Search results for "Dwarf"
showing 10 items of 136 documents
Characterizing Lenses and Lensed Stars of High-magnification Single-lens Gravitational Microlensing Events with Lenses Passing over Source Stars
2012
We present the analysis of the light curves of 9 high-magnification single-lens gravitational microlensing events with lenses passing over source stars, including OGLE-2004-BLG-254, MOA-2007-BLG-176, MOA-2007-BLG-233/OGLE-2007-BLG-302, MOA-2009-BLG-174, MOA-2010-BLG-436, MOA-2011-BLG-093, MOA-2011-BLG-274, OGLE-2011-BLG-0990/MOA-2011-BLG-300, and OGLE-2011-BLG-1101/MOA-2011-BLG-325. For all events, we measure the linear limb-darkening coefficients of the surface brightness profile of source stars by measuring the deviation of the light curves near the peak affected by the finite-source effect. For 7 events, we measure the Einstein radii and the lens-source relative proper motions. Among the…
PSR J1012+5307: younger than it looks?
1998
Lorimer et al. have recently reported that the spin-down age (∼7 × 109 yr) of the low-mass binary pulsar PSR J1012+5307 is much higher than the cooling age (3 × 108 yr) of its white dwarf companion. The proposed solutions for this discrepancy are outlined and discussed. In particular, the revised cooling age estimate proposed by Alberts et al. agrees with data from other low-mass binary pulsar systems if a transition to the ‘classical’ cooling regime occurs between ∼0.14 and ∼0.28 M⊙. If this transition is excluded, PSR J1012+5307 seems to have finished its accretion phase far from the spin-up line.
High energy neutrinos from novae in symbiotic binaries: The case of V407 Cygni
2010
Detection of high-energy (>= 100 MeV) gamma rays by the Fermi Large Area Telescope from a nova in the symbiotic binary system V407 Cygni has opened the possibility of high-energy neutrino detection from this type of source. A thermonuclear explosion on the white dwarf surface sets off a nova shell in motion that expands and slows down in a dense surrounding medium provided by the red giant companion. Particles are accelerated in the shocks of the shell and interact with the surrounding medium to produce observed gamma rays. We show that proton-proton interaction, which is most likely responsible for producing gamma rays via neutral pion decay, produces >= 0:1 GeV neutrinos that can be detec…
Quiescent X-ray emission from an evolved brown dwarf ?
2004
I report on the X-ray detection of Gl569Bab. During a 25ksec Chandra observation the binary brown dwarf is for the first time spatially separated in X-rays from the flare star primary Gl569A. Companionship to Gl569A constrains the age of the brown dwarf pair to ~300-800 Myr. The observation presented here is only the second X-ray detection of an evolved brown dwarf. About half of the observing time is dominated by a large flare on Gl569Bab, the remainder is characterized by weak and non-variable emission just above the detection limit. This emission -- if not related to the afterglow of the flare -- represents the first detection of a quiescent corona on a brown dwarf, representing an impor…
Accretion-ejection connection in the young brown dwarf candidate ISO-ChaI 217*
2014
As the number of observed brown dwarf outflows is growing it is important to investigate how these outflows compare to the well-studied jets from young stellar objects. A key point of comparison is the relationship between outflow and accretion activity and in particular the ratio between the mass outflow and accretion rates (Ṁout/Ṁacc). The brown dwarf candidate ISO-ChaI 217 was discovered by our group, as part of a spectro-astrometric study of brown dwarfs, to be driving an asymmetric outflow with the blue-shifted lobe having a position angle of ~20°. The aim here is to further investigate the properties of ISO-ChaI 217, the morphology and kinematics of its outflow, and to better constrai…
Towards simulation of high temperature methane spectra
2002
Methane plays a central role in gas layers of temperatures up to around 3000 K in a number of astrophysical objects ranging from giant planets to brown dwarfs, over proto-solar nebulae, to several classes of cool stars. In order to model and analyse these objects correctly, an accurate and complete list of spectral lines at high temperature is demanded. Predicting high temperature spectra implies, however, predicting hot bands and thus modelling highly excited vibrational states. This is a real challenge in the case of methane. We report the preliminary results of a theoretical study combining the global effective Hamiltonian approach and its computational implementation (STDS package: http…
A three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of the active phase of SS Cyg-type discs and its implications for the mass transfer bu…
1993
We perform a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) three-dimensional simulation of the outburst phase of the accretion disc of a typical SS Cyg-like dwarf nova in the framework of the mass transfer burst model (MTBM), where we assume that the active phase is triggered by a sudden increase in the accretion rate due to some instability in the secondary's atmosphere. The evolution of the accretion disc is followed for a single orbital period, starting from the initial quiescent disc configuration obtained by us in a previous paper. This is a suitable integration time for determining the geometrical and physical properties of the disc in the impulsive phase and is comparable with observed outbu…
A fresh look into the interacting dark matter scenario
2018
The elastic scattering between dark matter particles and radiation represents an attractive possibility to solve a number of discrepancies between observations and standard cold dark matter predictions, as the induced collisional damping would imply a suppression of small-scale structures. We consider this scenario and confront it with measurements of the ionization history of the Universe at several redshifts and with recent estimates of the counts of Milky Way satellite galaxies. We derive a conservative upper bound on the dark matter-photon elastic scattering cross section of $\sigma_{\gamma \rm{DM}} < 8 \times 10^{-10} \, \sigma_T \, \left(m_{\rm DM}/{\rm GeV}\right)$ at $95\%$~CL, abou…
Evidence of a substellar companion to AB Dor C
2019
Studies of fundamental parameters of very low-mass objects are indispensable to provide tests of stellar evolution models that are used to derive theoretical masses of brown dwarfs and planets. However, only objects with dynamically determined masses and precise photometry can effectively evaluate the predictions of stellar models. AB Dor C (0.090 solar masses) has become a prime benchmark for calibration of theoretical evolutionary models of low-mass young stars. One of the ambiguities remaining in AB Dor C is the possible binary nature of this star. We observed AB Dor C with the VLTI/AMBER instrument in low-resolution mode at the J, H and K bands. The interferometric observables at the K-…
The enigmatic young brown dwarf binary FU Tau: accretion and activity
2010
FU Tau belongs to a rare class of young, wide brown dwarf binaries. We have resolved the system in a Chandra X-ray observation and detected only the primary, FU Tau A. Hard X-ray emission, presumably from a corona, is present but, unexpectedly, we detect also a strong and unusually soft component from FU Tau A. Its X-ray properties, so far unique among brown dwarfs, are very similar to those of the T Tauri star TW Hya. The analogy with TW Hya suggests that the dominating soft X-ray component can be explained by emission from accretion shocks. However, the typical free-fall velocities of a brown dwarf are too low for an interpretation of the observed X-ray temperature as post-shock region. O…