656 research outputs found
Observations of T Tauri Disks at Sub-AU Radii: Implications for Magnetospheric Accretion and Planet Formation
We determine inner disk sizes and temperatures for four solar-type (1-2
M) classical T Tauri stars (AS 207A, V2508 Oph, AS 205A, and PX Vul)
using 2.2 m observations from the Keck Interferometer. Nearly
contemporaneous near-IR adaptive optics imaging photometry, optical photometry,
and high-dispersion optical spectroscopy are used to distinguish contributions
from the inner disks and central stars in the interferometric observations. In
addition, the spectroscopic and photometric data provide estimates of stellar
properties, mass accretion rates, and disk co-rotation radii. We model our
interferometric and photometric data in the context of geometrically flat
accretion disk models with inner holes, and flared disks with puffed-up inner
walls. Models incorporating puffed-up inner disk walls generally provide better
fits to the data, similar to previous results for higher-mass Herbig Ae stars.
Our measured inner disk sizes are larger than disk truncation radii predicted
by magnetospheric accretion models, with larger discrepancies for sources with
higher mass accretion rates. We suggest that our measured sizes correspond to
dust sublimation radii, and that optically-thin gaseous material may extend
further inward to the magnetospheric truncation radii. Finally, our inner disk
measurements constrain the location of terrestrial planet formation as well as
potential mechanisms for halting giant planet migration.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (May 1, 2005 issue
Hadron attenuation in deep inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering
We present a detailed theoretical investigation of hadron attenuation in deep
inelastic scattering (DIS) off complex nuclei in the kinematic regime of the
HERMES experiment. The analysis is carried out in the framework of a
probabilistic coupled-channel transport model based on the
Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) equation, which allows for a treatment of the
final-state interactions (FSI) beyond simple absorption mechanisms.
Furthermore, our event-by-event simulations account for the kinematic cuts of
the experiments as well as the geometrical acceptance of the detectors. We
calculate the multiplicity ratios of charged hadrons for various nuclear
targets relative to deuterium as a function of the photon energy nu, the hadron
energy fraction z_h=E_h/nu and the transverse momentum p_T. We also confront
our model results on double-hadron attenuation with recent experimental data.
Separately, we compare the attenuation of identified hadrons (pi^\pm, \pi^0,
K^\pm, p and pbar) on Ne and Kr targets with the data from the HERMES
Collaboration and make predictions for a Xe target. At the end we turn towards
hadron attenuation on Cu nuclei at EMC energies. Our studies demonstrate that
(pre-)hadronic final-state interactions play a dominant role in the kinematic
regime of the HERMES experiment while our present approach overestimates the
attenuation at EMC energies.Comment: 61 pages, 19 figures, version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Infrared nanoscopy of Dirac plasmons at the graphene-SiO2 interface
We report on infrared (IR) nanoscopy of 2D plasmon excitations of Dirac
fermions in graphene. This is achieved by confining mid-IR radiation at the
apex of a nanoscale tip: an approach yielding two orders of magnitude increase
in the value of in-plane component of incident wavevector q compared to free
space propagation. At these high wavevectors, the Dirac plasmon is found to
dramatically enhance the near-field interaction with mid-IR surface phonons of
SiO2 substrate. Our data augmented by detailed modeling establish graphene as a
new medium supporting plasmonic effects that can be controlled by gate voltage.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Circumstellar Disks in the Orion Nebula Cluster
We combine our previous optical spectroscopic and photometric analysis of ~1600 stars located in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) with our own and published near-infrared photometric surveys of the region in order to investigate the evidence for and properties of circumstellar disks. We use the near-infrared continuum excess as our primary disk diagnostic, although we also study sources with Ca II triplet emission and those designated as "proplyds." The measured near-infrared excess is influenced by (1) the presence or absence of a circumstellar disk, (2) the relative importance of disk accretion and inner disk holes, (3) the relative contrast between photospheric and disk emission, and (4) system inclination. After attempting to understand the effects of these influences, we estimate the frequency of circumstellar disks and discuss the evidence for trends in the disk frequency with stellar mass (over the mass range <0.1–50 M_⊙), stellar age (over the age range <0.1–2 Myr), and projected cluster radius (over the radial range 0–3 pc). We find that the fraction of stars retaining their inner (<0.1 AU) circumstellar disks to the present time is at least 55% and probably no more than 90%, averaged over the entire range in stellar mass and stellar age represented in the ONC and over the entire area of our survey. We find no trend in the disk fraction with stellar age, at least not over the limited age range of the cluster. We find that more massive stars are less likely to have disks, consistent with a scenario in which the evolutionary timescales are more rapid for disks surrounding more massive stars than for disks surrounding less massive stars. We also find that the disk frequency begins to decrease toward the lowest masses, although objects of all masses (including those that appear to be substellar) can have disks. We find that the disk frequency increases toward the cluster center. We then argue, using several lines of evidence, that a large fraction of the disks associated with stars in the ONC are accretion disks. The observed trends with stellar age, stellar mass, and projected cluster radius in the disk frequency may, in fact, be driven primarily by trends in the disk accretion properties. From the magnitude of the near-infrared excess above that expected from pure irradiation disks, we find an accretion disk fraction among the stars identified as having disks of 61%–88%. In addition, approximately 20% of the stars in our optical spectroscopic sample show broad (several hundred km s^(-1) FWHM) Ca II emission lines, which are features often associated with accretion disk/wind phenomena; another 50% of the sample have Ca II lines that (at our spectral resolution) are "filled in," indicating an independently derived accretion disk frequency of ~70%. Finally, we discuss the near-infrared and optical emission-line properties of that portion of our sample identified from Hubble Space Telescope imaging as having a dark silhouette or an externally ionized structure. This sample, proposed in the literature to have accretion disks, appears to be no different in terms of its stellar or circumstellar properties from the rest of the ONC population. The only feature distinguishing these objects from their ONC siblings thus may be their current (but short-lived) proximity to the massive stars near the cluster center
Mass-luminosity relation for FGK main sequence stars: metallicity and age contributions
The stellar mass-luminosity relation (MLR) is one of the most famous
empirical "laws", discovered in the beginning of the 20th century. MLR is still
used to estimate stellar masses for nearby stars, particularly for those that
are not binary systems, hence the mass cannot be derived directly from the
observations. It's well known that the MLR has a statistical dispersion which
cannot be explained exclusively due to the observational errors in luminosity
(or mass). It is an intrinsic dispersion caused by the differences in age and
chemical composition from star to star. In this work we discuss the impact of
age and metallicity on the MLR. Using the recent data on mass, luminosity,
metallicity, and age for 26 FGK stars (all members of binary systems, with
observational mass-errors <= 3%), including the Sun, we derive the MLR taking
into account, separately, mass-luminosity, mass-luminosity-metallicity, and
mass-luminosity-metallicity-age. Our results show that the inclusion of age and
metallicity in the MLR, for FGK stars, improves the individual mass estimation
by 5% to 15%.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted in Astrophysics and Space
Scienc
The Role of Mass and Environment in Multiple Star Formation: A 2MASS Survey of Wide Multiplicity in Three Young Associations
We present the results of a search for wide binary systems among 783 members
of three nearby young associations: Taurus-Auriga, Chamaeleon I, and two
subgroups of Upper Scorpius. Near-infrared (JHK) imagery from 2MASS was
analyzed to search for wide (1-30"; ~150-4500 AU) companions to known
association members, using color-magnitude cuts to reject likely background
stars. We identify a total of 131 candidate binary companions with colors
consistent with physical association, of which 39 have not been identified
previously in the literature. Our results suggest that the wide binary
frequency is a function of both mass and environment, with significantly higher
frequencies among high-mass stars than lower-mass stars and in the T
associations than in the OB association. We discuss the implications for wide
binary formation and conclude that the environmental dependence is not a direct
result of stellar density or total association mass, but instead might depend
on another environmental parameter like the gas temperature. We also analyze
the mass ratio distribution as a function of mass and find that it agrees with
the distribution for field stars to within the statistical uncertainties. The
binary populations in these associations generally follow the empirical
mass-maximum separation relation observed for field binaries, but we have found
one candidate low-mass system (USco-160611.9-193532; Mtot~0.4 Msun) which has a
projected separation (10.8"; 1550 AU) much larger than the suggested limit for
its mass. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted to ApJ; 27 pages in emulateapj format. The full version of
table 2 can be downloaded via http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~alk/tab2.pdf
(PDF) or http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~alk/tab2.txt (text
Are There Age Spreads in Star Forming Regions?
A luminosity spread at a given effective temperature is ubiquitously seen in
the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams of young star forming regions and often
interpreted in terms of a prolonged period (>=10 Myr) of star formation. I
review the evidence that the observed luminosity spreads are genuine and not
caused by astrophysical sources of scatter. I then address whether the
luminosity spreads necessarily imply large age spreads, by comparing HR diagram
ages with ages from independent clocks such as stellar rotation rate, the
presence of circumstellar material and lithium depletion. I argue that whilst
there probably is a true luminosity dispersion, there is little evidence to
support age spreads larger than a few Myr. This paradox could be resolved by
brief periods of rapid accretion during the class I pre main-sequence phase.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of JENAM10: Star Clusters in the Era of
Large Surveys, 8 page
Ten-Micron Observations of Nearby Young Stars
(abridged) We present new 10-micron photometry of 21 nearby young stars
obtained at the Palomar 5-meter and at the Keck I 10-meter telescopes as part
of a program to search for dust in the habitable zone of young stars. Thirteen
of the stars are in the F-K spectral type range ("solar analogs"), 4 have B or
A spectral types, and 4 have spectral type M. We confirm existing IRAS
12-micron and ground-based 10-micron photometry for 10 of the stars, and
present new insight into this spectral regime for the rest. Excess emission at
10 micron is not found in any of the young solar analogs, except for a possible
2.4-sigma detection in the G5V star HD 88638. The G2V star HD 107146, which
does not display a 10-micron excess, is identified as a new Vega-like
candidate, based on our 10-micron photospheric detection, combined with
previously unidentified 60-micron and 100-micron IRAS excesses. Among the
early-type stars, a 10-micron excess is detected only in HD 109573A (HR 4796A),
confirming prior observations; among the M dwarfs, excesses are confirmed in AA
Tau, CD -40 8434, and Hen 3-600A. A previously suggested N band excess in the
M3 dwarf CD -33 7795 is shown to be consistent with photospheric emission.Comment: 40 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables. To appear in the January 1, 2004 issue
of Ap
The CIDA Variability Survey of Orion OB1. I: the low-mass population of Ori OB 1a and 1b
We present results of a large scale, multi-epoch optical survey of the Ori
OB1 association, carried out with the QuEST camera at the Venezuela National
Astronomical Observatory. We identify for the first time the widely spread
low-mass, young population in the Orion OB1a and OB1b sub-associations.
Candidate members were picked up by their variability in the V-band and
position in color-magnitude diagrams. We obtained spectra to confirm
membership. In a region spanning ~ 68 deg^2 we found 197 new young stars; of
these, 56 are located in the Ori OB1a subassociation and 142 in Ori OB1b.
Comparison with the spatial extent of molecular gas and extinction maps
indicates that the subassociation Ori 1b is concentrated within a ring-like
structure of radius ~2 deg (~15 pc at 440 pc), centered roughly on the star
epsilon Ori in the Orion belt. The ring is apparent in 13CO and corresponds to
a region with an extinction Av>=1. The stars exhibiting strong Ha emission, an
indicator of active accretion, are found along this ring, while the center is
populated with weak Ha emitting stars. In contrast, Ori OB1a is located in a
region devoid of gas and dust. We identify a grouping of stars within a ~3
deg^2 area located in 1a, roughly clustered around the B2 star 25 Ori. The
Herbig Ae/Be star V346 Ori is also associated with this grouping, which could
be an older analog of sigma Ori. Using using several sets of evolutionary
tracks we find an age of 7 - 10 Myr for Ori 1a and of ~4 - 6 Myr for Ori OB1b,
consistent with previous estimates from OB stars. Indicators such as the
equivalent width of Ha and near-IR excesses show that while a substantial
fraction of accreting disks remain at ages ~5 Myr, inner disks are essentially
dissipated by 10 Myr.Comment: 44 pages, 12 figures, to appear in the Astronomical Journal.
(Abridged abstract - to fit length limit in astroph) Full resolution figures
in http://www.cida.ve/~briceno/publications
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