Search Publications
The cloudy shape of hot Jupiter thermal phase curves
Fortney, Jonathan J.; Showman, Adam P.; Parmentier, Vivien
Hot Jupiters have been predicted to have a strong day/night temperature contrast and a hotspot shifted eastward of the substellar point. This was confirmed by numerous phase curve observations probing the longitudinal brightness variation of the atmosphere. Global circulation models, however, systematically underestimate the phase curve amplitude …
3D kinematics and age distribution of the open cluster population
Castro-Ginard, A.; Jordi, C.; Casamiquela, L. +14 more
Context. Open clusters (OCs) trace the evolution of the Galactic disc with great accuracy. Gaia and large ground-based spectroscopic surveys make it possible to determine their properties and study their kinematics with unprecedented precision.
Aims: We study the kinematical behaviour of the OC population over time. We take advantage of the l…
Joint constraints on thermal relic dark matter from strong gravitational lensing, the Ly α forest, and Milky Way satellites
Viel, Matteo; Fassnacht, Christopher D.; Koopmans, Léon V. E. +10 more
We derive joint constraints on the warm dark matter (WDM) half-mode scale by combining the analyses of a selection of astrophysical probes: strong gravitational lensing with extended sources, the Ly α forest, and the number of luminous satellites in the Milky Way. We derive an upper limit of λhm = 0.089 Mpc h-1 at the 95 per …
Constraining the Nature of the PDS 70 Protoplanets with VLTI/GRAVITY
Lutz, D.; Genzel, R.; Sturm, E. +101 more
We present K-band interferometric observations of the PDS 70 protoplanets along with their host star using VLTI/GRAVITY. We obtained K-band spectra and 100 µas precision astrometry of both PDS 70 b and c in two epochs, as well as spatially resolving the hot inner disk around the star. Rejecting unstable orbits, we found a nonzero eccentricit…
Possible X-Ray Quasi-periodic Eruptions in a Tidal Disruption Event Candidate
Miniutti, Giovanni; Kara, Erin; Giustini, Margherita +3 more
X-ray quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are a recently discovered phenomenon associated with supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. They are high-amplitude soft X-ray flares that recur on timescales of hours, but what causes these flares remains uncertain. In the two years since their original discovery, four known QPE-hosting galaxies…
Extended stellar systems in the solar neighborhood. V. Discovery of coronae of nearby star clusters
Meingast, Stefan; Alves, João; Rottensteiner, Alena
We present a novel view on the morphology and dynamical state of ten prominent, nearby (≤500 pc), and young (∼30-300 Myr) open star clusters with Gaia DR2: α Per, Blanco 1, IC 2602, IC 2391, Messier 39, NGC 2451A, NGC 2516, NGC 2547, Platais 9, and the Pleiades. We introduce a pioneering member-identification method that is informed by cluster bul…
Exploring the early Universe with Gaia and Theia
Garcia-Bellido, Juan; Murayama, Hitoshi; White, Graham
It has recently been pointed out that Gaia is capable of detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background in the sensitivity band between the frequency of pulsar timing arrays and LISA. We argue that Gaia and Theia have great potential for early universe cosmology, since such a frequency range is ideal for probing phase transitions in asymmetr…
Gaia Early Data Release 3. Acceleration of the Solar System from Gaia astrometry
Prusti, T.; Mazeh, T.; Zucker, S. +414 more
Context. Gaia Early Data Release 3 (Gaia EDR3) provides accurate astrometry for about 1.6 million compact (QSO-like) extragalactic sources, 1.2 million of which have the best-quality five-parameter astrometric solutions.
Aims: The proper motions of QSO-like sources are used to reveal a systematic pattern due to the acceleration of the solar s…
The Ophiuchus DIsc Survey Employing ALMA (ODISEA) - III. The evolution of substructures in massive discs at 3-5 au resolution
Flock, Mario; Pinilla, Paola; Hales, Antonio S. +15 more
We present 1.3 mm continuum ALMA long-baseline observations at 3-5 au resolution of 10 of the brightest discs from the Ophiuchus DIsc Survey Employing ALMA (ODISEA) project. We identify a total of 26 narrow rings and gaps distributed in 8 sources and 3 discs with small dust cavities (r <10 au). We find that two discs around embedded protostars …
I Spy Transits and Pulsations: Empirical Variability in White Dwarfs Using Gaia and the Zwicky Transient Facility
Hermes, J. J.; Bell, Keaton J.; Montgomery, M. H. +13 more
We present a novel method to detect variable astrophysical objects and transient phenomena using anomalous excess scatter in repeated measurements from public catalogs of Gaia DR2 and Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) DR3 photometry. We first provide a generalized, all-sky proxy for variability using only Gaia DR2 photometry, calibrated to white dwa…