No description available.

Upon its discovery in 2006, the young L7.5 companion to the solar analog HD 203030 was found to be approximate to 200 K cooler than older late-L dwarfs, which is quite unusual. HD. 203030B offered the first clear indication that the effective temperature at the L-to-T spectral type transition depends on surface gravity: now a well-known characteristic of low-gravity ultra-cool dwarfs. An initial age analysis of the G8V primary star indicated that the system was 130-400 Myr old, and so the companion would be between 12 and 31 M-Jup. Using moderate-resolution near-infrared spectra of HD. 203030B, we now find features of very low gravity comparable to those of 10-150 Myr old L7-L8 dwarfs. We also obtained more accurate near-infrared and Spitzer/IRAC photometry, and we find a (J - K) MKO color of 2.56 +/- 0.13 mag-comparable to those observed in other young planetary-mass objects-and a luminosity of log (L-bol/L-circle dot) = -4.75 +/- 0.04 dex. We further re-assess the evidence for the young age of the host star, HD 203030, with a more comprehensive analysis of the photometry and updated stellar activity measurements and age calibrations. Summarizing the age diagnostics for both components of the binary, we adopt an age of 100 Myr for HD 203030B and an age range of 30-150 Myr. Using cloudy evolutionary models, the new companion age range and luminosity result in a mass of 11 M-Jup with a range of 8-15 M-Jup, and an effective temperature of 1040 +/- 50 K.

Aims. We numerically studied close encounters between a young stellar system hosting a massive, gravitationally fragmenting disk and an intruder diskless star with the aim of determining the evolution of fragments that have formed in the disk prior to the encounter. Methods. Numerical hydrodynamics simulations in the non-inertial frame of reference of the host star were employed to simulate the prograde and retrograde co-planar encounters. The initial configuration of the target system (star plus disk) was obtained via a separate numerical simulation featuring the gravitational collapse of a solar-mass pre-stellar core. Results. We found that close encounters can lead to the ejection of fragments that have formed in the disk of the target prior to collision. In particular, prograde encounters are more efficient in ejecting the fragments than the retrograde encounters. The masses of ejected fragments are in the brown-dwarf mass regime. They also carry away an appreciable amount of gas in their gravitational radius of influence, implying that these objects may possess extended disks or envelopes, as also previously suggested. Close encounters can also lead to the ejection of entire spiral arms, followed by fragmentation and formation of freely-floating objects straddling the planetary mass limit. However, numerical simulations with a higher resolution are needed to confirm this finding.

We present a high angular resolution (similar to 0 ''.2), high-sensitivity (sigma similar to 0.2 mJy) survey of the 870 mu m continuum emission from the circumstellar material around 49 pre-main-sequence stars in the rho Ophiuchus molecular cloud. Because most millimeter instruments have resided in the northern hemisphere, this represents the largest high-resolution, millimeter-wave survey of the circumstellar disk content of this cloud. Our survey of 49 systems comprises 63 stars; we detect disks associated with 29 single sources, 11 binaries, 3 triple systems, and 4 transition disks. We present flux and radius distributions for these systems; in particular, this is the first presentation of a reasonably complete probability distribution of disk radii at millimeter wavelengths. We also compare the flux distribution of these protoplanetary disks with that of the disk population of the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud. We find that disks in binaries are both significantly smaller and have much less flux than their counterparts around isolated stars. We compute truncation calculations on our binary sources and find that these disks are too small to have been affected by tidal truncation and posit some explanations for this. Lastly, our survey found three candidate gapped disks, one of which is a newly identified transition disk with no signature of a dip in infrared excess in extant observations.

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) provides spectroscopic information of regions of the inner Milky Way, which are inaccessible to optical surveys. We present the first large study of the metallicity distribution of the innermost Galactic regions based on high-quality measurements for 7545 red giant stars within 4.5 kpc of the Galactic center, with the goal to shed light on the structure and origin of the Galactic bulge. Stellar metallicities are found, through multiple Gaussian decompositions, to be distributed in several components, which is indicative of the presence of various stellar populations such as the bar or the thin and the thick disks. Super-solar ([Fe/H] = +0.32) and solar ([Fe/H] = +0.00) metallicity components, tentatively associated with the thin disk and the Galactic bar, respectively, seem to be major contributors near the midplane. A solar-metallicity component extends outwards in the midplane but is not observed in the innermost regions. The central regions (within 3 kpc of the Galactic center) reveal, on the other hand, the presence of a significant metal-poor population ([Fe/H] = -0.46), tentatively associated with the thick disk, which becomes the dominant component far from the midplane (vertical bar Z vertical bar >= +0.75 kpc). Varying contributions from these different components produce a transition region at +0.5 kpc <= vertical bar Z vertical bar <= +1.0 kpc, characterized by a significant vertical metallicity gradient.

We report the peculiar chemical abundance patterns of 11 atypical Milky Way (MW) field red giant stars observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). These atypical giants exhibit strong Al and N enhancements accompanied by C and Mg depletions, strikingly similar to those observed in the so-called second-generation (SG) stars of globular clusters (GCs). Remarkably, we find low Mg abundances ([Mg/Fe]. < 0.0) together with strong Al and N overabundances in the majority (5/7) of the metal-rich ([Fe/H] greater than or similar to-1.0) sample stars, which is at odds with actual observations of SG stars in Galactic GCs of similar metallicities. This chemical pattern is unique and unprecedented among MW stars, posing urgent questions about its origin. These atypical stars could be former SG stars of dissolved GCs formed with intrinsically lower abundances of Mg and enriched Al (subsequently self-polluted by massive AGB stars) or the result of exotic binary systems. We speculate that the stars Mg-deficiency as well as the orbital properties suggest that they could have an extragalactic origin. This discovery should guide future dedicated spectroscopic searches of atypical stellar chemical patterns in our Galaxy, a fundamental step forward to understanding the Galactic formation and evolution.

We present ALMA observations of the 2M1207 system, a young binary made of a brown dwarf with a planetary-mass companion at a projected separation of about 40 au. We detect emission from dust continuum at 0.89 mm and from the J = 3 - 2 rotational transition of CO from a very compact disk around the young brown dwarf. The small radius found for this brown dwarf disk may be due to truncation from the tidal interaction with the planetary-mass companion. Under the assumption of optically thin dust emission, we estimate. a dust mass of 0.1 M-circle plus. for the 2M1207A disk and a 3 sigma upper limit of similar to 1 M-Moon for dust surrounding 2M1207b, which is the tightest upper limit obtained so far for the mass of dust particles surrounding a young planetary-mass companion. We discuss the impact of this and other non-detections of young planetary-mass companions for models of planet formation that predict circumplanetary material to surround these objects.

No description available.

The massive evolved star. Carinae is the most luminous star in the Milky Way and has the highest steady wind mass-loss rate of any known star. Radiative transfer models of the spectrum by Hillier et al. predict that Ha is mostly emitted in regions of the wind at radii of 6-60 au from the star (2.5-25 mas at 2.35 kpc). We present diffraction-limited images (FWHM similar to 25 mas) with Magellan adaptive optics in two epochs, showing that. Carinae consistently appears similar to 2.5-3 mas wider in Ha emission compared to the adjacent 643 nm continuum. This implies that the H alpha line-forming region may have a characteristic emitting radius of 12 mas or similar to 30 au, in very good agreement with the Hillier stellar-wind model. This provides direct confirmation that the physical wind parameters of that model are roughly correct, including the mass-loss rate of M= 10(-3)M(circle dot) yr(-1), plus the clumping factor, and the terminal velocity. Comparison of the Ha images (ellipticity and PA) to the continuum images reveals no significant asymmetries at H alpha. Hence, any asymmetry induced by a companion or by the primary's rotation do not strongly influence the global H alpha emission in the outer wind.

Limb darkening is a fundamental ingredient for interpreting observations of planetary transits, eclipsing binaries, optical/infrared interferometry and microlensing events. However, this modeling traditionally represents limb darkening by a simple law having one or two coefficients that have been derived from plane-parallel model stellar atmospheres, which has been done by many researchers. More recently, researchers have gone beyond plane-parallel models and considered other geometries. We previously studied the limb-darkening coefficients from spherically symmetric and plane-parallel model stellar atmospheres for cool giant and supergiant stars, and in this investigation we apply the same techniques to FGK dwarf stars. We present limb-darkening coefficients, gravity-darkening coefficients and interferometric angular diameter corrections from Atlas and SAtlas model stellar atmospheres. We find that sphericity is important even for dwarf model atmospheres, leading to significant differences in the predicted coefficients.