Coordinates and identifications are presented for 726 Harvard Variable stars and suspected variables, discovered or studied by D. Hoffleit and announced in Harvard Bulletins 874, 884, 887, 901, and 902; plus 141 others, previously known, lying in the same fields.
Using data from the Hungarian-made Automated Telescope Network (HATNet) survey for transiting exoplanets, we measure photometric rotation periods for 368 Pleiades stars with 0.4~<M~<1.3M_{sun}_. We detect periodic variability for 74 per cent of the cluster members in this mass range that are within our field-of-view, and 93 per cent of the members with 0.7~<M~<1.0M_{sun}_. This increases, by a factor of 5, the number of Pleiades members with measured periods. We compare these data to the rich sample of spectroscopically determined projected equatorial rotation velocities (vsini) available in the literature for this cluster. Included in our sample are 14 newly identified probable cluster members which have proper motions, photometry and rotation periods consistent with membership.
The Hungarian-made Automated Telescope Network (HATnet) is an ongoing project to detect transiting extrasolar planets using small-aperture (11cm diameter) robotic telescopes. In this paper, we present the results from using image subtraction photometry to reduce a crowded stellar field observed with one of the HATnet telescopes (HAT-5). This field was chosen to overlap with the planned Kepler mission. We obtained I-band light curves for 98,000 objects in a 67 square degree field of view centered at J2000 ({alpha},{delta})=(19h44m00.0s, +37{deg}32'00.0"), near the Galactic plane in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. These observations include 788 exposures of 5' length over 30-days. For the brightest stars (I~8.0) we achieved a precision of 3.5mmag, falling to 0.1mag at the faint end (I~14). From these light curves we identify 1617 variable stars, of which 1439 are newly discovered.
Using light curves from the HATNet survey for transiting extrasolar planets we investigate the optical broad-band photometric variability of a sample of 27, 560 field K and M dwarfs selected by color and proper-motion (V-K>~3.0, mu>30mas/yr, plus additional cuts in J-H vs. H-Ks and on the reduced proper motion). We apply a variety of variability selection algorithms on the light curves to search for periodic and quasi-periodic variations, and for large-amplitude, long-duration flare events. To set the selection thresholds we conduct Monte Carlo simulations of light curves with realistic noise properties.
HD142527 observations were performed with SPHERE in the IRDIFS_EXT mode, with IRDIS observing in dual-band imaging with the K12 filter pair (wavelength K1=2.110 micron; K2=2.251 micron), while IFS obtains low-resolution (R=30) spectra between 0.95 and 1.65 micron. HD142527 was also observed in the SAM mode for SPHERE (we present the first observations that ever used the sparse aperture mask in SPHERE). We detect the accreting low-mass companion HD142527B at a separation of 73mas (11.4au) from the star.
Deuterium fractionation has been used to study the thermal history of prestellar environments. Their formation pathways trace different regions of the disk and may shed light into the physical structure of the disk, including locations of important features for planetary formation. We aim to constrain the radial extent of the main deuterated species; we are particularly interested in spatially characterizing the high and low temperature pathways for enhancing deuteration of these species. We observed the disk surrounding the Herbig Ae star HD 163296 using ALMA in Band 6 and obtained resolved spectral imaging data of DCO^+^ (J=3-2), DCN (J=3-2) and N_2_D^+^ (J=3-2) with synthesized beam sizes of 0.53"x0.42", 0.53"x0.42", and 0.50"x0.39", respectively. We adopted a physical model of the disk from the literature and use the 3D radiative transfer code LIME to estimate an excitation temperature profile for our detected lines. We modeled the radial emission profiles of DCO^+^, DCN, and N_2_D^+^, assuming their emission is optically thin, using a parametric model of their abundances and our excitation temperature estimates.
Vortices are one of the most promising mechanisms to locally concentrate millimeter dust grains and allow the formation of planetesimals through gravitational collapse. The outer disk around the binary system HD 142527 is known for its large horseshoe structure with azimuthal contrasts of ~3-5 in the gas surface density and of ~50 in the dust. Using ^13^CO and C^18^O J=3-2 transition lines, we detect kinematic deviations to the Keplerian rotation, which are consistent with the presence of a large vortex around the dust crescent, as well as a few spirals in the outer regions of the disk. Comparisons with a vortex model suggest velocity deviations up to 350m/s after deprojection compared to the background Keplerian rotation, as well as an extension of +/-40au radially and ~200{deg} azimuthally, yielding an azimuthal-to-radial aspect ratio of ~5. Another alternative for explaining the vortex-like signal implies artificial velocity deviations generated by beam smearing in association with variations of the gas velocity due to gas pressure gradients at the inner and outer edges of the circumbinary disk. The two scenarios are currently difficult to differentiate and, for this purpose, would probably require the use of multiple lines at a higher spatial resolution. The beam smearing effect, due to the finite spatial resolution of the observations and gradients in the line emission, should be common in observations of protoplanetary disks and may lead to misinterpretations of the gas velocity, in particular around ring-like structures.
We present the CoRoT light curve of the bright B2.5V star HD 48977 observed during a short run of the mission in 2008, as well as a high-resolution spectrum gathered with the HERMES spectrograph at the Mercator telescope. We use several time series analysis tools to explore the nature of the variations in the light curve. We performed a detailed analysis of the spectrum of the star to determine its fundamental parameters and its element abundances. We find a large number of high-order g-modes, and one rotationally induced frequency. We find stable low-amplitude frequencies in the p-mode regime as well.
Observations of different molecular lines in protoplanetary disks provide valuable information on the gas kinematics, as well as constraints on the radial density and temperature structure of the gas. With ALMA we have detected H13CO+ (J=4-3) and HC15N (J=4-3) in the HD 97048 protoplanetary disk for the first time. We compare these new detections to the ringed continuum mm-dust emission and the spatially resolved CO (J=3-2) and HCO+ (J=4-3) emission. The radial distributions of the H^13^CO^+^ and HC^15^N emission show hints of ringed sub-structure whereas, the optically thick tracers, CO and HCO+, do not. We calculate the HCO^+^/H^13^CO^+^ intensity ratio across the disk and find that it is radially constant (within our uncertainties). We use a physio-chemical parametric disk structure of the HD 97048 disk with an analytical prescription for the HCO^+^ abundance distribution to generate synthetic observations of the HCO^+^ and H^13^CO^+^ disk emission assuming LTE. The best by-eye fit models require radial variations in the HCO^+^/H^13^CO^+^ abundance ratio and an overall enhancement in H^13^CO^+^ relative to HCO^+^. This highlights the need to consider isotope selective chemistry and in particular low temperature carbon isotope exchange reactions. This also points to the presence of a reservoir of cold molecular gas in the outer disk (T<10K, R>200au). Chemical models are required to confirm that isotope-selective chemistry alone can explain the observations presented here. With these data, we cannot rule out that the known dust substructure in the HD 97048 disk is responsible for the observed trends in molecular line emission, and higher spatial resolution observations are required to fully explore the potential of optically thin tracers to probe planet-carved dust gaps. We also report non-detections of H^13^CO^+^ and HC^15^N in the HD 100546 protoplanetary disk.
This work presents the results obtained on HD 50844, the only delta Sct star observed in the CoRoT Initial Run (57.6d). The aim of these CoRoT observations was to investigate and characterize for the first time the pulsational behaviour of a delta Sct star, when observed at a level of precision and with a much better duty cycle than from the ground. The 140016 datapoints were analysed using independent approaches (SigSpec software and different iterative sine-wave fittings) and several checks performed (splitting of the timeseries in different subsets, investigation of the residual light curves and spectra. A level of 10^-5^mag was reached in the amplitude spectra of the CoRoT timeseries. The space monitoring was complemented by ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy, which allowed the mode identification of 30 terms. The frequency analysis of the CoRoT timeseries revealed hundreds of terms in the frequency range 0-30d^-1^. All the cross-checks confirmed this new result. The initial guess that delta Sct stars have a very rich frequency content is confirmed. The spectroscopic mode identification gives theoretical support since very high-degree modes (up to ell=14) are identified. We also prove that cancellation effects are not sufficient in removing the flux variations associated to these modes at the noise level of the CoRoT measurements. The ground-based observations indicate that HD 50844 is an evolved star that is slightly underabundant in heavy elements, located on the Terminal Age Main Sequence. Probably due to this unfavourable evolutionary status, no clear regular distribution is observed in the frequency set. The predominant term f1=6.92d^-1^ has been identified as the fundamental radial mode combining ground-based photometric and spectroscopic data. The CoRoT scientific programme contains other delta Sct stars, with different evolutionary statuses. The very rich and dense frequency spectrum discovered in the light curve of HD 50844 is the starting point for future investigations.
