Search Publications
An Excess of Jupiter Analogs in Super-Earth Systems
Lee, Eve J.; Knutson, Heather A.; Batygin, Konstantin +4 more
We use radial velocity (RV) observations to search for long-period gas giant companions in systems hosting inner super-Earth (1-4 R ⊕, 1-10 M ⊕) planets to constrain formation and migration scenarios for this population. We consistently refit published RV data sets for 65 stars and find nine systems with statistically signifi…
A long-lived neutron star merger remnant in GW170817: constraints and clues from X-ray observations
Troja, E.; Piro, L.; van Eerten, H. +12 more
Multimessenger observations of GW170817 have not conclusively established whether the merger remnant is a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS). We show that a long-lived magnetized NS with a poloidal field B ≈ 1012 G is fully consistent with the electromagnetic dataset, when spin-down losses are dominated by gravitational wave (GW) em…
The Radius-Luminosity Relationship Depends on Optical Spectra in Active Galactic Nuclei
Du, Pu; Wang, Jian-Min
The radius-luminosity ({R}{{H}β }{--}{L}5100) relationship of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) established by the reverberation mapping (RM) observations has been widely used as a single-epoch black hole mass estimator in the research of large AGN samples. However, the recent RM campaigns discovered that the AGNs with high-accre…
Characterizing circumgalactic gas around massive ellipticals at z ∼ 0.4 - II. Physical properties and elemental abundances
Weiner, Benjamin J.; Johnson, Sean D.; Zahedy, Fakhri S. +5 more
We present a systematic investigation of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) within projected distances d < 160 kpc of luminous red galaxies (LRGs). The sample comprises 16 intermediate-redshift (z = 0.21-0.55) LRGs of stellar mass M_star> 10^{11} M_\odot. Combining far-ultraviolet Cosmic Origin Spectrograph spectra from the Hubble Space Telesco…
Cometary Chemistry and the Origin of Icy Solar System Bodies: The View After Rosetta
Altwegg, Kathrin; Balsiger, Hans; Fuselier, Stephen A.
In situ research of cometary chemistry began when measurements from the Giotto mission at Comet 1P/Halley revealed the presence of complex organics in the coma. New telescopes and space missions have provided detailed remote and in situ measurements of the composition of cometary volatiles. Recently, the Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gera…
Improved Dynamical Constraints on the Masses of the Central Black Holes in Nearby Low-mass Early-type Galactic Nuclei and the First Black Hole Determination for NGC 205
Pechetti, Renuka; Neumayer, Nadine; Strader, Jay +17 more
We improve the dynamical black hole (BH) mass estimates in three nearby low-mass early-type galaxies: NGC 205, NGC 5102, and NGC 5206. We use new Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/STIS spectroscopy to fit the star formation histories of the nuclei in these galaxies, and use these measurements to create local color-mass-to-light ratio (M/L) relations. W…
Refinement of the standard halo model for dark matter searches in light of the Gaia Sausage
Evans, N. Wyn; McCabe, Christopher; O'Hare, Ciaran A. J.
Predicting signals in experiments to directly detect dark matter (DM) requires a form for the local DM velocity distribution. Hitherto, the standard halo model (SHM), in which velocities are isotropic and follow a truncated Gaussian law, has performed this job. New data, however, suggest that a substantial fraction of our stellar halo lies in a st…
On the Measurement of Fundamental Parameters of White Dwarfs in the Gaia Era
Fontaine, G.; Genest-Beaulieu, C.; Bergeron, P. +5 more
We present a critical review of the determination of fundamental parameters of white dwarfs discovered by the Gaia mission. We first reinterpret color-magnitude and color-color diagrams using photometric and spectroscopic information contained in the Montreal White Dwarf Database (MWDD), combined with synthetic magnitudes calculated from a self-co…
Accretion of a giant planet onto a white dwarf star
Gänsicke, Boris T.; Schreiber, Matthias R.; Toloza, Odette +3 more
The detection1 of a dust disk around the white dwarf star G29-38 and transits from debris orbiting the white dwarf WD 1145+017 (ref. 2) confirmed that the photospheric trace metals found in many white dwarfs3 arise from the accretion of tidally disrupted planetesimals4. The composition of these planetesi…
Three-dimensional interstellar dust reddening maps of the Galactic plane
Huang, Y.; Chen, B. -Q.; Wang, C. +6 more
We present new three-dimensional (3D) interstellar dust reddening maps of the Galactic plane in three colours, E(G - KS), E(GBP - GRP), and E(H - KS). The maps have a spatial angular resolution of 6 arcmin and covers over 7000 deg2 of the Galactic plane for Galactic longitude 0° < l < 36…