Epitaxial undoped indium oxide thin films: Structural and physical properties.

Indium oxide thin films were grown by the pulsed electron beam deposition method on c-cut sapphire substrates at 10−2 mbar oxygen pressure and temperature up to 500 1C. Such conditions lead to the formation of dense, smooth and stoichiometric In2O3 films, with the cubic bixbyite structure. Epitaxial thin films were obtained at substrate temperatures as low as 200 1C. Pole figure measurements indicate the existence of (111) oriented In2O3 crystallites with different in-plane symmetry, i.e. three-fold and six-fold symmetry. The origin of this effect may be related to the specificities of the growth method which can induce a large disorder in the oxygen network of In2O3, leading then to a six-fold symmetry in the (111) plane of the bixbyite structure. This temperature resistivity behaviour shows metallic conductivity at room temperature and a metal– semiconductor transition at low temperature for In2O3 films grown at 200 1C, while the classical semiconductor behaviour was observed for the films grown at 400 and 500 1C. A maximum mobility of 24.7 cm2/V s was measured at 200 1C, and then it falls off with improving the crystalline quality of films. The optical transparency is high (480%) in a spectral range from 500 nm to 900 nm

NLTE spectroscopic analysis of the 3^3He anomaly in subluminous B-type stars

Several B-type main-sequence stars show chemical peculiarities. A particularly striking class are the $^3$He stars, which exhibit a remarkable enrichment of $^3$He with respect to $^4$He. This isotopic anomaly has also been found in blue horizontal branch (BHB) and subdwarf B (sdB) stars, which are helium-core burning stars of the extreme horizontal branch. Using a hybrid local/non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE/NLTE) approach for B-type stars, we analyzed high-quality spectra of two known $^3$He BHBs and nine known $^3$He sdBs to determine their isotopic helium abundances and $^4$He/$^3$He abundance ratios. We redetermined their atmospheric parameters and analyzed selected neutral helium lines, including $\lambda$4922 $\mathring{A}$ and $\lambda$6678 $\mathring{A}$, which are very sensitive to $^4$He/$^3$He. Most of the $^3$He sdBs cluster in a narrow temperature strip between 26000 K and 30000 K and are helium deficient in accordance with previous LTE analyses. BD+48$^\circ$ 2721 is reclassified as a BHB star because of its low temperature ($T_{\mathrm{eff}}=$ 20700 K). Whereas $^4$He is almost absent ($^4$He/$^3$He$<$ 0.25) in most of the known $^3$He stars, other sample stars show abundance ratios up to $^4$He/$^3$He$=$2.51. A search for $^3$He stars in the ESO SPY survey led to the discovery of two new $^3$He sdB stars (HE 0929-0424 and HE 1047-0436). The observed helium line profiles of all BHBs and of three sdBs are not matched by chemically homogeneous atmospheres, but hint at vertical helium stratification. This phenomenon has been seen in other peculiar B-type stars, but is found for the first time for sdBs. We estimate helium to increase from the outer to the inner atmosphere by factors ranging from 1.4 (SB 290) up to 8.0 (BD+48$^\circ$ 2721).Comment: 19 pages, 79 figures submitted to Astronomy&Astrophysic

The mass ratio and the orbital parameters of the sdOB binary AA Doradus

The time sequence of 105 spectra covering one full orbital period of AA Dor has been analyzed. Direct determination of Vsini for the sdOB component from 97 spectra outside of the eclipse for the lines MgII 4481 A and SiIV 4089 A clearly indicated a substantially smaller value than estimated before. Detailed modelling of line profile variations for 8 spectra during the eclipse for the MgII 4481 A line, combined with the out-of-eclipse fits, gave Vsini = 31.8+/-1.8 km/s. The previous determinations of Vsini, based on the HeII 4686 A line, appear to be invalid because of the large natural broadening of the line. With the assumption of the solid-body, synchronous rotation of the sdOB primary, the measured values of the semi-amplitude K1 and Vsini lead to the mass ratio q = 0.213+/-0.013 which in turn gives K2 and thus the masses and radii of both components. The sdOB component appears to be less massive than assumed before, M1 = 0.25+/-0.05 Msol, but the secondary has its mass-radius parameters close to theoretically predicted for a brown dwarf, M2 = 0.054+/-0.010 Msol and R2 = 0.089+/-0.005 Rsol. Our results do not agree with the recent determination of Vuckovic et al. 2008 based on a K2 estimate from line-profile asymmetries.Comment: Accepted by MNRA

Characteristics of Low-Latitude Coronal Holes near the Maximum of Solar cycle 24

We investigate the statistics of 288 low-latitude coronal holes extracted from SDO/AIA-193 filtergrams over the time range 2011/01/01 to 2013/12/31. We analyse the distribution of characteristic coronal hole properties, such as the areas, mean AIA-193 intensities, and mean magnetic field densities, the local distribution of the SDO/AIA-193 intensity and the magnetic field within the coronal holes, and the distribution of magnetic flux tubes in coronal holes. We find that the mean magnetic field density of all coronal holes under study is 3.0 +- 1.6 G, and the percentage of unbalanced magnetic flux is 49 +- 16 %. The mean magnetic field density, the mean unsigned magnetic field density, and the percentage of unbalanced magnetic flux of coronal holes depend strongly pairwise on each other, with correlation coefficients cc > 0.92. Furthermore, we find that the unbalanced magnetic flux of the coronal holes is predominantly concentrated in magnetic flux tubes: 38 % (81 %) of the unbalanced magnetic flux of coronal holes arises from only 1 % (10 %) of the coronal hole area, clustered in magnetic flux tubes with field strengths > 50 G (10 G). The average magnetic field density and the unbalanced magnetic flux derived from the magnetic flux tubes correlate with the mean magnetic field density and the unbalanced magnetic flux of the overall coronal hole (cc > 0.93). These findings give evidence that the overall magnetic characteristics of coronal holes are governed by the characteristics of the magnetic flux tubes.Comment: 15 figure

Candidate hypervelocity stars of spectral type G and K revisited

Hypervelocity stars (HVS) move so fast that they are unbound to the Galaxy. When they were first discovered in 2005, dynamical ejection from the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the Galactic Centre (GC) was suggested as their origin. The two dozen HVSs known today are young massive B stars, mostly of 3-4 solar masses. Recently, 20 HVS candidates of low mass were discovered in the Segue G and K dwarf sample, but none of them originates from the GC. We embarked on a kinematic analysis of the Segue HVS candidate sample using the full 6D phase space information based on new proper motion measurements. Their orbital properties can then be derived by tracing back their trajectories in different mass models of our Galaxy. We present the results for 14 candidate HVSs, for which proper motion measurements were possible. Significantly lower proper motions than found in the previous study were derived. Considering three different Galactic mass models we find that all stars are bound to the Galaxy. We confirm that the stars do not originate from the GC. The distribution of their proper motions and radial velocities is consistent with predictions for runaway stars ejected from the Galactic disk by the binary supernova mechanism. However, their kinematics are also consistent with old disk membership. Moreover, most stars have rather low metallicities and strong $\alpha$-element enrichment as typical for thick disk and halo stars, whereas the metallicity of the three most metal-rich stars could possibly indicate that they are runaway stars from the thin disk. One star shows halo kinematics.Comment: A&A letter accepte

The Deuterium, Oxygen, and Nitrogen Abundance Toward LSE 44

We present measurements of the column densities of interstellar DI, OI, NI, and H2 made with FUSE, and of HI made with IUE toward the sdO star LSE 44, at a distance of 554+/-66 pc. This target is among the seven most distant Galactic sight lines for which these abundance ratios have been measured. The column densities were estimated by profile fitting and curve of growth analyses. We find D/H = (2.24 +1.39 -1.32)E-5, D/O = (1.99 +1.30 -0.67)E-2, D/N = (2.75 +1.19 -0.89)E-1, and O/H = (1.13 +0.96 -0.71)E-3 (2 sigma). Of the most distant Galactic sight lines for which the deuterium abundance has been measured LSE 44 is one of the few with D/H higher than the Local Bubble value, but D/O toward all these targets is below the Local Bubble value and more uniform than the D/H distribution. (Abstract abridged.)Comment: 20 pages, including 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

A new HW Vir binary from the Palomar Transient Factory: PTF1 J072455.75+125300.3 - An eclipsing subdwarf B binary with a M-star companion

We report the discovery of an eclipsing binary -- PTF1 J072456$+$125301-- composed of a subdwarf B (sdB) star ($g'=17.2^m$) with a faint companion. Subdwarf B stars are core helium-burning stars, which can be found on the extreme horizontal branch. About half of them reside in close binary systems, but few are known to be eclipsing, for which fundamental stellar parameters can be derived.\newline We conducted an analysis of photometric data and spectra from the Palomar 60'' and the 200" Hale telescope respectively. A quantitative spectral analysis found an effective temperature of $T_{\text{eff}}=33900\pm350$\,K, log g = $5.74\pm0.08$ and log($n_{\text{He}}/n_{\text{H}}) = -2.02 \pm0.07$, typical for an sdB star. The companion does not contribute to the optical light of the system, except through a distinct reflection effect. From the light curve an orbital period of 0.09980(25)\,d and a system inclination of 83.56\pm0.30\,^{\circ} were derived. The radial velocity curve yielded an orbital semi-amplitude of K_1=95.8\pm 8.1\,\text{km s^{-1}}. The mass for the M-type dwarf companion is $0.155\pm0.020\,M_{\odot}$. PTF1\,J072456$+$125301 has similar atmospheric parameters to those of pulsating sdB stars (V346 Hya stars). Therefore it could be a high-priority object for asteroseismology, if pulsations were detected such as in the enigmatic case of NY Vir.Comment: Accepted to A&A, 7pages, 4 figure