1,153 research outputs found
Transient jets in V617 Sagittarii
Some of the luminous Compact Binary Supersoft X-Ray sources (CBSS) have shown
indications of jets, also called satellites due to their appearance in the
spectra. In V Sagittae (V Sge) stars, the galactic counterparts of the CBSS,
such features have been reported only for WX Cen. If V Sge stars are indeed the
analogs of CBSS, one may expect transient jet emission in other objects of this
class. Spectroscopic observations of the V Sge star V617 Sgr have been made,
both at high photometric state and at decline. We show that V617 Sgr presents
Halpha satellites at high photometric state with velocities of +/-780 km/s.
This feature confirms, once more, the CBSS nature of the V Sge stars, however
the details of the spectral characteristics also suggest that the two groups of
stars display some intrinsic spectroscopic differences, which are likely to be
due to a selection effect related to chemical abundance.Comment: Four pages, accepted to be published as a Letter in A&
Stellar archeology of the nearby LINER galaxies NGC 4579 and NGC 4736
Stellar archeology of nearby LINER galaxies may reveal if there is a stellar
young population that may be responsible for the LINER phenomenon. We show
results for the classical LINER galaxies NGC 4579 and NGC 4736 and find no
evidence of such populations.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the IAU
Symposium no. 26
The nature of the LINER in the galaxy NGC 404
NGC 404, at a distance of 3.4 Mpc, is the nearest S0 galaxy. This galaxy
harbors a LINER; however, since the spectrum does not show a broad H{\alpha}
emission, it is not certain that this LINER is a low luminosity AGN and its
nature is still an open question. HST observations show the existence of
stellar populations with an age of 3 x 10^8 years years in the galactic bulge
and with an age of 6-15 x 10^9 years in the galactic disk. In this work, we
present an analysis of the data cube of NGC 404 obtained with the IFU (Integral
Field Unity) of the GMOS (Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph) on the Gemini North
telescope.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figure
Mapping low and high density clouds in astrophysical nebulae by imaging forbidden line emission
Emission line ratios have been essential for determining physical parameters
such as gas temperature and density in astrophysical gaseous nebulae. With the
advent of panoramic spectroscopic devices, images of regions with emission
lines related to these physical parameters can, in principle, also be produced.
We show that, with observations from modern instruments, it is possible to
transform images taken from density sensitive forbidden lines into images of
emission from high and low-density clouds by applying a transformation matrix.
In order to achieve this, images of the pairs of density sensitive lines as
well as the adjacent continuum have to be observed and combined. We have
computed the critical densities for a series of pairs of lines in the infrared,
optical, ultraviolet and X-rays bands, and calculated the pair line intensity
ratios in the high and low-density limit using a 4 and 5 level atom
approximation. In order to illustrate the method we applied it to GMOS-IFU data
of two galactic nuclei. We conclude that this method provides new information
of astrophysical interest, especially for mapping low and high-density clouds;
for this reason we call it "the ld/hd imaging method".Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication on MNRA
WR 7a: a V Sagittae or a qWR star?
The star WR 7a, also known as SPH 2, has a spectrum that resembles that of V
Sagittae stars although no O VI emission has been reported. The Temporal
Variance Spectrum - TVS - analysis of our data shows weak but strongly variable
emission of O VI lines which is below the noise level in the intensity
spectrum. Contrary to what is seen in V Sagittae stars, optical photometric
monitoring shows very little, if any, flickering. We found evidence of periodic
variability. The most likely photometric period is P(phot) = 0.227(14) d, while
radial velocities suggest a period of P(spec) = 0.204(13) d. One-day aliases of
these periods can not be ruled out. We call attention to similarities with HD
45166 and DI Cru (= WR 46), where multiple periods are present. They may be
associated to the binary motion or to non-radial oscillations. In contrast to a
previous conclusion by Pereira et al. (1998), we show that WR 7a contains
hydrogen. The spectrum of the primary star seems to be detectable as the N V
4604A absorption line is visible. If so, it means that the wind is optically
thin in the continuum and that it is likely to be a helium main sequence star.
Given the similarity to HD 45166, we suggests that WR 7a may be a qWR - quasi
Wolf-Rayet - star. Its classification is WN4h/CE in the Smith et al. (1996)
three dimensional classification system.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, preprint of an article accepted for publication
in Monthly Notices of The Royal Astronomical Societ
Assisted stellar suicide in V617 Sgr
V617 Sgr is a V Sagittae star - a group of binaries thought to be the
galactic counterparts of the Compact Binary Supersoft X-ray Sources - CBSS. To
check this hypothesis, we measured the time derivative of its orbital period.
Observed timings of eclipse minima spanning over 30,000 orbital cycles are
presented. We found that the orbital period evolves quite rapidly: P/Pdot = 1.1
x 10^{6} years. This is consistent with the idea that V617 Sgr is a wind driven
accretion supersoft source. As the binary system evolves with a time-scale of
about one million years, which is extremely short for a low mass evolved
binary, it is likely that the system will soon end either by having its
secondary completely evaporated or by the primary exploding as a supernova of
type Ia.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in A&A Letter
PCA Tomography and its application to nearby galactic nuclei
With the development of modern technologies such as IFUs, it is possible to
obtain data cubes in which one produces images with spectral resolution. To
extract information from them can be quite complex, and hence the development
of new methods of data analysis is desirable. We briefly describe a method of
analysis of data cubes (data from single field observations, containing two
spatial and one spectral dimension) that uses Principal Component Analysis
(PCA) to express the data in the form of reduced dimensionality, facilitating
efficient information extraction from very large data sets. We applied the
method, for illustration purpose, to the central region of the low ionization
nuclear emission region (LINER) galaxy NGC 4736, and demonstrate that it has a
type 1 active nucleus, not known before. Furthermore, we show that it is
displaced from the centre of its stellar bulge.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, to be published in the Proceedings of the
IAU Symposium no. 26
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