386 research outputs found
Radial velocity measurements of a sample of K-giants with the Hobby-Eberly telescope
We present motivation and initial results of a large RV survey of K giants aimed at a detection of low-mass companions. The survey, performed with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, utilizes high resolution (60,000) spectra for high precision radial velocity measurements. The primary goal of the survey is the selection of astrometrically stable reference stars for the Extrasolar Planet Interferometric Survey key project to be carried out with the Space Interferometry Mission
Red giants from the Pennsylvania - Torun Planet Search
The main goal of the Pennsylvania - Torun Planet Search (PTPS) is detection
and characterization of planets around evolved stars using the high-accuracy
radial velocity (RV) technique. The project is performed with the 9.2 m
Hobby-Eberly Telescope. To determine stellar parameters and evolutionary status
for targets observed within the survey complete spectral analysis of all
objects is required. In this paper we present the atmospheric parameters
(effective temperatures, surface gravities, microturbulent velocities and
metallicities) of a subsample of Red Giant Clump stars using strictly
spectroscopic methods based on analysis of equivalent widths of Fe I and Fe II
lines. It is shown that our spectroscopic approach brings reliable and
consistent results.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, proceeding of the conference "New Technologies
for Probing the Diversity of Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets" (Shangai, China,
July 19-24, 2009), to appear in EPJ Web of Conference
Substellar-mass companions to the K-dwarf BD +14 4559 and the K-giants HD 240210 and BD +20 2457
We present the discovery of substellar-mass companions to three stars by the
ongoing Penn State - Toru\' n Planet Search (PTPS) conducted with the 9.2-m
Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The K2-dwarf, BD +14 4559, has a 1.5 M companion
with the orbital period of 269 days and shows a non-linear, long-term radial
velocity trend, which indicates a possible presence of another planet-mass body
in the system. The K3-giant, HD 240210, exhibits radial velocity variations
that require modeling with multiple orbits, but the available data are not yet
sufficient to do it unambiguously. A tentative, one-planet model calls for a
6.9 M planet in a 502-day orbit around the star. The most massive of the
three stars, the K2-giant, BD +20 2457, whose estimated mass is 2.81.5
M, has two companions with the respective minimum masses of 21.4 M
and 12.5 M and orbital periods of 380 and 622 days. Depending on the
unknown inclinations of the orbits, the currently very uncertain mass of the
star, and the dynamical properties of the system, it may represent the first
detection of two brown dwarf-mass companions orbiting a giant. The existence of
such objects will have consequences for the interpretation of the so-called
brown dwarf desert known to exist in the case of solar-mass stars.Comment: 28 pages, 4 tables, 10 figures. Submitted to Ap
A Planet in a 0.6-AU Orbit Around the K0 Giant HD 102272
We report the discovery of one or more planet-mass companions to the K0-giant
HD 102272 with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. In the absence of any correlation of
the observed periodicities with the standard indicators of stellar activity,
the observed radial velocity variations are most plausibly explained in terms
of a Keplerian motion of at least one planet-mass body around the star. With
the estimated stellar mass of 1.9M, the minimum mass of the confirmed
planet is 5.9M. The planet's orbit is characterized by a small but nonzero
eccentricity of =0.05 and the semi-major axis of 0.61 AU, which makes it the
most compact one discovered so far around GK-giants. This detection adds to the
existing evidence that, as predicted by theory, the minimum size of planetary
orbits around intermediate-mass giants is affected by both planet formation
processes and stellar evolution. The currently available evidence for another
planet around HD 102272 is insufficient to obtain an unambiguous two-orbit
solution.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
The Penn State - Torun Centre for Astronomy Planet Search stars. II. Lithium abundance analysis of the Red Giant Clump sample
Using the sample of 348 stars from the PennState-Torun Centre for Astronomy
Planet Search, for which uniformly determined atmospheric parameters are
available, with chemical abundances and rotational velocities presented here,
we investigate various channels of Li enrichment in giants. Our work is based
on the HET/HRS spectra. The A(Li) was determined from the 670.8nm line, while
we use a more extended set of lines for alpha-elements abundances. In a series
of K-S tests, we compare Li-rich giants with other stars in the sample. We also
use available IR photometric and kinematical data in search for evidence of
mass-loss. We investigate properties of the most Li-abundant giants in more
detail by using multi-epoch precise radial velocities. We present Li and
alpha-elements abundances, as well as vsini for 348 stars. We detected Li in 92
stars, of which 82 are giants. 11 of them show significant Li abundance
A(Li)>1.4 and 7 of them are Li-overabundant objects, according to criterion of
A(Li)>1.5 and their location on HR diagram, including two giants with Li
abundances close to meteoritic level. For another 271 stars, upper limits of
A(Li) are presented. We show that Li-rich giants are among the most massive
stars from our sample and show larger than average effective temperatures. They
are indistinguishable from the complete sample in terms of their distribution
of luminosity, [Fe/H], vsini, and alpha-elements abundances. Our results do not
point out to one specific Li enrichment mechanism operating in our sample of
giants. On the contrary, in some cases, we cannot identify fingerprints of any
of known scenarios. We show, however, that the 4 most Li-rich giant in our
sample either have low-mass companions or have RV variations at the level of
~100 m/s, which strongly suggests that the presence of companions is an
important factor in the Li-enrichment processes in giants.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 13 figures, 11 tables, 26 page
The Penn State - Toru\'n Planet Search: target characteristics and recent results
More than 450 stars hosting planets are known today but only approximately 30
planetary systems were discovered around stars beyond the Main Sequence. The
Penn State-Toru\'n Planet Search, putting an emphasis on extending studies of
planetary system formation and evolution to intermediate-mass stars, is
oriented towards the discoveries of substellar-mass companions to a large
sample of evolved stars using high-precision radial velocity technique. We
present the recent status of our survey and detailed characteristic for ~350
late type giant stars, i.e. the new results of radial velocity analysis and
stellar fundamental parameters obtained with extensive spectroscopic method.
Moreover, in the future we will make an attempt to perform the statistical
study of our sample and searching the correlations between the existence of
substellar objects and stellar atmospheric parameters according to previous
works which investigated the planetary companion impact on the evolution of the
host stars.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, proceeding of the conference "Planetary Systems
beyond the Main Sequence" (Bamberg, Germany, August 11-14, 2010) edited by S.
Schuh, H. Drechsel and U. Heber, AIP Conference Series, part of
PlanetsbeyondMS/2010 proceedings http://arxiv.org/html/1011.660
The Penn State - Toru\'n Centre for Astronomy Planet Search stars IV. Dwarfs and the complete sample
Our knowledge of the intrinsic parameters of exoplanets is as precise as our
determinations of their stellar hosts parameters. In the case of radial
velocity searches for planets, stellar masses appear to be crucial. But before
estimating stellar masses properly, detailed spectroscopic analysis is
essential. With this paper we conclude a general spectroscopic description of
the Pennsylvania-Torun Planet Search (PTPS) sample of stars. We aim at a
detailed description of basic parameters of stars representing the complete
PTPS sample. We present atmospheric and physical parameters for dwarf stars
observed within the PTPS along with updated physical parameters for the
remaining stars from this sample after the first Gaia data release. We used
high resolution (R=60 000) and high signal-to-noise-ratio (S/N=150-250) spectra
from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and its High Resolution Spectrograph. Stellar
atmospheric parameters were determined through a strictly spectroscopic local
thermodynamic equilibrium analysis (LTE) of the equivalent widths of FeI and
FeII lines. Stellar masses, ages, and luminosities were estimated through a
Bayesian analysis of theoretical isochrones. We present , log ,
[Fe/H], micrturbulence velocities, absolute radial velocities, and rotational
velocities for 156 stars from the dwarf sample of PTPS. For most of these stars
these are the first determinations. We refine the definition of PTPS subsamples
of stars (giants, subgiants, and dwarfs) and update the luminosity classes for
all PTPS stars. Using available Gaia and Hipparcos parallaxes, we redetermine
the stellar parameters (masses, radii, luminosities, and ages) for 451 PTPS
stars. The complete PTPS sample of 885 stars is composed of 132 dwarfs, 238
subgiants, and 515 giants, of which the vast majority are of roughly solar
mass.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Use of remotely-derived bathymetry for modelling biomass in marine environments
The paper presents results on the influence of geometric attributes of satellite-derived raster bathymetric data, namely the General Bathymetric Charts of the Oceans, on spatial statistical modelling of marine biomass. In the initial experiment, both the resolution and projection of the raster dataset are taken into account. It was found that, independently of the equal-area projection chosen for the analysis, the calculated areas are very similar, and the differences between them are insignificant. Likewise, any variation in the raster resolution did not change the computed area. Although the differences were shown to be insignificant, for the subsequent analysis we selected the cylindrical equal area projection, as it implies rectangular spatial extent, along with the automatically derived resolution. Then, in the second experiment, we focused on demersal fish biomass data acquired from trawl samples taken from the western parts of ICES Sub-area VII, near the sea floor. The aforementioned investigation into processing bathymetric data allowed us to build various statistical models that account for a relationship between biomass, sea floor topography and geographic location. We fitted a set of generalised additive models and generalised additive mixed models to combinations of trawl data of the roundnose grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris) and bathymetry. Using standard statistical techniques—such as analysis of variance, Akaike information criterion, root mean squared error, mean absolute error and cross-validation—we compared the performance of the models and found that depth and latitude may serve as statistically significant explanatory variables for biomass of roundnose grenadier in the study area. However, the results should be interpreted with caution as sampling locations may have an impact on the biomass–depth relationship
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