Search Publications

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
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aafe7a Bibcode: 2019ApJ...872..104N

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…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
XMM-Newton eHST 143
Refinement of the standard halo model for dark matter searches in light of the Gaia Sausage
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.99.023012 Bibcode: 2019PhRvD..99b3012E

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…

2019 Physical Review D
Gaia 142
On the Measurement of Fundamental Parameters of White Dwarfs in the Gaia Era
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab153a Bibcode: 2019ApJ...876...67B

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…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
Gaia 142
Accretion of a giant planet onto a white dwarf star
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1789-8 Bibcode: 2019Natur.576...61G

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…

2019 Nature
Gaia 142
Three-dimensional interstellar dust reddening maps of the Galactic plane
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty3341 Bibcode: 2019MNRAS.483.4277C

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…

2019 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gaia 141
The Evolution and Origin of Ionized Gas Velocity Dispersion from z ∼ 2.6 to z ∼ 0.6 with KMOS3D
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab27cc Bibcode: 2019ApJ...880...48U

Lutz, D.; Wuyts, S.; Förster Schreiber, N. M. +27 more

We present the 0.6 < z < 2.6 evolution of the ionized gas velocity dispersion in 175 star-forming disk galaxies based on data from the full KMOS3D integral field spectroscopic survey. In a forward-modeling Bayesian framework including instrumental effects and beam-smearing, we fit simultaneously the observed galaxy velocity and ve…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
eHST 140
Low-frequency gravity waves in blue supergiants revealed by high-precision space photometry
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-019-0768-1 Bibcode: 2019NatAs...3..760B

Bowman, Dominic M.; Pope, Benjamin J. S.; White, Timothy R. +14 more

Almost all massive stars explode as supernovae and form a black hole or neutron star. The remnant mass and the impact of the chemical yield on subsequent star formation and galactic evolution strongly depend on the internal physics of the progenitor star, which is currently not well understood. The theoretical uncertainties of stellar interiors ac…

2019 Nature Astronomy
Gaia 140
Distances and parallax bias in Gaia DR2
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1451 Bibcode: 2019MNRAS.487.3568S

Schönrich, Ralph; Eyer, Laurent; McMillan, Paul

We derive Bayesian distances for all stars in the radial velocity sample of Gaia DR2, and use the statistical method of Schönrich, Binney & Asplund to validate the distances and test the Gaia parallaxes. In contrast to other methods, which rely on special sources, our method directly tests the distances to all stars in our sample. We find clea…

2019 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gaia 140
K2 Rotation Periods for Low-mass Hyads and a Quantitative Comparison of the Distribution of Slow Rotators in the Hyades and Praesepe
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab2468 Bibcode: 2019ApJ...879..100D

Cargile, P. A.; Agüeros, M. A.; Douglas, S. T. +4 more

We analyze K2 light curves for 132 low-mass (1 M ≳ M * ≳ 0.1 M ) members of the 600-800 Myr old Hyades cluster and measure rotation periods ({P}rot}) for 116 of these stars. These include 93 stars with no prior {P}rot} measurements; the total number of Hyads with a known {P}rot} …

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
Gaia 138
Short GRB 160821B: A Reverse Shock, a Refreshed Shock, and a Well-sampled Kilonova
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab38bb Bibcode: 2019ApJ...883...48L

Pian, E.; Greiner, J.; Fruchter, A. S. +31 more

We report our identification of the optical afterglow and host galaxy of the short-duration gamma-ray burst sGRB 160821B. The spectroscopic redshift of the host is z = 0.162, making it one of the lowest redshift short-duration gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) identified by Swift. Our intensive follow-up campaign using a range of ground-based facilities as…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
Gaia XMM-Newton eHST 136