179 research outputs found
Deriving Iodine-free spectra for high-resolution echelle spectrographs
We describe a new method to derive clean, iodine-free spectra directly from
observations acquired using high-resolution echelle spectrographs equipped with
iodine cells. The main motivation to obtain iodine-free spectra is to use
portions of the spectrum that are superimposed with the dense forest of iodine
absorption lines, in order to retrieve lines that can be used to monitor the
magnetic activity of the star, helping to validate candidate planets. In short,
we provide a straight-forward methodology to clean the spectra by using the
forward model used to derive radial velocities, the Line Spread Function
information plus the stellar spectrum without iodine to reconstruct and
subtract the iodine spectrum from the observations. We show our results using
observations of the star Ceti acquired with the PFS, HIRES and UCLES
spectrographs, reaching an iodine-free spectrum correction at the 1% RMS
level. We additionally discuss the limitations and further applications of the
method.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in A
Neutron-Capture Nucleosynthesis in the First Stars
Recent studies suggest that metal-poor stars enhanced in carbon but
containing low levels of neutron-capture elements may have been among the first
to incorporate the nucleosynthesis products of the first generation of stars.
We have observed 16 stars with enhanced carbon or nitrogen using the MIKE
Spectrograph on the Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory and the
Tull Spectrograph on the Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory. We present
radial velocities, stellar parameters, and detailed abundance patterns for
these stars. Strontium, yttrium, zirconium, barium, europium, ytterbium, and
other heavy elements are detected. In four stars, these heavy elements appear
to have originated in some form of r-process nucleosynthesis. In one star, a
partial s-process origin is possible. The origin of the heavy elements in the
rest of the sample cannot be determined unambiguously. The presence of elements
heavier than the iron group offers further evidence that zero-metallicity
rapidly-rotating massive stars and pair instability supernovae did not
contribute substantial amounts of neutron-capture elements to the regions where
the stars in our sample formed. If the carbon- or nitrogen-enhanced metal-poor
stars with low levels of neutron-capture elements were enriched by products of
zero-metallicity supernovae only, then the presence of these heavy elements
indicates that at least one form of neutron-capture reaction operated in some
of the first stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (36 pages, 26
figures
The Great Circle Camera: A New Drift Scanning Instrument
We discuss the design, construction, and use of a new class of scanning
camera that eliminates a critical limitation of standard CCD drift-scan
observations. A standard scan, which involves no correction for the
differential drift rates and curved stellar paths across the field-of-view,
suffers from severe image degradation even when one observes at moderate
declinations. Not only does this effect limit the area of the sky over which
drift scanning is viable, but as detector sizes increase, CCD mosaics become
standard, and dome/telescope seeing improves, the area of sky for which
scanning is acceptable (image degradation \ltsim seeing) will be further
reduced unless some action is taken. By modifying the scan path (the path on
the sky traced by signal accumulated along a single CCD column) to lie along a
great circle on the sky rather than along a path of constant declination, image
degradation is minimized. In this paper, we discuss the design and
implementation of a stage that rotates and translates the CCD during a
drift-scan exposure so that the scan path is along a great circle on the sky.
Data obtained during the commissioning run of the Great Circle Camera at the
Las Campanas 1-m telescope are presented.Comment: Second attempt at a readable archival file. 7 pages (gzip'ed and
uuencoded postscript). A version of the preprint with Figures 2 and 3 can be
obtained from D. Zaritsky. Accepted for publication in PAS
The Luminosity Function of Galaxies in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey
We present the -band luminosity function for a sample of 18678 galaxies,
with average redshift , from the Las Campanas Redshift Survey. The
luminosity function may be fit by a Schechter function with , , and $\phi^* = 0.019 \pm 0.001 \
h^3^{-3}-23.0 \leq M - 5 \log h \leq -17.5b_J \approx 20b_J \approx 20\alpha = -0.7\alpha = -1W_{\lambda} = 5\alphaM^* =
-20.03 \pm 0.03 + 5 \log h\alpha = -0.9 \pm 0.1M^* = -20.22 \pm 0.02 + 5 \log h\alpha = -0.3
\pm 0.1$.
(abridged abstract)Comment: 41 pages, including 13 postscript figures, uses AASTEX v4.0 style
files. Important clarification of R-band definition, plus correction of
luminosity densities and updated references. Main conclusions unchanged.
Final version to appear in Ap
A Search for Stars of Very Low Metal Abundance. VI. Detailed Abundances of 313 Metal-Poor Stars
We present radial velocities, equivalent widths, model atmosphere parameters,
and abundances or upper limits for 53 species of 48 elements derived from high
resolution optical spectroscopy of 313 metal-poor stars. A majority of these
stars were selected from the metal-poor candidates of the HK Survey of Beers,
Preston, and Shectman. We derive detailed abundances for 61% of these stars for
the first time. Spectra were obtained during a 10-year observing campaign using
the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle spectrograph on the Magellan Telescopes at
Las Campanas Observatory, the Robert G. Tull Coude Spectrograph on the Harlan
J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory, and the High Resolution
Spectrograph on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory. We perform
a standard LTE abundance analysis using MARCS model atmospheres, and we apply
line-by-line statistical corrections to minimize systematic abundance
differences arising when different sets of lines are available for analysis. We
identify several abundance correlations with effective temperature. A
comparison with previous abundance analyses reveals significant differences in
stellar parameters, which we investigate in detail. Our metallicities are, on
average, lower by approx. 0.25 dex for red giants and approx. 0.04 dex for
subgiants. Our sample contains 19 stars with [Fe/H] < -3.5, 84 stars with
[Fe/H] < -3.0, and 210 stars with [Fe/H] < -2.5. Detailed abundances are
presented here or elsewhere for 91% of the 209 stars with [Fe/H] < -2.5 as
estimated from medium resolution spectroscopy by Beers, Preston, and Shectman.
We will discuss the interpretation of these abundances in subsequent papers.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. 60 pages, 59
figures, 18 tables. Machine-readable versions of the long tables can be found
in the ancillary data file
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