The Massive Star Forming Region, Cygnus OB2

We present results from a catalogue of 1696 X-ray point sources detected in the massive star forming region (SFR) Cygnus OB2, the majority of which have optical or near-IR associations. We derive ages of 3.5 and 5.25 Myrs for the stellar populations in our two fields, in agreement with recent studies that suggest that the central 1-3 Myr OB association is surrounded and contaminated by an older population with an age of 5-10 Myrs. The fraction of sources with proto-planetary disks, as traced by K-band excesses, are unusually low. Though this has previously been interpreted as due to the influence of the large number of OB stars in Cyg OB2, contamination from an older population of stars in the region could also be responsible. An initial mass function is derived and found to have a slope of Gamma = -1.27, in agreement with the canonical value. Finally we introduce the recently approved Chandra Cygnus OB2 Legacy Survey that will image a 1 square degree area of the Cygnus OB2 association to a depth of 120 ks, likely detecting ~10,000 stellar X-ray sources.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 266, Star Clusters: Basic Galactic Building Blocks Throughout Time and Space, eds. R. de Grijs and J. Lepin

Chemical analysis of giant stars in the young open cluster NGC 3114

Context: Open clusters are very useful targets for examining possible trends in galactocentric distance and age, especially when young and old open clusters are compared. Aims: We carried out a detailed spectroscopic analysis to derive the chemical composition of seven red giants in the young open cluster NGC 3114. Abundances of C, N, O, Li, Na, Mg, Al, Ca, Si, Ti, Ni, Cr, Y, Zr, La, Ce, and Nd were obtained, as well as the carbon isotopic ratio. Methods: The atmospheric parameters of the studied stars and their chemical abundances were determined using high-resolution optical spectroscopy. We employed the local-thermodynamic-equilibrium model atmospheres of Kurucz and the spectral analysis code MOOG. The abundances of the light elements were derived using the spectral synthesis technique. Results: We found that NGC 3114 has a mean metallicity of [Fe/H] = -0.01+/-0.03. The isochrone fit yielded a turn-off mass of 4.2 Msun. The [N/C] ratio is in good agreement with the models predicted by first dredge-up. We found that two stars, HD 87479 and HD 304864, have high rotational velocities of 15.0 km/s and 11.0 km/s; HD 87526 is a halo star and is not a member of NGC 3114. Conclusions: The carbon and nitrogen abundance in NGC 3114 agree with the field and cluster giants. The oxygen abundance in NGC 3114 is lower compared to the field giants. The [O/Fe] ratio is similar to the giants in young clusters. We detected sodium enrichment in the analyzed cluster giants. As far as the other elements are concerned, their [X/Fe] ratios follow the same trend seen in giants with the same metallicity.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, 10 tables; accepted for publication in A&

Diamond degradation in hadron fields

The energy dependence of the concentration of primary displacements induced by protons and pions in diamond has been calculated in the energy range 50 MeV - 50 GeV, in the frame of the Lindhard theory. The concentrations of primary displacements induced by protons and pions have completely different energy dependencies: the proton degradation is very important at low energies, and is higher than the pion one in the whole energy range investigated, with the exception of the delta33 resonance region. Diamond has been found, theoretically, to be one order of magnitude more resistant to proton and pion irradiation in respect to silicon.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Mixed Phase in Compact Starts : M-R relations and radial oscillations

It is believed that quark stars or neutron stars with mixed phase in the core have smaller radii compared to ordinary compact stars. With the recent observation of several low radius objects, typically a radius of $<10 Km.$ for star of mass $< 1M_0$ in low mass X-ray binaries (LMXB), it has become very important to understand the nature of these objects. An accurate determination of mass-radius relationship of these objects provide us with a physical laboratory to study the composition of high density matter and the nature of phase transition. We study the effect of quark and nuclear matter mixed phase on mass radius relationship and radial oscillations of neutron stars. We find that the effect of the mixed phase is to decrease the maximum mass of a stable neutron star and to decrease the radial frequencies .Comment: guest contribution at Int. Workshop on Astronomy & Relativistic Astrophysics (IWARA 03)held at Olinda-PE (Brazil) from Oct. 12-17,200

Detection of new eruptions in the Magellanic Clouds LBVs R 40 and R 110

We performed a spectroscopic and photometric analysis to study new eruptions in two luminous blue variables (LBVs) in the Magellanic Clouds. We detected a strong new eruption in the LBV R40 that reached $V \sim 9.2$ in 2016, which is around $1.3$ mag brighter than the minimum registered in 1985. During this new eruption, the star changed from an A-type to a late F-type spectrum. Based on photometric and spectroscopic empirical calibrations and synthetic spectral modeling, we determine that R\,40 reached $T_{\mathrm{eff}} = 5800-6300$~K during this new eruption. This object is thereby probably one of the coolest identified LBVs. We could also identify an enrichment of nitrogen and r- and s-process elements. We detected a weak eruption in the LBV R 110 with a maximum of $V \sim 9.9$ mag in 2011, that is, around $1.0$ mag brighter than in the quiescent phase. On the other hand, this new eruption is about $0.2$ mag fainter than the first eruption detected in 1990, but the temperature did not decrease below 8500 K. Spitzer spectra show indications of cool dust in the circumstellar environment of both stars, but no hot or warm dust was present, except by the probable presence of PAHs in R\,110. We also discuss a possible post-red supergiant nature for both stars