561 research outputs found
Measuring the Upper End of the Initial Mass Function with Supernovae
Supernovae arise from progenitor stars occupying the upper end of the initial
mass function. Their extreme brightness allows individual massive stars to be
detected at cosmic distances, lending supernovae great potential as tracers of
the upper end of the IMF and its evolution. Exploiting this potential requires
progress in many areas of supernova science. These include understanding the
progenitor masses that produce various types of supernovae and accurately
characterizing the supernova outburst and the environment in which it was
produced. I present some preliminary work identifying the environmental
conditions that produce the most luminous supernovae, believed to arise from
stars with masses greater than 100 M_sun. I illustrate that the presence of
these extreme supernovae in small star-forming dwarfs can be used to test our
understanding of the upper end of the IMF.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; to appear in the proceedings of the conference
`UP: Have Observations Revealed a Variable Upper End of the Initial Mass
Function?', ASP Conference Serie
The Peculiar Velocities of Local Type Ia Supernovae and their Impact on Cosmology
We quantify the effect of supernova Type Ia peculiar velocities on the
derivation of cosmological parameters. The published distant and local Ia SNe
used for the Supernova Legacy Survey first-year cosmology report form the
sample for this study. While previous work has assumed that the local SNe are
at rest in the CMB frame (the No Flow assumption), we test this assumption by
applying peculiar velocity corrections to the local SNe using three different
flow models. The models are based on the IRAS PSCz galaxy redshift survey, have
varying beta = Omega_m^0.6/b, and reproduce the Local Group motion in the CMB
frame. These datasets are then fit for w, Omega_m, and Omega_Lambda using
flatness or LambdaCDM and a BAO prior. The chi^2 statistic is used to examine
the effect of the velocity corrections on the quality of the fits. The most
favored model is the beta=0.5 model, which produces a fit significantly better
than the No Flow assumption, consistent with previous peculiar velocity
studies. By comparing the No Flow assumption with the favored models we derive
the largest potential systematic error in w caused by ignoring peculiar
velocities to be Delta w = +0.04. For Omega_Lambda, the potential error is
Delta Omega_Lambda = -0.04 and for Omega_m, the potential error is Delta
Omega_m < +0.01. The favored flow model (beta=0.5) produces the following
cosmological parameters: w = -1.08 (+0.09,-0.08), Omega_m = 0.27 (+0.02,-0.02)
assuming a flat cosmology, and Omega_Lambda = 0.80 (+0.08,-0.07) and Omega_m =
0.27 (+0.02,-0.02) for a w = -1 (LambdaCDM) cosmology.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Discovery of a Magnetic DZ White Dwarf with Zeeman-Split Lines of Heavy Elements
A spectroscopic survey of previously-unstudied Luyten Half Second proper
motion stars has resulted in the discoveries of two new cool magnetic white
dwarfs. One (LHS 2273) is a routine DA star, T= 6,500K, with Zeeman-split H
alpha and H beta, for which a simple model suggests a polar field strength of
18.5 MG viewed close to equator-on. However, the white dwarf LHS 2534 proves to
be the first magnetic DZ showing Zeeman-split Na I and Mg I components, as well
as Ca I and Ca II lines for which Zeeman components are blended. The Na I
splittings result in a mean surface field strength estimate of 1.92 MG. Apart
from the magnetic field, LHS 2534 is one of the most heavily-blanketed and
coolest DZ white dwarfs at T ~ 6,000K.Comment: 7 pages, Astrophysical Journal (Letters), in pres
The FLASHES Survey I: Integral Field Spectroscopy of the CGM around 48 QSOs
We present the pilot study component of the Fluorescent Lyman-Alpha
Structures in High-z Environments (FLASHES) Survey; the largest integral-field
spectroscopy survey to date of the circumgalactic medium at . We
observed 48 quasar fields between 2015 and 2018 with the Palomar Cosmic Web
Imager (Matuszewski et al. 2010). Extended HI Lyman- emission
is discovered around 42/48 of the observed quasars, ranging in projected,
flux-weighted radius from 21-71 proper kiloparsecs (pkpc), with 26 nebulae
exceeding in effective diameter. The circularly averaged
surface brightness radial profile peaks at a maximum of
( adjusted for
cosmological dimming) and luminosities range from
to
. The emission appears to have a highly
eccentric morphology and a maximum covering factor of ( for giant
nebulae). On average, the nebular spectra are red-shifted with respect to both
the systemic redshift and Ly peak of the quasar spectrum. The
integrated spectra of the nebulae mostly have single or double-peaked line
shapes with global dispersions ranging from to
, though the individual (Gaussian) components of lines
with complex shapes mostly appear to have dispersions
, and the flux-weighted velocity centroids of the lines
vary by thousands of with respect to the systemic QSO
redshifts. Finally, the root-mean-square velocities of the nebulae are found to
be consistent with gravitational motions expected in dark matter halos of mass
. We compare these results to existing
surveys at both higher and lower redshift
GALEX observations of quasar variability in the ultraviolet
Using archival observations recorded over a 5+ year timeframe with the NASA
Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite, we present a study of the
ultraviolet (UV) variability of 4360 quasars of redshifts up to z=2.5 that have
optical counterparts in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR5 spectroscopic catalog.
The observed changes in both the far UV (FUV: 1350-1785A) and near UV (NUV:
1770-2830A) AB magnitudes as a function of time may help differentiate between
models of the emission mechanisms thought to operate in these active galaxies.
A list of NUV and FUV variable quasars was derived from the UV light-curves of
sources with 5 or more observational visits by GALEX that spanned a time-frame
greater than 3 months. By measuring the error in the derived mean UV magnitude
from the series of GALEX observations for each source, quasars whose UV
variability was greater than the 3-sigma variance from the mean observed value
were deemed to be (intrinsically) UV variable. This conservative selection
criterion (which was applied to both FUV and NUV observations) resulted in
identifying 550 NUV and 371 FUV quasars as being statistically significant UV
variable objects.Comment: A&A Accepted, spelling of author's name corrected (Neill
Three newly-discovered M-dwarf companions of Solar Neighbourhood stars
We present low-resolution spectroscopy of newly-discovered candidate
companions to three stars in the Solar Neighbourhood. All three companions are
M dwarfs, with spectral types ranging from M4 to M9.5. In two cases, G85-55`B'
(M6) and G87-9`B' (M4), we have circumstantial evidence from spectroscopy,
photometry and limited astrometry that the systems are physical binaries; in
the third, G216-7B (M9.5), comparison of POSS II IIIaF plate material and the
2MASS image indicates common proper motion. The primary star in this system,
G216-7A (M0), appears itself to be an unresolved, nearly equal-mass binary. All
three low-mass companions are highly likely to be stellar in nature, although
G216-7B lies very close to the hydrogen-burning limit.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASP; 21 pages, 6 figure
The Extreme Hosts of Extreme Supernovae
We use GALEX ultraviolet (UV) and optical integrated photometry of the hosts of 17 luminous supernovae (LSNe, having peak M_V 100 M_☉), by appearing in low-SFR hosts, are potential tests for theories of the initial mass function that limit the maximum mass of a star based on the SFR
Deep GALEX UV Survey of the Kepler Field. I. Point Source Catalog
We report observations of a deep near-ultraviolet (NUV) survey of the Kepler field made in 2012 with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Complete All-Sky UV Survey Extension (CAUSE). The GALEX-CAUSE Kepler survey (GCK) covers 104 square degrees of the Kepler field and reaches a limiting magnitude of NUV ~ 22.6 at 3σ. Analysis of the GCK survey has yielded a catalog of 669,928 NUV sources, of which 475,164 are cross-matched with stars in the Kepler Input Catalog. Approximately 327 of 451 confirmed exoplanet host stars and 2614 of 4696 candidate exoplanet host stars identified by Kepler have NUV photometry in the GCK survey. The GCK catalog should enable the identification and characterization of UV-excess stars in the Kepler field (young solar-type and low-mass stars, chromospherically active binaries, white dwarfs, horizontal branch stars, etc.), and elucidation of various astrophysics problems related to the stars and planetary systems in the Kepler field
The Inter-eruption Timescale of Classical Novae from Expansion of the Z Camelopardalis Shell
The dwarf nova Z Camelopardalis is surrounded by the largest known classical nova shell. This shell demonstrates that at least some dwarf novae must have undergone classical nova eruptions in the past, and that at least some classical novae become dwarf novae long after their nova thermonuclear outbursts. The current size of the shell, its known distance, and the largest observed nova ejection velocity set a lower limit to the time since Z Cam's last outburst of 220 years. The radius of the brightest part of Z Cam's shell is currently ~880 arcsec. No expansion of the radius of the brightest part of the ejecta was detected, with an upper limit of ≤0.17 arcsec yr^(–1). This suggests that the last Z Cam eruption occurred ≥5000 years ago. However, including the important effect of deceleration as the ejecta sweeps up interstellar matter in its snowplow phase reduces the lower limit to 1300 years. This is the first strong test of the prediction of nova thermonuclear runaway theory that the interoutburst times of classical novae are longer than 1000 years. The intriguing suggestion that Z Cam was a bright nova, recorded by Chinese imperial astrologers in October-November 77 B.C.E., is consistent with our measurements. If Z Cam was indeed the nova of 77 B.C.E. we predict that its ejecta are currently expanding at 85 km s^(–1), or 0.11 arcsec yr^(–1). Detection and measurement of this rate of expansion should be possible in just a few years
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