102 research outputs found
Periodic optical variability and debris accretion in white dwarfs: a test for a causal connection
Recent Kepler photometry has revealed that about half of white dwarfs (WDs)
have periodic, low-level (~ 1e-4 - 1e-3), optical variations. Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) ultraviolet spectroscopy has shown that up to about one half of
WDs are actively accreting rocky planetary debris, as evidenced by the presence
of photospheric metal absorption lines. We have obtained HST ultraviolet
spectra of seven WDs that have been monitored for periodic variations, to test
the hypothesis that these two phenomena are causally connected, i.e. that the
optical periodic modulation is caused by WD rotation coupled with an
inhomogeneous surface distribution of accreted metals. We detect photospheric
metals in four out of the seven WDs. However, we find no significant
correspondence between the existence of optical periodic variability and the
detection of photospheric ultraviolet absorption lines. Thus the null
hypothesis stands, that the two phenomena are not directly related. Some other
source of WD surface inhomogeneity, perhaps related to magnetic field strength,
combined with the WD rotation, or alternatively effects due to close binary
companions, may be behind the observed optical modulation. We report the
marginal detection of molecular hydrogen in WD J1949+4734, only the fourth
known WD with detected H_2 lines. We also re-classify J1926+4219 as a
carbon-rich He-sdO subdwarf.Comment: MNRAS, in pres
New Pulsating DB White Dwarf Stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
We are searching for new He atmosphere white dwarf pulsators (DBVs) based on
the newly found white dwarf stars from the spectra obtained by the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey. DBVs pulsate at hotter temperature ranges than their better
known cousins, the H atmosphere white dwarf pulsators (DAVs or ZZ Ceti stars).
Since the evolution of white dwarf stars is characterized by cooling,
asteroseismological studies of DBVs give us opportunities to study white dwarf
structure at a different evolutionary stage than the DAVs. The hottest DBVs are
thought to have neutrino luminosities exceeding their photon luminosities
(Winget et al. 2004), a quantity measurable through asteroseismology.
Therefore, they can also be used to study neutrino physics in the stellar
interior. So far we have discovered nine new DBVs, doubling the number of
previously known DBVs. Here we report the new pulsators' lightcurves and power
spectra.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables, ApJ accepte
Measuring Transit Signal Recovery in the Kepler Pipeline. III. Completeness of the Q1-Q17 DR24 Planet Candidate Catalogue, with Important Caveats for Occurrence Rate Calculations
With each new version of the Kepler pipeline and resulting planet candidate
catalogue, an updated measurement of the underlying planet population can only
be recovered with an corresponding measurement of the Kepler pipeline detection
efficiency. Here, we present measurements of the sensitivity of the pipeline
(version 9.2) used to generate the Q1-Q17 DR24 planet candidate catalog
(Coughlin et al. 2016). We measure this by injecting simulated transiting
planets into the pixel-level data of 159,013 targets across the entire Kepler
focal plane, and examining the recovery rate. Unlike previous versions of the
Kepler pipeline, we find a strong period dependence in the measured detection
efficiency, with longer (>40 day) periods having a significantly lower
detectability than shorter periods, introduced in part by an incorrectly
implemented veto. Consequently, the sensitivity of the 9.2 pipeline cannot be
cast as a simple one-dimensional function of the signal strength of the
candidate planet signal as was possible for previous versions of the pipeline.
We report on the implications for occurrence rate calculations based on the
Q1-Q17 DR24 planet candidate catalog and offer important caveats and
recommendations for performing such calculations. As before, we make available
the entire table of injected planet parameters and whether they were recovered
by the pipeline, enabling readers to derive the pipeline detection sensitivity
in the planet and/or stellar parameter space of their choice.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, full electronic version of Table 1 available at
the NASA Exoplanet Archive; accepted by ApJ May 2nd, 201
The K2 Mission: Characterization and Early results
The K2 mission will make use of the Kepler spacecraft and its assets to
expand upon Kepler's groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of exoplanets and
astrophysics through new and exciting observations. K2 will use an innovative
way of operating the spacecraft to observe target fields along the ecliptic for
the next 2-3 years. Early science commissioning observations have shown an
estimated photometric precision near 400 ppm in a single 30 minute observation,
and a 6-hour photometric precision of 80 ppm (both at V=12). The K2 mission
offers long-term, simultaneous optical observation of thousands of objects at a
precision far better than is achievable from ground-based telescopes. Ecliptic
fields will be observed for approximately 75-days enabling a unique exoplanet
survey which fills the gaps in duration and sensitivity between the Kepler and
TESS missions, and offers pre-launch exoplanet target identification for JWST
transit spectroscopy. Astrophysics observations with K2 will include studies of
young open clusters, bright stars, galaxies, supernovae, and asteroseismology.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, Accepted to PAS
Precision asteroseismology of the pulsating white dwarf GD 1212 using a two-wheel-controlled Kepler spacecraft
We present a preliminary analysis of the cool pulsating white dwarf GD 1212,
enabled by more than 11.5 days of space-based photometry obtained during an
engineering test of the two-reaction-wheel-controlled Kepler spacecraft. We
detect at least 19 independent pulsation modes, ranging from 828.2-1220.8 s,
and at least 17 nonlinear combination frequencies of those independent
pulsations. Our longest uninterrupted light curve, 9.0 days in length,
evidences coherent difference frequencies at periods inaccessible from the
ground, up to 14.5 hr, the longest-period signals ever detected in a pulsating
white dwarf. These results mark some of the first science to come from a
two-wheel-controlled Kepler spacecraft, proving the capability for
unprecedented discoveries afforded by extending Kepler observations to the
ecliptic.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
A Machine Learning Technique to Identify Transit Shaped Signals
We describe a new metric that uses machine learning to determine if a periodic signal found in a photometric time series appears to be shaped like the signature of a transiting exoplanet. This metric uses dimensionality reduction and k-nearest neighbors to determine whether a given signal is sufficiently similar to known transits in the same data set. This metric is being used by the Kepler Robovetter to determine which signals should be part of the Q1–Q17 DR24 catalog of planetary candidates. The Kepler Mission reports roughly 20,000 potential transiting signals with each run of its pipeline, yet only a few thousand appear to be sufficiently transit shaped to be part of the catalog. The other signals tend to be variable stars and instrumental noise. With this metric, we are able to remove more than 90% of the non-transiting signals while retaining more than 99% of the known planet candidates. When tested with injected transits, less than 1% are lost. This metric will enable the Kepler mission and future missions looking for transiting planets to rapidly and consistently find the best planetary candidates for follow-up and cataloging
Investigating the properties of granulation in the red giants observed by Kepler
More than 1000 red giants have been observed by NASA/Kepler mission during a
nearly continuous period of ~ 13 months. The resulting high-frequency
resolution (< 0.03 muHz) allows us to study the granulation parameters of these
stars. The granulation pattern results from the convection motions leading to
upward flows of hot plasma and downward flows of cooler plasma. We fitted
Harvey-like functions to the power spectra, to retrieve the timescale and
amplitude of granulation. We show that there is an anti-correlation between
both of these parameters and the position of maximum power of acoustic modes,
while we also find a correlation with the radius, which agrees with the theory.
We finally compare our results with 3D models of the convection.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the ASP proceedings of "The 61st
Fujihara seminar: Progress in solar/stellar physics with helio- and
asteroseismology", 13th-17th March 2011, Hakone, Japa
Contamination in the Kepler Field. Identification of 685 KOIs as False Positives Via Ephemeris Matching Based On Q1-Q12 Data
The Kepler mission has to date found almost 6000 planetary transit-like signals, utilizing three years of data for over 170,000 stars at extremely high photometric precision. Due to its design, contamination from eclipsing binaries, variable stars, and other transiting planets results in a significant number of these signals being false positives (FPs). This directly affects the determination of the occurrence rate of Earth-like planets in our Galaxy, as well as other planet population statistics. In order to detect as many of these FPs as possible, we perform ephemeris matching among all transiting planet, eclipsing binary, and variable star sources. We find that 685 Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs)—12% of all those analyzed—are FPs as a result of contamination, due to 409 unique parent sources. Of these, 118 have not previously been identified by other methods. We estimate that ~35% of KOIs are FPs due to contamination, when performing a first-order correction for observational bias. Comparing single-planet candidate KOIs to multi-planet candidate KOIs, we find an observed FP fraction due to contamination of 16% and 2.4% respectively, bolstering the existing evidence that multi-planet KOIs are significantly less likely to be FPs. We also analyze the parameter distributions of the ephemeris matches and derive a simple model for the most common type of contamination in the Kepler field. We find that the ephemeris matching technique is able to identify low signal-to-noise FPs that are difficult to identify with other vetting techniques. We expect FP KOIs to become more frequent when analyzing more quarters of Kepler data, and note that many of them will not be able to be identified based on Kepler data alone
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