, and we
argue that NGC 6530 may be slightly younger than the ONC, making it a
particularly important touchstone for models of angular momentum evolution in
young, low-mass stars.Comment: 28 pages, 18 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ. For a brief
video explaining the key results of this paper, see
http://www.youtube.com/user/OSUAstronomy#p/u/1/WarGh6GiWu
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