Search Publications
The Eighteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: Targeting and First Spectra from SDSS-V
Qiu, Dan; Trump, Jonathan R.; Shen, Yue +152 more
The eighteenth data release (DR18) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is the first one for SDSS-V, the fifth generation of the survey. SDSS-V comprises three primary scientific programs or "Mappers": the Milky Way Mapper (MWM), the Black Hole Mapper (BHM), and the Local Volume Mapper. This data release contains extensive targeting information …
Quasi-periodic eruptions from impacts between the secondary and a rigidly precessing accretion disc in an extreme mass-ratio inspiral system
Lupi, Alessandro; Miniutti, Giovanni; Giustini, Margherita +7 more
X-ray quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) represent a recently discovered example of extreme X-ray variability associated with supermassive black holes. These are high-amplitude bursts recurring every few hours that are detected in the soft X-ray band from the nuclei of nearby galaxies whose optical spectra lack the broad emission lines typically obse…
A structured jet explains the extreme GRB 221009A
Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Buckley, David A. H.; Hammerstein, Erica +29 more
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powerful cosmic explosions, signaling the death of massive stars. Among them, GRB 221009A is by far the brightest burst ever observed. Because of its enormous energy ( E iso ≈ 10 55 erg) and proximity ( z ≈ 0.15), GRB 221009A is an exceptionally rare event that pushes the limits of our theories. We present…
Repeating tidal disruptions in GSN 069: Long-term evolution and constraints on quasi-periodic eruptions' models
Read, A. M.; Bianchi, S.; Miniutti, G. +4 more
Context. GSN 069 is the first galactic nucleus where quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) have been identified in December 2018. These are high-amplitude, soft X-ray bursts recurring every ∼9 h, lasting ∼1 h, and during which the X-ray count rate increases by up to two orders of magnitude with respect to an otherwise stable quiescent level. The X-ray s…
Live to Die Another Day: The Rebrightening of AT 2018fyk as a Repeating Partial Tidal Disruption Event
Liu, Z.; Merloni, A.; Rau, A. +13 more
Stars that interact with supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can be either completely or partially destroyed by tides. In a partial tidal disruption event (TDE), the high-density core of the star remains intact, and the low-density outer envelope of the star is stripped and feeds a luminous accretion episode. The TDE AT 2018fyk, with an inferred blac…
Deciphering the extreme X-ray variability of the nuclear transient eRASSt J045650.3−203750. A likely repeating partial tidal disruption event
Gromadzki, M.; Liu, Z.; Buchner, J. +17 more
Context. During its all-sky survey, the extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) on board the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory has uncovered a growing number of X-ray transients associated with the nuclei of quiescent galaxies. Benefitting from its large field of view and excellent sensitivity, the eROSITA window…
A long-period radio transient active for three decades
de Martino, D.; Heywood, I.; Rea, N. +22 more
Several long-period radio transients have recently been discovered, with strongly polarized coherent radio pulses appearing on timescales between tens to thousands of seconds1,2. In some cases, the radio pulses have been interpreted as coming from rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, known as magnetars; the orig…
A catalogue of high-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy: from the INTEGRAL to the Gaia era
García, Federico; Chaty, Sylvain; Fortin, Francis +1 more
Context. High-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) are a particular class of high-energy sources that require multi-wavelength observational efforts to be properly characterised. New identifications and the refinement of previous measurements are regularly published in the literature by independent teams of researchers and might, when they are collected in…
Gravitationally lensed quasars in Gaia - IV. 150 new lenses, quasar pairs, and projected quasars
Treu, T.; Courbin, F.; Anguita, T. +10 more
We report the spectroscopic follow-up of 175 lensed quasar candidates selected using Gaia Data Release 2 observations following Paper III of this series. Systems include 86 confirmed lensed quasars and a further 17 likely lensed quasars based on imaging and/or similar spectra. We also confirm 11 projected quasar pairs and 11 physical quasar pairs,…
Detection of Atmospheric Escape from Four Young Mini-Neptunes
Knutson, Heather A.; Ricker, George R.; Dai, Fei +5 more
We use Keck/NIRSPEC to survey a sample of of young (<1 Gyr), short-period mini-Neptunes orbiting nearby K dwarfs to measure their mass loss via the metastable helium line. We detect helium absorption from all four of the targets in our initial sample. The first detection, around TOI 560b, was announced in a previous paper. We now announce three…