Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Candidate Magnetic Helium-Core White Dwarf In The Globular Cluster Ngc 6397, Manuel Pichardo Marcano, Liliana E. Rivera Sandoval, Thomas J. Maccarone, Rene D. Rohrmann, Craig O. Heinke, Diogo Belloni, Leandro G. Althaus, Arash Bahramian

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report a peculiar variable blue star in the globular cluster (GC) NGC 6397, using Hubble Space Telescope optical imaging. Its position in the colour–magnitude diagrams and its spectrum are consistent with this star being a helium-core white dwarf (He WD) in a binary system. The optical light curve shows a periodicity at 18.5 h. We argue that this periodicity is due to the rotation of the WD and possibly due to magnetic spots on the surface of the WD. This would make this object the first candidate magnetic He WD in any GC, and the first candidate magnetic WD …

X-Ray Properties Of Early-Type Stars In The Tarantula Nebula From T-Rex, Paul A. Crowther, Patrick S. Broos, Leisa K. Townsley, Andy M. T. Pollock, Katie A. Tehrani, Marc Gagné

Earth & Space Sciences Faculty Publications

We reassess the historical L-X/L-Bol relation for early-type stars from a comparison between T-ReX, the Chandra ACIS X-ray survey of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and contemporary spectroscopic analysis of massive stars obtained primarily from VLT/FLAMES, VLT/MUSE, and HST/STIS surveys. For 107 sources in common (some host to multiple stars), the majority of which are bolometrically luminous (40 per cent exceed 10(6)L(circle dot)), we find an average log L-X/L-Bol = -6.90 +/- 0.65. Excluding extreme systems Mk 34 (WN5h+WN5h), R140a (WC4+WN6+), and VFTS 399 (O9 IIIn+?), plus four WR sources with anomalously hard X-ray components (R130, …

Full Orbital Solution For The Binary System In The Northern Galactic Disc Microlensing Event Gaia16aye, Ł. Wyrzykowski, P. Mróz, K. A. Rybicki, M. Gromadzki, Z. Kołaczkowski, M. Zieliński, P. Zieliński, N. Britavskiy, A. Gomboc, K. Sokolovsky, S. T. Hodgkin, L. Abe, G. F. Aldi, A. Almannaei, G. Altavilla, A. Al Qasim, G. C. Anupama, S. Awiphan, E. Bachelet, V. Bakış, S. Baker, S. Bartlett, P. Bendjoya, K. Benson, I. F. Bikmaev, G. Birenbaum, N. Blagorodnova, S. Blanco-Cuaresma, S. Boeva, A. Z. Bonanos, V. Bozza, D. M. Bramich, I. Bruni, R. A. Burenin, U. Burgaz, T. Butterley, H. E. Caines, D. B. Caton, S. Calchi Novati, J. M. Carrasco, A. Cassan, V. Čepas, M. Cropper, M. Chruślińska, G. Clementini, A. Clerici, D. Conti, M. Conti, S. Cross, F. Cusano, G. Damljanovic, D. Dapergolas, G. D'Ago, J. H. J. De Bruijne, M. Dennefeld, V. S. Dhillon, M. Dominik, J. Dziedzic, O. Erece, M. V. Eselevich, H. Esenoglu, L. Eyer, R. Figuera Jaimes, S. J. Fossey, A. I. Galeev, S. A. Grebenev, A. C. Gupta, A. G. Gutaev, N. Hallakoun, A. Hamanowicz, C. Han, B. Hanzlik, J. B. Haislip, L. Hanlon, L. K. Hardy, D. L. Harrison, H. J. Van Heerden, V. L. Hoette, K. Horne, R. Hudec, M. Hundertmark, N. Ihanec, E. N. Irtuganov, R. Itoh, P. Iwanek, M. D. Jovanovic, R. Janulis, M. Jelínek, Eric L.N. Jensen, Z. Kaczmarek, D. Katz, I. M. Khamitov, Y. Kilic, J. Klencki, U. Kolb, G. Kopacki, V. V. Kouprianov, K. Kruszyńska, S. Kurowski, G. Latev, C.-H. Lee, S. Leonini, G. Leto, F. Lewis, Z. Li, A. Liakos, S. P. Littlefair, J. Lu, C. J. Manser, S. Mao, D. Maoz, A. Martin-Carrillo, J. P. Marais, M. Maskoliūnas, J. R. Maund, P. J. Meintjes, S. S. Melnikov, K. Ment, P. Mikołajczyk, M. Morrell, N. Mowlavi, D. Moździerski, D. Murphy, S. Nazarov, H. Netzel, R. Nesci, C.-C. Ngeow, A. J. Norton, E. O. Ofek, E. Pakštienė, L. Palaversa, A. Pandey, E. Paraskeva, M. Pawlek, M. T. Penny, B. E. Penprase, A. Piascik, J. L. Prieto, J. K. T. Qvam, C. Ranc, A. Rebassa-Mansergas, D. E. Reichert, P. Reig, L. Rhodes, J.-P. Rivet, G. Rixon, D. Roberts, P. Rosi, D. M. Russell, R. Zanmar Sanchez, G. Scarpetta, G. Seabroke, B. J. Shappee, R. Schmidt, Y. Shvartzvald, M. Sitek, J. Skowron, M. Śniegowska, C. Snodgrass, P. S. Soares, B. Van Soelen, Z. T. Spetsieri, A. Stankevičiūtė, I. A. Steele, R. A. Street, J. Strobl, E. Strubble, H. Szegedi, L. M. Tinjava Ramirez, L. Tomasella, Y. Tsapras, D. Vernet, S. Villanueva Jr., O. Vince, J. Wambsganss, I. P. Van Der Westhuizen, K. Wiersema, D. Wium, R. W. Wilson, A. Yoldas, R. Ya. Zhuchkov, D. G. Zhukov, J. Zdanavičius, S. Zoła, A. Zubareva

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

Gaia16aye was a binary microlensing event discovered in the direction towards the northern Galactic disc and was one of the first microlensing events detected and alerted to by the Gaia space mission. Its light curve exhibited five distinct brightening episodes, reaching up to I = 12 mag, and it was covered in great detail with almost 25 000 data points gathered by a network of telescopes. We present the photometric and spectroscopic follow-up covering 500 days of the event evolution. We employed a full Keplerian binary orbit microlensing model combined with the motion of Earth and Gaia around the Sun …

Polar Alignment Of A Protoplanetary Disc Around An Eccentric Binary – Iii. Effect Of Disc Mass, Rebecca G. Martin, Stephen H. Lubow

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

An initially sufficiently misaligned low-mass protoplanetary disc around an eccentric binary undergoes damped nodal oscillations of tilt angle and longitude of ascending node. Dissipation causes evolution towards a stationary state of polar alignment in which the disc lies perpendicular to the binary orbital plane with angular momentum aligned to the eccentricity vector of the binary. We use hydrodynamic simulations and analytical methods to investigate how the mass of the disc affects this process. The simulations suggest that a disc with non-zero mass settles into a stationary state in the frame of the binary, the generalized polar state, at somewhat lower …

Circumbinary Disk Inner Radius As A Diagnostic For Disk–Binary Misalignment, Alessia Franchini, Stephen H. Lubow, Rebecca G. Martin

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We investigate the misalignment of the circumbinary disk around the binary HD 98800 BaBb with eccentricity e sime 0.8. Kennedy et al. observed the disk to be either at an inclination of 48° or polar aligned to the binary orbital plane. Their simulations showed that alignment from 48° to a polar configuration can take place on a shorter timescale than the age of this system. We perform hydrodynamical numerical simulations in order to estimate the cavity size carved by the eccentric binary for different disk inclinations as an independent check of polar alignment. Resonance theory suggests that torques on the …

Alignment Of A Circumbinary Disc Around An Eccentric Binary With Application To Kh 15d, Jeremy L. Smallwood, Stephen H. Lubow, Alessia Franchini, Rebecca G. Martin

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We analyse the evolution of a mildly inclined circumbinary disc that orbits an eccentric orbit binary by means of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations and linear theory. We show that the alignment process of an initially misaligned circumbinary disc around an eccentric orbit binary is significantly different than around a circular orbit binary and involves tilt oscillations. The more eccentric the binary, the larger the tilt oscillations and the longer it takes to damp these oscillations. A circumbinary disc that is only mildly inclined may increase its inclination by a factor of a few before it moves towards alignment. The …

Dust Traps In The Protoplanetary Disk Mwc 758: Two Vortices Produced By Two Giant Planets?, Clement Baruteau, Marcelo Barraza, Sebastian Perez, Simon Casassus, Ruobing Dong, Wladimir Lyra, Sebastian Marino, Valentin Christiaens, Zhaohuan Zhu, Andres Carmona, Florian Debras, Felipe Alarcon

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

Resolved ALMA and VLA observations indicate the existence of two dust traps in the protoplanetary disc MWC 758. By means of two-dimensional gas+dust hydrodynamical simulations post-processed with three-dimensional dust radiative transfer calculations, we show that the spirals in scattered light, the eccentric, asymmetric ring and the crescent-shaped structure in the (sub)millimetre can all be caused by two giant planets: a 1.5-Jupiter mass planet at 35 au (inside the spirals) and a 5-Jupiter mass planet at 140 au (outside the spirals). The outer planet forms a dust-trapping vortex at the inner edge of its gap (at ∼85 au), and the continuum …

Misaligned Accretion Disc Formation Via Kozai-Lidov Oscillations, Alessia Franchini, Rebecca G. Martin, Stephen H. Lubow

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

We investigate the formation and evolution of misaligned accretion discs around the secondary component of a binary through mass transfer driven by Kozai–Lidov (KL) oscillations of the circumprimary disc’s eccentricity and inclination. We perform smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to study the amount of mass transferred to the secondary star as a function of both the disc and binary parameters. For the range of parameters we explore, we find that increasing the disc aspect ratio, viscosity parameter, and initial inclination as well as decreasing the binary mass ratio leads to larger amount of mass transfer, up to a maximum of about …

Revealing The Structure Of The Outer Disks Of Be Stars, Robert Klement, Anthony C. Carciofi, Thomas Rivinius, Lynn D. Matthews, Rodrigo G. Vieira, Richard Ignace, Jon E. Bjorkman, B. C. Mota, Daniel M. Faes, A. D. Bratcher, M. Cure, Stanislav Stefl

Richard Ignace

Context. The structure of the inner parts of Be star disks (≲ 20 stellar radii) is well explained by the viscous decretion disk (VDD) model, which is able to reproduce the observable properties of most of the objects studied so far. The outer parts, on the other hand, are not observationally well-explored, as they are observable only at radio wavelengths. A steepening of the spectral slope somewhere between infrared and radio wavelengths was reported for several Be stars that were previously detected in the radio, but a convincing physical explanation for this trend has not yet been provided.

Aims. We …

Multiple Stellar Flybys Sculpting The Circumstellar Architecture In Rw Aurigae, J. E. Rodriguez, R. Loomis, S. Cabrit, T. H. Haworth, S. Facchini, C. Dougados, R. A. Booth, Eric L.N. Jensen, C. J. Clarke, K. G. Stassun, W. R. F. Dent, J. Pety

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

We present high-resolution ALMA Band 6 and 7 observations of the tidally disrupted protoplanetary disks of the RW Aurigae binary. Our observations reveal tidal streams in addition to the previously observed tidal arm around RW Aur A. The observed configuration of tidal streams surrounding RW Aur A and B is incompatible with a single star–disk tidal encounter, suggesting that the RW Aurigae system has undergone multiple flyby interactions. We also resolve the circumstellar disks around RW Aur A and B, with CO radii of 58 au and 38 au consistent with tidal truncation, and 2.5 times smaller dust emission radii. …

A Bright Short Period M-M Eclipsing Binary From The Kelt Survey: Magnetic Activity And The Mass–Radius Relationship For M Dwarfs, J. B. Lubin, J. E. Rodriguez, G. Zhou, K. E. Conroy, K. G. Stassun, K. Collins, D. J. Stevens, J. Labadie-Bartz, C. Stockdale, G. Myers, K. D. Colón, J. Bento, P. Kehusmaa, R. Petrucci, E. Jofré, S. N. Quinn, M. B. Lund, R. B. Kuhn, R. J. Siverd, T. G. Beatty, C. Harlingten, J. Pepper, B. S. Gaudi, D. James, Eric L.N. Jensen, D. Reichart, L. Kedziora-Chudczer, J. Bailey, G. Melville

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

We report the discovery of KELT J041621-620046, a moderately bright (J ~ 10.2) M-dwarf eclipsing binary system at a distance of 39 ± 3 pc. KELT J041621-620046 was first identified as an eclipsing binary using observations from the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) survey. The system has a short orbital period of ~1.11 days and consists of components with and in nearly circular orbits. The radii of the two stars are and . Full system and orbital properties were determined (to ∼10% error) by conducting an EBOP (Eclipsing Binary Orbit Program) global modeling of the high precision photometric and spectroscopic …

Prediction Of A Red Nova Outburst In Kic 9832227, Lawrence A. Molnar, Daniel M. Van Noord, Karen Kinemuchi, Jason P. Smolinski

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

We present the first identification of a candidate precursor for an imminent red nova. Our prediction is based on the example of the precursor to the red nova V1309 Sco, which was retrospectively found to be a contact binary with an exponentially decreasing period. We explore the use of this distinctive timing signature to identify precursors, developing the observational and analysis steps needed. We estimate that our Galaxy has roughly 1-10 observable precursors. Specifically, we lay out the observational case for KIC 9832227, which we identified as a tentative candidate two years ago (Molnar et al. 2015, AAS Meeting #225 …

Revealing The Structure Of The Outer Disks Of Be Stars, Robert Klement, Anthony C. Carciofi, Thomas Rivinius, Lynn D. Matthews, Rodrigo G. Vieira, Richard Ignace, Jon E. Bjorkman, B. C. Mota, Daniel M. Faes, A. D. Bratcher, M. Cure, Stanislav Stefl

ETSU Faculty Works

Context. The structure of the inner parts of Be star disks (≲ 20 stellar radii) is well explained by the viscous decretion disk (VDD) model, which is able to reproduce the observable properties of most of the objects studied so far. The outer parts, on the other hand, are not observationally well-explored, as they are observable only at radio wavelengths. A steepening of the spectral slope somewhere between infrared and radio wavelengths was reported for several Be stars that were previously detected in the radio, but a convincing physical explanation for this trend has not yet been provided.

Aims. We …

Circumstellar Disks Around Binary Stars In Taurus, R. L. Akeson, Eric L.N. Jensen

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

We have conducted a survey of 17 wide (〉100 AU) young binary systems in Taurus with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) at two wavelengths. The observations were designed to measure the masses of circumstellar disks in these systems as an aid to understanding the role of multiplicity in star and planet formation. The ALMA observations had sufficient resolution to localize emission within the binary system. Disk emission was detected around all primaries and 10 secondaries, with disk masses as low as 10^-4 M _☉. We compare the properties of our sample to the population of known disks …

Long-Term Tev And X-Ray Observations Of The Gamma- Ray Binary Hess J0632+057, P. T. Reynolds, Veritas, Hess

Physical Sciences Publications

HESS J0632+057 is the only gamma-ray binary known so far whose position in the sky allows observations with ground-based observatories in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Here we report on long-term observations of HESS J0632+057 conducted with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System and High Energy Stereoscopic System Cherenkov telescopes and the X-ray satellite Swift, spanning a time range from 2004 to 2012 and covering most of the system's orbit. The very-high-energy (VHE) emission is found to be variable and is correlated with that at X-ray energies. An orbital period of days is derived from the …

Observational Constraints On The Degenerate Mass-Radius Relation, J. B. Holberg, Terry D. Oswalt, M. A. Barstow

Publications

The white dwarf mass–radius relationship is fundamental to modern astrophysics. It is central to routine estimation of DA white dwarf masses derived from spectroscopic temperatures and gravities. It is also the basis for observational determinations of the white dwarf initial–final-mass relation. Nevertheless, definitive and detailed observational confirmations of the mass–radius relation (MRR) remain elusive owing to a lack of sufficiently accurate white dwarf masses and radii. Current best estimates of masses and radii allow only broad conclusions about the expected inverse relation between masses and radii in degenerate stars. In this paper, we examine a restricted set of 12 DA …

Orbital Separation Amplification In Fragile Binaries With Evolved Components, K. B. Johnston, Terry D. Oswalt

Publications

The secular stellar mass-loss causes an amplification of the orbital separation in fragile, common proper motion, binary systems with separations of the order of 1000 A.U. In these systems, companions evolve as two independent coeval stars as they experience negligible mutual tidal interactions or mass transfer. We present models for how post-main sequence mass-loss statistically distorts the frequency distribution of separations in fragile binaries. These models demonstrate the expected increase in orbital seapration resulting from stellar mass-loss, as well as a perturbation of associated orbital parameters. Comparisons between our models and observations resulting from the Luyten survey of wide visual …

Veritas Observations Of The Tev Binary Ls I+61 Degrees 303 During 2008-2010, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al.

Physical Sciences Publications

We present the results of observations of the TeV binary LS I +61° 303 with the VERITAS telescope array between 2008 and 2010, at energies above 300 GeV. In the past, both ground-based gamma-ray telescopes VERITAS and MAGIC have reported detections of TeV emission near the apastron phases of the binary orbit. The observations presented here show no strong evidence for TeV emission during these orbital phases; however, during observations taken in late 2010, significant emission was detected from the source close to the phase of superior conjunction (much closer to periastron passage) at a 5.6 standard deviation (5.6σ) post-trials …

Multiwavelength Observations Of Ls I+61 Degrees 303 With Veritas, Swift, And Rxte, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al.

Physical Sciences Publications

We present results from a long-term monitoring campaign on the TeV binary LSI +61° 303 with VERITAS at energies above 500 GeV, and in the 2-10 keV hard X-ray bands with RXTE and Swift, sampling nine 26.5 day orbital cycles between 2006 September and 2008 February. The binary was observed by VERITAS to be variable, with all integrated observations resulting in a detection at the 8.8σ (2006/2007) and 7.3σ (2007/2008) significance level for emission above 500 GeV. The source was detected during active periods with flux values ranging from 5% to 20% of the Crab Nebula, varying over the course …