Search Publications

Inferred Evidence for Dark Matter Kinematic Substructure with SDSS-Gaia
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab095b Bibcode: 2019ApJ...874....3N

Belokurov, Vasily; Lisanti, Mariangela; Necib, Lina

We use the distribution of accreted stars in Sloan Digital Sky Survey-Gaia DR2 to demonstrate that a nontrivial fraction of the dark matter halo within galactocentric radii of 7.5-10 kpc and | z| > 2.5 {kpc} is in substructure and thus may not be in equilibrium. Using a mixture likelihood analysis, we separate the contributions of an old, isotr…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
Gaia 123
Core crystallization and pile-up in the cooling sequence of evolving white dwarfs
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0791-x Bibcode: 2019Natur.565..202T

Hermes, J. J.; Gänsicke, Boris T.; Gentile Fusillo, Nicola Pietro +7 more

White dwarfs are stellar embers depleted of nuclear energy sources that cool over billions of years1. These stars, which are supported by electron degeneracy pressure, reach densities of 107 grams per cubic centimetre in their cores2. It has been predicted that a first-order phase transition occurs during white-dwa…

2019 Nature
Gaia 123
The KMOS3D Survey: Data Release and Final Survey Paper
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab4db8 Bibcode: 2019ApJ...886..124W

Wuyts, E.; Lutz, D.; Wuyts, S. +28 more

We present the completed KMOS3D survey, an integral field spectroscopic survey of 739 {log}({M}\star /{M})> 9 galaxies at 0.6 < z < 2.7 using the K-band Multi Object Spectrograph (KMOS) at the Very Large Telescope. The KMOS3D survey provides a population-wide census of kinematics, star formati…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
eHST 123
Nonparametric Star Formation History Reconstruction with Gaussian Processes. I. Counting Major Episodes of Star Formation
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab2052 Bibcode: 2019ApJ...879..116I

Ferguson, Henry C.; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Somerville, Rachel S. +5 more

The star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies contain imprints of the physical processes responsible for regulating star formation during galaxy growth and quenching. We improve the Dense Basis SFH reconstruction method of Iyer & Gawiser, introducing a nonparametric description of the SFH based on the lookback times at which a galaxy assembl…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
eHST 123
The Anomalously Low (Sub)Millimeter Spectral Indices of Some Protoplanetary Disks May Be Explained By Dust Self-scattering
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab1f8e Bibcode: 2019ApJ...877L..22L

Liu, Hauyu Baobab

Previous (sub)millimeter observations have found that the spectral indices of dust emission from some young stellar objects are lower than that of the blackbody emission in the Rayleigh-Jeans limit (i.e., 2.0). In particular, the recent Atacama Large Millimeter Array observations have spatially resolved that the innermost regions of the protoplane…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
Gaia 123
Synthesis of the morphological description of cometary dust at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201834751 Bibcode: 2019A&A...630A..24G

Lasue, J.; Langevin, Y.; Krüger, H. +28 more

Before Rosetta, the space missions Giotto and Stardust shaped our view on cometary dust, supported by plentiful data from Earth based observations and interplanetary dust particles collected in the Earth's atmosphere. The Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was equipped with a multitude of instruments designed to study cometary dust…

2019 Astronomy and Astrophysics
Rosetta 123
Mass and Mass Scalings of Super-Earths
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab06f8 Bibcode: 2019ApJ...874...91W

Wu, Yanqin

The majority of the transiting planets discovered by the Kepler mission (called super-Earths here, includes the so-called “sub-Neptunes”) orbit close to their stars. As such, photoevaporation of their hydrogen envelopes etches sharp features in an otherwise bland space spanned by planet radius and orbital period. This, in turn, can be exploited to…

2019 The Astrophysical Journal
Gaia 122
Potential kick velocity distribution of black hole X-ray binaries and implications for natal kicks
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz2335 Bibcode: 2019MNRAS.489.3116A

Maccarone, T. J.; Chaty, S.; Miller-Jones, J. C. A. +14 more

We use very long baseline interferometry to measure the proper motions of three black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs). Using these results together with data from the literature and Gaia DR2 to collate the best available constraints on proper motion, parallax, distance, and systemic radial velocity of 16 BHXBs, we determined their three-dimensional Ga…

2019 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gaia 122
Effect of galaxy mergers on star-formation rates
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201936337 Bibcode: 2019A&A...631A..51P

Wang, L.; van der Tak, F. F. S.; Holwerda, B. W. +8 more

Context. Galaxy mergers and interactions are an integral part of our basic understanding of how galaxies grow and evolve over time. However, the effect that galaxy mergers have on star-formation rates (SFRs) is contested, with observations of galaxy mergers showing reduced, enhanced, and highly enhanced star formation.
Aims: We aim to determi…

2019 Astronomy and Astrophysics
Herschel eHST 121
Characterization and history of the Helmi streams with Gaia DR2
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201834769 Bibcode: 2019A&A...625A...5K

Helmi, Amina; Koppelman, Helmer H.; Massari, Davide +2 more

Context. The halo of the Milky Way has long been hypothesized to harbour significant amounts of merger debris. For more than a decade this view has been supported by wide-field photometric surveys which have revealed the outer halo to be lumpy.
Aims: The recent release of Gaia DR2 is allowing us to establish that mergers also have been import…

2019 Astronomy and Astrophysics
Gaia 121