Fundamental Parameters of He-Weak and He-Strong Stars

We carried out low resolution spectroscopic observations in the wavelength range 3400-4700 A of 20 He-weak and 8 He-strong stars to determine their fundamental parameters by means of the Divan-Chalonge-Barbier (BCD) spectrophotometric system. For a few He-weak stars we also estimate the effective temperatures and the angular diameters by integrating absolute fluxes observed over a wide spectral range. Non-LTE model calculations are carried out to study the influence of the He/H abundance ratio on the emergent radiation of He-strong stars and on their Teff determination. We find that the effective temperatures, surface gravities and bolometric absolute magnitudes of He-weak stars estimated with the BCD system and the integrated flux method are in good agreement between each other, and they also agree with previous determinations based on several different methods. The mean discrepancy between the visual absolute magnitudes derived using the Hipparcos parallaxes and the BCD values is on average 0.3 mag for He-weak stars, while it is 0.5 mag for He-strong stars. For He-strong stars, we note that the BCD calibration, based on stars in the solar environment, leads to overestimated values of Teff. By means of model atmosphere calculations with enhanced He/H abundance ratios we show that larger He/H ratios produce smaller BD which naturally explains the Teff overestimation. We take advantage of these calculations to introduce a method to estimate the He/H abundance ratio in He-strong stars. The BD of HD 37479 suggests that the Teff of this star remains fairly constant as the star spectrum undergoes changes in the intensity of H and He absorption lines. Data for the He-strong star HD 66765 are reported for the first time.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

Calibration Observations of Fomalhaut with the VLTI

An investigation of the stability of the transfer function of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer has been carried out through observations of Fomalhaut over a wide range in hour angle. No significant variation in the transfer function was found for the zenith angle range 5-70 degrees. The projected baseline varied between 139.7 m and 49.8 m during the observations and, as an integral part of the determination of the transfer function, a new accurate limb-darkened angular diameter for Fomalhaut has been established. This has led to improved values for the emergent flux, effective temperature, radius and luminosity.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, uses an.cls, accepted for publication in Astron. Nach

Infrared Imaging of SDSS Quasars: Implications for the Quasar K correction

We have imaged 45 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with redshifts 1.85 < z < 4.26 in JHKs with the KPNO SQIID imager. By combining these data with optical magnitudes from the SDSS we have computed the restframe optical spectral indices of this sample and investigate their relation to quasar redshift. We find a mean spectral index of = -0.55+/-0.42 with a large spread in values. We also find possible evolution of the form alpha_o = (0.148+/-0.068)z - (0.964+/-0.200)$ in the luminosity range -28.0 < M_i < -26.5. Such evolution suggests changes in the accretion process in quasars with time and is shown to have an effect on computed quasar luminosity functions.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted to the Astronomical Journa

New limb-darkening coefficients and synthetic photometry for model-atmosphere grids at Galactic, LMC, and SMC abundances

New grids of Atlas9 models have been calculated using revised convection parameters and updated opacity-distribution functions, for chemical compositions intended to be representative of solar, [M/H] = +0.3, +0.5, Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) abundances. The grids cover T(eff) = 3.5-50kK, from log(g) = 5.0 to the effective Eddington limit. Limb-darkening coefficients and synthetic photometry are presented in the UBVRIJHKLM, uvby, ugriz, WFCAM, Hipparcos/Tycho, and Kepler passbands for these models, and for Castelli's comparable `new-ODF' grids. Flux distributions are given for the new models. The sensitivity of limb-darkening coefficients to the adopted physics is illustrated

Circumstellar material in the Vega inner system revealed by CHARA/FLUOR

Only a handful of debris disks have been imaged up to now. Due to the need for high dynamic range and high angular resolution, very little is known about the inner planetary region, where small amounts of warm dust are expected to be found. We investigate the close neighbourhood of Vega with the help of infrared stellar interferometry and estimate the integrated K-band flux originating from the central 8 AU of the debris disk. We performed precise visibility measurements at both short (~30 m) and long (~150 m) baselines with the FLUOR beam-combiner installed at the CHARA Array (Mt Wilson, California) in order to separately resolve the emissions from the extended debris disk (short baselines) and from the stellar photosphere (long baselines). After revising Vega's K-band angular diameter (3.202+/-0.005 mas), we show that a significant deficit in squared visibility (1.88+/-0.34%) is detected at short baselines with respect to the best-fit uniform disk stellar model. This deficit can be either attributed to the presence of a low-mass stellar companion around Vega, or as the signature of the thermal and scattered emissions from the debris disk. We show that the presence of a close companion is highly unlikely, as well as other possible perturbations (stellar morphology, calibration), and deduce that we have most probably detected the presence of dust in the close neighbourhood of Vega. The resulting flux ratio between the stellar photosphere and the debris disk amounts to 1.29+/-0.19% within the FLUOR field-of-view (~7.8 AU). Finally, we complement our K-band study with archival photometric and interferometric data in order to evaluate the main physical properties of the inner dust disk. The inferred properties suggest that the Vega system could be currently undergoing major dynamical perturbations.Comment: A&A, accepted -- Press release available at http://www2.cnrs.fr/presse/communique/848.ht

Radiative diffusion in stellar atmospheres: diffusion velocities

The present paper addresses some of the problems in the buildup of element stratification in stellar magnetic atmospheres due to microscopic diffusion, in particular the redistribution of momentum among the various ionisation stages of a given element and the calculation of diffusion velocities in the presence of inclined magnetic fields. We have considerably modified and extended our CARAT code to provide radiative accelerations, not only from bound-bound but also from bound-free transitions. In addition, our code now computes ionisation and recombination rates, both radiative and collisional. These rates are used in calculating the redistribution of momentum among the various ionisation stages of the chemical elements. A careful comparison shows that the two different theoretical approaches to redistribution that are presently available lead to widely discrepant results for some chemical elements, especially in the magnetic case. In the absence of a fully satisfactory theory of redistribution, we propose to use the geometrical mean of the radiative accelerations from both methods. Diffusion velocities have been calculated for 28 chemical elements in a T_eff = 12000K, log g = 4.00 stellar magnetic atmosphere with solar abundances. Velocities and resulting element fluxes in magnetic fields are discussed; rates of abundance changes are analysed for systematic trends with field strength and field direction. Special consideration is given to the Si case and our results are confronted in detail with well-known results derived more than two decades ago.Comment: To be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (accepted 02/03/2006