Debris Disks in Nearby Young Moving Groups in the ALMA Era

Many members of nearby young moving groups exhibit infrared excess attributed to circumstellar debris dust, formed via erosion of planetesimals. With their proximity and well-dated ages, these groups are excellent laboratories for studying the early evolution of debris dust and of planetesimal belts. ALMA can spatially resolve the disk emission, revealing the location and extent of these belts, putting constraints on planetesimal evolution models, and allowing us to study planet-disk interactions. While the main trends of dust evolution in debris disks are well-known, there is almost no information on the evolution of gas. During the transition from protoplanetary to debris state, even the origin of gas is dubious. Here we review the exciting new results ALMA provided by observing young debris disks, and discuss possible future research directions.Comment: To appear in "Young Stars and Planets Near the Sun", Proceedings of IAU Symposium No. 314 (Cambridge University Press), J.H. Kastner, B. Stelzer, S.A. Metchev, ed

The intermediate-mass star-forming region Lynds 1340. An optical view

We have performed an optical spectroscopic and photometric search for young stellar objects associated with the molecular cloud Lynds 1340, and examined the structure of the cloud by constructing an extinction map, based on SDSS data. The new extinction map suggests a shallow, strongly fragmented cloud, having a mass of some 3700~Msun. Longslit spectroscopic observations of the brightest stars over the area of L1340 revealed that the most massive star associated with L1340 is a B4 type, about 5 solar mass star. The new spectroscopic and photometric data of the intermediate mass members led to a revised distance of 825 (+110 /-80) pc, and revealed seven members of the young stellar population with M > 2 solar masses. Our search for H alpha emission line stars, conducted with the Wide Field Grism Spectrograph 2 on the 2.2-meter telescope of the University of Hawaii and covering a 30 arcmin x 40 arcmin area, resulted in the detection of 75 candidate low-mass pre-main sequence stars, 58 of which are new. We constructed spectral energy distributions of our target stars, based on SDSS, 2MASS, Spitzer, and WISE photometric data, derived their spectral types, extinctions, and luminosities from BVRIJ fluxes, estimated masses by means of pre-main sequence evolutionary models, and examined the disk properties utilizing the 2-24 micron interval of the spectral energy distribution. We measured the equivalent width of the H alpha lines and derived accretion rates. The optically selected sample of pre-main sequence stars has a median effective temperature of 3970 K, stellar mass 0.7 Msun, and accretion rate of 7.6 10^{-9} Msun/yr.Comment: 47 pages, 15 figures, 10 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ, typos correcte

„Pontállandósítás” az égen - milyen kvazárok alkalmasak az égi vonatkoztatási rendszer kijelölésére?

Röviden bemutatjuk a nemzetközi égi vonatkoztatási rendszert (ICRF) és összefoglaljuk, hogy miért a rádiósugárzó aktív galaxismagok (kvazárok) a legalkalmasabbak a rendszer definiálására. Szólunk a kvazárok pozíciós stabilitásáról. Megvizsgáljuk, hogy az összefüggésben lehet-e a kvazárok ezred-ívmásodperces szögskálán, nagyon hosszú bázisvonalú rádió-interferometriás (VLBI) mérésekkel megfigyelt szerkezetével

Cold CO gas in the envelopes of FU Orionis-type young eruptive stars

FUors are young stellar objects experiencing large optical outbursts due to highly enhanced accretion from the circumstellar disk onto the star. FUors are often surrounded by massive envelopes, which play a significant role in the outburst mechanism. Conversely, the subsequent eruptions might gradually clear up the obscuring envelope material and drive the protostar on its way to become a disk-only T Tauri star. Here we present an APEX $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO survey of eight southern and equatorial FUors. We measure the mass of the gaseous material surrounding our targets. We locate the source of the CO emission and derive physical parameters for the envelopes and outflows, where detected. Our results support the evolutionary scenario where FUors represent a transition phase from envelope-surrounded protostars to classical T Tauri stars.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Ap

PACS photometer calibration block analysis

The absolute stability of the PACS bolometer response over the entire mission lifetime without applying any corrections is about 0.5% (standard deviation) or about 8% peak-to-peak. This fantastic stability allows us to calibrate all scientific measurements by a fixed and time-independent response file, without using any information from the PACS internal calibration sources. However, the analysis of calibration block observations revealed clear correlations of the internal source signals with the evaporator temperature and a signal drift during the first half hour after the cooler recycling. These effects are small, but can be seen in repeated measurements of standard stars. From our analysis we established corrections for both effects which push the stability of the PACS bolometer response to about 0.2% (stdev) or 2% in the blue, 3% in the green and 5% in the red channel (peak-to-peak). After both corrections we still see a correlation of the signals with PACS FPU temperatures, possibly caused by parasitic heat influences via the Kevlar wires which connect the bolometers with the PACS Focal Plane Unit. No aging effect or degradation of the photometric system during the mission lifetime has been found.Comment: 15 pages, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronom

Long-term photometry of three active red giants in close binary systems: V2253 Oph, IT Com and IS Vir

We present and analyze long-term optical photometric measurements of the three active stars V2253 Oph, IT Com and IS Vir. All three systems are single-lined spectroscopic binaries with an early K giant as primary component but in different stages of orbital-rotational synchronization. Our photometry is supplemented by 2MASS and WISE near-IR and mid-IR magnitudes and then used to obtain more accurate effective temperatures and extinctions. For V2253 Oph and IT Com, we found their spectral energy distributions consistent with pure photospheric emission. For IS Vir, we detect a marginal mid-IR excess which hints towards a dust disk. The orbital and rotational planes of IT Com appear to be coplanar, contrary to previous findings in the literature. We apply a multiple frequency analysis technique to determine photometric periods, and possibly changes of periods, ranging from days to decades. New rotational periods of 21.55+-0.03d, 65.1+-0.3d, and 23.50+-0.04d were determined for V2253 Oph, IT Com, and IS Vir, respectively. Splitting of these periods led to tentative detections of differential surface rotations of delta P/P ~0.02 for V2253 Oph and 0.07 for IT Com. Using a time-frequency technique based on short-term Fourier transforms we present evidence of cyclic light variations of length ~10yrs for V2253 Oph and 5-6yrs for IS Vir. A single flip-flop event has been observed for IT Com of duration 2-3yrs. Its exchange of the dominant active longitude had happened close to a time of periastron passage, suggesting some response of the magnetic activity from the orbital dynamics. The 21.55-d rotational modulation of V2253 Oph showed phase coherence also with the orbital period, which is 15 times longer than the rotational period, thus also indicating a tidal feedback with the stellar magnetic activity.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted to A

Long-term evolution of FU Orionis objects at infrared wavelengths

We investigate the brightness evolution of 7 FU Orionis systems in the 1-100 micrometer wavelength range using data from the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). The ISO measurements were supplemented with 2MASS and MSX observations performed in the same years as the ISO mission (1995-98). The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) based on these data points were compared with earlier ones derived from the IRAS photometry as well as from ground-based observations carried out around the epoch 1983. In 3 cases (Z CMa, Parsamian 21, V1331 Cyg) no difference between the two epochs was seen within the measurement uncertainties. V1057 Cyg, V1515 Cyg and V1735 Cyg have become fainter at near-infrared wavelengths while V346 Nor has become slightly brighter. V1057 Cyg exhibits a similar flux change also in the mid-infrared. At lambda >= 60 micrometer most of the sources remained constant; only V346 Nor seems to fade. Our data on the long-term evolution of V1057 Cyg agree with the model predictions of Kenyon & Hartmann (1991) and Turner et al. (1997) at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths, but disagree at lambda > 25 micrometer. We discuss if this observational result at far-infrared wavelengths could be understood in the framework of the existing models.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Dense cores in the dark cloud complex LDN1188

We present a molecular line emission study of the LDN1188 dark cloud complex located in Cepheus. In this work we focused on the densest parts of the cloud and on the close neighbourhood of infrared point sources. We made ammonia mapping with the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope and identified 3 dense cores. CS(1--0), CS(2--1) and HCO$^{+}$(1--0) measurements performed with the Onsala 20\,m telescope revealed the distribution of dense molecular material. The molecular line measurements were supplemented by mapping the dust emission at 1.2\,mm in some selected directions using the IRAM 30\,m telescope. With these data we could work out a likely evolutionary sequence in this dark clould complex.Comment: YouResAstro2012 conference presentation; accepted to Astronomishen Nachrichten (25-July-2013

Magnitude-range brightness variations of overactive K giants

We study three representative, overactive spotted K giants (IL Hya, XX Tri, and DM UMa) known to exhibit V-band light variations between 0.65-1.05 mags. Our aim is to find the origin of their large brightness variation. We employ long-term phase-resolved multicolor photometry, mostly from automatic telescopes, covering 42 yr for IL Hya, 28 yr for XX Tri, and 34 yr for DM UMa. For one target, IL Hya, we present a new Doppler image from NSO data taken in late 1996. Effective temperatures for our targets are determined from all well-sampled observing epochs and are based on a V-I_C color-index calibration. The effective temperature change between the extrema of the rotational modulation for IL Hya and XX Tri is in the range 50-200 K. The bolometric flux during maximum of the rotational modulation, i.e., the least spotted states, varied by up to 39% in IL Hya and up to 54% in XX Tri over the course of our observations. We emphasize that for IL Hya this is just about half of the total luminosity variation that can be explained by the photospheric temperature (spots/faculae) changes, while for XX Tri it is even about one third. The long-term, 0.6 mag V-band variation of DM UMa is more difficult to explain because little or no B-V color index change is observed on the same timescale. Placing the three stars with their light and color variations into H-R diagrams, we find that their overall luminosities are generally too low compared to predictions from current evolutionary tracks. A change in the stellar radius due to strong and variable magnetic fields during activity cycles likely plays a role in explaining the anomalous brightness and luminosity of our three targets. At least for IL Hya, a radius change of about 9% is suggested from m_bol and T_eff, and is supported by independent vsin(i) measurements.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, accepted in A&