126 research outputs found
Direct diameter measurement of a star filling its Roche Lobe: The semi-detached binary SS Leporis spatially resolved with VINCI/VLTI
Stellar evolution in close binary systems is strongly influenced by mass
transfer from one star to the other when one component fills its zero-velocity
surface or Roche Lobe. SS Lep is a fairly nearby close binary showing the Algol
paradox and a shell spectrum, both indicative of (past) mass transfer. To study
the process of mass transfer and its evolutionary consequences, we aim at a
direct characterisation of the spatial dimensions of the different components
of SS Lep with IR interferometry. We use VINCI/VLTI interferometric
observations in the K band and photometric observations from the UV to the
far-IR. The visibilities are interpreted with simple geometrical models and the
Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) is decomposed into the three main
components: A star, M star and dust shell/disk. From the SED, we find that the
main emitters in the K band are the M star and the circumstellar environment.
Both are spatially resolved with the VINCI observations, showing the excess to
be circumbinary and showing the M star to have a size equal to its Roche Lobe.
We conclude that we have, for the first time, directly resolved a star filling
its Roche Lobe. The resulting mass transfer is probably the cause of (1) the
circumbinary dust disk of which we see the hot inner region spatially resolved
in our observations, (2) the unusually high luminosity of the A star and (3)
the shell spectrum seen in the UV and optical spectra.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letters on
26/05/200
Super-Resolution for Computed Tomography Based on Discrete Tomography
In computed tomography (CT), partial volume effects impede accurate segmentation of structures that are small with respect to the pixel size. In this paper, it is shown that for objects consisting of a small number of homogen
The optically bright post-AGB population of the LMC
The detected variety in chemistry and circumstellar shell morphology of the
limited sample of Galactic post-AGB stars is so large that there is no
consensus yet on how the different objects are linked by evolutionary channels.
The evaluation is complicated by the fact that their distances and hence
luminosities remain largely unknown. Via cross-correlation of the Spitzer SAGE
catalogue with optical catalogues we selected a sample of LMC post-AGB
candidates based on their [8]-[24] colour index and estimated luminosity. We
determined the fundamental properties of the central stars of 105 of these
objects using low-resolution, optical spectra that we obtained at Siding Spring
Observatory and SAAO, and constructed a catalogue of 70 high probability and
1337 candidate post-AGB stars that is available at the CDS. The sample forms an
ideal testbed for stellar evolution theory predictions of the final phase of
low- and intermediate-mass stars, because the distance and hence luminosity and
also the current and initial mass of these objects is well constrained. About
half of the objects in our sample of post-AGB candidates show a spectral energy
distribution (SED) that is indicative of a disc rather than an expanding and
cooling AGB remnant. Like in the Galaxy, the disc sources are likely associated
with binary evolution. Important side products of this research are catalogues
of candidate young stellar objects, candidate supergiants with circumstellar
dust, and discarded objects for which a spectrum was obtained. These too are
available at the CDS
Spectroscopic survey of Kepler stars. I. HERMES/Mercator observations of A- and F-type stars
The Kepler space mission provided near-continuous and high-precision photometry of about 207000 stars, which can be used for asteroseismology. However, for successful seismic modeling it is equally important to have accurate stellar physical parameters. Therefore, supplementary ground-based data are needed. We report the results of the analysis of high-resolution spectroscopic data of A- and F-type stars from the Kepler field, which were obtained with the HERMES spectrograph on the Mercator telescope. We determined spectral types, atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances for a sample of 117 stars. Hydrogen Balmer, Fe i, and Fe ii lines were used to derive effective temperatures, surface gravities, and microturbulent velocities. We determined chemical abundances and projected rotational velocities using a spectrum synthesis technique. The atmospheric parameters obtained were compared with those from the Kepler Input Catalogue (KIC), confirming that the KIC effective temperatures are underestimated for A stars. Effective temperatures calculated by spectral energy distribution fitting are in good agreement with those determined from the spectral line analysis. The analysed sample comprises stars with approximately solar chemical abundances, as well as chemically peculiar stars of the Am, Ap, and λBoo types. The distribution of the projected rotational velocity, vsin i, is typical for A and F stars and ranges from 8 to about 280kms−1, with a mean of 134kms−
Atomic super-resolution tomography
We consider the problem of reconstructing a nanocrystal at atomic resolution from electron microscopy images taken at a few tilt angles. A popular reconstruction approach called discrete tomography confines the atom locations to a coarse spatial grid, which is inspired by the physical a priori knowledge that atoms in a crystalline solid tend to form regular lattices. Although this constraint has proven to be powerful for solving this very under-determined inverse problem in many cases, its key limitation is that, in practice, defects may occur that cause atoms to deviate from regular lattice positions. Here we propose a grid-free discrete tomography algorithm that allows for continuous deviations of the atom locations similar to super-resolution approaches for microscopy. The new formulation allows us to define atomic interaction potentials explicitly, which results in a both meaningful and powerful incorporation of the available physical a priori knowledge about the crystal's properties. In computational experiments, we compare the proposed grid-free method to established grid-based approaches and show that our approach can indeed recover the atom positions more accurately for common lattice defects
Infrared composition of the Large Magellanic Cloud
The evolution of galaxies and the history of star formation in the Universe
are among the most important topics in today's astrophysics. Especially, the
role of small, irregular galaxies in the star-formation history of the Universe
is not yet clear. Using the data from the AKARI IRC survey of the Large
Magellanic Cloud at 3.2, 7, 11, 15, and 24 {\mu}m wavelengths, i.e., at the
mid- and near-infrared, we have constructed a multiwavelength catalog
containing data from a cross-correlation with a number of other databases at
different wavelengths. We present the separation of different classes of stars
in the LMC in color-color, and color-magnitude, diagrams, and analyze their
contribution to the total LMC flux, related to point sources at different
infrared wavelengths
Spectroscopic survey of Kepler stars. I. HERMES/Mercator observations of A- and F-type stars
The Kepler space mission provided near-continuous and high-precision photometry of about 207 000 stars, which can be used for asteroseismology. However, for successful seismic modeling it is equally important to have accurate stellar physical parameters. Therefore, supplementary ground-based data are needed. We report the results of the analysis of high-resolution spectroscopic data of A- and F-type stars from the Kepler field, which were obtained with the HERMES spectrograph on the Mercator telescope. We determined spectral types, atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances for a sample of 117 stars. Hydrogen Balmer, Fe i, and Fe ii lines were used to derive effective temperatures, surface gravities, and microturbulent velocities. We determined chemical abundances and projected rotational velocities using a spectrum synthesis technique. The atmospheric parameters obtained were compared with those from the Kepler Input Catalogue (KIC), confirming that the KIC effective temperatures are underestimated for A stars. Effective temperatures calculated by spectral energy distribution fitting are in good agreement with those determined from the spectral line analysis. The analysed sample comprises stars with approximately solar chemical abundances, as well as chemically peculiar stars of the Am, Ap, and λ Boo types. The distribution of the projected rotational velocity, vsin i, is typical for A and F stars and ranges from 8 to about 280 km s−1, with a mean of 134 km s−1
Atomic super-resolution tomography
We consider the problem of reconstructing a nanocrystal at atomic resolution from electron microscopy images taken at a few tilt angles. A popular reconstruction approach called discrete tomography confines the atom locations to a coarse spatial grid, which is inspired by the physical a priori knowledge that atoms in a crystalline solid tend to form regular lattices. Although this constraint has proven to b
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