255 research outputs found
DENIS-P J104814.7-395606.1: An M9 dwarfs at about 4 pc
We present the discovery of a previously unknown member of the immediate
solar neighbourhood, DENIS-P J104814.7-395606.1 (hereafter DENIS 1048-39),
identified while mining the DENIS database for new nearby stars. A HIRES
echelle spectrum obtained with the 10-m Keck telescope shows that it is an M9
dwarf. DENIS 1048-39 has a very bright apparent magnitude (I=12.67) for its
spectral type and colour (I-J=3.07), and is therefore very nearby. If it is
single its distance is only 4.1 +- 0.6pc, ranking it as between our twelfth and
fortyth closest neighbour. It is also the closest star or brown dwarf with a
spectral type later than M7V. Its proper motion was determined through
comparison of Sky atlas Schmidt plates, scanned by the MAMA microdensitometer,
with the DENIS images. At 1.53"/yr it further attests the closeness of DENIS
1048-39, and hence its dwarf status. These characteristics make it an obvious
target for further detailed studies.Comment: In press in A&A Letter
BVRIJK light curves and radial velocity curves for selected Magellanic Cloud Cepheids
We present high precision and well sampled BVRIJK light curves and radial
velocity curves for a sample of five Cepheids in the SMC. In addition we
present radial velocity curves for three Cepheids in the LMC. The low
metallicity (Fe/H ~ -0.7) SMC stars have been selected for use in a
Baade-Wesselink type analysis to constrain the metallicity effect on the
Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation. The stars have periods of around 15 days so
they are similar to the Cepheids observed by the Extragalactic Distance Scale
Key Project on the Hubble Space Telescope. We show that the stars are
representative of the SMC Cepheid population at that period and thus will
provide a good sample for the proposed analysis. The actual Baade-Wesselink
analysis are presented in a companion paper.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 23 pages, 10 figures, data tables
will be made available electronically from the CD
Using Galactic Cepheids to verify Gaia parallaxes
Context. The Gaia satellite will measure highly accurate absolute parallaxes
of hundreds of millions of stars by comparing the parallactic displacements in
the two fields of view of the optical instrument. The requirements on the
stability of the 'basic angle' between the two fields are correspondingly
strict, and possible variations (on the microarcsec level) are therefore
monitored by an on-board metrology system. Nevertheless, since even very small
periodic variations of the basic angle might cause a global offset of the
measured parallaxes, it is important to find independent verification methods.
Aims. We investigate the potential use of Galactic Cepheids as standard candles
for verifying the Gaia parallax zero point. Methods. We simulate the complete
population of Galactic Cepheids and their observations by Gaia. Using the
simulated data, simultaneous fits are made of the parameters of the
period-luminosity relation and a global parallax zero point. Results. The total
number of Galactic Cepheids is estimated at about 20 000, of which nearly half
could be observed by Gaia. In the most favourable circumstances, including
negligible intrinsic scatter and extinction errors, the determined parallax
zero point has an uncertainty of 0.2 microarcsec. With more realistic
assumptions the uncertainty is several times larger, and the result is very
sensitive to errors in the applied extinction corrections. Conclusions. The use
of Galactic Cepheids alone will not be sufficient to determine a possible
parallax zero-point error to the full potential systematic accuracy of Gaia.
The global verification of Gaia parallaxes will most likely depend on a
combination of many different methods, including this one.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
A neutral hydrogen survey of polar ring galaxies IV. Parkes observations
A total of 33 polar ring galaxies and polar ring galaxy candidates were
observed in the 21-cm HI line with the 64-m Parkes radio telescope. The
objects, selected by their optical morphology, are all south of declination -39
degrees and in only 5 of them HI had been reported previously. HI line emission
was detected towards 18 objects, though in 3 cases the detection may be
confused by another galaxy in the telescope beam, and one is a marginal
detection. Eight objects were detected for the first time in HI, of which 5 did
not have previously known redshifts.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics, 12/2/2002; new references
added on 20/2/200
A Catalog of OB Associations in the spiral galaxy NGC 300
We present results of a search for OB associations in NGC 300. Using an
automatic and objective method (PLC technique) 117 objects were found.
Statistical tests indicate that our sample is contaminated by less than 10 % of
spurious detections due to random concentrations of blue stars. Spatial
distributions of detected associations and H II regions are strongly
correlated. The size distribution reveals a significant peak at about 60
rad which corresponds to 125 parsecs if a distance modulus of 26.66 mag is
assumed. Besides the objects with sizes corresponding to typical associations
we also found several much larger objects. A second level application of our
detection method revealed that most of these are composed of smaller subgroups,
with sizes of about 100 pc.Comment: 9 pages, Latex, 5 Figures, Appendix (two pages, maps of 6 typical
associations in NGC 300 and map of one potential stellar complex in NGC 300).
Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
New Baade-Wesselink distances and radii for four metal-rich Galactic Cepheids
We provided accurate estimates of distances, radii and iron abundances for
four metal-rich Cepheids, namely V340 Ara, UZ Sct, AV Sgr and VY Sgr. The main
aim of this investigation is to constrain their pulsation properties and their
location across the Galactic inner disk. We adopted new accurate NIR (J,H,K)
light curves and new radial velocity measurements for the target Cepheids to
determinate their distances and radii using the Baade-Wesselink technique. In
particular, we adopted the most recent calibration of the IR surface brightness
relation and of the projection factor. Moreover, we also provided accurate
measurements of the iron abundance of the target Cepheids. Current distance
estimates agree within one sigma with similar distances based either on
empirical or on theoretical NIR Period-Luminosity relations. However, the
uncertainties of the Baade-Wesselink distances are on average a factor of 3-4
smaller when compared with errors affecting other distance determinations. Mean
Baade-Wesselink radii also agree at one sigma level with Cepheid radii based
either on empirical or on theoretical Period-Radius relations. Iron abundances
are, within one sigma, similar to the iron contents provided by Andrievsky and
collaborators, thus confirming the super metal-rich nature of the target
Cepheids. We also found that the luminosity amplitudes of classical Cepheids,
at odds with RR Lyrae stars, do not show a clear correlation with the
metal-content. This circumstantial evidence appears to be the consequence of
the Hertzsprung progression together with the dependence of the topology of the
instability strip on metallicity, evolutionary effects and binaries.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, A&A accepte
Constraining atmospheric parameters and surface magnetic fields with : an application to SPIRou spectra
We report first results on a method aimed at simultaneously characterising
atmospheric parameters and magnetic properties of M dwarfs from high-resolution
nIR spectra recorded with SPIRou in the framework of the SPIRou Legacy Survey.
Our analysis relies on fitting synthetic spectra computed from MARCS model
atmospheres to selected spectral lines, both sensitive and insensitive to
magnetic fields. We introduce a new code, , obtained by
including the Zeeman effect and polarised radiative transfer capabilities to
. We compute a grid of synthetic spectra with
for different magnetic field strengths and develop a
process to simultaneously constrain , , [M/H],
[/Fe] and the average surface magnetic flux. In this paper, we present
our approach and assess its performance using simulations, before applying it
to six targets observed in the context of the SPIRou Legacy Survey (SLS),
namely AU Mic, EV Lac, AD Leo, CN Leo, PM J18482+0741, and DS Leo. Our method
allows us to retrieve atmospheric parameters in good agreement with the
literature, and simultaneously yields surface magnetic fluxes in the range 2-4
kG with a typical precision of 0.05 kG, in agreement with literature estimates,
and consistent with the saturated dynamo regime in which most of these stars
are.Comment: 17 pages plus supplementary material. Accepted for publication in
MNRA
On the metallicity gradient of the Galactic disk
Aims: The iron abundance gradient in the Galactic stellar disk provides
fundamental constraints on the chemical evolution of this important Galaxy
component. However the spread around the mean slope is, at fixed Galactocentric
distance, larger than estimated uncertainties. Methods: To provide quantitative
constraints on these trends we adopted iron abundances for 265 classical
Cepheids (more than 50% of the currently known sample) based either on
high-resolution spectra or on photometric metallicity indices. Homogeneous
distances were estimated using near-infrared Period-Luminosity relations. The
sample covers the four disk quadrants and their Galactocentric distances range
from ~5 to ~17 kpc. Results: A linear regression over the entire sample
provides an iron gradient of -0.051+/-0.004 dex/kpc. The above slope agrees
quite well, within the errors, with previous estimates based either on Cepheids
or on open clusters covering similar Galactocentric distances. However, once we
split the sample in inner (Rg < 8 kpc) and outer disk Cepheids we found that
the slope (-0.130+/-0.015 dex/kpc) in the former region is ~3 times steeper
than the slope in the latter one (-0.042+/-0.004 dex/kpc). We found that in the
outer disk the radial distribution of metal-poor (MP, [Fe/H]<-0.02 dex) and
metal-rich (MR) Cepheids across the four disk quadrants does not show a clear
trend when moving from the innermost to the external disk regions. We also
found that the relative fractions of MP and MR Cepheids in the 1st and in the
3rd quadrant differ at 8 sigma (MP) and 15 sigma (MR) level.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, A&A accepte
Observation of periodic variable stars towards the galactic spiral arms by EROS II
We present the results of a massive variability search based on a photometric
survey of a six square degree region along the Galactic plane at (, ) and (, ). This
survey was performed in the framework of the EROS II (Exp\'erience de Recherche
d'Objets Sombres) microlensing program. The variable stars were found among
1,913,576 stars that were monitored between April and June 1998 in two
passbands, with an average of 60 measurements. A new period-search technique is
proposed which makes use of a statistical variable that characterizes the
overall regularity of the flux versus phase diagram. This method is well suited
when the photometric data are unevenly distributed in time, as is our case.
1,362 objects whose luminosity varies were selected. Among them we identified 9
Cepheids, 19 RR Lyrae, 34 Miras, 176 eclipsing binaries and 266 Semi-Regular
stars. Most of them are newly identified objects. The cross-identification with
known catalogues has been performed. The mean distance of the RR Lyrae is
estimated to be kpc undergoing an average absorption of
magnitudes. This distance is in good agreement with the one
of disc stars which contribute to the microlensing source star population.Our
catalogue and light curves are available electronically from the CDS,
Strasbourg and from our Web site http://eros.in2p3.fr.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted in A&A (april 2002
New neighbours: V. 35 DENIS late-M dwarfs between 10 and 30 parsecs
This paper reports updated results on our systematic mining of the DENIS
database for nearby very cool M-dwarfs (M6V-M8V, 2.0<I-J<3.0, photometric
distance within 30 pc), We calibrate the DENIS (M_I, I-J) colour-luminosity
relationship from M dwarfs with well measured parallaxes (HIP, GCTP,...),
obtaining distance errors for single dwarfs of 25%. Using proper motions
measured on archive Schmidt plates for stars that meet the photometric
selection criteria, we eliminate the giants by a Reduced Proper Motion cutoff,
which is significantly more selective than a simple proper motion cutoff.
Here we present new data for 62 red dwarf candidates selected over 5700
square degrees in the DENIS database. 26 of those originate in the 2100 square
degrees analysed in Paper I, with improved parameters here, and 36 were found
in 3600 additional square degrees. 25 of those are new nearby dwarfs. We
determine from that sample of 62 stars a stellar density for 12.0<M_I<14.0 of
2.2(+-0.4)E-3 stars/pc^3/mag. This value is consistent with photometric
luminosity functions measured from deeper and smaller-field observations, but
not with the nearby star luminosity function. In addition we cross-identified
the NLTT and DENIS catalogues to find 15 similar stars, in parts of the sky not
yet covered by the colour-selected search.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy & astrophysics. 17 pages, 8 figure
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