5,920 research outputs found
HATS-1b: The First Transiting Planet Discovered by the HATSouth Survey
We report the discovery of HATS-1b, a transiting extrasolar planet orbiting
the moderately bright V=12.05 G dwarf star GSC 6652-00186, and the first planet
discovered by HATSouth, a global network of autonomous wide-field telescopes.
HATS-1b has a period P~3.4465 d, mass Mp~1.86MJ, and radius Rp~1.30RJ. The host
star has a mass of 0.99Msun, and radius of 1.04Rsun. The discovery light curve
of HATS-1b has near continuous coverage over several multi-day periods,
demonstrating the power of using a global network of telescopes to discover
transiting planets.Comment: Submitted to AJ 10 pages, 5 figures, 6 table
The central image of a gravitationally lensed quasar
A galaxy can act as a gravitational lens, producing multiple images of a
background object. Theory predicts there should be an odd number of images but,
paradoxically, almost all observed lenses have 2 or 4 images. The missing image
should be faint and appear near the galaxy's center. These ``central images''
have long been sought as probes of galactic cores too distant to resolve with
ordinary observations. There are five candidates, but in one case the third
image is not necessarily a central image, and in the others, the central
component might be a foreground source rather than a lensed image. Here we
report the most secure identification of a central image, based on radio
observations of PMN J1632-0033, one of the latter candidates. Lens models
incorporating the central image show that the mass of the lens galaxy's central
black hole is less than 2 x 10^8 M_sun, and the galaxy's surface density at the
location of the central image is more than 20,000 M_sun per square parsec, in
agreement with expectations based on observations of galaxies hundreds of times
closer to the Earth.Comment: Nature, in press [7 pp, 2 figs]. Standard media embargo applies
before publicatio
The EVIL-MC Model for Ellipsoidal Variations of Planet-Hosting Stars and Applications to the HAT-P-7 System
We present a new model for Ellipsoidal Variations Induced by a Low-Mass
Companion, the EVIL-MC model. We employ several approximations appropriate for
planetary systems to substantially increase the computational efficiency of our
model relative to more general ellipsoidal variation models and improve upon
the accuracy of simpler models. This new approach gives us a unique ability to
rapidly and accurately determine planetary system parameters. We use the
EVIL-MC model to analyze Kepler Quarter 0-2 (Q0-2) observations of the HAT-P-7
system, an F-type star orbited by a nearly Jupiter-mass companion. Our analysis
corroborates previous estimates of the planet-star mass ratio q = (1.10 +/-
0.06) x 10^(-3), and we have revised the planet's dayside brightness
temperature to 2680 +10/-20 K. We also find a large difference between the day-
and nightside planetary flux, with little nightside emission. Preliminary
dynamical+radiative modeling of the atmosphere indicates this result is
qualitatively consistent with high altitude absorption of stellar heating.
Similar analyses of Kepler and CoRoT photometry of other planets using EVIL-MC
will play a key role in providing constraints on the properties of many
extrasolar systems, especially given the limited resources for follow-up and
characterization of these systems. However, as we highlight, there are
important degeneracies between the contributions from ellipsoidal variations
and planetary emission and reflection. Consequently, for many of the hottest
and brightest Kepler and CoRoT planets, accurate estimates of the planetary
emission and reflection, diagnostic of atmospheric heat budgets, will require
accurate modeling of the photometric contribution from the stellar ellipsoidal
variation.Comment: Accepted to ApJ; minor revisions to original submission; An IDL
version of the EVIL-MC model is publicly available at
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~bjackson/idl_code/index.htm
Anomalous phonon behavior in the high temperature shape memory alloy: TiPd:Cr
Ti50 Pd50-xCrx is a high temperature shape memory alloy with a martensitic
transformation temperature strongly dependent on the Cr composition. Prior to
the transformation a premartensitic phase is present with an incommensurate
modulated cubic lattice with wave vector of q0=(0.22, 0.22, 0). The temperature
dependence of the diffuse scattering in the cubic phase is measured as a
function temperature for x=6.5, 8.5, and 10 at. %. The lattice dynamics has
been studied and reveals anomalous temperature and q-dependence of the
[110]-TA2 transverse phonon branch. The phonon linewidth is broad over the
entire Brillouin zone and increases with decreasing temperature, contrary to
the behavior expected for anharmonicity. No anomaly is observed at q0. The
results are compared with first principles calculation of the phonon structure.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figure
Quantum graphs where back-scattering is prohibited
We describe a new class of scattering matrices for quantum graphs in which
back-scattering is prohibited. We discuss some properties of quantum graphs
with these scattering matrices and explain the advantages and interest in their
study. We also provide two methods to build the vertex scattering matrices
needed for their construction.Comment: 15 page
Observation of the full 12-hour-long transit of the exoplanet HD80606b. Warm-Spitzer photometry and SOPHIE spectroscopy
We present new observations of a transit of the 111-day-period exoplanet
HD80606b. Using the Spitzer Space Telescope and its IRAC camera on the
post-cryogenic mission, we performed a 19-hour-long photometric observation of
HD80606 that covers the full transit of 13-14 January 2010. We complement this
photometric data by new spectroscopic observations that we simultaneously
performed with SOPHIE at Haute-Provence Observatory. This provides radial
velocity measurements of the first half of the transit that was previously
uncovered with spectroscopy. This new data set allows the parameters of this
singular planetary system to be significantly refined. We obtained a
planet-to-star radius ratio R_p/R_* = 0.1001 +/- 0.0006 that is slightly lower
than the one measured from previous ground observations. We detected a feature
in the Spitzer light curve that could be due to a stellar spot. We also found a
transit timing about 20 minutes earlier than the ephemeris prediction; this
could be caused by actual TTVs due to an additional body in the system or by
underestimated systematic uncertainties. The sky-projected angle between the
spin-axis of HD80606 and the normal to the planetary orbital plane is found to
be lambda = 42 +/- 8 degrees thanks to the fit of the Rossiter-McLaughlin
anomaly. This allows scenarios with aligned spin-orbit to be definitively
rejected. Over the twenty planetary systems with measured spin-orbit angles, a
few of them are misaligned; this is probably the signature of two different
evolution scenarios for misaligned and aligned systems, depending if they
experienced or not gravitational interaction with a third body. As in the case
of HD80606b, most of the planetary systems including a massive planet are
tilted; this could be the signature of a separate evolution scenario for
massive planets in comparison with Jupiter-mass planets.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&
The spin-orbit angles of the transiting exoplanets WASP-1b, WASP-24b, WASP-38b and HAT-P-8b from Rossiter-McLaughlin observations
We present observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for the transiting
exoplanet systems WASP-1, WASP-24, WASP-38 and HAT-P-8, and deduce the
orientations of the planetary orbits with respect to the host stars' rotation
axes. The planets WASP-24b, WASP-38b and HAT-P-8b appear to move in prograde
orbits and be well aligned, having sky-projected spin orbit angles consistent
with zero: {\lambda} = -4.7 \pm 4.0{\deg}, {\lambda} = 15 + 33{\deg}/-43{\deg}
and {\lambda} = -9.7 +9.0{\deg}/-7.7{\deg}, respectively. The host stars have
Teff < 6250 K and conform with the trend of cooler stars having low
obliquities. WASP-38b is a massive planet on a moderately long period,
eccentric orbit so may be expected to have a misaligned orbit given the high
obliquities measured in similar systems. However, we find no evidence for a
large spin-orbit angle. By contrast, WASP-1b joins the growing number of
misaligned systems and has an almost polar orbit, {\lambda} = -79
+4.5{\deg}/-4.3{\deg}. It is neither very massive, eccentric nor orbiting a hot
host star, and therefore does not share the properties of many other misaligned
systems.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, 13 pages, 8 tables, 6 figures. Includes revised
parameter values for WASP-38 and HAT-P-
Dielectric multilayer waveguides for TE and TM mode matching
We analyse theoretically for the first time to our knowledge the perfect
phase matching of guided TE and TM modes with a multilayer waveguide composed
of linear isotropic dielectric materials. Alongside strict investigation into
dispersion relations for multilayer systems, we give an explicit qualitative
explanation for the phenomenon of mode matching on the basis of the standard
one-dimensional homogenization technique, and discuss the minimum number of
layers and the refractive index profile for the proposed device scheme. Direct
applications of the scheme include polarization-insensitive, intermodal
dispersion-free planar propagation, efficient fibre-to-planar waveguide
coupling and, potentially, mode filtering. As a self-sufficient result, we
present compact analytical expressions for the mode dispersion in a finite,
N-period, three-layer dielectric superlattice.Comment: 13 pages with figure
- …