V838 Monocerotis: the central star and its environment a decade after outburst

Aims. V838 Monocerotis erupted in 2002, brightened in a series of outbursts, and eventually developed a spectacular light echo. A very red star emerged a few months after the outburst. The whole event has been interpreted as the result of a merger. Methods. We obtained near-IR and mid-IR interferometric observations of V838 Mon with the AMBER and MIDI recombiners located at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) array. The MIDI two-beam observations were obtained with the 8m Unit Telescopes between October 2011 and February 2012. The AMBER three-beam observations were obtained with the compact array (B$\leq$m) in April 2013 and the long array (B$\leq$140m) in May 2014, using the 1.8m Auxiliary Telescopes. Results. A significant new result is the detection of a compact structure around V838 Mon, as seen from MIDI data. The extension of the structure increases from a FWHM of 25 mas at 8 {\mu}m to 70 mas at 13 {\mu}m. At the adopted distance of D = 6.1 $\pm$ 0.6 kpc, the dust is distributed from about 150 to 400 AU around V838 Mon. The MIDI visibilities reveal a flattened structure whose aspect ratio increases with wavelength. The major axis is roughly oriented around a position angle of -10 degrees, which aligns with previous polarimetric studies reported in the literature. This flattening can be interpreted as a relic of the 2002 eruption or by the influence of the currently embedded B3V companion. The AMBER data provide a new diameter for the pseudo-photosphere, which shows that its diameter has decreased by about 40% in 10yrs, reaching a radius R$_*$ = 750 $\pm$ 200 R$_{\odot}$ (3.5 $\pm$ 1.0 AU). Conclusions. After the 2002 eruption, interpreted as the merging of two stars, it seems that the resulting source is relaxing to a normal state. The nearby environment exhibits an equatorial over-density of dust up to several hundreds of AU.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics (2014) Will be set by the publishe

A Large Brightness Enhancement of the QSO 0957+561 A Component

We report an increase of more than 0.2 mag in the optical brightness of the leading image (A) of the gravitational lens Q0957+561, detected during the 09/2000 -- 06/2001 monitoring campaign (2001 observing season). The brightening is similar to or even greater than the largest change ever detected during the 20 years of monitoring of this system. We discuss two different provisional explanations to this event: intrinsic source variability or microlensing (either short timescale microlensing or cessation of the historical microlensing). An exhaustive photometric monitoring of Q0957+561 is needed until summer of 2002 and during 2003 to discriminate between these possibilities.Comment: 13 pages including 3 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ Let

A Robust Determination of the Time Delay in 0957+561A,B and a Measurement of the Global Value of Hubble's Constant

Photometric monitoring of the gravitational lens system 0957+561A,B in the g and r bands with the Apache Point Observatory (APO) 3.5 m telescope during 1996 shows a sharp g band event in the trailing (B) image light curve at the precise time predicted from the observation of an event during 1995 in the leading (A) image with a delay of 415 days. This success confirms the "short delay," and the lack of any feature at a delay near 540 days rejects the "long delay" for this system, resolving a long-standing controversy. A series of statistical analyses of our light curve data yield a best fit delay of 417 +/- 3 days (95% confidence interval). Recent improvements in the modeling of the lens system (consisting of a galaxy and cluster) allow us to derive a value of the global (at z = 0.36) value of Hubble's constant H_0 using Refsdal's method, a simple and direct distance determination based on securely understood physics and geometry. The result is H_0 = 63 +/- 12 km/s/Mpc (for Omega = 1) where this 95% confidence interval is dominated by remaining lens model uncertainties.Comment: accepted by ApJ, AASTeX 4.0 preprint, 4 PostScript figure

Grown-up stars physics with MATISSE

MATISSE represents a great opportunity to image the environment around massive and evolved stars. This will allow one to put constraints on the circumstellar structure, on the mass ejection of dust and its reorganization , and on the dust-nature and formation processes. MATISSE measurements will often be pivotal for the understanding of large multiwavelength datasets on the same targets collected through many high-angular resolution facilities at ESO like sub-millimeter interferometry (ALMA), near-infrared adaptive optics (NACO, SPHERE), interferometry (PIONIER, GRAVITY), spectroscopy (CRIRES), and mid-infrared imaging (VISIR). Among main sequence and evolved stars, several cases of interest have been identified that we describe in this paper.Comment: SPIE, Jun 2016, Edimbourgh, Franc

Further Investigation of the Time Delay, Magnification Ratios, and Variability in the Gravitational Lens 0218+357

High precision VLA flux density measurements for the lensed images of 0218+357 yield a time delay of 10.1(+1.5-1.6)days (95% confidence). This is consistent with independent measurements carried out at the same epoch (Biggs et al. 1999), lending confidence in the robustness of the time delay measurement. However, since both measurements make use of the same features in the light curves, it is possible that the effects of unmodelled processes, such as scintillation or microlensing, are biasing both time delay measurements in the same way. Our time delay estimates result in confidence intervals that are somewhat larger than those of Biggs et al., probably because we adopt a more general model of the source variability, allowing for constant and variable components. When considered in relation to the lens mass model of Biggs et al., our best-fit time delay implies a Hubble constant of H_o = 71(+17-23) km/s-Mpc for Omega_o=1 and lambda_o=0 (95% confidence; filled beam). This confidence interval for H_o does not reflect systematic error, which may be substantial, due to uncertainty in the position of the lens galaxy. We also measure the flux ratio of the variable components of 0218+357, a measurement of a small region that should more closely represent the true lens magnification ratio. We find ratios of 3.2(+0.3-0.4) (95% confidence; 8 GHz) and 4.3(+0.5-0.8) (15 GHz). Unlike the reported flux ratios on scales of 0.1", these ratios are not strongly significantly different. We investigate the significance of apparent differences in the variability properties of the two images of the background active galactic nucleus. We conclude that the differences are not significant, and that time series much longer than our 100-day time series will be required to investigate propagation effects in this way.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Light curve data may be found at http://space.mit.edu/RADIO/papers.htm