- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/734/67
- Title:
- Circumstellar emission measures with Keck
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/734/67
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Keck Interferometer Nuller (KIN) was used to survey 25 nearby main-sequence stars in the mid-infrared, in order to assess the prevalence of warm circumstellar (exozodiacal) dust around nearby solar-type stars. The KIN measures circumstellar emission by spatially blocking the star but transmitting the circumstellar flux in a region typically 0.1-4AU from the star. We find one significant detection ({eta} Crv), two marginal detections ({gamma} Oph and {alpha} Aql), and 22 clear non-detections. Using a model of our own solar system's zodiacal cloud, scaled to the luminosity of each target star, we estimate the equivalent number of target zodis needed to match our observations. Our three zodi detections are {eta} Crv (1250+/-260), {gamma} Oph (200+/-80), and {alpha} Aql (600+/-200), where the uncertainties are 1{sigma}. The 22 non-detected targets have an ensemble weighted average consistent with zero, with an average individual uncertainty of 160 zodis (1{sigma}). These measurements represent the best limits to date on exozodi levels for a sample of nearby main-sequence stars. A statistical analysis of the population of 23 stars not previously known to contain circumstellar dust (excluding {eta} Crv and {gamma} Oph) suggests that, if the measurement errors are uncorrelated (for which we provide evidence) and if these 23 stars are representative of a single class with respect to the level of exozodi brightness, the mean exozodi level for the class is <150 zodis (3{sigma} upper limit, corresponding to 99% confidence under the additional assumption that the measurement errors are Gaussian). We also demonstrate that this conclusion is largely independent of the shape and mean level of the (unknown) true underlying exozodi distribution.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/580/A131
- Title:
- Circumstellar-interacting supernovae
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/580/A131
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Some circumstellar-interacting (CSI) supernovae (SNe) are produced by the explosions of massive stars that have lost mass shortly before the SN explosion. There is evidence that the precursors of some SNe IIn were luminous blue variable (LBV) stars. For a small number of CSI SNe, outbursts have been observed before the SN explosion. Eruptive events of massive stars are named SN impostors (SN IMs) and whether they herald a forthcoming SN or not is still unclear. The large variety of observational properties of CSI SNe suggests the existence of other progenitors, such as red supergiant (RSG) stars with superwinds. Furthermore, the role of metallicity in the mass loss of CSI SN progenitors is still largely unexplored. Our goal is to gain insight into the nature of the progenitor stars of CSI SNe by studying their environments, in particular the metallicity at their locations. We obtain metallicity measurements at the location of 60 transients (including SNe IIn, SNe Ibn, and SN IMs) via emission-line diagnostic on optical spectra obtained at the Nordic Optical Telescope and through public archives. Metallicity values from the literature complement our sample. We compare the metallicity distributions among the different CSI SN subtypes, and to those of other core-collapse SN types. We also search for possible correlations between metallicity and CSI SN observational properties. We find that SN IMs tend to occur in environments with lower metallicity than those of SNe IIn. Among SNe IIn, SN IIn-L(1998S-like) SNe show higher metallicities, similar to those of SNe IIL/P, whereas long-lasting SNe IIn (1988Z-like) show lower metallicities, similar to those of SN IMs. The metallicity distribution of SNe IIn can be reproduced by combining the metallicity distributions of SN IMs (which may be produced by major outbursts of massive stars like LBVs) and SNe IIP (produced by RSGs). The same applies to the distributions of the normalized cumulative rank (NCR) values, which quantifies the SN association to HII regions. For SNe IIn, we find larger mass-loss rates and higher CSM velocities at higher metallicities. The luminosity increment in the optical bands during SN IM outbursts tend to be larger at higher metallicity, whereas the SN IM quiescent optical luminosities tend to be lower. The difference in metallicity between SNe IIn and SN IMs indicates that LBVs are only one of the progenitor channels for SNe IIn, with 1988Z-like and 1998S-like SNe possibly arising from LBVs and RSGs, respectively. Finally, even though line-driven winds likely do not primarily drive the late mass-loss of CSI SN progenitors, metallicity has some impact on the observational properties of these transients.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/132/1275
- Title:
- CIRS (Cluster Infall Regions in the SDSS). I.
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/132/1275
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We use the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to test the ubiquity of infall patterns around galaxy clusters and measure cluster mass profiles to large radii. The Cluster and Infall Region Nearby Survey (CAIRNS) found infall patterns in nine clusters, but the cluster sample was incomplete. Here we match X-ray cluster catalogs with SDSS, search for infall patterns, and compute mass profiles for a complete sample of X-ray-selected clusters. Very clean infall patterns are apparent in most of the clusters, with the fraction decreasing with increasing redshift due to shallower sampling. All 72 clusters in a well-defined sample limited by redshift (ensuring good sampling) and X-ray flux (excluding superpositions) show infall patterns sufficient to apply the caustic technique. This sample is by far the largest sample of cluster mass profiles extending to large radii to date. Similar to CAIRNS, cluster infall patterns are better defined in observations than in simulations. Further work is needed to determine the source of this difference. We use the infall patterns to compute mass profiles for 72 clusters and compare them to model profiles. Cluster scaling relations using caustic masses agree well with those using X-ray or virial mass estimates, confirming the reliability of the caustic technique. We confirm the conclusion of CAIRNS that cluster infall regions are well fitted by Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) and Hernquist profiles and poorly fitted by singular isothermal spheres. This much larger sample enables new comparisons of cluster properties with those in simulations. The shapes (specifically NFW concentrations) of the mass profiles agree well with the predictions of simulations. The mass in the infall region is typically comparable to or larger than that in the virial region. Specifically, the mass inside the turnaround radius is on average 2.19+/-0.18 times that within the virial radius. This ratio agrees well with recent predictions from simulations of the final masses of dark matter halos.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/666/757
- Title:
- CIV 1549{AA} emission line in AGNs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/666/757
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We are exploring a spectroscopic unification for all types of broad-line emitting AGNs. The four-dimensional Eigenvector 1 (4DE1) parameter space organizes quasar diversity in a sequence primarily governed by Eddington ratio. This paper considers the role of CIV {lambda}1549 measures as 4DE1 diagnostics. We use HST archival spectra for 130 sources with S/N high enough to permit reliable CIV {lambda}1549 broad-component measures.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/449/1593
- Title:
- CIV absorption in BAL QSOs
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/449/1593
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- There is a large diversity in the CIV broad absorption line (BAL) profile among BAL quasars (BALQs). We quantify this diversity by exploring the distribution of the CIV BAL properties, full width at half-maximum (FWHM), maximum depth of absorption and its velocity shift (v_md_), using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 quasar catalogue. We find the following: (i) Although the median CIV BAL profile in the quasar rest-frame becomes broader and shallower as the UV continuum slope ({alpha}UV at 1700-3000{AA}) gets bluer, the median individual profile in the absorber rest-frame remains identical, and is narrow (FWHM=3500km/s) and deep. Only 4 percent of BALs have FWHM>10000km/s. (ii) As the HeII emission equivalent width (EW) decreases, the distributions of FWHM and v_md_ extend to larger values, and the median maximum depth increases. These trends are consistent with theoretical models in which softer ionizing continua reduce overionization, and allow radiative acceleration of faster BAL outflows. (iii) As {alpha}_UV_ becomes bluer, the distribution of v_md_ extends to larger values. This trend may imply faster outflows at higher latitudes above the accretion disc plane. (iv) For non-BALQs, the CIV emission line decreases with decreasing HeII EW, and becomes more asymmetric and blueshifted. This suggests an increasing relative contribution of emission from the BAL outflow to the Civ emission line as the ionizing spectral energy distribution (SED) gets softer, which is consistent with the increasing fraction of BALQs as the ionizing SED gets softer.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/473/791
- Title:
- CIV absorption in DLAs and sub-DLAs systems
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/473/791
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a study of CIV absorption in a sample of 63 damped Lyman-{alpha} (DLA) systems and 11 sub-DLAs in the redshift range 1.75<z_abs_<3.61, using a dataset of high-resolution (6.6km/s FWHM), high signal-to-noise VLT/UVES spectra. The complex absorption line profiles show both narrow and broad CIV components, indicating the presence of both warm, photoionized and hot, collisionally ionized gas. We report new correlations between the metallicity (measured in the neutral-phase) and each of the CIV column density, the CIV total line width, and the maximum CIV velocity.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/702/767
- Title:
- CIV and FeK{alpha} Baldwin effects in AGNs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/702/767
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We use UV/optical and X-ray observations of 272 radio-quiet Type 1 active galactic nuclei and quasars to investigate the CIV Baldwin Effect (BEff). The UV/optical spectra are drawn from the Hubble Space Telescope, International Ultraviolet Explorer and Sloan Digital Sky Survey archives. The X-ray spectra are from the Chandra and XMM-Newton archives. We apply correlation and partial-correlation analyses to the equivalent widths (EWs), continuum monochromatic luminosities, and {alpha}_ox_, which characterizes the relative X-ray to UV brightness. The EW of the CIV{lambda}1549 emission line is correlated with both {alpha}_ox_ and luminosity. In our sample, narrow Fe K{alpha} 6.4keV emission lines are detected in 50 objects.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/777/168
- Title:
- CIV and SiIV broad absorption line troughs in SDSS
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/777/168
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a detailed investigation of the variability of 428 CIV and 235 SiIV broad absorption line (BAL) troughs identified in multi-epoch observations of 291 quasars by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-I/II/III. These observations primarily sample rest-frame timescales of 1-3.7yr over which significant rearrangement of the BAL wind is expected. We derive a number of observational results on, e.g., the frequency of BAL variability, the velocity range over which BAL variability occurs, the primary observed form of BAL-trough variability, the dependence of BAL variability upon timescale, the frequency of BAL strengthening versus weakening, correlations between BAL variability and BAL-trough profiles, relations between CIV and SiIV BAL variability, coordinated multi-trough variability, and BAL variations as a function of quasar properties. We assess implications of these observational results for quasar winds. Our results support models where most BAL absorption is formed within an order-of-magnitude of the wind-launching radius, although a significant minority of BAL troughs may arise on larger scales. We estimate an average lifetime for a BAL trough along our line-of-sight of a few thousand years. BAL disappearance and emergence events appear to be extremes of general BAL variability, rather than being qualitatively distinct phenomena. We derive the parameters of a random-walk model for BAL EW variability, finding that this model can acceptably describe some key aspects of EW variability. The coordinated trough variability of BAL quasars with multiple troughs suggests that changes in "shielding gas" may play a significant role in driving general BAL variability.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/616/A114
- Title:
- CIV BAL disappearance in SDSS QSOs
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/616/A114
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Broad absorption lines (BALs) in the spectra of quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) originate from outflowing winds along our line of sight; winds are thought to originate from the inner regions of the QSO accretion disk, close to the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). These winds likely play a role in galaxy evolution and are responsible for aiding the accretion mechanism onto the SMBH. Several works have shown that BAL equivalent widths can change on typical timescales from months to years; such variability is generally attributed to changes in the covering factor (due to rotation and/or changes in the wind structure) and/or in the ionization level of the gas. We investigate BAL variability, focusing on BAL disappearance. We analyze multi-epoch spectra of more than 1500 QSOs - the largest sample ever used for such a study - observed by different programs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-I/II/III (SDSS-I/II/III), and search for disappearing CIV BALs. The spectra cover a rest-frame time baseline ranging from 0.28 to 4.9yr; the source redshifts range from 1.68 to 4.27. We detect 73 disappearing BALs in the spectra of 67 unique sources. This corresponds to 3.9% of BALs disappearing within 4.9yr (rest frame), and 5.1% of our BAL QSOs exhibit at least one disappearing BAL within 4.9yr (rest frame). We estimate the average lifetime of a BAL along our line of sight (~=80-100yr), which appears consistent with the accretion disk orbital time at distances where winds are thought to originate. We inspect various properties of the disappearing BAL sample and compare them to the corresponding properties of our main sample. We also investigate the existence of a correlation in the variability of multiple troughs in the same spectrum, and find it persistent at large velocity offsets between BAL pairs, suggesting that a mechanism extending on a global scale is necessary to explain the phenomenon. We select a more reliable sample of disappearing BALs on the basis of some criteria adopted in a previous publication, where a subset of our current sample was analyzed, and compare the findings from the two works, obtaining generally consistent results.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/454/3962
- Title:
- 188 CIV BAL QSOs from SDSS DR7
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/454/3962
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The variability of broad absorption lines (BALs) is investigated for a sample of 188 BAL quasars (QSOs) (z>1.7) with at least two epoch observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, covering a time-scale of about 0.001-3yr in the rest frame. Considering only the longest time-scale between epochs for each QSO, 73 variable regions in the CIV BAL troughs are detected for 43 BAL QSOs. The proportion of BAL QSOs showing variable regions increases with longer time-interval than about 1 yr in the rest frame. The velocity width of variable regions is narrow compared to the BAL-trough outflow velocity. For 43 BAL QSOs with variable regions, it is found that there is a medium strong correlation between the variation of the continuum luminosity at 1500{AA} and the variation of the spectral index. With respect to the total 188 QSOs, a larger proportion of BAL QSOs with variable regions appears bluer during their brighter phases, which implies that the origin of BAL variable regions is related to the central accretion process. For 43 BAL QSOs with variable regions, it is possible that there is a negative medium strong correlation between the absolute variation of the equivalent width and the Mgii-based black hole mass, and a medium strong correlation between the maximum outflow velocity of variable regions and the Eddington ratio. These results imply a connection between the BAL-trough variation and the central accretion process.