Search results for "Stars"
showing 10 items of 798 documents
Pulsating B and Be Stars in the Magellanic Clouds
2010
Stellar pulsations in main-sequence B-type stars are driven by the κ-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 Magellanic Clouds (MC) has been measured to be around Z = 0. 002 for the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and Z = 0. 007 for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), they constitute a very suitable objects to test these predictions. The aim of this work is to investigate the existence of B-type pulsators at low metallicities, searching for short-term periodic variability in a large sample of B and Be stars from the MC with accurately determined f…
VLTI/AMBER observations of cold giant stars: atmospheric structures and fundamental parameters
2014
The main goal of this research is to determine the angular size and the atmospheric structures of cool giant stars and to compare them with hydrostatic stellar model atmospheres, to estimate the fundamental parameters, and to obtain a better understanding of the circumstellar environment. We conducted spectro-interferometric observations of epsilon Oct, beta Peg, NU Pav, and psi Peg in the near-infrared K band (2.13-2.47 microm), and gamma Hya (1.9-2.47 microm) with the VLTI/AMBER instrument at medium spectral resolution. To obtain the fundamental parameters, we compared our data with hydrostatic atmosphere models (PHOENIX). We estimated the Rosseland angular diameters of epsilon Oct, beta …
A decade of SN 1993J : discovery of radio wavelength effects in the expansion rate
2009
We studied the growth of the shell-like radio structure of supernova SN 1993J in M 81 from September 1993 to October 2003 with very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations at the wavelengths of 3.6, 6, and 18 cm. We developed a method to accurately determine the outer radius (R) of any circularly symmetric compact radio structure such as SN 1993J. The source structure of SN 1993J remains circularly symmetric (with deviations from circularity under 2%) over almost 4000 days. We characterize the decelerated expansion of SN 1993J until approximately day 1500 after explosion with an expansion parameter m = 0.845 ± 0.005 (R ∝ tm). However, from that day onwards the expansion differs whe…
ROSAT PSPC/HRI observations of the open cluster NGC 2422
2002
We present the results of a ROSAT study of NGC 2422, a southern open cluster at a distance of about 470 pc, with an age close to the Pleiades. Source detection was performed on two observations, a 10-ks PSPC and a 40-ks HRI pointing, with a detection algorithm based on wavelet transforms, particularly suited to detecting faint sources in crowded fields. We have detected 78 sources, 13 of which were detected only with the HRI, and 37 detected only with the PSPC. For each source, we have computed the 0.2-2.0 keV X-ray flux. Using optical data from the literature and our own low-dispersion spectroscopic observations, we find candidate optical counterparts for 62 X-ray sources, with more than 8…
Timing of the 2008 outburst of SAX J1808.4–3658 with XMM-Newton: a stable orbital-period derivative over ten years
2009
We report on a timing analysis performed on a 62-ks long XMM-Newton observation of the accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658 during the latest X-ray outburst that started on September 21, 2008. By connecting the time of arrivals of the pulses observed during the XMM observation, we derived the best-fit orbital solution and a best-fit value of the spin period for the 2008 outburst. Comparing this new set of orbital parameters and, in particular, the value of the time of ascending-node passage with the orbital parameters derived for the previous four X-ray outbursts of SAX J1808.4-3658 observed by the PCA on board RXTE, we find an updated value of the orbital period derivative, which …
An abundance analysis of the single-lined spectroscopic binaries with barium stars-like orbital elements
1997
Detailed abundance analyses have been car- ried out for 17 single-lined binaries (giants and dwarfs) with orbital elements and mass functions similar to those of barium stars, using high-dispersion CCD spectra and model atmospheres. All these binary systems contain an unseen low-mass component, presumably, a white dwarf. A mild enhancement (+0:1 0:25 dex) of the averaged s- process elements abundances has been found only for two stars. The heavy-element overabundances in these stars are much less marked than those of the classical barium stars having similar orbital periods. We have concluded that the existence of a white dwarf (WD) companion in binary systems with barium star like characte…
Timing of the accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021 during its 2015 outburst
2016
We report on the timing analysis of the 2015 outburst of the intermittent accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar SAX J1748.9-2021 observed on March 4 by the X-ray satellite XMM-Newton. By phase-connecting the time of arrivals of the observed pulses, we derived the best-fit orbital solution for the 2015 outburst. We investigated the energy pulse profile dependence finding that the pulse fractional amplitude increases with energy while no significant time lags are detected. Moreover, we investigated the previous outbursts from this source, finding previously undetected pulsations in some intervals during the 2010 outburst of the source. Comparing the updated set of orbital parameters, in particul…
Bright X-Ray Flares in Orion Young Stars from COUP: Evidence for Star-Disk Magnetic Fields?
2005
We have analyzed a number of intense X-ray flares observed in the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP), a 13 days observation of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). Analysis of the flare decay allows to determine the size, peak density and magnetic field of the flaring structure. A total of 32 events (the most powerful 1% of COUP flares), have sufficient statistics for the analysis. A broad range of decay times (from 10 to 400 ks) are present in the sample. Peak flare temperatures are often very high, with half of the flares in the sample showing temperatures in excess of 100 MK. Significant sustained heating is present in the majority of the flares. The magnetic structures which are found, a…
GW190521 as a Merger of Proca Stars: A Potential New Vector Boson of 8.7×10−13 eV
2021
Advanced LIGO-Virgo have reported a short gravitational-wave signal (GW190521) interpreted as a quasicircular merger of black holes, one at least populating the pair-instability supernova gap, that formed a remnant black hole of ${M}_{f}\ensuremath{\sim}142\text{ }\text{ }{M}_{\ensuremath{\bigodot}}$ at a luminosity distance of ${d}_{L}\ensuremath{\sim}5.3\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Gpc}$. With barely visible pre-merger emission, however, GW190521 merits further investigation of the pre-merger dynamics and even of the very nature of the colliding objects. We show that GW190521 is consistent with numerically simulated signals from head-on collisions of two (equal mass and spin) horizonless vecto…
Evolution of Proto-Neutron stars with kaon condensates
2000
We present simulations of the evolution of a proto-neutron star in which kaon-condensed matter might exist, including the effects of finite temperature and trapped neutrinos. The phase transition from pure nucleonic matter to the kaon condensate phase is described using Gibbs' rules for phase equilibrium, which permit the existence of a mixed phase. A general property of neutron stars containing kaon condensates, as well as other forms of strangeness, is that the maximum mass for cold, neutrino-free matter can be less than the maximum mass for matter containing trapped neutrinos or which has a finite entropy. A proto-neutron star formed with a baryon mass exceeding that of the maximum mass …