DISPATCH: A Numerical Simulation Framework for the Exa-scale Era. I. Fundamentals

We introduce a high-performance simulation framework that permits the semi-independent, task-based solution of sets of partial differential equations, typically manifesting as updates to a collection of `patches' in space-time. A hybrid MPI/OpenMP execution model is adopted, where work tasks are controlled by a rank-local `dispatcher' which selects, from a set of tasks generally much larger than the number of physical cores (or hardware threads), tasks that are ready for updating. The definition of a task can vary, for example, with some solving the equations of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), others non-ideal MHD, radiative transfer, or particle motion, and yet others applying particle-in-cell (PIC) methods. Tasks do not have to be grid-based, while tasks that are, may use either Cartesian or orthogonal curvilinear meshes. Patches may be stationary or moving. Mesh refinement can be static or dynamic. A feature of decisive importance for the overall performance of the framework is that time steps are determined and applied locally; this allows potentially large reductions in the total number of updates required in cases when the signal speed varies greatly across the computational domain, and therefore a corresponding reduction in computing time. Another feature is a load balancing algorithm that operates `locally' and aims to simultaneously minimise load and communication imbalance. The framework generally relies on already existing solvers, whose performance is augmented when run under the framework, due to more efficient cache usage, vectorisation, local time-stepping, plus near-linear and, in principle, unlimited OpenMP and MPI scaling.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures. Accepted by MNRA

Self-consistent 3D radiative MHD simulations of coronal rain formation and evolution

Context. Coronal rain consists of cool and dense plasma condensations formed in coronal loops as a result of thermal instability. Aims. Previous numerical simulations of thermal instability and coronal rain formation have relied on the practice of artificially adding a coronal heating term to the energy equation. To reproduce large-scale characteristics of the corona, the use of more realistic coronal heating prescription is necessary. Methods. We analysed coronal rain formation and evolution in a three-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation spanning from convection zone to corona which is self-consistently heated by magnetic field braiding as a result of convective motions. Results. We investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of energy dissipation along coronal loops which become thermally unstable. Ohmic dissipation in the model leads to the heating events capable of inducing sufficient chromospheric evaporation into the loop to trigger thermal instability and condensation formation. The cooling of the thermally unstable plasma occurs on timescales that are comparable to the duration of the individual impulsive heating events. The impulsive heating has sufficient duration to trigger thermal instability in the loop but does not last long enough to lead to coronal rain limit cycles. We show that condensations can either survive and fall into the chromosphere or be destroyed by strong bursts of Joule heating associated with a magnetic reconnection events. In addition, we find that condensations can also form along open magnetic field lines. Conclusions. We modelled, for the first time, coronal rain formation in a self-consistent 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation, in which the heating occurs mainly through the braiding and subsequent Ohmic dissipation of the magnetic field. The heating is stratified enough and lasts for long enough along specific field lines to produce the necessary chromospheric evaporation that triggers thermal instability in the corona

High-precision photometry by telescope defocussing - VI. WASP-24, WASP-25 and WASP-26

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013/) under grant agreement nos. 229517 and 268421. This publication was supported by grants NPRP 09-476-1-078 and NPRP X-019-1-006 from Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). TCH acknowledges financial support from the Korea Research Council for Fundamental Science and Technology (KRCF) through the Young Research Scientist Fellowship Programme and is supported by the KASI (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) grant 2012-1-410-02/2013-9-400-00. SG, XW and XF acknowledge the support from NSFC under the grant no. 10873031. The research is supported by the ASTERISK project (ASTERoseismic Investigations with SONG and Kepler) funded by the European Research Council (grant agreement no. 267864). DR, YD, AE, FF (ARC), OW (FNRS research fellow) and J Surdej acknowledge support from the Communauté française de Belgique – Actions de recherche concertées – Académie Wallonie-Europe.We present time series photometric observations of 13 transits in the planetary systems WASP-24, WASP-25 and WASP-26. All three systems have orbital obliquity measurements, WASP-24 and WASP-26 have been observed with Spitzer, and WASP-25 was previously comparatively neglected. Our light curves were obtained using the telescope-defocussing method and have scatters of 0.5–1.2 mmag relative to their best-fitting geometric models. We use these data to measure the physical properties and orbital ephemerides of the systems to high precision, finding that our improved measurements are in good agreement with previous studies. High-resolution Lucky Imaging observations of all three targets show no evidence for faint stars close enough to contaminate our photometry. We confirm the eclipsing nature of the star closest to WASP-24 and present the detection of a detached eclipsing binary within 4.25 arcmin of WASP-26.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Physical properties of the planetary systems WASP-45 and WASP-46 from simultaneous multiband photometry

Accurate measurements of the physical characteristics of a large number of exoplanets are useful to strongly constrain theoretical models of planet formation and evolution, which lead to the large variety of exoplanets and planetary-system configurations that have been observed. We present a study of the planetary systems WASP-45 and WASP-46, both composed of a main-sequence star and a close-in hot Jupiter, based on 29 new high-quality light curves of transits events. In particular, one transit of WASP-45 b and four of WASP-46 b were simultaneously observed in four optical filters, while one transit of WASP-46 b was observed with the NTT obtaining a precision of 0.30 mmag with a cadence of roughly 3 min. We also obtained five new spectra of WASP-45 with the FEROS spectrograph. We improved by a factor of 4 the measurement of the radius of the planet WASP-45 b, and found that WASP-46 b is slightly less massive and smaller than previously reported. Both planets now have a more accurate measurement of the density (0.959 ± 0.077 ρJup instead of 0.64 ± 0.30 ρJup for WASP-45 b, and 1.103 ± 0.052 ρJup instead of 0.94 ± 0.11 ρJup for WASP-46 b). We tentatively detected radius variations with wavelength for both planets, in particular in the case of WASP-45 b we found a slightly larger absorption in the redder bands than in the bluer ones. No hints for the presence of an additional planetary companion in the two systems were found either from the photometric or radial velocity measurements

High-precision photometry by telescope defocussing - VIII.WASP-22, WASP-41,WASP-42 andWASP-55

We present 13 high-precision and four additional light curves of four bright southernhemisphere transiting planetary systems: WASP-22, WASP-41, WASP-42 and WASP-55. In the cases of WASP-42 and WASP-55, these are the first follow-up observations since their discovery papers. We present refined measurements of the physical properties and orbital ephemerides of all four systems. No indications of transit timing variations were seen. All four planets have radii inflated above those expected from theoretical models of gas-giant planets; WASP-55 b is the most discrepant with a mass of 0.63MJup and a radius of 1.34 RJup. WASP-41 shows brightness anomalies during transit due to the planet occulting spots on the stellar surface. Two anomalies observed 3.1 d apart are very likely due to the same spot. We measure its change in position and determine a rotation period for the host star of 18.6 ± 1.5 d, in good agreement with a published measurement from spot-induced brightness modulation, and a sky-projected orbital obliquity of λ = 6 ± 11°. We conclude with a compilation of obliquity measurements from spot-tracking analyses and a discussion of this technique in the study of the orbital configurations of hot Jupiters

Physical properties and transmission spectrum of the WASP-74 planetary system from multi-band photometry

We present broad-band photometry of eleven planetary transits of the hot Jupiter WASP-74 b, using three medium-class telescopes and employing the telescope-defocussing technique. Most of the transits were monitored through I filters and one was simultaneously observed in five optical (U,g′,r′,i′,z′) and three near infrared (J, H, K) passbands, for a total of 18 light curves. We also obtained new high-resolution spectra of the host star. We used these new data to review the orbital and physical properties of the WASP-74 planetary system. We were able to better constrain the main system characteristics, measuring smaller radius and mass for both the hot Jupiter and its host star than previously reported in the literature. Joining our optical data with those taken with the HST in the near infrared, we built up an observational transmission spectrum of the planet, which suggests the presence of strong optical absorbers, as TiO and VO gases, in its atmosphere

The First Simultaneous Microlensing Observations by Two Space Telescopes: <i>Spitzer</i> and <i>Swift</i> Reveal a Brown Dwarf in Event OGLE-2015-BLG-1319

Simultaneous observations of microlensing events from multiple locations allow for the breaking of degeneracies between the physical properties of the lensing system, specifically by exploring different regions of the lens plane and by directly measuring the “microlens parallax.” We report the discovery of a 30–65MJ brown dwarf orbiting a K dwarf in the microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-1319. The system is located at a distance of ∼5 kpc toward the Galactic Bulge. The event was observed by several ground-based groups as well as by Spitzer and Swift, allowing a measurement of the physical properties. However, the event is still subject to an eight-fold degeneracy, in particular the well-known close-wide degeneracy, and thus the projected separation between the two lens components is either ∼0.25 au or ∼45 au. This is the first microlensing event observed by Swift, with the UVOT camera. We study the region of microlensing parameter space to which Swift is sensitive, finding that though Swift could not measure the microlens parallax with respect to ground-based observations for this event, it can be important for other events. Specifically, it is important for detecting nearby brown dwarfs and free-floating planets in high magnification events

An analysis of binary microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-0060

We present the analysis of stellar binary microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-0060 based on observations obtained from 13 different telescopes. Intensive coverage of the anomalous parts of the light curve was achieved by automated follow-up observations from the robotic telescopes of the Las Cumbres Observatory. We show that, for the first time, all main features of an anomalous microlensing event are well covered by follow-up data, allowing us to estimate the physical parameters of the lens. The strong detection of second-order effects in the event light curve necessitates the inclusion of longer-baseline survey data in order to constrain the parallax vector. We find that the event was most likely caused by a stellar binary-lens with masses M⋆1=0.87±0.12M⊙ and M⋆2=0.77±0.11M⊙⁠. The distance to the lensing system is 6.41 ± 0.14 kpc and the projected separation between the two components is 13.85 ± 0.16 AU. Alternative interpretations are also considered

Spitzer Observations Of Ogle-2015-blg-1212 Reveal A New Path Toward Breaking Strong Microlens Degeneracies

Spitzer microlensing parallax observations of OGLE-2015-BLG-1212 decisively break a degeneracy between planetary and binary solutions that is somewhat ambiguous when only ground-based data are considered. Only eight viable models survive out of an initial set of 32 local minima in the parameter space. These models clearly indicate that the lens is a stellar binary system possibly located within the bulge of our Galaxy, ruling out the planetary alternative. We argue that several types of discrete degeneracies can be broken via such space-based parallax observations

OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb: The First Spitzer Bulge Planet Lies Near the Planet/Brown-dwarf Boundary

We report the discovery of OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, which is likely to be the first Spitzer microlensing planet in the Galactic bulge/bar, an assignation that can be confirmed by two epochs of high-resolution imaging of the combined source–lens baseline object. The planet's mass, M p = 13.4 ± 0.9 M J , places it right at the deuterium-burning limit, i.e., the conventional boundary between "planets" and "brown dwarfs." Its existence raises the question of whether such objects are really "planets" (formed within the disks of their hosts) or "failed stars" (low-mass objects formed by gas fragmentation). This question may ultimately be addressed by comparing disk and bulge/bar planets, which is a goal of the Spitzer microlens program. The host is a G dwarf, M host = 0.89 ± 0.07 M ⊙, and the planet has a semimajor axis a ~ 2.0 au. We use Kepler K2 Campaign 9 microlensing data to break the lens-mass degeneracy that generically impacts parallax solutions from Earth–Spitzer observations alone, which is the first successful application of this approach. The microlensing data, derived primarily from near-continuous, ultradense survey observations from OGLE, MOA, and three KMTNet telescopes, contain more orbital information than for any previous microlensing planet, but not quite enough to accurately specify the full orbit. However, these data do permit the first rigorous test of microlensing orbital-motion measurements, which are typically derived from data taken over <1% of an orbital period