Search results for "Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics"
showing 10 items of 835 documents
Pulsating B and Be stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
2008
Context: Stellar pulsations in main-sequence B-type stars are driven by the kappa-mechanism due to the Fe-group opacity bump. The current models do not predict the presence of instability strips in the B spectral domain at very low metallicities. As the metallicity of the SMC is lower than Z=0.005, it constitutes a very suitable object to test these predictions. Aims: The main objective is to investigate the existence of B-type pulsators at low metallicities, searching for short-term periodic variability in absorption-line B and Be stars in the SMC. The analysis has been performed in a sample of 313 B and Be stars with fundamental astrophysical parameters accurately determined from high-res…
Rotational effects on the oscillation frequencies of newly born proto-neutron stars
2003
In this paper we study the effects of rotation on the frequencies of the quasi-normal modes of a proto-neutron star (PNS) born in a gravitational collapse during the first minute of life. Our analysis starts a few tenths of seconds after the PNS formation, when the stellar evolution can be described by a sequence of equilibrium configurations. We use the evolutionary models developed by Pons et al. (1999; 2001) that describe how a non rotating star cools down and contracts while neutrino diffusion and thermalization processes dominate the stellar dynamics. For assigned values of the evolution time, we set the star into slow rotation and integrate the equations of stellar perturbations in th…
Investigating the Structure of Vela X
2018
Vela X is the prototypical example of a pulsar wind nebula whose morphology and detailed structure have been affected by the interaction with the reverse shock of its host supernova remnant. The resulting complex of filamentary structure and mixed-in ejecta embedded in a nebula that is offset from the pulsar provides the best example we have of this middle-age state that characterizes a significant fraction of composite SNRs, and perhaps all of the large-diameter PWNe seen as TeV sources. Here we report on an XMM-Newton Large Project study of Vela X, supplemented by additional Chandra observations. Through broad spectral modeling as well as detailed spectral investigations of discrete emiss…
The Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey
2012
The Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey has begun and will obtain high quality spectroscopy of some 100000 Milky Way stars, in the field and in open clusters, down to magnitude 19, systematically covering all the major components of the Milky Way. This survey will provide the first homogeneous overview of the distributions of kinematics and chemical element abundances in the Galaxy. The motivation, organisation and implementation of the Gaia-ESO Survey are described, emphasising the complementarity with the ESA Gaia mission. Spectra from the very first observing run of the survey are presented.
The XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST)
2007
(abridged:) The XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST) surveys the most populated ~5 square degrees of the Taurus star formation region, using the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory to study the thermal structure, variability, and long-term evolution of hot plasma, to investigate the magnetic dynamo, and to search for new potential members of the association. Many targets are also studied in the optical, and high-resolution X-ray grating spectroscopy has been obtained for selected bright sources. The X-ray spectra have been coherently analyzed with two different thermal models (2-component thermal model, and a continuous emission measure distribution model). We present ov…
Spectral properties of X-ray bright variable sources in the Taurus Molecular Cloud
2006
We analyze 19 bright variable X-ray sources detected in the XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST), in order to characterize the variations with time of their coronal properties and to derive informations on the X-ray emitting structures. We performed time-resolved spectroscopy of the EPIC PN and MOS spectra of the XEST sources, using a model with one or two thermal components, and we used the time evolution of the temperatures and emission measures during the decay phase of flares to derive the size of the flaring loops. The light curves of the selected sources show different types of variability: flares, long-lasting decay or rise through the whole observation, sl…
Stochastic gravito-inertial modes discovered by CoRoT in the hot Be star HD 51452
2012
International audience; Context. Be stars are rapidly rotating stars with a circumstellar decretion disk. They usually undergo pressure and/or gravity pulsation modes excited by the κ-mechanism, i.e. an effect of the opacity of iron-peak elements in the envelope of the star. In the Milky Way, p-modes are observed in stars that are hotter than or equal to the B3 spectral type, while g-modes are observed at the B2 spectral type and cooler. Aims. We observed a B0IVe star, HD 51452, with the high-precision, high-cadence photometric CoRoT satellite and high-resolution, ground-based HARPS and SOPHIE spectrographs to study its pulsations in great detail. We also used the lower resolution spectra a…
High Energy Emission and its Variability in Young Stellar Objects
2019
Young stars show a variety of highly energetic phenomena, from accretion and outflow processes to hot coronal plasmas confined in their outer atmosphere, all regulated by the intense stellar magnetic fields. Many aspects on each of these phenomena are debated, but, most notably, their complex mutual interaction remains obscure. In this work I report how these phenomena are simultaneously responsible for the high-energy emission from young stars, with a special focus on the expected and observed variability in the X-ray band. Investigating variations in the X-ray emission from young stars allows us to pose constraints on flare and coronal plasma properties, coronal heating, accretion stream …
The Gaia-ESO Survey: impact of extra mixing on C and N abundances of giant stars
2018
The GES survey using FLAMES at the VLT has obtained high-resolution UVES spectra for a large number of giant stars, allowing a determination of the abundances of the key chemical elements C and N at their surface. The surface abundances of these chemical species are well-known to change in stars during their evolution on the red giant branch after the first dredge-up episod, as a result of extra-mixing phenomena. We investigate the effects of thermohaline mixing on C and N abundances using the first comparison between the GES [C/N] determinations with simulations of the observed fields using a model of stellar population synthesis. We explore the effects of thermohaline mixing on the chemic…
Simbol-X capability of detecting the non-thermal emission of stellar flares.
2008
We investigate the capability of detecting, with Simbol-X, non-thermal emission during stellar flares, and distinguishing it from hot thermal emission. We find that flare non-thermal emission is detectable when at least ~20 cts are detected with the CZT detector in the 20-80 keV band. Therefore Simbol-X will detect the non-thermal emission from some of the X-ray brightest nearby stars, whether the thermal vs. non-thermal relation, derived for solar flares, holds.