333 research outputs found
The Centurion 18 telescope of the Wise Observatory
We describe the second telescope of the Wise Observatory, a 0.46-m Centurion
18 (C18) installed in 2005, which enhances significantly the observing
possibilities. The telescope operates from a small dome and is equipped with a
large-format CCD camera. In the last two years this telescope was intensively
used in a variety of monitoring projects.
The operation of the C18 is now automatic, requiring only start-up at the
beginning of a night and close-down at dawn. The observations are mostly
performed remotely from the Tel Aviv campus or even from the observer's home.
The entire facility was erected for a component cost of about 70k$ and a labor
investment of a total of one man-year.
We describe three types of projects undertaken with this new facility: the
measurement of asteroid light variability with the purpose of determining
physical parameters and binarity, the following-up of transiting extrasolar
planets, and the study of AGN variability. The successful implementation of the
C18 demonstrates the viability of small telescopes in an age of huge
light-collectors, provided the operation of such facilities is very efficient.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, some figures quality was degraded, accepted for
publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc
Oblique frozen modes in periodic layered media
We study the classical scattering problem of a plane electromagnetic wave
incident on the surface of semi-infinite periodic stratified media
incorporating anisotropic dielectric layers with special oblique orientation of
the anisotropy axes. We demonstrate that an obliquely incident light, upon
entering the periodic slab, gets converted into an abnormal grazing mode with
huge amplitude and zero normal component of the group velocity. This mode
cannot be represented as a superposition of extended and evanescent
contributions. Instead, it is related to a general (non-Bloch) Floquet
eigenmode with the amplitude diverging linearly with the distance from the slab
boundary. Remarkably, the slab reflectivity in such a situation can be very
low, which means an almost 100% conversion of the incident light into the
axially frozen mode with the electromagnetic energy density exceeding that of
the incident wave by several orders of magnitude. The effect can be realized at
any desirable frequency, including optical and UV frequency range. The only
essential physical requirement is the presence of dielectric layers with proper
oblique orientation of the anisotropy axes. Some practical aspects of this
phenomenon are considered.Comment: text and 9 figure
The K2-ESPRINT Project VI: K2-105 b, a Hot-Neptune around a Metal-rich G-dwarf
We report on the confirmation that the candidate transits observed for the
star EPIC 211525389 are due to a short-period Neptune-sized planet. The host
star, located in K2 campaign field 5, is a metal-rich ([Fe/H] = 0.260.05)
G-dwarf (T_eff = 543070 K and log g = 4.480.09), based on
observations with the High Dispersion Spectrograph (HDS) on the Subaru 8.2m
telescope. High-spatial resolution AO imaging with HiCIAO on the Subaru
telescope excludes faint companions near the host star, and the false positive
probability of this target is found to be < using the open source
vespa code. A joint analysis of transit light curves from K2 and additional
ground-based multi-color transit photometry with MuSCAT on the Okayama 1.88m
telescope gives the orbital period of P = 8.2669020.000070 days and
consistent transit depths of or . The transit depth corresponds to a planetary radius of , indicating that EPIC 211525389 b is a
short-period Neptune-sized planet. Radial velocities of the host star, obtained
with the Subaru HDS, lead to a 3\sigma\ upper limit of 90 on the mass of EPIC 211525389 b, confirming its planetary nature.
We expect this planet, newly named K2-105 b, to be the subject of future
studies to characterize its mass, atmosphere, spin-orbit (mis)alignment, as
well as investigate the possibility of additional planets in the system.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables, PASJ accepte
Large Transverse Momenta in Statistical Models of High Energy Interactions
The creation of particles with large transverse momenta in high energy
hadronic collisions is a long standing problem. The transition from small-
(soft) to hard- parton scattering `high-pt' events is rather smooth. In this
paper we apply the non-extensive statistical framework to calculate transverse
momentum distributions of long lived hadrons created at energies from low
(sqrt(s)~10 GeV) to the highest energies available in collider experiments
(sqrt(s)~2000 GeV). Satisfactory agreement with the experimental data is
achieved. The systematic increase of the non-extensivity parameter with energy
found can be understood as phenomenological evidence for the increased role of
long range correlations in the hadronization process.
Predictions concerning the rise of average transverse momenta up to the
highest cosmic ray energies are also given and discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure
Tidal friction in close-in satellites and exoplanets. The Darwin theory re-visited
This report is a review of Darwin's classical theory of bodily tides in which
we present the analytical expressions for the orbital and rotational evolution
of the bodies and for the energy dissipation rates due to their tidal
interaction. General formulas are given which do not depend on any assumption
linking the tidal lags to the frequencies of the corresponding tidal waves
(except that equal frequency harmonics are assumed to span equal lags).
Emphasis is given to the cases of companions having reached one of the two
possible final states: (1) the super-synchronous stationary rotation resulting
from the vanishing of the average tidal torque; (2) the capture into a 1:1
spin-orbit resonance (true synchronization). In these cases, the energy
dissipation is controlled by the tidal harmonic with period equal to the
orbital period (instead of the semi-diurnal tide) and the singularity due to
the vanishing of the geometric phase lag does not exist. It is also shown that
the true synchronization with non-zero eccentricity is only possible if an
extra torque exists opposite to the tidal torque. The theory is developed
assuming that this additional torque is produced by an equatorial permanent
asymmetry in the companion. The results are model-dependent and the theory is
developed only to the second degree in eccentricity and inclination
(obliquity). It can easily be extended to higher orders, but formal accuracy
will not be a real improvement as long as the physics of the processes leading
to tidal lags is not better known.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures, corrected typo
Close encounters of a rotating star with planets in parabolic orbits of varying inclination and the formation of Hot Jupiters
(abbreviated) We extend the theory of close encounters of a planet on a
parabolic orbit with a star to include the effects of tides induced on the
central rotating star. Orbits with arbitrary inclination to the stellar
rotation axis are considered. We obtain results both from an analytic treatment
and numerical one that are in satisfactory agreement. These results are applied
to the initial phase of the tidal circularisation problem. We find that both
tides induced in the star and planet can lead to a significant decrease of the
orbital semi-major axis for orbits having periastron distances smaller than 5-6
stellar radii (corresponding to periods days after the
circularisation has been completed) with tides in the star being much stronger
for retrograde orbits compared to prograde orbits. We use the simple Skumanich
law for the stellar rotation with its rotational period equal to one month at
the age of 5Gyr. The strength of tidal interactions is characterised by
circularisation time scale, defined as a time scale of evolution of
the planet's semi-major axis due to tides considered as a function of orbital
period after the process of tidal circularisation has been completed.
We find that the ratio of the initial circularisation time scales corresponding
to prograde and retrograde orbits is of order 1.5-2 for a planet of one Jupiter
mass and four days. It grows with the mass of the planet, being
of order five for a five Jupiter mass planet with the same . Thus, the
effect of stellar rotation may provide a bias in the formation of planetary
systems having planets on close orbits around their host stars, as a
consequence of planet-planet scattering, favouring systems with retrograde
orbits. The results may also be applied to the problem of tidal capture of
stars in young stellar clusters.Comment: to be published in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronom
Stellar evolution and modelling stars
In this chapter I give an overall description of the structure and evolution
of stars of different masses, and review the main ingredients included in
state-of-the-art calculations aiming at reproducing observational features. I
give particular emphasis to processes where large uncertainties still exist as
they have strong impact on stellar properties derived from large compilations
of tracks and isochrones, and are therefore of fundamental importance in many
fields of astrophysics.Comment: Lecture presented at the IVth Azores International Advanced School in
Space Sciences on "Asteroseismology and Exoplanets: Listening to the Stars
and Searching for New Worlds" (arXiv:1709.00645), which took place in Horta,
Azores Islands, Portugal in July 201
Asteroseismology of Eclipsing Binary Stars in the Kepler Era
Eclipsing binary stars have long served as benchmark systems to measure
fundamental stellar properties. In the past few decades, asteroseismology - the
study of stellar pulsations - has emerged as a new powerful tool to study the
structure and evolution of stars across the HR diagram. Pulsating stars in
eclipsing binary systems are particularly valuable since fundamental properties
(such as radii and masses) can determined using two independent techniques.
Furthermore, independently measured properties from binary orbits can be used
to improve asteroseismic modeling for pulsating stars in which mode
identifications are not straightforward. This contribution provides a review of
asteroseismic detections in eclipsing binary stars, with a focus on space-based
missions such as CoRoT and Kepler, and empirical tests of asteroseismic scaling
relations for stochastic ("solar-like") oscillations.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables; Proceedings of the AAS topical
conference "Giants of Eclipse" (AASTCS-3), July 28 - August 2 2013, Monterey,
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