919 research outputs found
A New Method for Characterizing Very Low-Mass Companions with Low-Resolution Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
We present a new and computationally efficient method for characterizing very low-mass companions using low-resolution (R ∼ 30), near-infrared (YJH) spectra from high-contrast imaging campaigns with integral field spectrograph (IFS) units. We conduct a detailed quantitative comparison of the efficacy of this method through tests on simulated data comparable in spectral coverage and resolution to the currently operating direct-imaging systems around the world. In particular, we simulate Project 1640 data as an example of the use, accuracy, and precision of this technique. We present results from comparing simulated spectra of M, L, and T dwarfs with a large and finely sampled grid of synthetic spectra using Markov-chain Monte Carlo techniques. We determine the precision and accuracy of effective temperature and surface gravity inferred from fits to PHOENIX dusty and cond, which we find reproduce the low-resolution spectra of all objects within the adopted flux uncertainties. Uncertainties in effective temperature decrease from ± 100–500 K for M dwarfs to as small as ± 30 K for some L and T spectral types. Surface gravity is constrained to within 0.2–0.4 dex for mid-L through T dwarfs, but uncertainties are as large as 1.0 dex or more for M dwarfs. Results for effective temperature from low-resolution YJH spectra generally match predictions from published spectral type-temperature relationships except for L–T transition objects and young objects. Single-band spectra (i.e., narrower wavelength coverage) result in larger uncertainties and often discrepant results, suggesting that high-contrast IFS observing campaigns can compensate for low spectral resolution by expanding the wavelength coverage for reliable characterization of detected companions. We find that S/N ∼ 10 is sufficient to characterize temperature and gravity as well as possible given the model grid. Most relevant for direct-imaging campaigns targeting young primary stars is our finding that low-resolution near-infrared spectra of known young objects, compared to field objects of the same spectral type, result in similar best-fit surface gravities but lower effective temperatures, highlighting the need for better observational and theoretical understanding of the entangled effects of temperature, gravity, and dust on near-infrared spectra in cool low-gravity atmospheres
The Solar-System-Scale Disk Around AB Aurigae
The young star AB Aurigae is surrounded by a complex combination of gas-rich
and dust dominated structures. The inner disk which has not been studied
previously at sufficient resolution and imaging dynamic range seems to contain
very little gas inside a radius of least 130 astronomical units (AU) from the
star. Using adaptive-optics coronagraphy and polarimetry we have imaged the
dust in an annulus between 43 and 302 AU from the star, a region never seen
before. An azimuthal gap in an annulus of dust at a radius of 102 AU, along
with a clearing at closer radii inside this annulus, suggests the formation of
at least one small body at an orbital distance of about 100 AU. This structure
seems consistent with crude models of mean motion resonances, or accumulation
of material at two of the Lagrange points relative to the putative object and
the star. We also report a low significance detection of a point source in this
outer annulus of dust. This source may be an overdensity in the disk due to
dust accreting onto an unseen companion. An alternate interpretation suggests
that the object's mass is between 5 and 37 times the mass of Jupiter. The
results have implications for circumstellar disk dynamics and planet formation.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical
Journal, V. 680, June 10, 200
Ideal Stars and General Relativity
We study a system of differential equations that governs the distribution of
matter in the theory of General Relativity. The new element in this paper is
the use of a dynamical action principle that includes all the degrees of
freedom, matter as well as metric. The matter lagrangian defines a relativistic
version of non-viscous, isentropic hydrodynamics. The matter fields are a
scalar density and a velocity potential; the conventional, four-vector velocity
field is replaced by the gradient of the potential and its scale is fixed by
one of the eulerian equations of motion, an innovation that significantly
affects the imposition of boundary conditions. If the density is integrable at
infinity, then the metric approaches the Schwarzschild metric at large
distances. There are stars without boundary and with finite total mass; the
metric shows rapid variation in the neighbourhood of the Schwarzschild radius
and there is a very small core where a singularity indicates that the gas laws
break down. For stars with boundary there emerges a new, critical relation
between the radius and the gravitational mass, a consequence of the stronger
boundary conditions. Tentative applications are suggested, to certain Red
Giants, and to neutron stars, but the investigation reported here was limited
to polytropic equations of state. Comparison with the results of Oppenheimer
and Volkoff on neutron cores shows a close agreement of numerical results.
However, in the model the boundary of the star is fixed uniquely by the
required matching of the interior metric to the external Schwarzschild metric,
which is not the case in the traditional approach.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure
Astrometric and Photometric Measurements of Binary Stars with Adaptive Optics: Observations from 2002
The adaptive optics system at the 3.6 m AEOS telescope was used to measure
the astrometry and differential magnitude in I-band of 56 binary stars in 2002.
The astrometric measurements will be of use for future orbital determination,
and the photometric measurements will be of use in estimating the spectral
types of the component stars. Two candidate companions were detected, but
neither is likely to be gravitationally bound. Nine systems had not been
observed in over 40 years. Eight of these are shown to share common proper
motion, while HD 182352 is shown to be a background star. One of the two
components of the HD 114378 (Alpha Com) is shown to be a variable star of
unknown type. In addition, 86 stars were unresolved and the full-width half
maxima of the images are presented.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, 3 Table
Region of hadron-quark mixed phase in hybrid stars
Hadron--quark mixed phase is expected in a wide region of the inner structure
of hybrid stars. However, we show that the hadron--quark mixed phase should be
restricted to a narrower region to because of the charge screening effect. The
narrow region of the mixed phase seems to explain physical phenomena of neutron
stars such as the strong magnetic field and glitch phenomena, and it would give
a new cooling curve for the neutron star.Comment: to be published in Physical Review
Constraining mass ratio and extinction in the FU Orionis binary system with infrared integral field spectroscopy
We report low resolution near infrared spectroscopic observations of the
eruptive star FU Orionis using the Integral Field Spectrograph Project 1640
installed at the Palomar Hale telescope. This work focuses on elucidating the
nature of the faint source, located 0.5" south of FU Ori, and identified in
2003 as FU Ori S. We first use our observations in conjunction with published
data to demonstrate that the two stars are indeed physically associated and
form a true binary pair. We then proceed to extract J and H band
spectro-photometry using the damped LOCI algorithm, a reduction method tailored
for high contrast science with IFS. This is the first communication reporting
the high accuracy of this technique, pioneered by the Project 1640 team, on a
faint astronomical source. We use our low resolution near infrared spectrum in
conjunction with 10.2 micron interferometric data to constrain the infrared
excess of FU Ori S. We then focus on estimating the bulk physical properties of
FU Ori S. Our models lead to estimates of an object heavily reddened, A_V
=8-12, with an effective temperature of ~ 4000-6500 K . Finally we put these
results in the context of the FU Ori N-S system and argue that our analysis
provides evidence that FU Ori S might be the more massive component of this
binary syste
Thermodynamic Properties of Holographic Multiquark and the Multiquark Star
We study thermodynamic properties of the multiquark nuclear matter. The
dependence of the equation of state on the colour charges is explored both
analytically and numerically in the limits where the baryon density is small
and large at fixed temperature between the gluon deconfinement and chiral
symmetry restoration. The gravitational stability of the hypothetical
multiquark stars are discussed using the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation.
Since the equations of state of the multiquarks can be well approximated by
different power laws for small and large density, the content of the multiquark
stars has the core and crust structure. We found that most of the mass of the
star comes from the crust region where the density is relatively small. The
mass limit of the multiquark star is determined as well as its relation to the
star radius. For typical energy density scale of ,
the converging mass and radius of the hypothetical multiquark star in the limit
of large central density are approximately solar mass and 15-27 km.
The adiabatic index and sound speed distributions of the multiquark matter in
the star are also calculated and discussed. The sound speed never exceeds the
speed of light and the multiquark matters are thus compressible even at high
density and pressure.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures, 1 table, JHEP versio
Instability of black hole formation under small pressure perturbations
We investigate here the spectrum of gravitational collapse endstates when
arbitrarily small perfect fluid pressures are introduced in the classic black
hole formation scenario as described by Oppenheimer, Snyder and Datt (OSD) [1].
This extends a previous result on tangential pressures [2] to the more
physically realistic scenario of perfect fluid collapse. The existence of
classes of pressure perturbations is shown explicitly, which has the property
that injecting any smallest pressure changes the final fate of the dynamical
collapse from a black hole to a naked singularity. It is therefore seen that
any smallest neighborhood of the OSD model, in the space of initial data,
contains collapse evolutions that go to a naked singularity outcome. This gives
an intriguing insight on the nature of naked singularity formation in
gravitational collapse.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, several modifications to match published version
on GR
An Analysis of Fundamental Waffle Mode in Early AEOS Adaptive Optics Images
Adaptive optics (AO) systems have significantly improved astronomical imaging
capabilities over the last decade, and are revolutionizing the kinds of science
possible with 4-5m class ground-based telescopes. A thorough understanding of
AO system performance at the telescope can enable new frontiers of science as
observations push AO systems to their performance limits. We look at recent
advances with wave front reconstruction (WFR) on the Advanced Electro-Optical
System (AEOS) 3.6 m telescope to show how progress made in improving WFR can be
measured directly in improved science images. We describe how a "waffle mode"
wave front error (which is not sensed by a Fried geometry Shack-Hartmann wave
front sensor) affects the AO point-spread function (PSF). We model details of
AEOS AO to simulate a PSF which matches the actual AO PSF in the I-band, and
show that while the older observed AEOS PSF contained several times more waffle
error than expected, improved WFR techniques noticeably improve AEOS AO
performance. We estimate the impact of these improved WFRs on H-band imaging at
AEOS, chosen based on the optimization of the Lyot Project near-infrared
coronagraph at this bandpass.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 1 table; to appear in PASP, August 200
Compact Stars - How Exotic Can They Be?
Strong interaction physics under extreme conditions of high temperature
and/or density is of central interest in modern nuclear physics for
experimentalists and theorists alike. In order to investigate such systems,
model approaches that include hadrons and quarks in a unified approach, will be
discussed. Special attention will be given to high-density matter as it occurs
in neutron stars. Given the current observational limits for neutron star
masses, the properties of hyperonic and hybrid stars will be determined. In
this context especially the question of the extent, to which exotic particles
like hyperons and quarks affect star masses, will be discussed.Comment: Contributon to conference "Nuclear Physics: Present and Future", held
in Boppard (Germany), May 201
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