Wra 751 is a Luminous Blue Variable that lately exhibits strong changes in light and colour. We summarize the available photometry of Wra 751, present new photometric observations, and discuss these data with special attention on the systematic differences between the various data sources. In addition, we establish an empirical relationship between b-y and B-V for this class of stars. Wra 751 is a strong-active member of the S Dor class exhibiting very-long term S Doradus phases with an amplitude of about two magnitudes in V and a cycle length of several decades. The associated B-V colour-index amplitude is about 0.4mag. At this moment this LBV, which is the reddest member of the class, goes through the bright (and red) stage of a long-term S Dor cycle. The S Dor behaviour of this system shows some resemblance to the temporal characteristics of the Galactic LBV AG Car: time scales and amplitudes of light and colour variability are very similar.
Observations of 170 local (z<~0.08) galaxy clusters in the northern hemisphere have been obtained with the Wendelstein Telescope Wide Field Imager (WWFI). We correct for systematic effects such as point-spread function broadening, foreground star contamination, relative bias offsets, and charge persistence. Background inhomogeneities induced by scattered light are reduced down to {Delta}SB>31 g' mag/arcsec^2^ by large dithering and subtraction of night-sky flats. Residual background inhomogeneities brighter than SB_{sigma}_<27.6 g' mag/arcsec^2^ caused by galactic cirrus are detected in front of 23% of the clusters. However, the large field of view allows discrimination between accretion signatures and galactic cirrus. We detect accretion signatures in the form of tidal streams in 22%, shells in 9.4%, and multiple nuclei in 47% of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and find two BCGs in 7% of the clusters. We measure semimajor-axis surface brightness profiles of the BCGs and their surrounding intracluster light (ICL) down to a limiting surface brightness of SB=30 g' mag/arcsec^2^. The spatial resolution in the inner regions is increased by combining the WWFI light profiles with those that we measured from archival Hubble Space Telescope images or deconvolved WWFI images. We find that 71% of the BCG+ICL systems have surface brightness (SB) profiles that are well described by a single Sersic function, whereas 29% require a double Sersic function to obtain a good fit. We find that BCGs have scaling relations that differ markedly from those of normal ellipticals, likely due to their indistinguishable embedding in the ICL.
We explore several ways to dissect brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and their surrounding intracluster light (ICL) using a surface brightness (SB) cut, a luminosity cut, excess light above a de Vaucouleurs profile, or a double Sersic decomposition. Assuming that all light above M{<}-21.85g'mag is attributable to the ICL, we find that an average fraction of f_ICL_^MT^=71+/-22% of all diffuse light centered on the BCG belongs to the ICL. Likewise, if we assume that all light fainter than SB>27g'mag/arcsec^2^ belongs to the ICL, the average ICL fraction is f_ICL_^SB27^=34+/-19% . After fitting a de Vaucouleurs profile to the inner parts of the SB profile, we detect excess light at large radii, corresponding to an average ICL fraction of f_ICL_^DV^=48+/-20% . Finally, by decomposing the SB profile into two Sersic functions, we find an average ICL fraction of f_ICL_^Sx^=52+/-21% associated with the outer Sersic component. Our measured ICL and BCG+ICL luminosities agree well with predictions from high-resolution simulations where the outer Sersic component traces the unrelaxed, accreted stellar material. BCG and ICL properties defined in this way are correlated with cluster parameters to study the coevolution of BCGs, ICL, and their host clusters. We find positive correlations between BCG+ICL brightness and cluster mass, cluster velocity dispersion, cluster radius, and integrated satellite brightness, confirming that BCG/ICL growth is indeed coupled with cluster growth. On average, the ICL is better aligned than the BCG with the host cluster in terms of position angle, ellipticity, and centering. That makes it a potential dark-matter tracer.
We present new multiband CCD photometry for WZ Cyg made on 22 nights in two observing seasons of 2007 and 2008. Our light-curve synthesis indicates that the system is in poor thermal contact with a fill-out factor of 4.8% and a temperature difference of 1447K. Including our 40 timing measurements, a total of 371 times of minimum light spanning more than 112yr were used for a period study. Detailed analysis of the O-C diagram showed that the orbital period has varied by a combination of an upward parabola and a sinusoid.
We present the X-ray point-source catalog produced from the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS-I) observations of the combined ~3.2deg^2^ DEEP2 (XDEEP2) survey fields, which consist of four ~0.7-1.1deg^2^ fields. The combined total exposures across all four XDEEP2 fields range from ~10ks to 1.1Ms. We detect X-ray point sources in both the individual ACIS-I observations and the overlapping regions in the merged (stacked) images. We find a total of 2976 unique X-ray sources within the survey area with an expected false-source contamination of ~30 sources (<~1%). Additionally, we present a Bayesian-style method for associating the X-ray sources with optical photometric counterparts in the DEEP2 catalog (complete to R_AB_<25.2) and find that 2126 (~71.4%+/-2.8%) of the 2976 X-ray sources presented here have a secure optical counterpart with a <~6% contamination fraction. We provide the DEEP2 optical source properties (e.g., magnitude, redshift) as part of the X-ray-optical counterpart catalog.
The ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) was the first imaging X-ray survey of the entire sky. Combining the RASS Bright and Faint Source Catalogs (Cat. <IX/10>, 1RXS and <IX/29>) yields an average of about three X-ray sources per square degree. However, while X-ray source counterparts are known to range from distant quasars to nearby M dwarfs, the RASS data alone are often insufficient to determine the nature of an X-ray source. As a result, large-scale follow-up programs are required to construct samples of known X-ray emitters. We use optical data produced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to identify 709 stellar X-ray emitters cataloged in the RASS and falling within the SDSS Data Release 1 footprint. Most of these are bright stars with coronal X-ray emission unsuitable for SDSS spectroscopy, which is designed for fainter objects (g>15[mag]). Instead, we use SDSS photometry, correlations with the Two Micron All Sky Survey and other catalogs, and spectroscopy from the Apache Point Observatory 3.5m telescope to identify these stellar X-ray counterparts. Our sample of 707 X-ray-emitting F, G, K, and M stars is one of the largest X-ray-selected samples of such stars. We identify 17 new X-ray-emitting DA (hydrogen) WDs, of which three are newly identified WDs. We report on follow-up observations of three candidate cool X-ray-emitting WDs (one DA and two DB (helium) WDs); we have not confirmed X-ray emission from these WDs.
Combining all available photometric data from various surveys and literature with our observations, we present 10 sets of light curves for the eclipsing binary V0599 Aur covering a timescale of 20 yr. During the last two decades, the O'Connell effect continuously varied and went through at least two flips between positive and negative effects. The photometric solutions from our two sets of multicolored light curves show that V0599 Aur is a W-type shallow contact binary with an active spot on the secondary. Its absolute parameters are determined by combining the Gaia distance with the photometric solutions. The period investigation reveals a secular decrease and a cyclic variation in its orbital period. The former mainly originates from the mass transfer from the more massive secondary to the less massive primary. The latter can be preferentially explained as a result of cyclic magnetic activity of the secondary, with three observational supports: (1) the existence and evolution of an active spot suggested by the long-term photometry, (2) periodic variation in both the O'Connell effect and relative luminosity, and (3) weak correlations between O'Connell effect/relative luminosity changes and cyclic period variation. Together with the cyclic period variation and its theoretical reasonability by Applegate's mechanism, we suggest that the secondary of V0599 Aur is a solar-type magnetic-activity star with an approximately 11 yr active cycle. Furthermore, by combining the secular period decrease with the Roche-lobe model, we infer that V0599 Aur is evolving from the marginal contact state controlled by thermal relaxation oscillation theory to the overcontact state.
The discovery of spectral type transition of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), the so-called "changing-look" (CL) phenomenon, challenges the widely accepted AGN paradigm, not only in the orientation-based unified model, but also in the standard disk model. In past decades, only a couple of nearby repeat changing-look active galactic nuclei (CL-AGNs) have been identified. Here we report spectroscopic observations of UGC3223 over the course of 18yr, from 2001 onwards. Combining the spectrum taken in 1987 by Stirpe, we have witnessed its type transitions from 1.5 to 2.0 to 1.8 over 32yr, and captured a long-lived (at least 10 yr) thorough "turn-off" state with a spectrum typical of a Seyfert 2 galaxy. The long-term thorough turn-off state probably suggests a once-dormant and an awakening central engine in UGC3223. We argue that the (dis)appearance of the broad Balmer emission lines can be explained by the disk-wind broad-line region model given the evolution of the calculated Eddington ratio of accretion of the supermassive black hole.
We report a spectroscopic identification of two new changing-look active galactic nuclei (CL-AGNs): SDSSJ104705.16+544405.8 and SDSSJ120447.91+170256.8, both with a "turn-off" type transition from type-1 to type-1.8/1.9. The identification is arrived at through a follow-up spectroscopic observation of the five CL-AGNs candidates that are extracted from the sample recently released in MacLeod+ (2019, J/ApJ/874/8). The candidates are extracted by the authors from the Sloan Digit Sky Survey Data Release 7, and are spectroscopically confirmed quasars with large amplitude variability. By compiling a sample of 26 previously identified CL-AGNs, we confirm the claim by MacLeod+ that CL-AGNs tend to be biased against a low Eddington ratio, and identify an overlap between the CL-AGNs at their dim state and the so-called intermediate-type AGNs. The overlap implies that there two populations of the intermediate-type AGNs with different origins. One is due to the torus orientation effect, and the other to the intrinsic change of the accretion rate of the central supermassive black holes.
Compact hierarchical systems are important because the effects caused by the dynamical interaction among its members occur ona human timescale. These interactions play a role in the formation of close binaries through Kozai cycles with tides. One such system is xi Tauri: it has three hierarchical orbits: 7.14d (eclipsing components Aa, Ab), 145d (components Aa+Ab, B), and 51yr (components Aa+Ab+B, C). We aim to obtain physical properties of the system and to study the dynamical interaction between its components. Our analysis is based on a large series of spectroscopic photometric (including space-borne) observations and long-baseline optical and infrared spectro-interferometric observations. We used two approaches to infer the system properties: a set of observation-specific models, where all components have elliptical trajectories, and an N-body model, which computes the trajectory of each component by integrating Newton's equations of motion.