4,035 research outputs found
Kepler super-flare stars: what are they?
The Kepler mission has led to the serendipitous discovery of a significant
number of `super flares' - white light flares with energies between 10^33 erg
and 10^36 erg - on solar-type stars. It has been speculated that these could be
`freak' events that might happen on the Sun, too. We have started a programme
to study the nature of the stars on which these super flares have been
observed. Here we present high-resolution spectroscopy of 11 of these stars and
discuss our results. We find that several of these stars are very young,
fast-rotating stars where high levels of stellar activity can be expected, but
for some other stars we do not find a straightforward explanation for the
occurrence of super flares.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 9 pages, 4 figure
Doppler imaging an X-ray flare on the ultrafast rotator BO Mic - A contemporaneous multiwavelength study using XMM-Newton and VLT
We present an analysis of contemporaneous photospheric, chromospheric and
coronal structures on the highly active K-dwarf star BO Mic (Speedy Mic). We
localize a moderate flare in the stellar atmosphere and study its energetics,
size and thermal behaviour. The analysis is based on strictly simultaneous
X-ray, UV- and optical observations carried out by XMM-Newton and the VLT. We
use Doppler imaging and related methods for the localization of features. Based
on X-ray spectroscopy we study the the coronal plasma in and outside the flare.
The flare emits in X-rays and UV, but is not detected in white light; it is
located at intermediate latitude between an extended spot group and the weakly
spotted pole. We estimate its height below 0.4 stellar radii making it clearly
distinct in longitude and height from the prominences found about two stellar
radii above the surface. While BO Mic's photospheric brightness is modulated
due to extended starspots, neither the chromospheric nor the X-ray emission
show a pronounced rotational modulation.Comment: Accepted by A&
A planetary eclipse map of CoRoT-2a. Comprehensive lightcurve modeling combining rotational-modulation and transits
We analyze the surface structure of the planet host star CoRoT-2a using a
consistent model for both the `global' (i.e., rotationally modulated)
lightcurve and the transit lightcurves, using data provided by the CoRoT
mission. Selecting a time interval covering two stellar rotations and six
transits of the planetary companion CoRoT-2b, we adopt a `strip' model of the
surface to reproduce the photometric modulation inside and outside the transits
simultaneously. Our reconstructions show that it is possible to achieve
appropriate fits for the entire sub-interval using a low-resolution surface
model with 36 strips. The surface reconstructions indicate that the brightness
on the eclipsed section of the stellar surface is (6 +/- 1) % lower than the
average brightness of the remaining surface. This result suggests a
concentration of stellar activity in a band around the stellar equator similar
to the behavior observed on the Sun.Comment: accepted by A&A on 12/09/200
Spectral observations of X Persei: Connection between H-alpha and X-ray emission
We present spectroscopic observations of the Be/X-ray binary X Per obtained
during the period 1999 - 2018. Using new and published data, we found that
during "disc-rise" the expansion velocity of the circumstellar disc is 0.4 -
0.7 km/s. Our results suggest that the disc radius in recent decades show
evidence of resonant truncation of the disc by resonances 10:1, 3:1, and 2:1,
while the maximum disc size is larger than the Roche lobe of the primary and
smaller than the closest approach of the neutron star. We find correlation
between equivalent width of H-alpha emission line () and the X-ray
flux, which is visible when . The
correlation is probably due to wind Roche lobe overflow.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
The center-to-limb variation across the Fraunhofer lines of HD 189733; Sampling the stellar spectrum using a transiting planet
The center-to-limb variation (CLV) describes the brightness of the stellar
disk as a function of the limb angle. Across strong absorption lines, the CLV
can vary quite significantly. We obtained a densely sampled time series of
high-resolution transit spectra of the active planet host star HD 189733 with
UVES. Using the passing planetary disk of the hot Jupiter HD 189733 b as a
probe, we study the CLV in the wings of the Ca II H and K and Na I D1 and D2
Fraunhofer lines, which are not strongly affected by activity-induced
variability. In agreement with model predictions, our analysis shows that the
wings of the studied Fraunhofer lines are limb brightened with respect to the
(quasi-)continuum. The strength of the CLV-induced effect can be on the same
order as signals found for hot Jupiter atmospheres. Therefore, a careful
treatment of the wavelength dependence of the stellar CLV in strong absorption
lines is highly relevant in the interpretation of planetary transit
spectroscopy.Comment: Accepted in A&
Time-resolved UVES observations of a stellar flare on the planet host HD 189733 during primary transit
HD 189733 is an exoplanetary system consisting of a transiting hot Jupiter
and an active K2V-type main sequence star. We aim to use VLT/UVES high
resolution echelle spectra to study a stellar flare. We have performed
simultaneous analyses of the temporal evolution in several chromospheric
stellar lines, namely, the Ca II H and K lines, Halpha, Hbeta, Hgamma, Hdelta,
Hepsilon, the Ca II infrared triplet line, and He I D3. Observations were
carried out with a time resolution of approximately 1 min for a duration of
four hours, including a complete planetary transit. We determine the energy
released during the flare in all studied chromospheric lines combined to be
about 8.7e31 erg, which puts this event at the upper end of flare energies
observed on the Sun. Our analysis does not reveal any significant delay of the
flare peak observed in the Balmer and Ca II H and K lines, although we find a
clear difference in the temporal evolution of these lines. The He I D3 shows
additional absorption possibly related to the flare event. Based on the flux
released in Ca II H and K lines during the flare, we estimate the soft X-ray
flux emission to be 7e30 erg. The observed flare can be ranked as a moderate
flare on a K-type star and confirms a rather high activity level of HD 189733
host star. The cores of the studied chromospheric lines demonstrate the same
behavior and let us study the flare evolution. We demonstrate that the activity
of an exoplanet host star can play an important role in the detection of
exoplanet atmospheres, since these are frequently discovered as an additional
absorption in the line cores. A possible star-planet interaction responsible
for a flare occurrence during a transit can neither be confirmed nor ruled out.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Cluster virial expansion for nuclear matter within a quasiparticle statistical approach
Correlations in interacting many-particle systems can lead to the formation
of clusters, in particular bound states and resonances. Systematic quantum
statistical approaches allow to combine the nuclear statistical equilibrium
description (law of mass action) with mean-field concepts. A chemical picture,
which treats the clusters as distinct entities, serves as an intuitive concept
to treat the low-density limit. Within a generalized Beth-Uhlenbeck approach,
the quasiparticle virial expansion is extended to include arbitrary clusters,
where special attention must be paid to avoid inconsistencies such as double
counting. Correlations are suppressed with increasing density due to Pauli
blocking. The contribution of the continuum to the virial coefficients can be
reduced by considering clusters explicitly and introducing quasiparticle
energies. The cluster-virial expansion for nuclear matter joins known
benchmarks at low densities with those near saturation density.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 2 table
Planetary eclipse mapping of CoRoT-2a. Evolution, differential rotation, and spot migration
The lightcurve of CoRoT-2 shows substantial rotational modulation and
deformations of the planet's transit profiles caused by starspots. We
consistently model the entire lightcurve, including both rotational modulation
and transits, stretching over approximately 30 stellar rotations and 79
transits. The spot distribution and its evolution on the noneclipsed and
eclipsed surface sections are presented and analyzed, making use of the high
resolution achievable under the transit path.
We measure the average surface brightness on the eclipsed section to be
(5\pm1) % lower than on the noneclipsed section. Adopting a solar spot
contrast, the spot coverage on the entire surface reaches up to 19 % and a
maximum of almost 40 % on the eclipsed section. Features under the transit
path, i.e. close to the equator, rotate with a period close to 4.55 days.
Significantly higher rotation periods are found for features on the noneclipsed
section indicating a differential rotation of . Spotted
and unspotted regions in both surface sections concentrate on preferred
longitudes separated by roughly 180 deg.Comment: Paper accepted by A&A 17/02/2010. For a better resolution paper
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http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/EN/Ins/Per/Huber/index.htm
Amorphous ferromagnetism and re-entrant magnetic glassiness in SmMoO: new insights into the electronic phase diagram of pyrochlore molybdates
We discuss the magnetic properties of a SmMoO single
crystal as investigated by means of different experimental techniques. In the
literature, a conventional itinerant ferromagnetic state is reported for the
Mo sublattice below K. However, our results of dc
magnetometry, muon spin spectroscopy (SR) and high-harmonics magnetic
ac susceptibility unambiguously evidence highly disordered conditions in this
phase, in spite of the crystalline and chemical order. This disordered magnetic
state shares several common features with amorphous ferromagnetic alloys. This
scenario for SmMoO is supported by the anomalously high
values of the critical exponents, as mainly deduced by a scaling analysis of
our dc magnetization data and confirmed by the other techniques. Moreover,
SR detects a significant static magnetic disorder at the microscopic
scale. At the same time, the critical divergence of the third-harmonic
component of the ac magnetic susceptibility around K leads to
additional evidence towards the glassy nature of this magnetic phase. Finally,
the longitudinal relaxation of spin polarization (also supported by
results of ac susceptibility) evidences re-entrant glassy features similar to
amorphous ferromagnets.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure
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