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Full-Text Articles in Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy

The Ages Of The Thin Disk, Thick Disk, And The Halo From Nearby White Dwarfs, Mukremin Kilic, Ted Von Hippel, Jeffrey A. Munn, Hugh C. Harris, James W. Liebert, Et Al. Aug 2019

The Ages Of The Thin Disk, Thick Disk, And The Halo From Nearby White Dwarfs, Mukremin Kilic, Ted Von Hippel, Jeffrey A. Munn, Hugh C. Harris, James W. Liebert, Et Al.

Ted von Hippel

We present a detailed analysis of the white dwarf luminosity functions derived from the local 40 pc sample and the deep proper motion catalog of Munn et al. (2014, 2017). Many of the previous studies ignored the contribution of thick disk white dwarfs to the Galactic disk luminosity function, which results in an erronous age measurement. We demonstrate that the ratio of thick/thin disk white dwarfs is roughly 20% in the local sample. Simultaneously fitting for both disk components, we derive ages of 6.8-7.0 Gyr for the thin disk and 8.7 ± 0.1 Gyr for the thick disk from the …


Stellar Populations And The White Dwarf Mass Function: Connections To Supernova Ia Luminosities, Ted Von Hippel, G. D. Bothum, R. A. Schommer Aug 2019

Stellar Populations And The White Dwarf Mass Function: Connections To Supernova Ia Luminosities, Ted Von Hippel, G. D. Bothum, R. A. Schommer

Ted von Hippel

We discuss the luminosity function of SNe Ia under the assumption that recent evidence for dispersion in this standard candle is related to variations in the white dwarf mass function (WDMF) in the host galaxies. We develop a simple parameterization of the WDMF as a function of age of a stellar population and apply this to galaxies of different morphological types. We show that this simplified model is consistent with the observed WDMF of Bergeron et al. (1992) for the solar neighborhood. Our simple models predict that WDMF variations can produce a range of more than 1.8 mag in MB(SN …


Magnetospherically-Trapped Dust And A Possible Model For The Unusual Transits At Wd1145+017, J. Farihi, Ted Von Hippel, J. E. Pringle Aug 2019

Magnetospherically-Trapped Dust And A Possible Model For The Unusual Transits At Wd1145+017, J. Farihi, Ted Von Hippel, J. E. Pringle

Ted von Hippel

The rapidly evolving dust and gas extinction observed towardsWD1145+017 has opened a real-time window onto the mechanisms for destruction-accretion of planetary bodies onto white dwarf stars, and has served to underline the importance of considering the dynamics of dust particles around such objects. Here it is argued that the interaction between (charged) dust grains and the stellar magnetic field is an important ingredient in understanding the physical distribution of infrared emitting particles in the vicinity of such white dwarfs. These ideas are used to suggest a possible model for WD 1145+017 in which the unusual transit shapes are caused by …


The Link Between Shocks, Turbulence And Magnetic Reconnection In Collisionless Plasmas, H. Karimabadi, V. Roytershteyn, H. X. Vu, Y. Omelchenko, J. Scudder, W. Daughton, A. Dimmock, Katariina (Heidi) Nykyri, Et Al. Feb 2018

The Link Between Shocks, Turbulence And Magnetic Reconnection In Collisionless Plasmas, H. Karimabadi, V. Roytershteyn, H. X. Vu, Y. Omelchenko, J. Scudder, W. Daughton, A. Dimmock, Katariina (Heidi) Nykyri, Et Al.

Katariina Nykyri

Global hybrid (electron fluid, kinetic ions) and fully kinetic simulations of the magnetosphere have been used to show surprising interconnection between shocks, turbulence and magnetic reconnection. In particular collisionless shocks with their reflected ions that can get upstream before retransmission can generate previously unforeseen phenomena in the post shocked flows: (i) formation of reconnecting current sheets and magnetic islands with sizes up to tens of ion inertial length. (ii) Generation of large scale low frequency electromagnetic waves that are compressed and amplified as they cross the shock. These 'wavefronts' maintain their integrity for tens of ion cyclotron times but eventually …


Basic Astronomy Labs, Terry L. Smith, Michael D. Reynolds, Jay S. Huebner Jul 2014

Basic Astronomy Labs, Terry L. Smith, Michael D. Reynolds, Jay S. Huebner

Jay S Huebner

Providing the tools and know-how to apply the principles of astronomy first-hand, these 43 laboratory exercises each contain an introduction that clearly shows budding astronomers why the particular topic of that lab is of interest and relevant to astronomy. About one-third of the exercises are devoted solely to observation, and no mathematics is required beyond simple high school algebra and trigonometry.Organizes exercises into six major topics—sky, optics and spectroscopy, celestial mechanics, solar system, stellar properties, and exploration and other topics—providing clear outlines of what is involved in the exercise, its purpose, and what procedures and apparatus are to be used. …