- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/252/32
- Title:
- MIR outbursts in nearby SDSS gal. (MIRONG). I.
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/252/32
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Optical time-domain astronomy has grown rapidly in the past decade, but the dynamic infrared sky is rarely explored. Aiming to construct a sample of mid-infrared outbursts in nearby galaxies (MIRONG), we have conducted a systematical search of low-redshift (z<0.35) Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic galaxies that have experienced recent mid-infrared (MIR) flares using their Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) light curves. A total of 137 galaxies have been selected by requiring a brightening amplitude of 0.5mag in at least one WISE band with respect to their quiescent phases. Only a small fraction (10.9%) has corresponding optical flares. Except for the four supernovae (SNe) in our sample, the MIR luminosities of the remaining sources (L_4.6{mu}m_>10^42^erg/s) are markedly brighter than known SNe, and their physical locations are very close to the galactic center (median <0.1"). Only four galaxies are radio-loud, indicating that synchrotron radiation from relativistic jets could contribute to MIR variability. We propose that these MIR outbursts are dominated by the dust echoes of transient accretion onto supermassive black holes, such as tidal disruption events (TDEs) and turn-on (changing-look) active galactic nuclei. Moreover, the inferred peak MIR luminosity function is generally consistent with the X-ray and optical TDEs at the high end, albeit with large uncertainties. Our results suggest that a large population of transients has been overlooked by optical surveys, probably due to dust obscuration or intrinsically optical weakness. Thus, a search in the infrared band is crucial for us to obtain a panoramic picture of nuclear outburst. The multiwavelength follow-up observations of the MIRONG sample are in progress and will be presented in a series of subsequent papers.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/901/93
- Title:
- Model atmosphere analysis of hot WDs from SDSS DR12
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/901/93
- Date:
- 18 Feb 2022 00:21:32
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- As they evolve, white dwarfs undergo major changes in surface composition, a phenomenon known as spectral evolution. In particular, some stars enter the cooling sequence with helium atmospheres (type DO) but eventually develop hydrogen atmospheres (type DA), most likely through the upward diffusion of residual hydrogen. Our empirical knowledge of this process remains scarce: the fractions of white dwarfs that are born helium rich and that experience the DO-to-DA transformation are poorly constrained. We tackle this issue by performing a detailed model-atmosphere investigation of 1806 hot (Teff>=30000K) white dwarfs observed spectroscopically by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We first introduce our new generations of model atmospheres and theoretical cooling tracks, both appropriate for hot white dwarfs. We then present our spectroscopic analysis, from which we determine the atmospheric and stellar parameters of our sample objects. We find that ~24% of white dwarfs begin their degenerate life as DO stars, among which ~2/3 later become DA stars. We also infer that the DO-to-DA transition occurs at substantially different temperatures (75000K>Teff>30000K) for different objects, implying a broad range of hydrogen content within the DO population. Furthermore, we identify 127 hybrid white dwarfs, including 31 showing evidence of chemical stratification, and we discuss how these stars fit in our understanding of the spectral evolution. Finally, we uncover significant problems in the spectroscopic mass scale of very hot (Teff>60000K) white dwarfs.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/857/46
- Title:
- Modelled vs observed abundances of EMP stars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/857/46
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We compare the elemental abundance patterns of ~200 extremely metal-poor (EMP; [Fe/H]{<}-3) stars to the supernova yields of metal-free stars, in order to obtain insights into the characteristic masses of the first (Population III or Pop III) stars in the universe. The supernova yields are prepared with nucleosynthesis calculations of metal-free stars with various initial masses (M=13, 15, 25, 40 and 100M_{sun}_) and explosion energies (E_51_=E/10^51^[erg]=0.5-60), to include low-energy, normal-energy, and high-energy explosions. We adopt the mixing-fallback model, to take into account possible asymmetry in the supernova explosions, and the yields that best fit the observed abundance patterns of the EMP stars are searched by varying the model parameters. We find that the abundance patterns of the EMP stars are predominantly best- fitted by the supernova yields with initial masses M<40M_{sun}_, and that more than than half of the stars are best-fitted by the M=25M_{sun}_ hypernova (E_51_=10) models. The results also indicate that the majority of the primordial supernovae have ejected 10^-2^-10^-1^M_{sun}_ of ^56^Ni, leaving behind a compact remnant (either a neutron star or a black hole), with a mass in the range of ~1.5-5M_{sun}_. These results suggest that the masses of the first stars responsible for the first metal enrichment are predominantly <40M_{sun}_. This implies that the higher-mass first stars were either less abundant, directly collapsed into a black hole without ejecting heavy elements, or a supernova explosion of a higher-mass first star inhibits the formation of the next generation of low-mass stars at [Fe/H]{<}-3.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/746/16
- Title:
- Modelling the convection zone
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/746/16
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The base of the convection zone (CZ) is a source of acoustic glitches in the asteroseismic frequency spectra of solar-like oscillators, allowing one to precisely measure the acoustic depth to the feature. We examine the sensitivity of the depth of the CZ to mass, stellar abundances, and input physics, and in particular, the use of a measurement of the acoustic depth to the CZ as an atmosphere-independent, absolute measure of stellar metallicities. We find that for low-mass stars on the main sequence with 0.4M_{sun}_<=M<=1.6M_{sun}_, the acoustic depth to the base of the CZ, normalized by the acoustic depth to the center of the star, {tau}_cz,n_, is both a strong function of mass, and varies at the 0.5%-1% per 0.1 dex level in [Z/X], and is therefore also a sensitive probe of the composition. We estimate the theoretical uncertainties in the stellar models and show that combined with reasonable observational uncertainties we can expect to measure the metallicity to within 0.15-0.3 dex for solar-like stars. We discuss the applications of this work to rotational mixing, particularly in the context of the observed mid-F star Li dip, and to distinguishing between different mixtures of heavy elements.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/802/103
- Title:
- Model predictions for GRB host galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/802/103
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powerful probes of the star formation history of the universe, but the correlation between the two depends on the highly debated presence and strength of a metallicity bias. To investigate this correlation, we use a phenomenological model that successfully describes star formation rates, luminosities, and stellar masses of star-forming galaxies and apply it to GRB production. We predict the luminosities, stellar masses, and metallicities of host galaxies depending on the presence (or absence) of a metallicity bias. Our best-fitting model includes a moderate metallicity bias, broadly consistent with the large majority of the long-duration GRBs in metal-poor environments originating from a collapsar (probability ~83%, with [0.74;0.91] range at 90% confidence level), but with a secondary contribution (~17%) from a metal-independent production channel, such as binary evolution. Because of the mass-metallicity relation of galaxies, the maximum likelihood model predicts that the metal-independent channel becomes dominant at z~<2, where hosts have higher metallicities and collapsars are suppressed. This possibly explains why some studies find no clear evidence of a metal bias based on low-z samples. However, while metallicity predictions match observations well at high redshift (z>~2), there is tension with low-redshift observations, since a significant fraction of GRB hosts are predicted to have (near) solar metallicity. This is in contrast to observations, unless obscured, metal-rich hosts are preferentially missed in current data sets, and suggests that lower efficiencies of the metal-independent GRB channel might be preferred following a comprehensive fit that includes metallicity of GRB hosts from complete samples. Overall, we are able to clearly establish the presence of a metallicity bias for GRB production, but continued characterization of GRB host galaxies is needed to quantify its strength.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/237/13
- Title:
- Models and yields of 13-120M_{sun}_ massive stars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/237/13
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a new grid of presupernova models of massive stars extending in mass between 13 and 120M_{sun}_, covering four metallicities (i.e., [Fe/H]=0, -1, -2, and -3) and three initial rotation velocities (i.e., 0, 150, and 300km/s). The explosion has been simulated following three different assumptions in order to show how the yields depend on the remnant mass-initial mass relation. An extended network from H to Bi is fully coupled to the physical evolution of the models. The main results can be summarized as follows. (a) At solar metallicity, the maximum mass exploding as a red supergiant (RSG) is of the order of 17M_{sun}_ in the nonrotating case, with the more massive stars exploding as Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. All rotating models, conversely, explode as WR stars. (b) The interplay between the core He-burning and the H-burning shell, triggered by the rotation-induced instabilities, drives the synthesis of a large primary amount of all the products of CNO, not just ^14^N. A fraction of them greatly enriches the radiative part of the He core (and is responsible for the large production of F), and a fraction enters the convective core, leading therefore to an important primary neutron flux able to synthesize heavy nuclei up to Pb. (c) In our scenario, remnant masses of the order of those inferred from the first detections of gravitational waves (GW 150914, GW 151226, GW 170104, GW 170814) are predicted at all metallicities for none or moderate initial rotation velocities.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/839/113
- Title:
- Molecular clouds with GLIMPSE/MIPSGAL data
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/839/113
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We study the star-formation (SF) law in 12 Galactic molecular clouds with ongoing high-mass star-formation (HMSF) activity, as traced by the presence of a bright IRAS source and other HMSF tracers. We define the molecular cloud (MC) associated with each IRAS source using ^13^CO line emission, and count the young stellar objects (YSOs) within these clouds using GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL 24{mu}m Spitzer databases. The masses for high-luminosity YSOs (L_bol_>10L_{sun}_) are determined individually using pre-main-sequence evolutionary tracks and the evolutionary stages of the sources, whereas a mean mass of 0.5M_{sun}_ was adopted to determine the masses in the low-luminosity YSO population. The star-formation rate surface density ({Sigma}SFR) corresponding to a gas surface density ({Sigma}gas) in each MC is obtained by counting the number of the YSOs within successive contours of ^13^CO line emission. We find a break in the relation between {Sigma}SFR and {Sigma}gas, with the relation being a power law ({Sigma}SFR{propto}{Sigma}gas^N^) with the index N varying between 1.4 and 3.6 above the break. The {Sigma}gas at the break is between 150-360M_{sun}_/pc^2^ for the sample clouds, which compares well with the threshold gas density found in recent studies of Galactic star-forming regions. Our clouds treated as a whole lie between the Kennicutt relation and the linear relation for Galactic and extra-galactic dense star-forming regions. We find a tendency for the high- mass YSOs to be found preferentially in dense regions at densities higher than 1200M_{sun}_/pc^2^ (~0.25g/cm^2^).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/151/49
- Title:
- M6 open cluster: star members properties
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/151/49
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present here the first abundance analysis of 44 late B-, A-, and F-type members of the young open cluster M6 (NGC 6405, age about 75 Myr). Low- and medium-resolution spectra, covering the 4500-5840 {AA} wavelength range, were obtained using the FLAMES/GIRAFFE spectrograph attached to the ESO Very Large Telescopes. We determined the atmospheric parameters using calibrations of the Geneva photometry and by adjusting the H_{beta}_ profiles to synthetic ones. The abundances of up to 20 chemical elements, from helium to mercury, were derived for 19 late B, 16 A, and 9 F stars by iteratively adjusting synthetic spectra to the observations. We also derived a mean cluster metallicity of [Fe/H]=0.07+/-0.03 dex from the iron abundances of the F-type stars. We find that for most chemical elements, the normal late B- and A-type stars exhibit larger star-to-star abundance variations than the F-type stars probably because of the faster rotation of the B and A stars. The abundances of C, O, Mg, Si, and Sc appear to be anticorrelated with that of Fe, while the opposite holds for the abundances of Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Ni, Y, and Ba as expected if radiative diffusion is efficient in the envelopes of these stars. In the course of this analysis, we discovered five new peculiar stars: one mild Am, one Am, and one Fm star (HD 318091, CD-32 13109, GSC 07380-01211, CP1), one HgMn star (HD 318126, CP3), and one He-weak P-rich (HD 318101, CP4) star. We also discovered a new spectroscopic binary, most likely a SB2. We performed a detailed modeling of HD 318101, the new He-weak P-rich CP star, using the Montreal stellar evolution code XEVOL which self-consistently treats all particle transport processes. Although the overall abundance pattern of this star is properly reproduced, we find that detailed abundances (in particular the high P excess) resisted modeling attempts even when a range of turbulence profiles and mass-loss rates were considered. Solutions are proposed which are still under investigation.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/786/117
- Title:
- M31 PHAT star clusters ages and masses
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/786/117
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present ages and masses for 601 star clusters in M31 from the analysis of the six filter integrated light measurements from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths, made as part of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT). We derive the ages and masses using a probabilistic technique, which accounts for the effects of stochastic sampling of the stellar initial mass function. Tests on synthetic data show that this method, in conjunction with the exquisite sensitivity of the PHAT observations and their broad wavelength baseline, provides robust age and mass recovery for clusters ranging from ~10^2^ to 2x10^6^ M_{sun}_. We find that the cluster age distribution is consistent with being uniform over the past 100 Myr, which suggests a weak effect of cluster disruption within M31. The age distribution of older (>100 Myr) clusters falls toward old ages, consistent with a power-law decline of index -1, likely from a combination of fading and disruption of the clusters. We find that the mass distribution of the whole sample can be well described by a single power law with a spectral index of -1.9+/-0.1 over the range of 10^3^-3x10^5^ M_{sun}_. However, if we subdivide the sample by galactocentric radius, we find that the age distributions remain unchanged. However, the mass spectral index varies significantly, showing best-fit values between -2.2 and -1.8, with the shallower slope in the highest star formation intensity regions. We explore the robustness of our study to potential systematics and conclude that the cluster mass function may vary with respect to environment.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/728/48
- Title:
- Multicolor eclipse data for 6 new binaries
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/728/48
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the discovery and characterization of six new M dwarf eclipsing binary systems. The 12 stars in these eclipsing systems have masses spanning 0.38-0.59M_{sun}_ and orbital periods of 0.6-1.7 days, with typical uncertainties of ~0.3% in mass and ~0.5%-2.0% in radius. Combined with six known systems with high-precision measurements, our results reveal an intriguing trend in the low-mass regime. For stars with M=0.35-0.80M_{sun}_, components in short-period binary systems (P<~1 day; 12 stars) have radii which are inflated by up to 10% ({mu}=4.8+/-1.0%) with respect to evolutionary models for low-mass main-sequence stars, whereas components in longer-period systems (>1.5 days; 12 stars) tend to have smaller radii ({mu}=1.7+/-0.7%).
