Search Publications
Weighing in on black hole binaries with BPASS: LB-1 does not contain a 70 M⊙ black hole
Steeghs, D. T. H.; Stanway, E. R.; Eldridge, J. J. +3 more
The recent identification of a candidate very massive (70 M⊙) black hole (BH) is at odds with our current understanding of stellar winds and pair-instability supernovae. We investigate alternate explanations for this system by searching the BPASS v2.2 stellar and population synthesis models for those that match the observed properties o…
Disentangling cataclysmic variables in Gaia's HR diagram
López-Sanjuan, Carlos; Ederoclite, Alessandro; Schmidtobreick, Linda +1 more
Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are interacting binaries consisting of at least three components that control their colour and magnitude. Using Gaia, we here investigate the influence of the physical properties of these binaries on their position in the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. The CVs are on average located between the main sequence and the …
RedDots: a temperate 1.5 Earth-mass planet candidate in a compact multiterrestrial planet system around GJ 1061
Pallé, E.; Reiners, A.; Ribas, I. +16 more
Small low-mass stars are favourable targets for the detection of rocky habitable planets. In particular, planetary systems in the solar neighbourhood are interesting and suitable for precise characterization. The RedDots campaigns seek to discover rocky planets orbiting nearby low-mass stars. The 2018 campaign targeted GJ 1061, which is the 20th n…
Confirmation of water emission in the dayside spectrum of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121b
Mikal-Evans, Thomas; Sing, David K.; Wakeford, Hannah R. +5 more
We present four new secondary eclipse observations for the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-121b acquired using the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3. The eclipse depth is measured to a median precision of 60 ppm across 28 spectroscopic channels spanning the 1.12- $1.64\, \mu {\rm m}$ wavelength range. This is a considerable improvement to the 90 pp…
Revealing the intermediate-mass black hole at the heart of the dwarf galaxy NGC 404 with sub-parsec resolution ALMA observations
Neumayer, Nadine; Barth, Aaron J.; Greene, Jenny E. +15 more
We estimate the mass of the intermediate-mass black hole at the heart of the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 404 using Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) observations of the molecular interstellar medium at an unprecedented linear resolution of ≈0.5 pc, in combination with existing stellar kinematic information. These ALMA observation…
Cosmological constraints from galaxy-lensing cross-correlations using BOSS galaxies with SDSS and CMB lensing
Mandelbaum, Rachel; Seljak, Uroš; Slosar, Anže +2 more
We present cosmological parameter constraints based on a joint modelling of galaxy-lensing cross-correlations and galaxy clustering measurements in the SDSS, marginalizing over small-scale modelling uncertainties using mock galaxy catalogues, without explicit modelling of galaxy bias. We show that our modelling method is robust to the impact of di…
Wide binaries are rare in open clusters
Kraus, A. L.; Deacon, N. R.
The population statistics of binary stars are an important output of star formation models. However, populations of wide binaries evolve over time due to interactions within a system's birth environment and the unfolding of wide, hierarchical triple systems. Hence, the wide binary populations observed in star-forming regions or OB associations may…
The magnetic field and accretion regime of CI Tau
Moutou, C.; Ménard, F.; Donati, J. -F. +7 more
This paper exploits spectropolarimetric data of the classical T Tauri star CI Tau collected with ESPaDOnS at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, with the aims of detecting and characterizing the large-scale magnetic field that the star hosts, and of investigating how the star interacts with the inner regions of its accretion disc through this fiel…
Chemical evolution of the Milky Way: constraints on the formation of the thick and thin discs
Palla, M.; Matteucci, F.; Spitoni, E. +2 more
We study the evolution of Milky Way thick and thin discs in the light of the most recent observational data. In particular, we analyse abundance gradients of O, N, Fe, and Mg along the thin disc as well as the [Mg/Fe] versus [Fe/H] relations and the metallicity distribution functions at different Galactocentric distances. We run several models sta…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey extended point spread functions
Trujillo, Ignacio; Román, Javier; Infante-Sainz, Raúl
A robust and extended characterization of the point spread function (PSF) is crucial to extract the photometric information produced by deep imaging surveys. Here, we present the extended PSFs of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), one of the most productive astronomical surveys of all time. By stacking ∼1000 images of individual stars with diffe…