Influência de reguladores de crescimento e adubação no florescimento e crescimento de Eucalyptus dunnii Maid.

A influência de reguladores de crescimento e da adubação sobre o florescimento e crescimento de Eucalyptus dunnii Maid., de cinco anos de idade, foi determinada em árvores selecionadas de um talhão experimental localizado no Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Florestas/EMBRAPA, PR. Neste, foram realizadas aplicações de ácido giberélico (GA3) na concentração de 300 mg. l -1 , cinetina a 50 mg. l -1 , combinação das concentrações de GA3 + cinetina, Ethrel a 240 mg. l -1 e 400 g de 10-30-15 (NPK) mais 10 g de micronutrientes. O florescimento não foi influenciado pelos tratamentos empregados. Entretanto, para o crescimento, verificou-se que os maiores incrementos para altura e diâmetro foram obtidos com a aplicação de GA3 + cinetina. A cinetina, isoladamente, teve um efeito negativo, enquanto que a adubação não trouxe acréscimo significativo no crescimento de E. dunnii. Com base nesses resultados, sugere-se que estudos posteriores, envolvendo outros tratamentos, sejam realizados para o estabelecimento da técnica de indução do florescimento nessa espécie

Photospheric activity, rotation, and star-planet interaction of the planet-hosting star CoRoT-6

The CoRoT satellite has recently discovered a hot Jupiter that transits across the disc of a F9V star called CoRoT-6 with a period of 8.886 days. We model the photospheric activity of the star and use the maps of the active regions to study stellar differential rotation and the star-planet interaction. We apply a maximum entropy spot model to fit the optical modulation as observed by CoRoT during a uninterrupted interval of about 140 days. Photospheric active regions are assumed to consist of spots and faculae in a fixed proportion with solar-like contrasts. Individual active regions have lifetimes up to 30-40 days. Most of them form and decay within five active longitudes whose different migration rates are attributed to the stellar differential rotation for which a lower limit of \Delta \Omega / \Omega = 0.12 \pm 0.02 is obtained. Several active regions show a maximum of activity at a longitude lagging the subplanetary point by about 200 degrees with the probability of a chance occurrence being smaller than 1 percent. Our spot modelling indicates that the photospheric activity of CoRoT-6 could be partially modulated by some kind of star-planet magnetic interaction, while an interaction related to tides is highly unlikely because of the weakness of the tidal force.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysic

Searching for star-planet magnetic interaction in CoRoT observations

Close-in massive planets interact with their host stars through tidal and magnetic mechanisms. In this paper, we review circumstantial evidence for star-planet interaction as revealed by the photospheric magnetic activity in some of the CoRoT planet-hosting stars, notably CoRoT-2, CoRoT-4, and CoRoT-6. The phenomena are discussed in the general framework of activity-induced features in stars accompanied by hot Jupiters. The theoretical mechanisms proposed to explain the activity enhancements possibly related with hot Jupiter are also briefly reviewed with an emphasis on the possible effects at photospheric level. The unique advantages of CoRoT and Kepler observations to test these models are pointed out.Comment: Invited review paper accepted by Astrophysics and Space Science, 13 pages, 5 figure

Magnetic activity in the photosphere of CoRoT-Exo-2a. Active longitudes and short-term spot cycle in a young Sun-like star

Copyright © The European Southern Observatory (ESO)Context. The space experiment CoRoT has recently detected transits by a hot Jupiter across the disc of an active G7V star (CoRoTExo-2a) that can be considered as a good proxy for the Sun at an age of approximately 0.5 Gyr. Aims. We present a spot modelling of the optical variability of the star during 142 days of uninterrupted observations performed by CoRoT with unprecedented photometric precision. Methods. We apply spot modelling approaches previously tested in the case of the Sun by modelling total solar irradiance variations, a good proxy for the optical flux variations of the Sun as a star. The best results in terms of mapping of the surface brightness inhomogeneities are obtained by means of maximum entropy regularized models. To model the light curve of CoRoT-Exo-2a, we take into account the photometric effects of both cool spots and solar-like faculae, adopting solar analogy. Results. Two active longitudes initially on opposite hemispheres are found on the photosphere of CoRoT-Exo-2a with a rotation period of 4.522 ± 0.024 days. Their separation changes by ≈80◦ during the time span of the observations. From this variation, a relative amplitude of the surface differential rotation lower than ~1 percent is estimated. Individual spots form within the active longitudes and show an angular velocity ~1 percent lower than that of the longitude pattern. The total spotted area shows a cyclic oscillation with a period of 28.9 ± 4.3 days, which is close to 10 times the synodic period of the planet as seen by the rotating active longitudes. We discuss the effects of solar-like faculae on our models, finding indications of a facular contribution to the optical flux variations of CoRoT-Exo-2a being significantly smaller than in the present Sun. Conclusions. The implications of such results for the internal rotation of CoRoT-Exo-2a are discussed, based on solar analogy. A possible magnetic star-planet interaction is suggested by the cyclic variation of the spotted area. Alternatively, the 28.9-d cycle may be related to Rossby-type waves propagating in the subphotospheric layers of the star

Rotation of planet-harbouring stars

The rotation rate of a star has important implications for the detectability, characterisation and stability of any planets that may be orbiting it. This chapter gives a brief overview of stellar rotation before describing the methods used to measure the rotation periods of planet host stars, the factors affecting the evolution of a star's rotation rate, stellar age estimates based on rotation, and an overview of the observed trends in the rotation properties of stars with planets.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures: Invited review to appear in 'Handbook of Exoplanets', Springer Reference Works, edited by Hans J. Deeg and Juan Antonio Belmont

New Suns in the Cosmos II: differential rotation in Kepler Sun-like stars

The present study reports the discovery of Sun-like stars, namely main-sequence stars with T_eff, log g and rotation periods P_rot similar to solar values, presenting evidence of surface differential rotation (DR). An autocorrelation of the time series was used to select stars presenting photometric signal stability from a sample of 881 stars with light curves collected by the Kepler space-borne telescope, in which we have identified 17 stars with stable signals. A simple two-spot model together with a Bayesian information criterion were applied to these stars in the search for indications of DR; in addition, for all 17 stars, it was possible to compute the spot rotation period P, the mean values of the individual spot rotation periods and their respective colatitudes, and the relative amplitude of the DR

Southern African Large Telescope Spectroscopy of BL Lacs for the CTA project

In the last two decades, very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy has reached maturity: over 200 sources have been detected, both Galactic and extragalactic, by ground-based experiments. At present, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) make up about 40% of the more than 200 sources detected at very high energies with ground-based telescopes, the majority of which are blazars, i.e. their jets are closely aligned with the line of sight to Earth and three quarters of which are classified as high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects. One challenge to studies of the cosmological evolution of BL Lacs is the difficulty of obtaining redshifts from their nearly featureless, continuum-dominated spectra. It is expected that a significant fraction of the AGN to be detected with the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory will have no spectroscopic redshifts, compromising the reliability of BL Lac population studies, particularly of their cosmic evolution. We started an effort in 2019 to measure the redshifts of a large fraction of the AGN that are likely to be detected with CTA, using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). In this contribution, we present two results from an on-going SALT program focused on the determination of BL Lac object redshifts that will be relevant for the CTA observatory