Astrometry with the Keck-Interferometer: the ASTRA project and its science

The sensitivity and astrometry upgrade ASTRA of the Keck Interferometer is introduced. After a brief overview of the underlying interferometric principles, the technology and concepts of the upgrade are presented. The interferometric dual-field technology of ASTRA will provide the KI with the means to observe two objects simultaneously, and measure the distance between them with a precision eventually better than 100 uas. This astrometric functionality of ASTRA will add a unique observing tool to fields of astrophysical research as diverse as exo-planetary kinematics, binary astrometry, and the investigation of stars accelerated by the massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way as discussed in this contribution.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures (low resolution), contribution to the summerschool "Astrometry and Imaging with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer", 2 - 13 June, 2008, Keszthely, Hungary, corrected authorlis

First Light LBT AO Images of HR 8799 bcde at 1.65 and 3.3 Microns: New Discrepancies between Young Planets and Old Brown Dwarfs

As the only directly imaged multiple planet system, HR 8799 provides a unique opportunity to study the physical properties of several planets in parallel. In this paper, we image all four of the HR 8799 planets at H-band and 3.3 microns with the new LBT adaptive optics system, PISCES, and LBTI/LMIRCam. Our images offer an unprecedented view of the system, allowing us to obtain H and 3.3$ micron photometry of the innermost planet (for the first time) and put strong upper-limits on the presence of a hypothetical fifth companion. We find that all four planets are unexpectedly bright at 3.3 microns compared to the equilibrium chemistry models used for field brown dwarfs, which predict that planets should be faint at 3.3 microns due to CH4 opacity. We attempt to model the planets with thick-cloudy, non-equilibrium chemistry atmospheres, but find that removing CH4 to fit the 3.3 micron photometry increases the predicted L' (3.8 microns) flux enough that it is inconsistent with observations. In an effort to fit the SED of the HR 8799 planets, we construct mixtures of cloudy atmospheres, which are intended to represent planets covered by clouds of varying opacity. In this scenario, regions with low opacity look hot and bright, while regions with high opacity look faint, similar to the patchy cloud structures on Jupiter and L/T transition brown-dwarfs. Our mixed cloud models reproduce all of the available data, but self-consistent models are still necessary to demonstrate their viability.Comment: Accepted to Ap

Stringent Constraints on Cosmological Neutrino-Antineutrino Asymmetries from Synchronized Flavor Transformation

We assess a mechanism which can transform neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries between flavors in the early universe, and confirm that such transformation is unavoidable in the near bi-maximal framework emerging for the neutrino mixing matrix. We show that the process is a standard Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein flavor transformation dictated by a synchronization of momentum states. We also show that flavor ``equilibration'' is a special feature of maximal mixing, and carefully examine new constraints placed on neutrino asymmetries. In particular, the big bang nucleosynthesis limit on electron neutrino degeneracy xi_e < 0.04 does not apply directly to all flavors, yet confirmation of the large-mixing-angle solution to the solar neutrino problem will eliminate the possibility of degenerate big bang nucleosynthesis.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; minor changes to match PRD versio

Very Low Mass Stellar and Substellar Companions to Solar-Like Stars From MARVELS V: A Low Eccentricity Brown Dwarf from the Driest Part of the Desert, MARVELS-6b

We describe the discovery of a likely brown dwarf (BD) companion with a minimum mass of 31.7 +/- 2.0 M_Jup to GSC 03546-01452 from the MARVELS radial velocity survey, which we designate as MARVELS-6b. For reasonable priors, our analysis gives a probability of 72% that MARVELS-6b has a mass below the hydrogen-burning limit of 0.072 M_Sun, and thus it is a high-confidence BD companion. It has a moderately long orbital period of 47.8929 +0.0063/-0.0062 days with a low eccentricty of 0.1442 +0.0078/-0.0073, and a semi-amplitude of 1644 +12/-13 m/s. Moderate resolution spectroscopy of the host star has determined the following parameters: T_eff = 5598 +/- 63, log g = 4.44 +/- 0.17, and [Fe/H] = +0.40 +/- 0.09. Based upon these measurements, GSC 03546-01452 has a probable mass and radius of M_star = 1.11 +/- 0.11 M_Sun and R_star = 1.06 +/- 0.23 R_Sun with an age consistent with less than ~6 Gyr at a distance of 219 +/- 21 pc from the Sun. Although MARVELS-6b is not observed to transit, we cannot definitively rule out a transiting configuration based on our observations. There is a visual companion detected with Lucky Imaging at 7.7 arcsec from the host star, but our analysis shows that it is not bound to this system. The minimum mass of MARVELS-6b exists at the minimum of the mass functions for both stars and planets, making this a rare object even compared to other BDs.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

The Gray Needle: Large Grains in the HD 15115 Debris Disk from LBT/PISCES/Ks and LBTI/LMIRcam/L' Adaptive Optics Imaging

We present diffraction-limited \ks band and \lprime adaptive optics images of the edge-on debris disk around the nearby F2 star HD 15115, obtained with a single 8.4 m primary mirror at the Large Binocular Telescope. At \ks band the disk is detected at signal-to-noise per resolution element (SNRE) \about 3-8 from \about 1-2\fasec 5 (45-113 AU) on the western side, and from \about 1.2-2\fasec 1 (63-90 AU) on the east. At \lprime the disk is detected at SNRE \about 2.5 from \about 1-1\fasec 45 (45-90 AU) on both sides, implying more symmetric disk structure at 3.8 \microns . At both wavelengths the disk has a bow-like shape and is offset from the star to the north by a few AU. A surface brightness asymmetry exists between the two sides of the disk at \ks band, but not at \lprime . The surface brightness at \ks band declines inside 1\asec (\about 45 AU), which may be indicative of a gap in the disk near 1\asec. The \ks - \lprime disk color, after removal of the stellar color, is mostly grey for both sides of the disk. This suggests that scattered light is coming from large dust grains, with 3-10 \microns -sized grains on the east side and 1-10 \microns dust grains on the west. This may suggest that the west side is composed of smaller dust grains than the east side, which would support the interpretation that the disk is being dynamically affected by interactions with the local interstellar medium.Comment: Apj-accepted March 27 2012; minor correction

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