Tracing the development of dust around evolved stars: The case of 47 Tuc

We observed mid-infrared (7.5-22 mum) spectra of AGB stars in the globular cluster 47 Tuc with the Spitzer telescope and find significant dust features of various types. Comparison of the characteristics of the dust spectra with the location of the stars in a logP-K-diagram shows that dust mineralogy and position on the AGB are related. A 13 mum feature is seen in spectra of low luminosity AGB stars. More luminous AGB stars show a broad feature at 11.5 mum. The spectra of the most luminous stars are dominated by the amorphous silicate bending vibration centered at 9.7 mum. For 47 Tuc AGB stars, we conclude that early on the AGB dust consisting primarily of Mg-, Al- and Fe oxides is formed. With further AGB evolution amorphous silicates become the dominant species.Comment: 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Hipparcos red stars in the HpV_{T2} and VI_C systems

For Hipparcos M, S, and C spectral type stars, we provide calibrated instantaneous (epoch) Cousins $V-I$ color indices using newly derived $HpV_{T2}$ photometry. Three new sets of ground-based Cousins $VI$ data have been obtained for more than 170 carbon and red M giants. These datasets in combination with the published sources of $VI$ photometry served to obtain the calibration curves linking Hipparcos/Tycho $Hp-V_{T2}$ with the Cousins $V-I$ index. In total, 321 carbon stars and 4464 M- and S-type stars have new $V-I$ indices. The standard error of the mean $V-I$ is about 0.1 mag or better down to $Hp\approx9$ although it deteriorates rapidly at fainter magnitudes. These $V-I$ indices can be used to verify the published Hipparcos $V-I$ color indices. Thus, we have identified a handful of new cases where, instead of the real target, a random field star has been observed. A considerable fraction of the DMSA/C and DMSA/V solutions for red stars appear not to be warranted. Most likely such spurious solutions may originate from usage of a heavily biased color in the astrometric processing.Comment: 10 figures, 1 electronic table, accepted in A&

Infrared Spectroscopy of Symbiotic Stars. IV. V2116 Ophiuchi/GX 1+4, The Neutron Star Symbiotic

We have computed, based on 17 infrared radial velocities, the first set of orbital elements for the M giant in the symbiotic binary V2116 Ophiuchi. The giant's companion is a neutron star, the bright X-ray source GX 1+4. We find an orbital period of 1161 days by far the longest of any known X-ray binary. The orbit has a modest eccentricity of 0.10 with an orbital circularization time of less than 10^6 years. The large mass function of the orbit significantly restricts the mass of the M giant. Adopting a neutron-star mass of 1.35M(Sun), the maximum mass of the M giant is 1.22M(Sun), making it the less massive star. Derived abundances indicate a slightly subsolar metallicity. Carbon and nitrogen are in the expected ratio resulting from the red-giant first dredge-up phase. The lack of O-17 suggests that the M-giant has a mass less than 1.3M(Sun), consistent with our maximum mass. The red giant radius is 103R(Sun), much smaller than the estimated Roche lobe radius. Thus, the mass loss of the red giant is via a stellar wind. Although the M giant companion to the neutron star has a mass similar to the late-type star in low-mass X-ray binaries, its near-solar abundances and apparent runaway velocity are not fully consistent with the properties of this class of stars.Comment: In press to The Astrophysical Journal (10 April 2006 issue). 23 page

Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy

We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude, with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

<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

Gaia Data Release 1: Testing parallaxes with local Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars

Context. Parallaxes for 331 classical Cepheids, 31 Type II Cepheids, and 364 RR Lyrae stars in common between Gaia and the Hipparcos and Tycho-2 catalogues are published in Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) as part of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). Aims. In order to test these first parallax measurements of the primary standard candles of the cosmological distance ladder, which involve astrometry collected by Gaia during the initial 14 months of science operation, we compared them with literature estimates and derived new period-luminosity (PL), period-Wesenheit (PW) relations for classical and Type II Cepheids and infrared PL, PL-metallicity (PLZ), and optical luminosity-metallicity (M V -[Fe/H]) relations for the RR Lyrae stars, with zero points based on TGAS. Methods. Classical Cepheids were carefully selected in order to discard known or suspected binary systems. The final sample comprises 102 fundamental mode pulsators with periods ranging from 1.68 to 51.66 days (of which 33 with σ Ω /Ω < 0.5). The Type II Cepheids include a total of 26 W Virginis and BL Herculis stars spanning the period range from 1.16 to 30.00 days (of which only 7 with σ Ω /Ω < 0.5). The RR Lyrae stars include 200 sources with pulsation period ranging from 0.27 to 0.80 days (of which 112 with σ Ω /Ω < 0.5). The new relations were computed using multi-band (V,I,J,K s ) photometry and spectroscopic metal abundances available in the literature, and by applying three alternative approaches: (i) linear least-squares fitting of the absolute magnitudes inferred from direct transformation of the TGAS parallaxes; (ii) adopting astrometry-based luminosities; and (iii) using a Bayesian fitting approach. The last two methods work in parallax space where parallaxes are used directly, thus maintaining symmetrical errors and allowing negative parallaxes to be used. The TGAS-based PL,PW,PLZ, and M V - [Fe/H] relations are discussed by comparing the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud provided by different types of pulsating stars and alternative fitting methods. Results. Good agreement is found from direct comparison of the parallaxes of RR Lyrae stars for which both TGAS and HST measurements are available. Similarly, very good agreement is found between the TGAS values and the parallaxes inferred from the absolute magnitudes of Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars analysed with the Baade-Wesselink method. TGAS values also compare favourably with the parallaxes inferred by theoretical model fitting of the multi-band light curves for two of the three classical Cepheids and one RR Lyrae star, which were analysed with this technique in our samples. The K-band PL relations show the significant improvement of the TGAS parallaxes for Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars with respect to the Hipparcos measurements. This is particularly true for the RR Lyrae stars for which improvement in quality and statistics is impressive. Conclusions. TGAS parallaxes bring a significant added value to the previous Hipparcos estimates. The relations presented in this paper represent the first Gaia-calibrated relations and form a work-in-progress milestone report in the wait for Gaia-only parallaxes of which a first solution will become available with Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) in 2018. © ESO, 2017

Limit-cycle behavior in one-zone convective models

We present the results of a detailed set of one-zone models that account for the coupling between pulsation and convection following the original prescriptions of Stellingwerf (1986). Motivated by the arbitrary nature of the input parameters adopted in this theoretical framework, we computed several sequences of models that cover a substantial fraction of the parameter space and a longer integration time. We also included a turbulent pressure term and found that this physical mechanism plays a crucial role in the pulsation characteristics of the models by removing the sharp discontinuities along the light and the velocity curves showed by models that do not account for turbulent pressure. Finally, we investigated the vibrational and the pulsational stability of completely convective models. We consider as the most important finding of the present work the identification of a well-defined region in the parameter space where they approach limit-cycle stability. Several numerical experiments performed by adopting different values of the adiabatic exponent and of the shell thickness indicate that the coupling between pulsation and convection is the key driving mechanism for LPVs, a finding supported by recent theoretical predictions.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

The Very Slow Wind From the Pulsating Semiregular Red Giant L2 Pup

We have obtained 11.7 and 17.9 micron images at the Keck I telescope of the circumstellar dust emission from L2 Pup, one of the nearest (D = 61 pc) mass-losing, pulsating, red giants that has a substantial infrared excess. We propose that the wind may be driven by the stellar pulsations with radiation pressure on dust being relatively unimportant, as described in some recent calculations. L2 Pup may serve as the prototype of this phase of stellar evolution where it could lose about 15% of its initial main sequence mass.Comment: ApJ, in pres

Gaia Data Release 2: All-sky classification of high-amplitude pulsating stars

Out of the 1.69 billion sources in the Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2), more than half a million are published with photometric time series that exhibit light variations during 22 months of observation. An all-sky classification of common high-amplitude pulsators (Cepheids, long-period variables, Delta Scuti / SX Phoenicis, and RR Lyrae stars) is provided for stars with brightness variations greater than 0.1 mag in the G band. A semi-supervised classification approach was employed, firstly training multi-stage Random Forest classifiers with sources of known types in the literature, followed by a preliminary classification of the Gaia data and a second training phase that included a selection of the first classification results to improve the representation of some classes, before the application of the improved classifiers to the Gaia data. Dedicated validation classifiers were used to reduce the level of contamination in the published results. A relevant fraction of objects were not yet sufficiently sampled for reliable Fourier series decomposition, so classifiers were based on features derived from statistics of photometric time series in the G, BP, and RP bands, as well as from some astrometric parameters. The published classification results include 195,780 RR Lyrae stars, 150,757 long-period variables, 8550 Cepheids, and 8882 Delta Scuti / SX Phoenicis stars. All of these results represent candidates, whose completeness and contamination are described as a function of variability type and classification reliability. Results are expressed in terms of class labels and classification scores, which are available in the vari_classifier_result table of the Gaia archive