58 research outputs found
The spectroscopic evolution of the symbiotic star AG Draconis. I.The O VI Raman, Balmer, and helium emission line variations during the outburst of 2006-2008
AG Dra is one of a small group of low metallicity S-type symbiotic binaries
with K-type giants that undergoes occasional short-term outbursts of unknown
origin. Our aim is to study the behavior of the white dwarf during an outburst
using the optical Raman lines and other emission features in the red giant
wind. The goal is to determine changes in the envelope and the wind of the
gainer in this system during a major outburst event and to study the coupling
between the UV and optical during a major outburst. Using medium and high
resolution groundbased optical spectra and comparisons with archival and
spectra, we study the evolution of the Raman O VI features and the
Balmer, He I, and He II lines during the outburst from 2006 Sept. through 2007
May and include more recent observations (2009) to study the subsequent
evolution of the source. The O VI Raman features disappeared completely at the
peak of the major outburst and the subsequent variation differs substantially
from that reported during the previous decade. The He I and He II lines, and
the Balmer lines, vary in phase with the Raman features but there is a
double-valuedness to the He I 6678, 7065 relative to the O VI Raman 6825\AA\
variations in the period between 2006-2008 that has not been previously
reported. The variations in the Raman feature ratio through the outburst
interval are consistent with the disappearance of the O VI FUV resonance wind
lines from the white dwarf and of the surrounding O ionized region
within the red giant wind provoked by the expansion and cooling of the white
dwarf photosphere.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figs. A&A (in press, accepted for publication
23/11/2009
The spectroscopic evolution of the symbiotic-like recurrent nova V407 Cygni during its 2010 outburst. I. The shock and its evolution
On 2010 Mar 10, V407 Cyg was discovered in outburst, eventually reaching V< 8
and detected by Fermi. Using medium and high resolution ground-based optical
spectra, visual and Swift UV photometry, and Swift X-ray spectrophotometry, we
describe the behavior of the high-velocity profile evolution for this nova
during its first three months. The peak of the X-ray emission occurred at about
day 40 with a broad maximum and decline after day 50. The main changes in the
optical spectrum began at around that time. The He II 4686A line first appeared
between days 7 and 14 and initially displayed a broad, symmetric profile that
is characteristic of all species before day 60. Low-excitation lines remained
comparatively narrow, with v(rad,max) of order 200-400 km/s. They were
systematically more symmetric than lines such as [Ca V], [Fe VII], [Fe X], and
He II, all of which showed a sequence of profile changes going from symmetric
to a blue wing similar to that of the low ionization species but with a red
wing extended to as high as 600 km/s . The Na I D doublet developed a broad
component with similar velocity width to the other low-ionization species. The
O VI Raman features were not detected. We interpret these variations as
aspherical expansion of the ejecta within the Mira wind. The blue side is from
the shock penetrating into the wind while the red wing is from the low-density
periphery. The maximum radial velocities obey power laws, v(rad,max) t^{-n}
with n ~ 1/3 for red wing and ~0.8 for the blue. (truncated)Comment: Accepted for publication, A&A (submitted: 9 Oct 2010; accepted: 1 Dec
2010) in press; based on data obtained with Swift, Nordic Optical Telescope,
Ondrejov Observatory. Corrected typo, Fermi?LAT detection was at energies
above 100 MeV (with thanks to C. C. Cheung
Revealing the Nature of Algol Disks through Optical and UV Spectroscopy, Synthetic Spectra, and Tomography of TT Hydrae
We have developed a systematic procedure to study the disks in Algol-type
binaries using spectroscopic analysis, synthetic spectra, and tomography. We
analyzed 119 H-alpha spectra of TT Hya, an Algol-type eclipsing interacting
binary, collected from 1985-2001. The new radial velocities enabled us to
derive reliable orbital elements, including a small non-zero eccentricity, and
to improve the accuracy of the absolute dimensions of the system. High
resolution IUE spectra were also analyzed to study the formation of the
ultraviolet lines and continuum. Synthetic spectra of the iron curtain using
our new shellspec program enabled us to derive a characteristic disk
temperature of 7000K. We have demonstrated that the UV emission lines seen
during total primary eclipse cannot originate from the accretion disk, but most
likely arise from a hotter disk-stream interaction region.
The synthetic spectra of the stars, disk, and stream allowed us to derive a
lower limit to the mass transfer rate of 2e-10 solar masses per year. Doppler
tomography of the observed H-alpha profiles revealed a distinct accretion disk.
The difference spectra produced by subtracting the synthetic spectra of the
stars resulted in an image of the disk, which virtually disappeared once the
composite synthetic spectra of the stars and disk were used to calculate the
difference spectra. An intensity enhancement of the resulting tomogram revealed
images of the gas stream and an emission arc. We successfully modeled the gas
stream using shellspec and associated the emission arc with an asymmetry in the
accretion disk.Comment: 46 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables, accepted by Ap
Disk Loss and Disk Renewal Phases in Classical Be Stars I: Analysis of Long-Term Spectropolarimetric Data
(Abridged) Classical Be stars occasionally transition from having a gaseous
circumstellar disk (''Be phase'') to a state in which all observational
evidence for the presence of these disks disappears (''normal B-star phase'').
We present one of the most comprehensive spectropolarimetric views to date of
such a transition for two Be stars, pi Aquarii and 60 Cygni. 60 Cyg's disk loss
episode was characterized by a monotonic decrease in emission strength over a
time-scale of 1000 days, consistent with the viscous time-scale of the disk,
assuming alpha is 0.14. pi Aqr's disk loss was episodic in nature and occurred
over a time-scale of 2440 days. An observed time lag between the behavior of
the polarization and H-alpha in both stars indicates the disk clearing
proceeded in an ''inside-out'' manner. We determine the position angle of the
intrinsic polarization to be 166.7 +/- 0.1 degrees for pi Aqr and 107.7 +/- 0.4
degrees for 60 Cyg, and model the observed polarization during the quiescent
diskless phase of each star to determine the interstellar polarization along
the line of sight. Minor outbursts observed during the quiescent phase of each
star shared similar lifetimes as those previously reported for mu Cen,
suggesting that the outbursts represent the injection and subsequent viscous
dissipation of individual blobs of material into the inner circumstellar
environments of these stars. We also observe deviations from the mean intrinsic
polarization position angle during polarization outbursts in each star,
indicating deviations from axisymmetry. We propose that these deviations might
be indicative of the injection (and subsequent circularization) of new blobs
into the inner disk, either in the plane of the bulk of the disk material or in
a slightly inclined (non-coplanar) orbit.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures; accepted in Ap
The spectroscopic evolution of the symbiotic-like recurrent nova V407 Cygni during its 2010 outburst. II. The circumstellar environment and the aftermath
The nova outburst of V407 Cyg in 2010 Mar. 10 was the first observed for this
star but its close resemblance to the well known symbiotic-like recurrent nova
RS Oph suggests that it is also a member of this rare type of Galactic novae.
The nova was the first detected at -ray energies and is the first known
nova explosion for this system. The extensive multiwavelength coverage of this
outburst makes it an ideal comparison with the few other outbursts known for
similar systems. We extend our previous analysis of the Mira and the expanding
shock from the explosion to detail the time development of the photoionized
Mira wind, circumstellar medium, and shocked circumstellar environment to
derive their physical parameters and how they relate to large scale structure
of the environment, extending the previous coverage to more than 500 days after
outburst. Absorption lines of Fe-peak ions formed in the Mira wind were visible
as P Cyg profiles at low velocity before Day 69, around the time of the X-ray
peak and we identified many absorption transitions without accompanying
emission for metal lines. The H Balmer lines showed strong P Cyg absorption
troughs that weakened during the 2010 observing period, through Day 128. We
distinguish the components from the shock, the photoionized environment, and
the chromosphere and inner Mira wind using spectra taken more than one year
after outburst. The multiple shells and radiative excitation phenomenology are
similar to those recently cited for GRBs and SNIa (severely truncated)Comment: accepted for publication in A&A (9/12/11
Gamma-Ray Emission Concurrent with the Nova in the Symbiotic Binary V407 Cygni
Novae are thermonuclear explosions on a white dwarf surface fueled by mass
accreted from a companion star. Current physical models posit that shocked
expanding gas from the nova shell can produce X-ray emission but emission at
higher energies has not been widely expected. Here, we report the Fermi Large
Area Telescope detection of variable gamma-ray (0.1-10 GeV) emission from the
recently-detected optical nova of the symbiotic star V407 Cygni. We propose
that the material of the nova shell interacts with the dense ambient medium of
the red giant primary, and that particles can be accelerated effectively to
produce pi0 decay gamma-rays from proton-proton interactions. Emission
involving inverse Compton scattering of the red giant radiation is also
considered and is not ruled out.Comment: 38 pages, includes Supplementary Online Material; corresponding
authors: C.C. Cheung, A.B. Hill, P. Jean, S. Razzaque, K.S. Woo
<i>Gaia</i> Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7.
Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release.
Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue.
Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues – a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) – and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of ∼3000 Cepheid and RR-Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr−1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of ∼0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of ∼94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr−1. For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is ∼10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to ∼0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7.
Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data
CHARA Array K'-band Measurements of the Angular Dimensions of Be Star Disks
We present the first K'-band, long-baseline interferometric observations of
the northern Be stars gamma Cas, phi Per, zeta Tau, and kappa Dra. The
measurements were made with multiple telescope pairs of the CHARA Array
interferometer, and in every case the observations indicate that the
circumstellar disks of the targets are resolved. We fit the interferometric
visibilities with predictions from a simple disk model that assumes an
isothermal gas in Keplerian rotation. We derive fits of the four model
parameters (disk base density, radial density exponent, disk normal
inclination, and position angle) for each of the targets. The resulting
densities are in broad agreement with prior studies of the IR excess flux and
the resulting orientations generally agree with those from interferometric
H-alpha and continuum polarimetric observations. We find that the angular size
of the K' disk emission is smaller than that determined for the H-alpha
emission, and we argue that the difference is the result of a larger H-alpha
opacity and the relatively larger neutral hydrogen fraction with increasing
disk radius. All the targets are known binaries with faint companions, and we
find that companions appear to influence the interferometric visibilities in
the cases of phi Per and kappa Dra. We also present contemporaneous
observations of the H-alpha, H-gamma, and Br-gamma emission lines. Synthetic
model profiles of these lines that are based on the same disk inclination and
radial density exponent as derived from the CHARA Array observations match the
observed emission line strength if the disk base density is reduced by
approximately 1.7 dex.Comment: ApJ in press (2007 Jan 1), 55 pages, 14 figure
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