24 research outputs found
No surviving evolved companions to the progenitor of supernova SN 1006
Type Ia supernovae are thought to occur as a white dwarf made of carbon and
oxygen accretes sufficient mass to trigger a thermonuclear explosion. The
accretion could occur slowly from an unevolved (main-sequence) or evolved
(subgiant or giant) star, that being dubbed the single-degenerate
channel, or rapidly as it breaks up a smaller orbiting white dwarf (the double-
degenerate channel). Obviously, a companion will survive the explosion
only in the single-degenerate channel. Both channels might contribute to
the production of type Ia supernovae but their relative proportions
still remain a fundamental puzzle in astronomy. Previous searches for remnant
companions have revealed one possible case for SN 1572, though that has
been criticized. More recently, observations have restricted surviving
companions to be small, main-sequence stars, ruling out giant
companions, though still allowing the single-degenerate channel. Here we report
the result of a search for surviving companions to the progenitor of SN
1006. None of the stars within 4' of the apparent site of the explosion
is associated with the supernova remnant, so we can firmly exclude all giant
and subgiant companions to the progenitor. Combined with the previous results,
less than 20 per cent of type Iae occur through the single degenerate channel.Comment: Published as a letter in Nature (2012 September 27
No surviving companion in Kepler's supernova
We have surveyed Kepler's supernova remnant in search of the companion star
of the explosion. We have gone as deep as 2.6 solar luminosities in the stars
within 20% of the radius of the remnant. We use FLAMES at the VLT-UT2 telescope
to obtain high resolution spectra of the stellar candidates selected from HST
images. The resulting set of stellar parameters suggests that these stars come
from a rather ordinary mixture of field stars (mostly giants). A few of the
stars seem to have low [Fe/H] (< -1) and they are consistent with being
metal-poor giants. The radial velocities and rotational velocities vrot sin i
are very well determined. There are no fast rotating stars as vrot sin i < 20
km/s. The radial velocities from the spectra and the proper motions determined
from HST images are compatible with those expected from the Besan\c{c}on model
of the Galaxy. The strong limits placed on luminosity suggest that this
supernova could have arisen either from the core-degenerate scenario or from
the double-degenerate scenario.Comment: ApJ accepted, 7 figures and 7 table
Chemical Abundances in the Secondary Star in the Black Hole Binary A0620-00
Using a high resolution spectrum of the secondary star in the black hole
binary A0620-00, we have derived the stellar parameters and veiling caused by
the accretion disk in a consistent way. We have used a chi^2 minimization
procedure to explore a grid of 800 000 LTE synthetic spectra computed for a
plausible range of both stellar and veiling parameters. Adopting the best model
parameters found, we have determined atmospheric abundances of Fe, Ca, Ti, Ni
and Al. The Fe abundance of the star is [Fe/H]=0.14 +- 0.20. Except for Ca, we
found the other elements moderately over-abundant as compared with stars in the
solar neighborhood of similar iron content. Taking into account the small
orbital separation, the mass transfer rate and the mass of the convection zone
of the secondary star, a comparison with element yields in supernova explosion
models suggests a possible explosive event with a mass cut comparable to the
current mass of the compact object. We have also analyzed the Li abundance,
which is unusually high for a star of this spectral type and relatively low
mass.Comment: 32 pages, 5 tables and 11 figures, uses rotate.st
HARPS3 for a Roboticized Isaac Newton Telescope
We present a description of a new instrument development, HARPS3, planned to
be installed on an upgraded and roboticized Isaac Newton Telescope by end-2018.
HARPS3 will be a high resolution (R = 115,000) echelle spectrograph with a
wavelength range from 380-690 nm. It is being built as part of the Terra
Hunting Experiment - a future 10 year radial velocity measurement programme to
discover Earth-like exoplanets. The instrument design is based on the
successful HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6m ESO telescope and HARPS-N on the TNG
telescope. The main changes to the design in HARPS3 will be: a customised fibre
adapter at the Cassegrain focus providing a stabilised beam feed and on-sky
fibre diameter ~ 1.4 arcsec, the implementation of a new continuous flow
cryostat to keep the CCD temperature very stable, detailed characterisation of
the HARPS3 CCD to map the effective pixel positions and thus provide an
improved accuracy wavelength solution, an optimised integrated polarimeter and
the instrument integrated into a robotic operation. The robotic operation will
optimise our programme which requires our target stars to be measured on a
nightly basis. We present an overview of the entire project, including a
description of our anticipated robotic operation.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, SPIE conference proceeding
A Cautionary Tale: MARVELS Brown Dwarf Candidate Reveals Itself To Be A Very Long Period, Highly Eccentric Spectroscopic Stellar Binary
We report the discovery of a highly eccentric, double-lined spectroscopic
binary star system (TYC 3010-1494-1), comprising two solar-type stars that we
had initially identified as a single star with a brown dwarf companion. At the
moderate resolving power of the MARVELS spectrograph and the spectrographs used
for subsequent radial-velocity (RV) measurements (R ~ <30,000), this particular
stellar binary mimics a single-lined binary with an RV signal that would be
induced by a brown dwarf companion (Msin(i)~50 M_Jup) to a solar-type primary.
At least three properties of this system allow it to masquerade as a single
star with a very low-mass companion: its large eccentricity (e~0.8), its
relatively long period (P~238 days), and the approximately perpendicular
orientation of the semi-major axis with respect to the line of sight (omega~189
degrees). As a result of these properties, for ~95% of the orbit the two sets
of stellar spectral lines are completely blended, and the RV measurements based
on centroiding on the apparently single-lined spectrum is very well fit by an
orbit solution indicative of a brown dwarf companion on a more circular orbit
(e~0.3). Only during the ~5% of the orbit near periastron passage does the
true, double-lined nature and large RV amplitude of ~15 km/s reveal itself. The
discovery of this binary system is an important lesson for RV surveys searching
for substellar companions; at a given resolution and observing cadence, a
survey will be susceptible to these kinds of astrophysical false positives for
a range of orbital parameters. Finally, for surveys like MARVELS that lack the
resolution for a useful line bisector analysis, it is imperative to monitor the
peak of the cross-correlation function for suspicious changes in width or
shape, so that such false positives can be flagged during the candidate vetting
process.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 6 table
MARVELS-1: A face-on double-lined binary star masquerading as a resonant planetary system; and consideration of rare false positives in radial velocity planet searches
We have analyzed new and previously published radial velocity observations of
MARVELS-1, known to have an ostensibly substellar companion in a ~6- day orbit.
We find significant (~100 m/s) residuals to the best-fit model for the
companion, and these residuals are naively consistent with an interior giant
planet with a P = 1.965d in a nearly perfect 3:1 period commensuribility
(|Pb/Pc - 3| < 10^{-4}). We have performed several tests for the reality of
such a companion, including a dynamical analysis, a search for photometric
variability, and a hunt for contaminating stellar spectra. We find many reasons
to be critical of a planetary interpretation, including the fact that most of
the three-body dynamical solutions are unstable. We find no evidence for
transits, and no evidence of stellar photometric variability. We have
discovered two apparent companions to MARVELS-1 with adaptive optics imaging at
Keck; both are M dwarfs, one is likely bound, and the other is likely a
foreground object. We explore false-alarm scenarios inspired by various
curiosities in the data. Ultimately, a line profile and bisector analysis lead
us to conclude that the ~100 m/s residuals are an artifact of spectral
contamination from a stellar companion contributing ~15-30% of the optical
light in the system. We conclude that origin of this contamination is the
previously detected radial velocity companion to MARVELS-1, which is not, as
previously reported, a brown dwarf, but in fact a G dwarf in a face-on orbit.Comment: ApJ 770, 119. 24 pp emulate ApJ style, 12 figures (One is very
large). v2: corrects two (important!) errors: A priori chance of this
alignment or worse is 0.1% (not 0.01%) and the primary has THREE total
companions (not four
Very Low-Mass Stellar and Substellar Companions to Solar-Like Stars from MARVELS I: A Low Mass Ratio Stellar Companion to TYC 4110-01037-1 in a 79-day Orbit
TYC 4110-01037-1 has a low-mass stellar companion, whose small mass ratio and
short orbital period are atypical amongst solar-like (Teff ~< 6000 K) binary
systems. Our analysis of TYC 4110-01037-1 reveals it to be a moderately aged
(~<5 Gyr) solar-like star having a mass of 1.07 +/- 0.08 MSun and radius of
0.99 +/- 0.18 RSun. We analyze 32 radial velocity measurements from the
SDSS-III MARVELS survey as well as 6 supporting radial velocity measurements
from the SARG spectrograph on the 3.6m TNG telescope obtained over a period of
~2 years. The best Keplerian orbital fit parameters were found to have a period
of 78.994 +/- 0.012 days, an eccentricity of 0.1095 +/- 0.0023, and a
semi-amplitude of 4199 +/- 11 m/s. We determine the minimum companion mass (if
sin i = 1) to be 97.7 +/- 5.8 MJup. The system's companion to host star mass
ratio, >0.087 +/- 0.003, places it at the lowest end of observed values for
short period stellar companions to solar-like (Teff ~< 6000 K) stars. One
possible way to create such a system would be if a triple-component stellar
multiple broke up into a short period, low q binary during the cluster
dispersal phase of its lifetime. A candidate tertiary body has been identified
in the system via single-epoch, high contrast imagery. If this object is
confirmed to be co-moving, we estimate it would be a dM4 star. We present these
results in the context of our larger-scale effort to constrain the statistics
of low mass stellar and brown dwarf companions to FGK-type stars via the
MARVELS survey.Comment: 22 pages; accepted in A
The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment
The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in
operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from
this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release
Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first
two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14
is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all
data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14
is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation
Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the
Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2),
including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine
learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes
from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous
release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of
the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the
important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both
targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS
website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to
data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is
planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be
followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14
happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov
2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections
only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected
Ground-breaking Exoplanet Science with the ANDES spectrograph at the ELT
In the past decade the study of exoplanet atmospheres at high-spectral
resolution, via transmission/emission spectroscopy and cross-correlation
techniques for atomic/molecular mapping, has become a powerful and consolidated
methodology. The current limitation is the signal-to-noise ratio during a
planetary transit. This limitation will be overcome by ANDES, an optical and
near-infrared high-resolution spectrograph for the ELT. ANDES will be a
powerful transformational instrument for exoplanet science. It will enable the
study of giant planet atmospheres, allowing not only an exquisite determination
of atmospheric composition, but also the study of isotopic compositions,
dynamics and weather patterns, mapping the planetary atmospheres and probing
atmospheric formation and evolution models. The unprecedented angular
resolution of ANDES, will also allow us to explore the initial conditions in
which planets form in proto-planetary disks. The main science case of ANDES,
however, is the study of small, rocky exoplanet atmospheres, including the
potential for biomarker detections, and the ability to reach this science case
is driving its instrumental design. Here we discuss our simulations and the
observing strategies to achieve this specific science goal. Since ANDES will be
operational at the same time as NASA's JWST and ESA's ARIEL missions, it will
provide enormous synergies in the characterization of planetary atmospheres at
high and low spectral resolution. Moreover, ANDES will be able to probe for the
first time the atmospheres of several giant and small planets in reflected
light. In particular, we show how ANDES will be able to unlock the reflected
light atmospheric signal of a golden sample of nearby non-transiting habitable
zone earth-sized planets within a few tenths of nights, a scientific objective
that no other currently approved astronomical facility will be able to reach.Comment: 66 pages (103 with references) 20 figures. Submitted to Experimental
Astronom