2,641 research outputs found
Dust-forming molecules in VY Canis Majoris (and Betelgeuse)
The formation of inorganic dust in circumstellar environments of evolved
stars is poorly understood. Spectra of molecules thought to be most important
for the nucleation, i.e. AlO, TiO, and TiO2, have been recently detected in the
red supergiant VY CMa. These molecules are effectively formed in VY CMa and the
observations suggest that non-equilibrium chemistry must be involved in their
formation and nucleation into dust. In addition to exploring the recent
observations of VY CMa, we briefly discuss the possibility of detecting these
molecules in the dust-poor circumstellar environment of Betelgeuse.Comment: contribution to Betelgeuse Workshop 2012: "The physics of Red
Supergiants: recent advances and open questions", 26-29 Nov 2012 Paris
(France
Pure rotational spectra of TiO and TiO_2 in VY Canis Majoris
We report the first detection of pure rotational transitions of TiO and TiO_2
at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths towards the red supergiant VY CMa. A rotational
temperature, T_rot, of about 250 K was derived for TiO_2. Although T_rot was
not well constrained for TiO, it is likely somewhat higher than that of TiO_2.
The detection of the Ti oxides confirms that they are formed in the
circumstellar envelopes of cool oxygen-rich stars and may be the "seeds" of
inorganic-dust formation, but alternative explanations for our observation of
TiO and TiO_2 in the cooler regions of the envelope cannot be ruled out at this
time. The observations suggest that a significant fraction of the oxides is not
converted to dust, but instead remains in the gas phase throughout the outflow.Comment: to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysic
OGLE-2002-BLG-360: from a gravitational microlensing candidate to an overlooked red transient
OGLE-2002-BLG-360 was discovered as a microlensing candidate by the OGLE-III
project. The subsequent light curve however clearly showed that the brightening
of the object could not have resulted from the gravitational microlensing
phenomenon. We aim to explain the nature of OGLE-2002-BLG-360 and its eruption
observed in 2002--2006. The observational data primarily come from the archives
of the OGLE project, which monitored the object in 2001--2009. The archives of
the MACHO and MOA projects also provided us with additional data obtained in
1995--99 and 2000--2005, respectively. These data allowed us to analyse the
light curve of the object during its eruption, as well as the potential
variability of its progenitor. In the archives of several infrared surveys,
namely 2MASS, MSX, Spitzer, AKARI, WISE, and VVV, we found measurements of the
object, which allowed us to study the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the
object. We constructed a simple model of a star surrounded by a dusty envelope,
which was used to interpret the observed SED. Our analysis of the data clearly
shows that OGLE-2002-BLG-360 was most probably a red transient, i.e. an object
similar in nature to V838 Mon, whose eruption was observed in 2002. The SED in
all phases, i.e. progenitor, eruption, and remnant, was dominated by infrared
emission, which we interpret as evidence of dust formation in an intense mass
outflow. Since 2009 the object has been completely embedded in dust. We suggest
that the progenitor of OGLE-2002-BLG-360 was a binary, which had entered the
common-envelope phase a long time (at least decades) before the observed
eruption, and that the eruption resulted from the final merger of the binary
components. We point out similarities between OGLE-2002-BLG-360 and CK Vul,
whose eruption was observed in 1670--72, and this strengthens the hypothesis
that CK Vul was also a red transient.Comment: accepted in A&
Rotational spectra of vibrationally excited AlO and TiO in oxygen rich stars
Rotational transitions in vibrationally excited AlO and TiO -- two possible
precursors of dust -- were observed in the 300 GHz range (1 mm wavelength)
towards the oxygen rich AGB stars R Dor and IK Tau with ALMA, and vibrationally
excited AlO was observed towards the red supergiant VY CMa with the SMA. The
transition of TiO in the levels, and the transition in the level of AlO were identified towards R Dor;
the line of TiO was identified in the level towards IK Tau;
and two transitions in the levels of AlO were identified
towards VY CMa. The newly-derived high vibrational temperature of TiO and AlO
in R Dor of K, and prior measurements of the angular extent
confirm that the majority of the emission is from a region within
of the central star. A full radiative transfer analysis of
AlO in R Dor yielded a fractional abundance of 3% of the solar abundance
of Al. From a similar analysis of TiO a fractional abundance of % of
the solar abundance of Ti was found. The observations provide indirect evidence
that TiO is present in a rotating disk close to the star. Further observations
in the ground and excited vibrational levels are needed to determine whether
AlO, TiO, and TiO are seeds of the AlO dust in R Dor, and perhaps
in the gravitationally bound dust shells in other AGB stars with low mass loss
rates.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Doubling of the bands in overdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-probable evidence for c-axis bilayer coupling
We present high resolution ARPES data of the bilayer superconductor
Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (Bi2212) showing a clear doubling of the near EF bands. This
splitting approaches zero along the (0,0)-(pi,pi) nodal line and is not
observed in single layer Bi2Sr2CuO6 (Bi2201), suggesting that the splitting is
due to the long sought after bilayer splitting effect. The splitting has a
magnitude of approximately 75 meV near the middle of the zone, extrapolating to
about 100 meV near the (pi,0) poin
On the determination of the Fermi surface in high-Tc superconductors by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
We study the normal state electronic excitations probed by angle resolved
photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) in Bi2201 and Bi2212. Our main goal is to
establish explicit criteria for determining the Fermi surface from ARPES data
on strongly interacting systems where sharply defined quasiparticles do not
exist and the dispersion is very weak in parts of the Brillouin zone.
Additional complications arise from strong matrix element variations within the
zone. We present detailed results as a function of incident photon energy, and
show simple experimental tests to distinguish between an intensity drop due to
matrix element effects and spectral weight loss due to a Fermi crossing. We
reiterate the use of polarization selection rules in disentangling the effect
of umklapps due to the BiO superlattice in Bi2212. We conclude that, despite
all the complications, the Fermi surface can be determined unambiguously: it is
a single large hole barrel centered about (pi,pi) in both materials.Comment: Expanded discussion of symmetrization method in Section 5, figures
remain the sam
Interaction induced collapse of a section of the Fermi sea in in the zig-zag Hubbard ladder
Using the next-nearest neighbor (zig-zag) Hubbard chain as an one
dimemensional model, we investigate the influence of interactions on the
position of the Fermi wavevectors with the density-matrix renormalization-group
technique (DMRG). For suitable choices of the hopping parameters we observe
that electron-electron correlations induce very different renormalizations for
the two different Fermi wavevectors, which ultimately lead to a complete
destruction of one section of the Fermi sea in a quantum critical point
Identifying the Background Signal in ARPES of High Temperature Superconductors
One of the interesting features of the photoemission spectra of the high
temperature cuprate superconductors is the presence of a large signal (referred
to as the "background'') in the unoccupied region of the Brillouin zone. Here
we present data indicating that the origin of this signal is extrinsic and is
most likely due to strong scattering of the photoelectrons. We also present an
analytical method that can be used to subtract the background signal
Non-dispersive Fermi arcs and absence of charge ordering in the pseudogap phase of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d
The autocorrelation of angle resolved photoemission data from the high
temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d shows distinct peaks in momentum
space which disperse with binding energy in the superconducting state, but not
in the pseudogap phase. Although it is tempting to attribute a non-dispersive
behavior in momentum space to some ordering phenomenon, a de-construction of
the autocorrelation reveals that the non-dispersive peaks arise not from
ordering, but rather from the tips of the Fermi arcs, which themselves do not
change with binding energy.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Doping dependence of the many-body effects along the nodal direction in the high-Tc cuprate (Bi,Pb)_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8
Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is used to study the doping
dependence of the lifetime and the mass renormalization of the low energy
excitations in the high-Tc cuprate (Bi,Pb)_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8 along the zone
diagonal. We find a linear energy de-pendence of the scattering rate for the
underdoped samples and a quadratic energy depend-ence in the overdoped case.
The mass enhancement of the quasiparticles due to the many body effects at the
Fermi energy is found to be in the order of 2 and the renormalization extends
over a large energy range for both the normal and the superconducting state.
The much discussed kink in the dispersion around 70 meV is interpreted as a
small additional effect at low temperatures.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure
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