97 research outputs found
Early evolution of the extraordinary Nova Del 2013 (V339 Del)
We determine the temporal evolution of the luminosity L(WD), radius R(WD) and
effective temperature Teff of the white dwarf (WD) pseudophotosphere of V339
Del from its discovery to around day 40. Another main objective was studying
the ionization structure of the ejecta. These aims were achieved by modelling
the optical/near-IR spectral energy distribution (SED) using low-resolution
spectroscopy (3500 - 9200 A), UBVRcIc and JHKLM photometry. During the fireball
stage (Aug. 14.8 - 19.9, 2013), Teff was in the range of 6000 - 12000 K, R(WD)
was expanding non-uniformly in time from around 66 to around 300 (d/3 kpc)
R(Sun), and L(WD) was super-Eddington, but not constant. After the fireball
stage, a large emission measure of 1.0-2.0E+62 (d/3 kpc)**2 cm**(-3)
constrained the lower limit of L(WD) to be well above the super-Eddington
value. The evolution of the H-alpha line and mainly the transient emergence of
the Raman-scattered O VI 1032 A line suggested a biconical ionization structure
of the ejecta with a disk-like H I region persisting around the WD until its
total ionization, around day 40. It is evident that the nova was not evolving
according to the current theoretical prediction. The unusual non-spherically
symmetric ejecta of nova V339 Del and its extreme physical conditions and
evolution during and after the fireball stage represent interesting new
challenges for the theoretical modelling of the nova phenomenon.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, accepted for Astronomy and
Astrophysic
The hydrogen and helium lines of the symbiotic binary Z And during its brightening at the end of 2002
High resolution observations in the region of the lines Halpha, He II 4686
and Hgamma of the spectrum of the symbiotic binary Z And were performed during
its small-amplitude brightening at the end of 2002. The profiles of the
hydrogen lines were double-peaked. These profiles give a reason to suppose that
the lines can be emitted mainly by an optically thin accretion disc. The Halpha
line is strongly contaminated by the emission of the envelope, therefore for
consideration of accretion disc properties we use the Hgamma line. The Halpha
line had broad wings which are supposed to be determined mostly from radiation
damping but high velocity stellar wind from the compact object in the system
can also contribute to their appearance. The Hgamma line had a broad emission
component which is assumed to be emitted mainly from the inner part of the
accretion disc. The line He II 4686 had a broad emission component too, but it
is supposed to appear in a region of a high velocity stellar wind. The outer
radius of the accretion disc can be calculated from the shift between the
peaks. Assuming, that the orbit inclination can ranges from 47 to
76, we estimate the outer radius as 20 - 50 R_sun. The behaviour of the
observed lines can be considered in the framework of the model proposed for
interpretation of the line spectrum during the major 2000 - 2002 brightening of
this binary.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Report
Formation of a disk-structure and jets in the symbiotic prototype Z And during its 2006-2010 active phase
We present an analysis of spectrophotometric observations of the latest cycle
of activity of the symbiotic binary Z And from 2006 to 2010. We estimate the
temperature of the hot component of Z And to be \approx 150000 - 170000 K at
minimum brightness, decreasing to \approx 90000 K at the brightness maximum.
Our estimate of the electron density in the gaseous nebula is
N_{e}=10^{10}-10^{12} cm^{-3} in the region of formation of lines of neutral
helium and 10^6-10^7 cm^{-3} in the region of formation of the [OIII] and
[NeIII] nebular lines. A trend for the gas density derived from helium lines to
increase and the gas density derived from [OIII] and [NeIII] lines to
simultaneously decrease with increasing brightness of the system was observed.
Our estimates show that the ratios of the theoretical and observed fluxes in
the [OIII] and [NeIII] lines agree best when the O/Ne ratio is similar to its
value for planetary nebulae. The model spectral energy distribution showed
that, in addition to a cool component and gaseous nebula, a relatively cool
pseudophotosphere (5250-11 500 K) is present in the system. The simultaneous
presence of a relatively cool pseudophotosphere and high-ionization spectral
lines is probably related to a disk-like structure of the pseudophotosphere.
The pseudophotosphere formed very rapidly, over several weeks, during a period
of increasing brightness of Z And. We infer that in 2009, as in 2006, the
activity of the system was accompanied by a collimated bipolar ejection of
matter. In contrast to the situation in 2006, the jets were detected even
before the system reached its maximum brightness. Moreover, components with
velocities close to 1200 km/s disappeared at the maximum, while those with
velocities close to 1800 km/s appeared.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy Report
Transient jets in the symbiotic prototype Z Andromedae
We present development of the collimated bipolar jets from the symbiotic
prototype Z And that appeared and disappeared during its 2006 outburst. In 2006
July Z And reached its historical maximum at U ~ 8.0. During this period, rapid
photometric variations with Dm ~ 0.06 mag on the timescale of hours developed.
Simultaneously, high-velocity satellite components appeared on both sides of
the H-alpha and H-beta emission line profiles. They were launched
asymmetrically with the red/blue velocity ratio of 1.2 - 1.3. From about
mid-August they became symmetric. Their spectral properties indicated ejection
of bipolar jets collimated within an average opening angle of 6.1 degrees. We
estimated average outflow rate via jets to dM(jet)/dt ~
2xE10-6(R(jet)/1AU)**(1/2) M(Sun)/year, during their August - September
maximum, which corresponds to the emitting mass in jets, M(jet, emitting) ~
6xE-10(Rjet)/1AU)^{3/2} M(Sun). During their lifetime, the jets released the
total mass of M(jet, total) approx 7.4x1E-7 M(Sun). Evolution in the rapid
photometric variability and asymmetric ejection of jets around the optical
maximum can be explained by a disruption of the inner parts of the disk caused
by radiation-induced warping of the disk.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for Ap
Accelerating Metric Filtering by Improving Bounds on Estimated Distances
Filtering is a fundamental strategy of metric similarity indexes to minimise the number of computed distances. Given a triple of objects for which distances of two pairs are known, the lower and upper bounds on the third distance can be set as the difference and the sum of these two already known distances, due to the triangle inequality rule of the metric space. For efficiency reasons, the tightness of bounds is crucial, but as angles within triangles of distances can be arbitrary, the worst case with zero and straight angles must also be considered for correctness. However, in data of real-life applications, the distribution of possible angles is skewed and extremes are very unlikely to occur. In this paper, we enhance the existing definition of bounds on the unknown distance with information about possible angles within triangles. We show that two lower bounds and one upper bound on each distance exist in case of limited angles. We analyse their filtering power and confirm high improvements of efficiency by experiments on several real-life datasets
What Powers the 2006 Outburst of the Symbiotic Star BF Cygni?
BF Cygni is a classical symbiotic binary. Its optical light curve occasionally shows outbursts of the Z And-type, whose nature is not well understood. During the 2006 August, BF Cyg underwent the recent outburst, and continues its active phase to the present. The aim of this contribution is to determine the fundamental parameters of the hot component in the binary during the active phase. For this purpose we used a high- and low-resolution optical spectroscopy and the multicolour UBV RCIC photometry. Our photometric monitoring revealed that a high level of the star’s brightness lasts for unusually long time of > 7 years. A sharp violet-shifted absorption component and broad emission wings in the Hα profile developed during the whole active phase. From 2009, our spectra revealed a bipolar ejection from the white dwarf (WD). Modelling the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the low-resolution spectra showed simultaneous presence of a warm (< 10 000 K) disk-like pseudophotosphere and a strong nebular component of radiation (emission measure of ~1061 cm−3). The luminosity of the hot active object was estimated to > 5−8×103 Lʘ. Such high luminosity, sustained for the time of years, can be understood as a result of an enhanced transient accretion rate throughout a large disk, leading also to formation of collimated ejection from the WD
Pruning Algorithms for Low-Dimensional Non-metric k-NN Search: A Case Study
We focus on low-dimensional non-metric search, where tree-based approaches
permit efficient and accurate retrieval while having short indexing time. These
methods rely on space partitioning and require a pruning rule to avoid visiting
unpromising parts. We consider two known data-driven approaches to extend these
rules to non-metric spaces: TriGen and a piece-wise linear approximation of the
pruning rule. We propose and evaluate two adaptations of TriGen to
non-symmetric similarities (TriGen does not support non-symmetric distances).
We also evaluate a hybrid of TriGen and the piece-wise linear approximation
pruning. We find that this hybrid approach is often more effective than either
of the pruning rules. We make our software publicly available
Density asymmetry and wind velocities in the orbital plane of the symbiotic binary EG Andromedae
Context. Non-dusty late-type giants without a corona and large-scale
pulsations represent objects that do not fulfil the conditions under which
standard mass-loss mechanisms can be applied efficiently. The driving mechanism
of their winds is still unknown.
Aims. The main goal of this work is to match the radial velocities of
absorbing matter with a depth in the red giant (RG) atmosphere in the S-type
symbiotic star EG And.
Methods. We measured fluxes and radial velocities of ten FeI absorption lines
from spectroscopic observations with a resolution of ~30 000. At selected
orbital phases, we modelled their broadened profiles, including all significant
broadening mechanisms.
Results. The selected FeI absorption lines at 5151 - 6469A, originate at a
radial distance ~1.03 RG radii from its centre. The corresponding radial
velocity is typically ~1 km/s , which represents a few percent of the terminal
velocity of the RG wind. The high scatter of the radial velocities of several
km/s in the narrow layer of the stellar atmosphere points to the complex nature
of the near-surface wind mass flow. The average rotational velocity of 11 km/s
implies that the rotation of the donor star can contribute to observed focusing
the wind towards the orbital plane. The orbital variability of the absorbed
flux indicates the highest column densities of the wind in the area between the
binary components, even though the absorbing neutral material is geometrically
more extended from the opposite side of the giant. This wind density asymmetry
in the orbital plane region can be ascribed to gravitational focusing by the
white dwarf companion.
Conclusions. Our results suggest that both gravitational and rotational
focusing contribute to the observed enhancement of the RG wind towards the
orbital plane, which makes mass transfer by the stellar wind highly efficient.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure
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