5,243 research outputs found
Prospects for the Characterization and Confirmation of Transiting Exoplanets via the Rossiter-McLaughlin Effect
The Rossiter-McLaughlin (RM) effect is the distortion of stellar spectral
lines that occurs during eclipses or transits, due to stellar rotation. We
assess the future prospects for using the RM effect to measure the alignment of
planetary orbits with the spin axes of their parent stars, and to confirm
exoplanetary transits. We compute the achievable accuracy for the parameters of
interest, in general and for the 5 known cases of transiting exoplanets with
bright host stars. We determine the requirements for detecting the effects of
differential rotation. For transiting planets with small masses or long periods
(as will be detected by forthcoming satellite missions), the velocity anomaly
produced by the RM effect can be much larger than the orbital velocity of the
star. For a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star found
by the Kepler mission, it will be difficult to use the RM effect to confirm
transits with current instruments, but it still may be easier than measuring
the spectroscopic orbit.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, one table. Minor changes. Accepted to ApJ, to
appear in the Jan 20, 2007 issue (v655
The Orbital Light Curve of Aquila X-1
We obtained R- and I-band CCD photometry of the soft X-ray transient/neutron-
star binary Aql X-1 in 1998 June while it was at quiescence. We find that its
light curve is dominated by ellipsoidal variations, although the ellipsoidal
variations are severely distorted and have unequal maxima. After we correct for
the contaminating flux from a field star located only 0.46" away, the
peak-to-peak amplitude of the modulation is ~0.25 mag in the R band, which
requires the orbital inclination to be greater than 36 degrees. The orbital
period we measure is consistent with the 18.95 h period measured by Chevalier &
Ilovaisky (1998). During its outbursts the light curve of Aql X-1 becomes
single humped. The outburst light curve observed by Garcia et al. (1999) agrees
in phase with our quiescent light curve. We show that the single humped
variation is caused by a ``reflection effect,'' that is, by heating of the side
of the secondary star facing towards the neutron star.Comment: 18 manuscript pages, 7 figures; accepted by A
Spanning Trees on Lattices and Integration Identities
For a lattice with vertices and dimension equal or higher
than two, the number of spanning trees grows asymptotically
as in the thermodynamic limit. We present exact integral
expressions for the asymptotic growth constant for spanning trees
on several lattices. By taking different unit cells in the calculation, many
integration identities can be obtained. We also give on the
homeomorphic expansion of -regular lattices with vertices inserted on
each edge.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
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