- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/794/159
- Title:
- Statistical analysis of exoplanet surveys
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/794/159
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We conduct a statistical analysis of a combined sample of direct imaging data, totalling nearly 250 stars. The stars cover a wide range of ages and spectral types, and include five detections ({kappa} And b, two ~60 M_J_ brown dwarf companions in the Pleiades, PZ Tel B, and CD-35 2722B). For some analyses we add a currently unpublished set of SEEDS observations, including the detections GJ 504b and GJ 758B. We conduct a uniform, Bayesian analysis of all stellar ages using both membership in a kinematic moving group and activity/rotation age indicators. We then present a new statistical method for computing the likelihood of a substellar distribution function. By performing most of the integrals analytically, we achieve an enormous speedup over brute-force Monte Carlo. We use this method to place upper limits on the maximum semimajor axis of the distribution function derived from radial-velocity planets, finding model-dependent values of ~30-100 AU. Finally, we model the entire substellar sample, from massive brown dwarfs to a theoretically motivated cutoff at ~5 M_J_, with a single power-law distribution. We find that p(M,a){prop.to}M^-0.65+/-0.60^a^-0.85+/-0.39^ (1{sigma} errors) provides an adequate fit to our data, with 1.0%-3.1% (68% confidence) of stars hosting 5-70 M_J_ companions between 10 and 100 AU. This suggests that many of the directly imaged exoplanets known, including most (if not all) of the low-mass companions in our sample, formed by fragmentation in a cloud or disk, and represent the low-mass tail of the brown dwarfs.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/587/A31
- Title:
- Statistical test on binary stars non-coevality
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/587/A31
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We develop a statistical test on the expected difference in age estimates of two coeval stars in detached double-lined eclipsing binary systems that are only caused by observational uncertainties. We focus on stars in the mass range [0.8; 1.6] Msun, with an initial metallicity [Fe/H] from -0.55 to 0.55dex, and on stars in the main-sequence phase. The ages were obtained by means of the SCEPtER technique, a maximum-likelihood procedure relying on a pre-computed grid of stellar models. The observational constraints used in the recovery procedure are stellar mass, radius, effective temperature, and metallicity [Fe/H]. To check the effect of the uncertainties affecting observations on the (non-)coevality assessment, the chosen observational constraints were subjected to a Gaussian perturbation before applying the SCEPtER code. We defined the statistic W computed as the ratio of the absolute difference of estimated ages for the two stars over the age of the older one. We determined the critical values of this statistics above which coevality can be rejected in dependence on the mass of the two stars, on the initial metallicity [Fe/H], and on the evolutionary stage of the primary star. The median expected difference in the reconstructed age between the coeval stars of a binary system - caused alone by the observational uncertainties - shows a strong dependence on the evolutionary stage. This ranges from about 20% for an evolved primary star to about 75% for a near ZAMS primary. The median difference also shows an increase with the mass of the primary star from 20% for 0.8M_{sun}_ stars to about 50% for 1.6M_{sun}_ stars. The reliability of these results was checked by repeating the process with a grid of stellar models computed by a different evolutionary code; the median difference in the critical values was only 0.01. We show that the W test is much more sensible to age differences in the binary system components than the alternative approach of comparing the confidence interval of the age of the two stars. We also found that the distribution of W is, for almost all the examined cases, well approximated by beta distributions. The proposed method improves upon the techniques that are commonly adopted for judging the coevality of an observed system. It also provides a result founded on reliable statistics that simultaneously accounts for all the observational uncertainties.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/160/214
- Title:
- 130 Stellar ages & planetary orbital properties
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/160/214
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Many exoplanets have orbital characteristics quite different from those seen in our own solar system, including planets locked in orbital resonances and planets on orbits that are elliptical or highly inclined from their host star's spin axis. It is debated whether the wide variety in system architecture is primarily due to differences in formation conditions (nature) or due to evolution over time (nurture). Identifying trends between planetary and stellar properties, including stellar age, can help distinguish between these competing theories and offer insights as to how planets form and evolve. However, it can be challenging to determine whether observed trends between planetary properties and stellar age are driven by the age of the system- pointing to evolution over time being an important factor-or other parameters to which the age may be related, such as stellar mass or stellar temperature. The situation is complicated further by the possibilities of selection biases, small number statistics, uncertainties in stellar age, and orbital evolution timescales that are typically much shorter than the range of observed ages. Here, we develop a Bayesian statistical framework to assess the robustness of such observed correlations and to determine whether they are indeed due to evolutionary processes, are more likely to reflect different formation scenarios, or are merely coincidental. We apply this framework to reported trends between stellar age and 2:1 orbital resonances, spin-orbit misalignments, and hot Jupiters' orbital eccentricities. We find strong support for the nurture hypothesis only in the final case.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/575/A12
- Title:
- Stellar CharactEristics Pisa Estimation gRid
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/575/A12
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Stellar age determination by means of grid-based techniques that adopt asteroseismic constraints is a well established method nowadays. However some theoretical aspects of the systematic and statistical errors affecting these age estimates still have to be investigated. We study the impact on stellar age determination of the uncertainty in the radiative opacity, in the initial helium abundance, in the mixing-length value, in the convective core overshooting, and in the microscopic diffusion efficiency adopted in stellar model computations. We extended our SCEPtER grid to include stars with mass in the range [0.8; 1.6]M_{sun}_ and evolutionary stages from the zero-age main sequence to the central hydrogen depletion. For the age estimation we adopted the same maximum likelihood technique as described in our previous work. To quantify the systematic errors arising from the current uncertainty in model computations, many synthetic grids of stellar models with perturbed input were adopted. We found that the current typical uncertainty in the observations accounts for 1{sigma} statistical relative error in age determination, which on average ranges from about -35% to +42%, depending on the mass. However, owing to the strong dependence on the evolutionary phase, the age's relative error can be higher than 120% for stars near the zero-age main sequence, while it is typically of the order of 20% or lower in the advanced main-sequence phase. The systematic bias on age determination due to a variation of +/-1 in the helium-to-metal enrichment ratio {Delta}Y/{Delta}Z is about one-fourth of the statistical error in the first 30% of the evolution, while it is negligible for more evolved stages. The maximum bias due to the presence of the convective core overshooting is -7% and -13% for mild and strong overshooting scenarios. For all the examined models, the impact of a variation of +/-5% in the radiative opacity was found to be negligible. The most important source of bias is the uncertainty in the mixing-length value {alpha}_ml_ and the neglect of microscopic diffusion. Each of these effects accounts for a bias that is nearly equal to the random error uncertainty. Comparison of the results of our technique with other grid techniques on a set of common stars showed general agreement. However, the adoption of a different grid can account for a variation in the mean estimated age up to 1Gyr.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/144/182
- Title:
- Stellar groups in IC 2574
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/144/182
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Dissolving stellar groups are very difficult to detect using traditional surface photometry techniques. We have developed a method to find and characterize non-compact stellar systems in galaxies where the young stellar population can be spatially resolved. By carrying out photometry on individual stars, we are able to separate the luminous blue stellar population from the star field background. The locations of these stars are used to identify groups by applying the HOP algorithm, which are then characterized using color-magnitude and stellar density radial profiles to estimate age, size, density, and shape. We test the method on Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys archival images of IC 2574 and find 75 dispersed stellar groups. Of these, 20 highly dispersed groups are good candidates for dissolving systems. We find few compact systems with evidence of dissolution, potentially indicating that star formation in this galaxy occurs mostly in unbound clusters or groups. These systems indicate that the dispersion rate of groups and clusters in IC 2574 is at most 0.45pc/Myr. The location of the groups found with HOP correlate well with HI contour map features. However, they do not coincide with HI holes, suggesting that those holes were not created by star-forming regions.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/157/159
- Title:
- Stellar parameters for 131 Herbig Ae/Be stars
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/157/159
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The present study makes use of the unprecedented capability of the Gaia mission to obtain the stellar parameters such as distance, age, and mass of HAeBe stars. The accuracy of Gaia DR2 (Cat. I/345) astrometry is demonstrated from the comparison of the Gaia DR2 distances of 131 HAeBe stars with the previously estimated values from the literature. This is one of the initial studies to estimate the age and mass of a confirmed sample of HAeBe stars using both the photometry and distance from the Gaia mission. Mass accretion rates are calculated from H{alpha} line flux measurements of 106 HAeBe stars. Since we used distances and the stellar masses derived from the Gaia DR2 data in the calculation of the mass accretion rate, our estimates are more accurate than previous studies. The mass accretion rate is found to decay exponentially with age, from which we estimated a disk dissipation timescale of 1.9+/-0.1 Myr. The mass accretion rate and stellar mass exhibit a power-law relation of the form M_acc_{prop.to}M_*_^2.8+/-0.2^. From the distinct distribution in the values of the infrared spectral index, n_2-4.6_, we suggest the possibility of difference in the disk structure between Herbig Be and Herbig Ae stars.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/616/A33
- Title:
- Stellar parameters of 372 giant stars
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/616/A33
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The determination of accurate stellar parameters of giant stars is essential for our understanding of such stars in general and as exoplanet host stars in particular. Precise stellar masses are vital for determining the lower mass limit of potential substellar companions with the radial velocity method. Our goal is to determine stellar parameters, including mass, radius, age, surface gravity, effective temperature and luminosity, for the sample of giants observed by the Lick planet search. Furthermore, we want to derive the probability of these stars being on the horizontal branch (HB) or red giant branch (RGB), respectively. We compare spectroscopic, photometric and astrometric observables to grids of stellar evolutionary models using Bayesian inference. We provide tables of stellar parameters, probabilities for the current post-main sequence evolutionary stage, and probability density functions for 372 giants from the Lick planet search. We find that 81% of the stars in our sample are more probably on the HB. In particular, this is the case for 15 of the 16 planet host stars in the sample. We tested the reliability of our methodology by comparing our stellar parameters to literature values and find very good agreement. Furthermore, we created a small test sample of 26 giants with available asteroseismic masses and evolutionary stages and compared these to our estimates. The mean difference of the stellar masses for the 24 stars with the same evolutionary stages by both methods is only {Delta}M=0.01+/-0.20M_{sun}_. We do not find any evidence for large systematic differences between our results and estimates of stellar parameters based on other methods. In particular we find no significant systematic offset between stellar masses provided by asteroseismology to our Bayesian estimates based on evolutionary models.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/631/A156
- Title:
- Stellar populations of quiescent galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/631/A156
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Our aim is to determine the distribution of stellar population parameters (extinction, age, metallicity, and star formation rates) of quiescent galaxies within the rest-frame stellar mass-colour diagrams and UVJ colour-colour diagrams corrected for extinction up to z~1. These novel diagrams reduce the contamination in samples of quiescent galaxies owing to dust-reddened galaxies, and they provide useful constraints on stellar population parameters only using rest-frame colours and stellar mass. We set constraints on the stellar population parameters of quiescent galaxies combining the ALHAMBRA multi-filter photo-spectra with our fitting code for spectral energy distribution, MUlti-Filter FITting (MUFFIT), making use of composite stellar population models based on two independent sets of simple stellar population (SSP) models. The extinction obtained by MUFFIT allowed us to remove dusty star-forming (DSF) galaxies from the sample of red UVJ galaxies. The distributions of stellar population parameters across these rest-frame diagrams are revealed after the dust correction and are fitted by LOESS, a bi-dimensional and locally weighted regression method, to reduce uncertainty effects. Quiescent galaxy samples defined via classical UVJ diagrams are typically contaminated by a 20% fraction of DSF galaxies. A significant part of the galaxies in the green valley are actually obscured star-forming galaxies (30-65%). Consequently, the transition of galaxies from the blue cloud to the red sequence, and hence the related mechanisms for quenching, seems to be much more efficient and faster than previously reported. The rest-frame stellar mass-colour and UVJ colour-colour diagrams are useful for constraining the age, metallicity, extinction, and star formation rate of quiescent galaxies by only their redshift, rest-frame colours, and/or stellar mass. Dust correction plays an important role in understanding how quiescent galaxies are distributed in these diagrams and is key to performing a pure selection of quiescent galaxies via intrinsic colours.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/475/5487
- Title:
- Stellar properties of KIC stars
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/475/5487
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Investigations of the origin and evolution of the Milky Way disc have long relied on chemical and kinematic identifications of its components to reconstruct our Galactic past. Difficulties in determining precise stellar ages have restricted most studies to small samples, normally confined to the solar neighbourhood. Here, we break this impasse with the help of asteroseismic inference and perform a chronology of the evolution of the disc throughout the age of the Galaxy. We chemically dissect the Milky Way disc population using a sample of red giant stars spanning out to 2 kpc in the solar annulus observed by the Kepler satellite, with the added dimension of asteroseismic ages. Our results reveal a clear difference in age between the low- and high-{alpha} populations, which also show distinct velocity dispersions in the V and W components. We find no tight correlation between age and metallicity nor [{alpha}/Fe] for the high-{alpha} disc stars. Our results indicate that this component formed over a period of more than 2 Gyr with a wide range of [M/H] and [{alpha}/Fe] independent of time. Our findings show that the kinematic properties of young {alpha}-rich stars are consistent with the rest of the high-{alpha} population and different from the low-{alpha} stars of similar age, rendering support to their origin being old stars that went through a mass transfer or stellar merger event, making them appear younger, instead of migration of truly young stars formed close to the Galactic bar.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/771/129
- Title:
- Submillimetric Class II sources of Taurus
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/771/129
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a substantial extension of the millimeter (mm) wave continuum photometry catalog for circumstellar dust disks in the Taurus star-forming region, based on a new "snapshot" {lambda}=1.3mm survey with the Submillimeter Array. Combining these new data with measurements in the literature, we construct a mm-wave luminosity distribution, f(L_mm_), for Class II disks that is statistically complete for stellar hosts with spectral types earlier than M8.5 and has a 3{sigma} depth of roughly 3mJy. The resulting census eliminates a longstanding selection bias against disks with late-type hosts, and thereby demonstrates that there is a strong correlation between L_mm_ and the host spectral type. By translating the locations of individual stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram into masses and ages, and adopting a simple conversion between L_mm_ and the disk mass, M_d_, we confirm that this correlation corresponds to a statistically robust relationship between the masses of dust disks and the stars that host them. A Bayesian regression technique is used to characterize these relationships in the presence of measurement errors, data censoring, and significant intrinsic scatter: the best-fit results indicate a typical 1.3mm flux density of ~25mJy for 1M_{sun}_ hosts and a power-law scaling L_mm_{propto}M_{star}_^1.5-2.0^. We suggest that a reasonable treatment of dust temperature in the conversion from L_mm_ to M_d_ favors an inherently linear M_d_{prop.to}M_*_ scaling, with a typical disk-to-star mass ratio of ~0.2%-0.6%. The measured rms dispersion around this regression curve is +/-0.7dex, suggesting that the combined effects of diverse evolutionary states, dust opacities, and temperatures in these disks imprint a full width at half-maximum range of a factor of ~40 on the inferred M_d_ (or L_mm_) at any given host mass.
