8,041 research outputs found
Chemical Abundances from the Continuum
The calculation of solar absolute fluxes in the near-UV is revisited,
discussing in some detail recent updates in theoretical calculations of
bound-free opacity from metals. Modest changes in the abundances of elements
such as Mg and the iron-peak elements have a significant impact on the
atmospheric structure, and therefore self-consistent calculations are
necessary. With small adjustments to the solar photospheric composition, we are
able to reproduce fairly well the observed solar fluxes between 200 and 270 nm,
and between 300 and 420 nm, but find too much absorption in the 270-290 nm
window. A comparison between our reference 1D model and a 3D time-dependent
hydrodynamical simulation indicates that the continuum flux is only weakly
sensitive to 3D effects, with corrections reaching <10% in the near-UV, and <2%
in the optical.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference A
Stellar Journey, a symposium in celebration of Bengt Gustafsson's 65th
birthday, June 23-27, 2008, Uppsal
The Luminous and Carbon-Rich Supernova 2006gz: A Double Degenerate Merger?
Spectra and light curves of SN 2006gz show the strongest signature of
unburned carbon and one of the slowest fading light curves ever seen in a type
Ia event (Delta m_15 = 0.69 +/- 0.04). The early-time Si II velocity is low,
implying it was slowed by an envelope of unburned material. Our best estimate
of the luminosity implies M_V = -19.74 and the production of ~ 1.2 M_sun of
56Ni. This suggests a super-Chandrasekhar mass progenitor. A double degenerate
merger is consistent with these observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL (5 pages, 4 figures). UBVr'i' light
curves, UVOIR light curves, and spectra available at
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova/SN2006g
CLIWOC multilingual meteorological dictionary
This dictionary is the first attempt to express the wealth of archaic logbook wind force terms in a form that is comprehensible to the modern-day reader. Oliver and Kington (1970) and Lamb (1982) have drawn attention to the importance of logbooks in climatic studies, and Lamb (1991) offered a conversion scale for early eighteenth century English wind force terms, but no studies have thus far pursued the matter to any greater depth. This text attempts to make good this deficiency, and is derived from the research undertaken by the CLIWOC project1 in which British, Dutch, French and Spanish naval and merchant logbooks from the period 1750 to 1850 were used to derive a global database of climatic information. At an early stage in the project it was apparent that many of the logbook weather terms, whilst conforming to a conventional vocabulary, possessed meanings that were unclear to twenty-first century readers or had changed over time. This was particularly the case for the important element of wind force; but no special plea is entered for the evolution in nautical vocabulary, which often reflected more wide-ranging changes in the respective native languages.The key objective was to translate the archaic vocabulary of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century mariner into expressions directly comparable with the Beaufort Scale (see Appendix I). Only then could the projects scientific programme be embarked upon. This dictionary is the result of the largest undertaking into logbook studies that has yet been carried out. Several thousand logbooks from British, Dutch, French and Spanish archives were examined, and the exercise offered a unique opportunity to explore the vocabulary of the one hundred year period beginning in 1750. The logbooks from which the raw data have been abstracted range widely across the North and South Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. Only the Pacific, largely in consequence of the paucity of regular naval activity in that area, is not well represented. The range of climates encountered in this otherwise wide geographic domain gives ample opportunity for the full range of the mariners nautical weather vocabulary to be assessed, from the calms of the Equatorial regions, through the gales of the mid-latitude systems to the fearsome storms of the tropical latitudes. The Trade Winds belts, the Doldrums, the unsettled mid-latitudes, even the icy wastes of the high latitudes, are all embraced in this study. It is not here intended to pass any judgements on the climatological record of the logbooks, and this text seeks only to provide a means of understanding archaic wind force terms and, other than to indicate those items that were not commonly used, no information is given on the frequency with which different terms appeared in the logbooks. Attention is, furthermore, confined to Dutch, English, French and Spanish because these once great imperial powers were the only nations able to support wide-ranging ocean-going fleets with their attendant collections of logbooks and documents over this long period of time. The work is offered to the wider academic community in the hope that they will prove to be of as much value as it has been to the CLIWOC team
The Infrared Massive Stellar Content of M83
We present an analysis of archival Spitzer images and new ground-based and
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) near-infrared (IR) and optical images of the field
of M83 with the goal of identifying rare, dusty, evolved massive stars. We
present point source catalogs consisting of 3778 objects from
Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) Band 1 (3.6 m) and Band 2 (4.5 m), and
975 objects identified in Magellan 6.5m FourStar near-IR and
images. A combined catalog of coordinate matched near- and mid-IR point sources
yields 221 objects in the field of M83. Using this photometry we identify 185
massive evolved stellar candidates based on their location in color-magnitude
and color-color diagrams. We estimate the background contamination to our
stellar candidate lists and further classify candidates based on their
appearance in Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observations of M83. We find 49
strong candidates for massive stars which are very promising objects for
spectroscopic follow-up. Based on their location in a versus
diagram, we expect at least 24, or roughly 50%, to be confirmed as red
supergiants.Comment: 32 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Accurate fundamental parameters and distance to a massive early-type eclipsing binary in the Danks 2 cluster
We present a study of the properties of the O-type, massive eclipsing binary
2MASS J13130841-6239275 located in the outskirts of the Danks 2 cluster in the
G305 star-forming complex, using near-infrared spectroscopy from VLT/ISAAC. We
derive the masses and radii to be 24.50.9 M and 9.20.1
R for the primary and 21.70.8 M and 8.70.1
R for the secondary component. In addition, we evaluate the
sensitivity of our parameters to the choice of the spectral features used to
determine the radial velocities. Both components appear to be main-sequence
O6.5O7 type stars at an age of 5 Myr, which is in agreement with the
age of the cluster. A high visual extinction of A=11.90.1 mag is
reported, which is likely attributed to the cold molecular gas contaminating
the north-east region of the cluster. By fitting the spectral energy
distribution of the system to the available photometry, we
determine a distance to the system of 3.520.08 kpc with a precision of
2, which is the most well-determined distance to the Danks 2 cluster and
the host complex reported in the literature.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in A&
Optical observations of the luminous Type IIn Supernova 2010jl for over 900 days
The luminous Type IIn Supernova (SN) 2010jl shows strong evidence for the
interaction of the SN ejecta with dense circumstellar material (CSM). We
present observations of SN 2010jl for d after its earliest
detection, including a sequence of optical spectra ranging from to
d. We also supplement our late time spectra and the photometric
measurements in the literature with an additional epoch of new, late time
photometry. Combining available photometric and spectroscopic data, we
derive a semi-bolometric optical light curve and calculate a total radiated
energy in the optical for SN 2010jl of erg. We also
examine the evolution of the H emission line profile in detail and find
evidence for asymmetry in the profile for d that is not easily
explained by any of the proposed scenarios for this fascinating event. Finally,
we discuss the interpretations from the literature of the optical and
near-infrared light curves, and propose that the most likely explanation of
their evolution is the formation of new dust in the dense, pre-existing CSM
wind after d.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables. Full version of Table 3 is included
as an ancillary fil
Transient interference of transmission and incidence
Due to a transient quantum interference during a wavepacket collision with a
potential barrier, a particular momentum, that depends on the potential
parameters but is close to the initial average momentum, becomes suppressed.
The hole left pushes the momentum distribution outwards leading to a
significant constructive enhancement of lower and higher momenta. This is
explained in the momentum complex-plane language in terms of a saddle point and
two contiguous ``structural'' poles, which are not associated with resonances
but with incident and transmitted components of the wavefunction.Comment: 4 pages of text, 6 postscript figures, revte
Census of Self-Obscured Massive Stars in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer: Implications for Understanding the Progenitors of SN 2008S-Like Transients
A new link in the causal mapping between massive stars and potentially fatal
explosive transients opened with the 2008 discovery of the dust-obscured
progenitors of the luminous outbursts in NGC 6946 and NGC 300. Here we carry
out a systematic mid-IR photometric search for massive, luminous, self-obscured
stars in four nearby galaxies: M33, NGC 300, M81, and NGC 6946. For detection,
we use only the 3.6 micron and 4.5 micron IRAC bands, as these can still be
used for multi-epoch Spitzer surveys of nearby galaxies (=<10 Mpc). We combine
familiar PSF and aperture-photometry with an innovative application of image
subtraction to catalog the self-obscured massive stars in these galaxies. In
particular, we verify that stars analogous to the progenitors of the NGC 6946
(SN 2008S) and NGC 300 transients are truly rare in all four galaxies: their
number may be as low as ~1 per galaxy at any given moment. This result
empirically supports the idea that the dust-enshrouded phase is a very
short-lived phenomenon in the lives of many massive stars and that these
objects constitute a natural extension of the AGB sequence. We also provide
mid-IR catalogs of sources in NGC 300, M81, and NGC 6946.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 11 tables. Accepted by ApJ on April 12, 2010.
High resolution figures and full length versions of tables 6, 8 and 10 can be
accessed at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~khan/redstars
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