SACY - a Search for Associations Containing Young stars

The scientific goal of the SACY (Search for Associations Containing Young-stars) was to identify possible associations of stars younger than the Pleiades Association among optical counterparts of the ROSAT X-ray bright sources. High-resolution spectra for possible optical counterparts later than G0 belonging to HIPPARCOS and/or TYCHO-2 catalogs were obtained in order to assess both the youth and the spatial motion of each target. More than 1000 ROSAT sources were observed, covering a large area in the Southern Hemisphere. The newly identified young stars present a patchy distribution in UVW and XYZ, revealing the existence of huge nearby young associations. Here we present the associations identified in this survey.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of Open Issues in Local Formation and Early Stellar Evolution, Ouro Preto, Brazi

Discovery of a Luminous Quasar in the Nearby Universe

In the course of the Pico dos Dias survey (PDS), we identified the stellar like object PDS456 at coordinates alpha = 17h 28m 19.796s, delta = -14deg 15' 55.87'' (epoch 2000), with a relatively nearby (z = 0.184) and bright (B = 14.69) quasar. Its position at Galactic coordinates l_II = 10.4deg, b_II = +11.2deg, near the bulge of the Galaxy, may explain why it was not detected before. The optical spectrum of PDS456 is typical of a luminous quasar, showing a broad (FWHM ~ 4000 km/s) H_\beta line, very intense FeII lines and a weak [OIII]\lambda5007 line. PDS456 is associated to the infrared source IRAS 17254-1413 with a 60 \mum infrared luminosity L_{60} = 3.8 x 10^{45} erg/s. The relatively flat slopes in the infrared (\alpha(25,60) = -0.33 and \alpha(12,25) = -0.78) and a flat power index in the optical (F_{\nu} \propto \nu^{-0.72}) may indicate a low dust content. A good match between the position of PDS456 and the position of the X-ray source RXS J172819.3-141600 implies an X-ray luminosity L_x = 2.8 x 10^{44} erg/s. The good correlation between the strength of the emission lines in the optical and the X-ray luminosity, as well as the steep optical to X-ray index estimated (\alpha_{ox} = -1.64) suggest that PDS456 is radio quiet. A radio survey previously performed in this region yields an upper limit for radio power at ~ 5 GHz of ~ 2.6 x 10^{30} erg/s/Hz. We estimate the Galactic reddening in this line-of-sight to be A_B \simeq 2.0, implying an absolute magnitude M_B = -26.7 (using H_0 = 75 km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1} and q_0 = 0). In the optical, PDS456 is therefore 1.3 times more luminous than 3C 273 and the most luminous quasar in the nearby (z \leq 0.3) Universe.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX (aasms4.sty) + 3 figures; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letter

The tidal effects on the lithium abundance of binary systems with giant component

We analise the behavior of lithium abundance as a function of effective temperature, projected rotational velocity, orbital period and eccentricity for a sample of 68 binary systems with giant component and orbital period ranging from about 10 to 6400 days. For these binary systems the Li abundances show a gradual decrease with temperature, paralleling the well established result for single giants. We have also observed a dependence of lithium content on rotation. Binary systems with moderate to high rotation present also moderate to high Li content. This study shows also that synchronized binary systems with giant component seems to retain more of their original lithium than the unsynchronized systems. For orbital periods lower than 100 to 250 days, typically the period of synchronization for this kind of binary systems, lithium depleted stars seems to be unusual. The suggestion is made that there is an 'inhibited zone' in which synchronized binary systems with giant component having lithium abundance lower than a threshold level should be unusual.Comment: 6 pages, 3 Postscript figures, uses: aa.cls, psfig.st

On the Rotation of Post-T Tauri Stars in Associations

Nearby associations are excellent objects for the study of the initial spin up phase during the PMS evolution. An empirical approach is adopted here to infer their rotations properties and relations to X-ray emission. Three nearby associations are considered. The TW Hya association with an age of 8 Myr, the Beta Pictoris moving group with 12 Myr and a combination of Tucana and Horologium associations (30 Myr). Two low and high rotation modes are considered for each association with stellar masses less than 1.5M and greater than 1.5M respectively. We infer representative equatorial rotation velocities Vo from the observed distribution of projected rotational velocities vsini. A spin up is found for the high rotation mode, whereas in the low rotation mode the Vo do not increase significantly. This insufficient increase of Vo is probably the cause of a decrease of the total mean specific angular momentum for the low mass stars between 8 and 30 Myr. However, for the high mass stars, where a sufficient spin up is present, the specific angular momentum is practically conserved in this same time interval. By supposing that the distribution of masses of these three associations follows a universal mass function, we estimate the number of members of these associations that remain to be detected. The analysis of rotation and stellar masses using luminosity X-rays indicators present similar properties, as the dependence on stellar mass and rotation, at least for the younger associations, to those obtained for T Tauri stars in the ONC. A strong desaturation effect appears at 30 Myr. This effect seems to be provoked by the minimum configuration of the stellar convection layers, attained for the first time for the higher mass stars at 30 Myr. The desaturation appears to be independent of rotation at this stage.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables. Accepted by the Astronomical Journa

On a Rapid Lithium Enrichment and Depletion of K Giant Stars

A model scenario has recently been introduced to explain the presence of very strong Li lines in the spectra of some low mass K giant stars (de la Reza et al. 1996). In this scenario all ordinary, Li poor, K giants become Li rich during a short time ($\sim 10^5 yr$) when compared to the red giant phase of 5 10^7 yr. In this ``Li period'', a large part of the stars are associated with an expanding thin circumstellar shell supposedly triggered by an abrupt internal mixing mechanism resulting in a surface new ^7Li enrichment. This letter presents near 40 Li rich K giants known up to now. The distribution of these Li rich giants, along with other 41 observed K giants that have shell, but are not Li rich, in a color-color IRAS diagram confirms this scenario, indicating, also as a new result, that a rapid Li depletion takes place on a time scale of between $\sim 10^3$ and 10^5 yr. This model explains the problem of the presence of K giants with far infrared excesses presented by Zuckerman et al. (1995). Other present and future tests of this scenario are briefly discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

Transit timing analysis of CoRoT-1b

CoRoT, the pioneer space-based transit search, steadily provides thousands of high-precision light curves with continuous time sampling over periods of up to 5 months. The transits of a planet perturbed by an additional object are not strictly periodic. By studying the transit timing variations (TTVs), additional objects can be detected in the system. A transit timing analysis of CoRoT-1b is carried out to constrain the existence of additional planets in the system. We used data obtained by an improved version of the CoRoT data pipeline (version 2.0). Individual transits were fitted to determine the mid-transit times, and we analyzed the derived $O-C$ diagram. N-body integrations were used to place limits on secondary planets. No periodic timing variations with a period shorter than the observational window (55 days) are found. The presence of an Earth-mass Trojan is not likely. A planet of mass greater than $\sim 1$ Earth mass can be ruled out by the present data if the object is in a 2:1 (exterior) mean motion resonance with CoRoT-1b. Considering initially circular orbits: (i) super-Earths (less than 10 Earth-masses) are excluded for periods less than about 3.5 days, (ii) Saturn-like planets can be ruled out for periods less than about 5 days, (iii) Jupiter-like planets should have a minimum orbital period of about 6.5 days.Comment: 6 pages, accepted at A&

Starspots on the fastest rotators in the Beta Pic moving group

Aims: We carried out high-resolution spectroscopy and BV(I)_C photometric monitoring of the two fastest late-type rotators in the nearby Beta Pictoris moving group, HD199143 (F7V) and CD-641208 (K7V). The motivation for this work is to investigate the rotation periods and photospheric spot patterns of these very young stars, with a longer term view to probing the evolution of rotation and magnetic activity during the early phases of main-sequence evolution. We also aim to derive information on key physical parameters, such as rotational velocity and rotation period. Methods: We applied maximum entropy (ME) and Tikhonov regularizing (TR) criteria to derive the surface spot map distributions of the optical modulation observed in HD199143 (F7 V) and CD-641208 (K7V). We also used cross-correlation techniques to determine stellar parameters such as radial velocities and rotational velocities. Lomb-Scargle periodograms were used to obtain the rotational periods from differential magnitude time series. Results: We find periods and inclinations of 0.356 days and 21.5deg for HD199143, and 0.355 days and 50.1deg for CD-641208. The spot maps of HD199143 obtained from the ME and TR methods are very similar, although the latter gives a smoother distribution of the filling factor. Maps obtained at two different epochs three weeks apart show a remarkable increase in spot coverage amounting to ~7% of the surface of the photosphere over a time period of only ~20 days. The spot maps of CD-641208 from the two methods show good longitudinal agreement, whereas the latitude range of the spots is extended to cover the whole visible hemisphere in the TR map. The distributions obtained from the first light curve of HD199143 show the presence of an extended and asymmetric active longitude with the maximum filling factor at longitude ~325degree.Comment: Accepted by A&A. 13 pages, 13 figures (4 online included), 5 Table

Removing systematics from the CoRoT light curves: I. Magnitude-Dependent Zero Point

This paper presents an analysis that searched for systematic effects within the CoRoT exoplanet field light curves. The analysis identified a systematic effect that modified the zero point of most CoRoT exposures as a function of stellar magnitude. We could find this effect only after preparing a set of learning light curves that were relatively free of stellar and instrumental noise. Correcting for this effect, rejecting outliers that appear in almost every exposure, and applying SysRem, reduced the stellar RMS by about 20 %, without attenuating transit signals.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Noise properties of the CoRoT data: a planet-finding perspective

In this short paper, we study the photometric precision of stellar light curves obtained by the CoRoT satellite in its planet finding channel, with a particular emphasis on the timescales characteristic of planetary transits. Together with other articles in the same issue of this journal, it forms an attempt to provide the building blocks for a statistical interpretation of the CoRoT planet and eclipsing binary catch to date. After pre-processing the light curves so as to minimise long-term variations and outliers, we measure the scatter of the light curves in the first three CoRoT runs lasting more than 1 month, using an iterative non-linear filter to isolate signal on the timescales of interest. The bevhaiour of the noise on 2h timescales is well-described a power-law with index 0.25 in R-magnitude, ranging from 0.1mmag at R=11.5 to 1mmag at R=16, which is close to the pre-launch specification, though still a factor 2-3 above the photon noise due to residual jitter noise and hot pixel events. There is evidence for a slight degradation of the performance over time. We find clear evidence for enhanced variability on hours timescales (at the level of 0.5 mmag) in stars identified as likely giants from their R-magnitude and B-V colour, which represent approximately 60 and 20% of the observed population in the direction of Aquila and Monoceros respectively. On the other hand, median correlated noise levels over 2h for dwarf stars are extremely low, reaching 0.05mmag at the bright end.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The secondary eclipse of CoRoT-1b

The transiting planet CoRoT-1b is thought to belong to the pM-class of planets, in which the thermal emission dominates in the optical wavelengths. We present a detection of its secondary eclipse in the CoRoT white channel data, whose response function goes from ~400 to ~1000 nm. We used two different filtering approaches, and several methods to evaluate the significance of a detection of the secondary eclipse. We detect a secondary eclipse centered within 20 min at the expected times for a circular orbit, with a depth of 0.016+/-0.006%. The center of the eclipse is translated in a 1-sigma upper limit to the planet's eccentricity of ecosomega<0.014. Under the assumption of a zero Bond Albedo and blackbody emission from the planet, it corresponds to a T_{CoRoT}=2330 +120-140 K. We provide the equilibrium temperatures of the planet as a function of the amount of reflected light. If the planet is in thermal equilibrium with the incident flux from the star, our results imply an inefficient transport mechanism of the flux from the day to the night sides.Comment: 6 pages, to appear in A&A, submitted 18 march 2009, accepted 7 July 200