21 |
Extrasolar planet search and characterisationHood, Ben Andrew Ashcom January 2007 (has links)
Over two hundred extrasolar planets have been discovered to date with various methods. This thesis reports on searching for extrasolar planets and characterising them by simulating their atmospheres. We used open clusters as targets for deep transit searches, with specific emphasis on the University of St. Andrews Planet Search at the Isaac Newton Telescope. We reduced CCD photometry and described the algorithm we used to search for transits. We estimated the number of transits we expect from our data. We then reduced photometry for the open cluster NGC 6940. From that data we found 18 low-amplitude, short-duration events, though none are transiting planets. They are all eclipsing binary stars. However, our null result constrains the number of planets around M dwarfs, the most numerous stars in our sample. In order to characterise reflected light from extrasolar planets, we built a three-dimensional Monte Carlo based radiation transfer model of extrasolar planetary atmospheres. We detailed the input parameters of the model, and show results of various models, focusing especially on the fractal nature of the clouds of our models, because these are the first three dimensional radiation transfer models of extrasolar planet atmospheres. We found very low geometric albedos in our simulations. Using data specific to the transiting planet HD 209458b, we built a model atmosphere with Rayleigh-scattering hydrogen gas and clouds of enstatite and iron. We show in several models the rarity of a bright HD 209458b, and conclude with some explanations on why extrasolar planets are likely dark and not detected with reflected light.
|
22 |
Proper motions of five OB stars with candidate dusty bow shocks in the Carina NebulaKiminki, Megan M., Smith, Nathan, Reiter, Megan, Bally, John 06 1900 (has links)
We constrain the proper motions of five OB stars associated with candidate stellar wind bow shocks in the Carina Nebula using Hubble Space Telescope ACS imaging over 9-10 yr baselines. These proper motions allow us to directly compare each star's motion to the orientation of its candidate bow shock. Although these stars are saturated in our imaging, we assess their motion by the shifts required to minimize residuals in their airy rings. The results limit the direction of each star's motion to sectors less than 90 degrees wide. None of the five stars are moving away from the Carina Nebula's central clusters as runaway stars would be, confirming that a candidate bow shock is not necessarily indicative of a runaway star. Two of the five stars are moving tangentially relative to the orientation of their candidate bow shocks, both of which point at the OB cluster Trumpler 14. In these cases, the large-scale flow of the interstellar medium, powered by feedback from the cluster, appears to dominate over the motion of the star in producing the observed candidate bow shock. The remaining three stars all have some component of motion towards the central clusters, meaning that we cannot distinguish whether their candidate bow shocks are indicators of stellar motion, of the flow of ambient gas or of density gradients in their surroundings. In addition, these stars' lack of outward motion hints that the distributed massive-star population in Carina's South Pillars region formed in place, rather than migrating out from the association's central clusters.
|
23 |
High-Quality Broadband BVRI Photometry of Benchmark Open ClustersJoner, Michael Deloss 14 March 2011 (has links)
Photometric techniques are often used to observe stars and it can be demonstrated that fundamental stellar properties can be observationally determined using calibrated sets of photometric data. Many of the most powerful techniques utilized to calibrate stellar photometry employ the use of stars in clusters since the individual stars are believed to have many common properties such as age, composition, and approximate distance. Broadband photometric Johnson/Cousins BVRI observations are presented for several nearby open clusters. The new photometry has been tested for consistency relative to archival work and shown to be both accurate and precise. The careful use of a regular routine when making photometric observations, along with the monitoring of instrumental systems and the use of various quality control techniques when making observations or performing data reductions, will enhance an observer's ability to produce high-quality photometric measurements. This work contains a condensed review of the history of photometry, along with a brief description of several popular photometric systems that are often utilized in the field of stellar astrophysics. Publications written by Taylor or produced during the early Taylor and Joner collaboration are deemed especially relevant to the current work. A synopsis of seven archival publications is offered, along with a review of notable reports of VRI photometric observations for the nearby Hyades open star cluster. The body of this present work consists of four publications that appeared between the years 2005 and 2008, along with a soon to be submitted manuscript for a fifth publication. Each of these papers deals specifically with high-quality broadband photometry of open clusters with new data being presented for the Hyades, Coma, NGC 752, Praesepe, and M67. It is concluded that the VRI photometry produced during the Taylor and Joner collaborative investigations forms a high-quality data set that has been: 1) stable for a period of more than 25 years; 2) monitored and tested several times for consistency relative to the broadband Cousins system, and 3) shown to have well-understood transformations to other versions of broadband photometric systems. Further work is suggested for: 1) the transformation relationships for the reddest stars available for use as standards; 2) the standardization of more fields for use with CCD detectors; 3) a further investigation of transformations of blue color indices for observations done using CCD detectors with enhanced UV sensitivity, and 4) a continuation of work on methods to produce high-quality observations of assorted star clusters (both open and globular) with CCD-based instrumentation and intermediate-band photometric systems.
|
24 |
A critical assessment of ages derived using pre-main-sequence isochrones in colour-magnitude diagramsBell, Cameron Pearce MacDonald January 2012 (has links)
In this thesis a critical assessment of the ages derived using theoretical pre-main-sequence (pre-MS) stellar evolutionary models is presented by comparing the predictions to the low-mass pre-MS population of 14 young star-forming regions (SFRs) in colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). Deriving pre-MS ages requires precise distances and estimates of the reddening. Therefore, the main-sequence (MS) members of the SFRs have been used to derive a self-consistent set of statistically robust ages, distances and reddenings with associated uncertainties using a maximum-likelihood fitting statistic and MS evolutionary models. A photometric method (known as the Q-method) for de-reddening individual stars in regions where the extinction is spatially variable has been updated and is presented. The effects of both the model dependency and the SFR composition on these derived parameters are also discussed. The problem of calibrating photometric observations of red pre-MS stars is examined and it is shown that using observations of MS stars to transform the data into a standard photometric system can introduce significant errors in the position of the pre-MS locus in CMD space. Hence, it is crucial that precise photometric studies (especially of pre- MS objects) be carried out in the natural photometric system of the observations. This therefore requires a robust model of the system responses for the instrument used, and thus the calculated responses for the Wide-Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope are presented. These system responses have been tested using standard star observations and have been shown to be a good representation of the photometric system. A benchmark test for the pre-MS evolutionary models is performed by comparing them to a set of well-calibrated CMDs of the Pleiades in the wavelength regime 0.4−2.5 μm. The masses predicted by these models are also tested against dynamical masses using a sample of MS binaries by calculating the system magnitude in a given photometric band- pass. This analysis shows that for Teff ≤ 4000 K the models systematically overestimate the flux by a factor of 2 at 0.5 μm, though this decreases with wavelength, becoming negligible at 2.2 μm. Thus before the pre-MS models are used to derive ages, a recalibration of the models is performed by incorporating an empirical colour-Teff relation and bolometric corrections based on the Ks-band luminosity of Pleiades members, with theoretical corrections for the dependence on the surface gravity (log g). The recalibrated pre-MS model isochrones are used to derive ages from the pre-MS populations of the SFRs. These ages are then compared with the MS derivations, thus providing a powerful diagnostic tool with which to discriminate between the different pre- MS age scales that arise from a much stronger model dependency in the pre-MS regime. The revised ages assigned to each of the 14 SFRs are up to a factor two older than previous derivations, a result with wide-ranging implications, including that circumstellar discs survive longer and that the average Class II lifetime is greater than currently believed.
|
25 |
IN-SYNC. V. Stellar Kinematics and Dynamics in the Orion A Molecular CloudDa Rio, Nicola, Tan, Jonathan C., Covey, Kevin R., Cottaar, Michiel, Foster, Jonathan B., Cullen, Nicholas C., Tobin, John, Kim, Jinyoung S., Meyer, Michael R., Nidever, David L., Stassun, Keivan G., Chojnowski, S. Drew, Flaherty, Kevin M., Majewski, Steven R., Skrutskie, Michael F., Zasowski, Gail, Pan, Kaike 16 August 2017 (has links)
The kinematics and dynamics of young stellar populations enable us to test theories of star formation. With this aim, we continue our analysis of the SDSS-III/APOGEE IN-SYNC survey, a high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopic survey of young clusters. We focus on the Orion A star-forming region, for which IN-SYNC obtained spectra of similar to 2700 stars. In Paper IV we used these data to study the young stellar population. Here we study the kinematic properties through radial velocities (vr). The young stellar population remains kinematically associated with the molecular gas, following a similar to 10 km s(-1) gradient along the filament. However, near the center of the region, the vr distribution is slightly blueshifted and asymmetric; we suggest that this population, which is older, is slightly in the foreground. We find evidence for kinematic subclustering, detecting statistically significant groupings of colocated stars with coherent motions. These are mostly in the lower-density regions of the cloud, while the ONC radial velocities are smoothly distributed, consistent with it being an older, more dynamically evolved cluster. The velocity dispersion sigma(v) varies along the filament. The ONC appears virialized, or just slightly supervirial, consistent with an old dynamical age. Here there is also some evidence for ongoing expansion, from a v(r)-extinction correlation. In the southern filament, sigma(v) is similar to 2-3 times larger than virial in the L1641N region, where we infer a superposition along the line of sight of stellar subpopulations, detached from the gas. In contrast, sv decreases toward L1641S, where the population is again in agreement with a virial state.
|
26 |
Examining LUMBA UVES pipeline spectroscopy on giant and sub-giant stars of M67Papakonstantinou, Nikolaos January 2021 (has links)
In this work, the efficiency of the LUMBA UVES pipeline for processing of spectroscopic observations is tested by use on 23 high-resolution spectra of the open star cluster M67. An abundance trend discovered by Gavel et al. (2019) concerning iron abundances of giant and sub-giant stars of that cluster is examined. An initial run for a set of ”Gaia FGK benchmark stars”, as described in Blanco-Cuaresma et al. (2014) and Heiter et al. (2015) helps inspect the structure, method and output of the pipeline. Through Python language programming, processes are greatly automatized and the pipeline is run for a total of 460 weak and strong iron lines of our 23-star sample. The line fitting and efficiency of the pipeline is appreciated by statistically analyzing the results and looking into individual discrepant ones. The abundance trend is reproduced while using FeI lines, unlike runs using FeII lines. Trends in abundance over line strength plots also hint at bias through the Gaia-Eso Survey (GES) microturbulence relation. Using internal Data Release 6 (iDR6) and LUMBA-derived starting parameters, log(g) - Teff plots of our sample stars agree with a previously established 4.3 Gyr cluster age. An alternate run is performed for those stars, using LUMBA-derived starting parameters. The choice of starting parameters does impact abundance derivation, but is not the primary source of persistent systematic discrepancies.
|
27 |
Exploration de la fonction de faible masse initiale dans les amas jeunes et les r ´egions de formation stellaireBurgess, Andrew 15 December 2010 (has links) (PDF)
La détermination de l'extrémité inférieure de la fonction de masse initiale (FMI) prévoit de fortes contraintes sur les théories de la formation des étoiles. IC4665 est un amas d'´étoile jeune (30Myr) et il a situe 356pc de la Terre. L'extinction est Av~ 0.59 ± 0.15 mag. WIRCam Y, J, H et K observations ont été faites par le CFHT et a comprise 10 champs (de 1.1sq.deg totale) et deux zones de contrle de 20'x20' chacun. Diagrammes couleur/magnitude et couleur/couleur ont été utilisées pour comparer les candidats sélectionnées par les modèles BT-SETTL 30 et 50Myr. Les images CH4off et CH4on ont été obtenus avec CFHT/WIRCam plus 0.11 sq.deg. dans IC348. Naines-T ont ensuite été identifiés à partir de leur couleur de 1.69μm d'absorption du méthane et trois candidats nain-T ont été trouvée avec CH4on−CH4 >0.4 mag. Extinction a été estimée à Av~ 5 − 12 mag. Les comparaisons avec les naines-T modèles, et des diagrammes couleur/couleur et magnitude, rejeter 2 entre 3 candidats en raison de leur extrême z′ − J coleur. L'objet reste n'est pas considéré comme un nain avant l'amas en raison d'un argument de densité en nombre ou l'extinction forte Av~ 12 mag, ni d'être un champ de fond nain-T qui serait devrait être beaucoup plus faible. Les modèles et les schémas de donner cet objet un type T6 préliminaires spectrale. Avec un peu de la masse de Jupiter, ce jeune candidat nain-T est potentiellement parmi les plus jeunes, des objets de masse plus faible détectée dans une région de formation d'´étoiles `a ce jour. Sa fréquence est conforme à l'extrapolation du courant lognormal FMI estime `a au domaine de masse planétaire.
|
28 |
Régimes d'accrétion et variabilité dans les étoiles jeunes : apport de la photométrie UV / Accretion regimes and variability in young stars : imprints on UV photometryVenuti, Laura 23 October 2015 (has links)
Le processus d'accrétion joue un rôle crucial dans le scénario de formation stellaire. Il régit l'interaction des étoiles jeunes avec leurs disques, en régulant l'échange de masse et de moment cinétique; ainsi, il a un impact durable sur leur évolution. De plus, l'accrétion est un ingrédient essentiel de la physique des systèmes étoile-disque à l'époque de formation planétaire. Selon le modèle d'accrétion magnétosphérique, une cavité de quelques rayons stellaires s'étend de la surface de l'étoile au bord interne du disque. L'interaction se produit donc par le champ magnétique stellaire, qui pénètre le disque interne et l'attèle à l'objet central. Des colonnes d'accrétion se développent du disque interne suivant les lignes de champ, et atteignent l'étoile à des vitesses presque de chute libre. L'impact à la surface crée des chocs localisés, qui sont responsables de l'excès de luminosité UV distinctif des systèmes accrétants par rapport aux objets non-accrétants. L'évolution temporelle intrinsèque et l'effet d'alternance du côté visible des objets au cours de leur rotation se mélangent dans la variabilité photométrique typique des étoiles jeunes, révélée par les campagnes de suivi.Durant ma thèse, j'ai mené une étude statistique du processus d'accrétion et de sa variabilité dans la région NGC 2264 (3 Myr). Cet amas contient plus de 700 membres, repartis entre étoiles avec disque (45%) et sans disque. J'ai qualifié l'accrétion par la diagnostique de l'excès UV; les étoiles de l'amas privées de disque définissent le niveau d'émission de référence au-dessus duquel l'excès UV provenant du choc d'accrétion est décelé et mesuré. Mon étude se base sur un jeu de données photométriques obtenues au télescope Canada-France-Hawaii (CFHT), comprenant un relevé profond en 4 filtres (u,g,r,i) et un suivi simultané de variabilité optique (bande r) et UV (bande u) d'une durée de 2 semaines et avec échantillonnage de l'ordre des heures. Dans une première étape de cette étude, je convertis les excès UV en taux d'accrétion pour obtenir une image globale du processus à travers l'amas et examiner sa dépendance envers les paramètres stellaires. Le taux d'accrétion moyen corrèle avec la masse de l'étoile, bien qu'une dispersion significative autour de cette tendance moyenne soit observée à chaque masse. Je montre que cet étalement ne peut pas être justifié par la variabilité des objets; une diversité de mécanismes d'accrétion et de stades évolutifs dans l'amas pourrait contribuer à la vaste gamme de régimes d'accrétion décelés. Ensuite, j'explore les signatures dans l'UV propres à des types distincts d'étoiles jeunes variables. Je montre que les étoiles accrétantes présentent en général une variabilité plus prononcée que les objets sans disque, et que les respectives variations de couleur sont cohérentes avec une origine différente de la variabilité associée aux deux groupes. Pour le premier groupe, ce sont les chocs d'accrétion à dominer, alors que le deuxième est dominé par des taches froides à la surface, dérivant de l'activité magnétique stellaire. Je compare les variations photométriques mesurées sur bases de quelques heures, quelques jours et quelques années, afin de déterminer quelles soient les composantes de variabilité les plus importantes. L'échelle de temps de quelques jours prévaut sur les autres délais investigués dans la variabilité enregistrée pour ces étoiles jeunes, avec une contribution majeure provenant de l'effet de modulation rotationnelle. Enfin, j'analyse les propriétés de rotation des étoiles de l'amas à partir d'un jeu de courbes de lumière optiques, d'une durée de 38 jours, obtenues avec le satellite CoRoT près de la campagne d'observation au CFHT. Je reconstruis la distribution de périodes de l'amas et montre que les objets sans disque tournent statistiquement plus vite que les objets accrétants. Cette connexion entre les propriétés d'accrétion et celles de rotation peut être interprétée dans le scénario de disk-locking. / Disk accretion plays a most important role in the star formation scenario. It governs the interaction of young stars with their disks, with a long-lasting impact on stellar evolution, by providing both mass and angular momentum regulation. Accretion is also a central ingredient in the physics of star-disk systems at the epoch when planets start to form. In the picture of magnetospheric accretion, a cavity of a few stellar radii extends from the star surface to the inner disk rim. The star-disk interaction is then mediated by the stellar magnetic field, whose lines thread the inner disk and couple it to the central object. Material from the inner disk is channeled along the field lines in accretion columns that reach the star at near free-fall velocities. The impact produces localized hot shocks at the stellar surface, which determine the distinctive UV excess emission of accreting objects relative to non-accreting sources. Intrinsic time evolution, and varying visibility of surface features during stellar rotation, combine in the characteristic photometric variability of young stars, revealed by monitoring surveys.In this thesis, I investigate the statistical properties of disk accretion and of its variability in the young open cluster NGC 2264 (3 Myr). This comprises a population of over 700 objects, about similarly distributed between disk-bearing (45%) and disk-free sources. I characterize accretion from the UV excess diagnostics; disk-free cluster members define the reference emission level over which the UV excess linked to accretion is detected and measured. The study is based on a homogeneous photometric dataset obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), composed of a deep mapping of the region in four different bands (u,g,r,i) and of simultaneous optical (r-band) and UV (u-band) monitoring on timescales from hours to days for a period of 2 weeks. In the first part of the study, UV excesses are converted to accretion luminosities and mass accretion rates to derive a global picture of the accretion process across the cluster, and to investigate the dependence of the typical accretion properties on stellar parameters such as mass and age. A robust correlation is detected between the average accretion rate and stellar mass, but a significant dispersion in accretion rates is observed around this average trend at any given mass. I show that the extent of this spread cannot be accounted for by typical variability on week timescales; I discuss several aspects, including a diversity in accretion mechanisms and a non-negligible evolutionary spread among cluster members, which may contribute to the broad range of accretion regimes detected. In the second part of the study, I explore the variability signatures in the UV that pertain to different types of variable young stars. I show that accreting objects typically exhibit stronger variability than non-accreting objects, and that the color properties associated with the two groups are consistent with a statistically distinct origin of the variability features in the two cases. These are dominated, in the first case, by hot accretion spots, and in the second, by cold spots linked to magnetic activity. I compare the amounts of variability on timescales of hours, days and years, to assess the dominant components. The mid term (days) appears to be the leading timescale for variability in young stars up to years, with a major contribution from rotational modulation. In the third part of the study, I use a set of 38 day-long optical light curves obtained with the CoRoT satellite, close to the epoch of the CFHT survey, to investigate periodicity and rotation properties in NGC 2264. I derive the period distribution for the cluster and show that accreting and non-accreting objects exhibit statistically distinct properties: the second rotate on average faster than the first. I then illustrate the connection between accretion and rotation properties in the disk-locking scenario.
|
29 |
Modélisation hiérarchique bayésienne des amas stellaires jeunes / Bayesian hierarchical modelling of young stellar clustersOlivares Romero, Javier 19 October 2017 (has links)
Il semble maintenant établi que la majorité des étoiles se forment dans des amas (Carpenter 2000; Porras et al. 2003; Lada & Lada 2003). Comprendre l'origine et l'évolution des populations stellaires est donc l'un des plus grands défis de l'astrophysique moderne. Malheureusement, moins d'un dixième de ces amas restent gravitationellement liés au delà de quelques centaines de millions d'années (Lada & Lada 2003). L’étude des amas stellaires doit donc se faire avant leur dissolution dans la galaxie.Le projet Dynamical Analysis of Nearby Clusters (DANCe, Bouy et al. 2013), dont le travail fait partie, fournit le cadre scientifique pour l'analyse des amas proches et jeunes (NYC) dans le voisinage solaire. Les observations de l'amas ouvert des Pléiades par le projet DANCe offrent une opportunité parfaite pour le développement d'outils statistiques visant à analyser les premières phases de l'évolution des amas.L'outil statistique développé ici est un système intelligent probabiliste qui effectue une inférence bayésienne des paramètres régissant les fonctions de densité de probabilité (PDF) de la population de l'amas (PDFCP). Il a été testé avec les données photométriques et astrométriques des Pléiades du relevé DANCe. Pour éviter la subjectivité de ces choix des priors, le système intelligent les établit en utilisant l'approche hiérarchique bayésienne (BHM). Dans ce cas, les paramètres de ces distributions, qui sont également déduits des données, proviennent d'autres distributions de manière hiérarchique.Dans ce système intelligent BHM, les vraies valeurs du PDFCP sont spécifiées par des relations stochastiques et déterministes représentatives de notre connaissance des paramètres physiques de l'amas. Pour effectuer l'inférence paramétrique, la vraisemblance (compte tenu de ces valeurs réelles), tient en compte des propriétés de l'ensemble de données, en particulier son hétéroscédasticité et des objects avec des valeurs manquantes.Le BHM obtient les PDF postérieures des paramètres dans les PDFCP, en particulier celles des distributions spatiales, de mouvements propres et de luminosité, qui sont les objectifs scientifiques finaux du projet DANCe. Dans le BHM, chaque étoile du catalogue contribue aux PDF des paramètres de l'amas proportionnellement à sa probabilité d'appartenance. Ainsi, les PDFCP sont exempts de biais d'échantillonnage résultant de sélections tronquées au-dessus d'un seuil de probabilité défini plus ou moins arbitrairement.Comme produit additionnel, le BHM fournit également les PDF de la probabilité d'appartenance à l'amas pour chaque étoile du catalogue d'entrée, qui permettent d'identifier les membres probables de l'amas, et les contaminants probables du champ. La méthode a été testée avec succès sur des ensembles de données synthétiques (avec une aire sous la courbe ROC de 0,99), ce qui a permis d'estimer un taux de contamination pour les PDFCP de seulement 5,8 %.Ces nouvelles méthodes permettent d'obtenir et/ou de confirmer des résultats importants sur les propriétés astrophysiques de l'amas des Pléiades. Tout d'abord, le BHM a découvert 200 nouveaux candidats membres, qui représentent 10% de la population totale de l'amas. Les résultats sont en excellent accord (99,6% des 100 000 objets dans l'ensemble de données) avec les résultats précédents trouvés dans la littérature, ce qui fournit une validation externe importante de la méthode. Enfin, la distribution de masse des systèmes actuelle (PDSMD) est en général en bon accord avec les résultats précédents de Bouy et al. 2015, mais présente l'avantage inestimable d'avoir des incertitudes beaucoup plus robustes que celles des méthodes précédentes.Ainsi, en améliorant la modélisation de l'ensemble de données et en éliminant les restrictions inutiles ou les hypothèses simplificatrices, le nouveau système intelligent, développé et testé dans le présent travail, représente l'état de l'art pour l'analyse statistique des populations de NYC. / The origin and evolution of stellar populations is one of the greatest challenges in modern astrophysics. It is known that the majority of the stars has its origin in stellar clusters (Carpenter 2000; Porras et al. 2003; Lada & Lada 2003). However, only less than one tenth of these clusters remains bounded after the first few hundred million years (Lada & Lada 2003). Ergo, the understanding of the origin and evolution of stars demands meticulous analyses of stellar clusters in these crucial ages.The project Dynamical Analysis of Nearby Clusters (DANCe, Bouy et al. 2013), from which the present work is part of, provides the scientific framework for the analysis of Nearby Young Clusters (NYC) in the solar neighbourhood (< 500 pc). The DANCe carefully designed observations of the well known Pleiades cluster provide the perfect case study for the development and testing of statistical tools aiming at the analysis of the early phases of cluster evolution.The statistical tool developed here is a probabilistic intelligent system that performs Bayesian inference for the parameters governing the probability density functions (PDFs) of the cluster population (PDFCP). It has been benchmarked with the Pleiades photometric and astrometric data of the DANCe survey. As any Bayesian framework, it requires the setting up of priors. To avoid the subjectivity of these, the intelligent system establish them using the Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) approach. In it, the parameters of prior distributions, which are also inferred from the data, are drawn from other distributions in a hierarchical way.In this BHM intelligent system, the true values of the PDFCP are specified by stochastic and deterministic relations representing the state of knowledge of the NYC. To perform the parametric inference, the likelihood of the data, given these true values, accounts for the properties of the data set, especially its heteroscedasticity and missing value objects. By properly accounting for these properties, the intelligent system: i) Increases the size of the data set, with respect to previous studies working exclusively on fully observed objects, and ii) Avoids biases associated to fully observed data sets, and restrictions to low-uncertainty objects (sigma-clipping procedures).The BHM returns the posterior PDFs of the parameters in the PDFCPs, particularly of the spatial, proper motions and luminosity distributions. In the BHM each object in the data set contributes to the PDFs of the parameters proportionally to its likelihood. Thus, the PDFCPs are free of biases resulting from typical high membership probability selections (sampling bias).As a by-product, the BHM also gives the PDFs of the cluster membership probability for each object in the data set. These PDFs together with an optimal probability classification threshold, which is obtained from synthetic data sets, allow the classification of objects into cluster and field populations. This by-product classifier shows excellent results when applied on synthetic data sets (with an area under the ROC curve of 0.99). From the analysis of synthetic data sets, the expected value of the contamination rate for the PDFCPs is 5.8 ± 0.2%.The following are the most important astrophysical results of the BHM applied tothe Pleiades cluster. First, used as a classifier, it finds ∼ 200 new candidate members, representing 10% new discoveries. Nevertheless, it shows outstanding agreement (99.6% of the 105 objects in the data set) with previous results from the literature. Second, the derived present day system mass distribution (PDSMD) is in general agreement with the previous results of Bouy et al. (2015).Thus, by better modelling the data set and eliminating unnecessary restrictions to it, the new intelligent system, developed and tested in the present work, represents the state of the art for the statistical analysis of NYC populations.
|
30 |
X-shooter study of accretion in Chamaeleon IManara, C. F., Testi, L., Herczeg, G. J., Pascucci, I., Alcalá, J. M., Natta, A., Antoniucci, S., Fedele, D., Mulders, G. D., Henning, T., Mohanty, S., Prusti, T., Rigliaco, E. 25 August 2017 (has links)
The dependence of the mass accretion rate on the stellar properties is a key constraint for star formation and disk evolution studies. Here we present a study of a sample of stars in the Chamaeleon I star-forming region carried out using spectra taken with the ESO VLT/X-shooter spectrograph. The sample is nearly complete down to stellar masses (M-star) similar to 0.1 M-circle dot for the young stars still harboring a disk in this region. We derive the stellar and accretion parameters using a self-consistent method to fit the broadband flux-calibrated medium resolution spectrum. The correlation between accretion luminosity to stellar luminosity, and of mass accretion rate to stellar mass in the logarithmic plane yields slopes of 1.9 +/- 0.1 and 2.3 +/- 0.3, respectively. These slopes and the accretion rates are consistent with previous results in various star-forming regions and with different theoretical frameworks. However, we find that a broken power-law fit, with a steeper slope for stellar luminosity lower than similar to 0.45 L-circle dot and for stellar masses lower than similar to 0.3 M-circle dot is slightly preferred according to different statistical tests, but the single power-law model is not excluded. The steeper relation for lower mass stars can be interpreted as a faster evolution in the past for accretion in disks around these objects, or as different accretion regimes in different stellar mass ranges. Finally, we find two regions on the mass accretion versus stellar mass plane that are empty of objects: one region at high mass accretion rates and low stellar masses, which is related to the steeper dependence of the two parameters we derived. The second region is located just above the observational limits imposed by chromospheric emission, at M-star similar to 0.3-0.4 M-circle dot. These are typical masses where photoevaporation is known to be effective. The mass accretion rates of this region are similar to 10(-10) M-circle dot/yr, which is compatible with the value expected for photoevaporation to rapidly dissipate the inner disk.
|
Page generated in 0.0975 seconds