Table of contents

The application of high-resolution spectropolarimetry has led to major progress in understanding the magnetism and activity of late-type stars. During the last decade, magnetic fields have been discovered and mapped for many types of active cool stars using spectropolarimetric data. However, these observations and modeling attempts are fundamentally incomplete since they are based on the interpretation of the circular polarization alone. Taking advantage of the newly built HARPS polarimeter, we have obtained the first systematic observations of several cool active stars in all four Stokes parameters. Here we report the detection of magnetically induced linear polarization for the primary component of the very active RS CVn binary HR 1099 and for the moderately active K dwarf ε Eri. For both stars the amplitude of linear polarization signatures is measured to be ∼10⁻⁴ of the unpolarized continuum, which is approximately a factor of 10 lower than for circular polarization. This is the first detection of the linear polarization in line profiles of cool active stars. Our observations of the inactive solar-like star α Cen A show neither circular nor linear polarization above the level of ∼10⁻⁵, indicating the absence of a net longitudinal magnetic field stronger than 0.2 G.

"EIT waves" are a globally propagating wavelike phenomenon. They were often interpreted as fast-mode magnetoacoustic waves in the corona, despite various discrepancies between the fast-mode wave model and observations. To reconcile these discrepancies, we suggested that "EIT waves" are the apparent propagation of the plasma compression due to successive stretching of the magnetic field lines pushed by the erupting flux rope. According to this model, an EIT wave should be preceded by a fast-mode wave, which, however, had rarely been observed. With the unprecedented high cadence and sensitivity of the Solar Dynamics Observatory observations, we discern a fast-moving wave front with a speed of 560 km s⁻¹ ahead of an EIT wave, which had a velocity of ∼190 km s⁻¹, in the "EIT wave" event on 2010 July 27. The results, suggesting that "EIT waves" are not fast-mode waves, confirm the prediction of our field-line stretching model for an EIT wave. In particular, it is found that the coronal Moreton wave was ∼3 times faster than the EIT wave, as predicted.

We report results of a theoretical investigation of polarization of the X-ray emissions induced in charge-exchange collisions of fully stripped solar wind (SW) ions C^{6 +} and O^{8 +} with the heliospheric hydrogen atoms. The polarization of X-ray emissions has been computed for line-of-sight observations within the ecliptic plane as a function of SW ion velocities, including a range of velocities corresponding to the slow and fast SW, and coronal mass ejections. To determine the variability of polarization of heliospheric X-ray emissions, the polarization has been computed for solar minimum conditions with self-consistent parameters of the SW plasma and heliospheric gas and compared with the polarization calculated for an averaged solar activity. We predict the polarization of charge-exchange X-rays to be between 3% and 8%, depending on the line-of-sight geometry, SW ion velocity, and the selected emission lines.

Strong gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula have been recently discovered by AGILE and confirmed by Fermi-LAT. We study here the spectral evolution in the gamma-ray energy range above 50 MeV of the 2010 September flare that was simultaneously detected by AGILE and Fermi-LAT. We revisit the AGILE spectral data and present an emission model based on rapid (within 1 day) acceleration followed by synchrotron cooling. We show that this model successfully explains both the published AGILE and Fermi-LAT spectral data showing a rapid rise and a decay within 2 and 3 days. Our analysis constrains the acceleration timescale and mechanism, the properties of the particle distribution function, and the local magnetic field. The combination of very rapid acceleration, emission well above 100 MeV, and the spectral evolution consistent with synchrotron cooling contradicts the idealized scenario predicting an exponential cutoff at photon energies above 100 MeV. We also consider a variation of our model based on even shorter acceleration and decay timescales, which can be consistent with the published averaged properties.

The Cassini spacecraft discovered a propeller-shaped structure in Saturn's A ring. This propeller structure is thought to be formed by gravitational scattering of ring particles by an unseen embedded moonlet. Self-gravity wakes are prevalent in dense rings due to gravitational instability. Strong gravitational wakes affect the propeller structure. Here, we derive the condition for the formation of a propeller structure by a moonlet embedded in a dense ring with gravitational wakes. We find that a propeller structure is formed when the wavelength of the gravitational wakes is smaller than the Hill radius of the moonlet. We confirm this formation condition by performing numerical simulations. This condition is consistent with observations of propeller structures in Saturn's A ring.

In this Letter, we present an overview of the rich population of systems with multiple candidate transiting planets found in the first four months of Kepler data. The census of multiples includes 115 targets that show two candidate planets, 45 with three, eight with four, and one each with five and six, for a total of 170 systems with 408 candidates. When compared to the 827 systems with only one candidate, the multiples account for 17% of the total number of systems, and one-third of all the planet candidates. We compare the characteristics of candidates found in multiples with those found in singles. False positives due to eclipsing binaries are much less common for the multiples, as expected. Singles and multiples are both dominated by planets smaller than Neptune; 69⁺² _{− 3}% for singles and 86⁺² _{− 5}% for multiples. This result, that systems with multiple transiting planets are less likely to include a transiting giant planet, suggests that close-in giant planets tend to disrupt the orbital inclinations of small planets in flat systems, or maybe even prevent the formation of such systems in the first place.

Magnetic flux ropes are believed to be an important structural component of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). While there exists much observational evidence of flux ropes after the eruption, e.g., as seen in remote-sensing coronagraph images or in situ solar wind data, the direct observation of flux ropes during CME impulsive phase has been rare. In this Letter, we present an unambiguous observation of a flux rope still in the formation phase in the low corona. The CME of interest occurred above the east limb on 2010 November 3 with footpoints partially blocked. The flux rope was seen as a bright blob of hot plasma in the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) 131 Å passband (peak temperature ∼11 MK) rising from the core of the source active region, rapidly moving outward and stretching the surrounding background magnetic field upward. The stretched magnetic field seemed to curve-in behind the core, similar to the classical magnetic reconnection scenario in eruptive flares. On the other hand, the flux rope appeared as a dark cavity in the AIA 211 Å passband (2.0 MK) and 171 Å passband (0.6 MK); in these relatively cool temperature bands, a bright rim clearly enclosed the dark cavity. The bright rim likely represents the pileup of the surrounding coronal plasma compressed by the expanding flux rope. The composite structure seen in AIA multiple temperature bands is very similar to that in the corresponding coronagraph images, which consists of a bright leading edge and a dark cavity, commonly believed to be a flux rope.

We investigate a purely stellar dynamical solution to the Final Parsec Problem. Galactic nuclei resulting from major mergers are not spherical, but show some degree of triaxiality. With N-body simulations, we show that equal-mass massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) hosted by them will continuously interact with stars on centrophilic orbits and will thus inspiral—in much less than a Hubble time—down to separations at which gravitational-wave (GW) emission is strong enough to drive them to coalescence. Such coalescences will be important sources of GWs for future space-borne detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Based on our results for equal-mass mergers, and given that the hardening rate of unequal-mass binaries is similar, we expect that LISA will see between ∼10 and ∼ few × 10² such events every year, depending on the particular massive black hole (MBH) seed model as obtained in recent studies of merger trees of galaxy and MBH co-evolution. Orbital eccentricities in the LISA band will be clearly distinguishable from zero with e ≳ 0.001–0.01.

We present the first detection of the H40α, H34α, and H31α radio recombination lines (RRLs) at millimeter wavelengths toward the high-velocity ionized jet in the Cepheus A HW2 star-forming region. From our single-dish and interferometric observations, we find that the measured RRLs show extremely broad asymmetric line profiles with zero-intensity line widths of ∼1100 km s⁻¹. From the line widths, we estimate a terminal velocity for the ionized gas in the jet of ⩾500 km s⁻¹, consistent with that obtained from the proper motions of the HW2 radio jet. The total integrated line-to-continuum flux ratios of the H40α, H34α, and H31α lines are 43, 229, and 280 km s⁻¹, clearly deviating from LTE predictions. These ratios are very similar to those observed for the RRL masers toward MWC349A, suggesting that the intensities of the RRLs toward HW2 are affected by maser emission. Our radiative transfer modeling of the RRLs shows that their asymmetric profiles could be explained by maser emission arising from a bi-conical radio jet with a semi-opening angle of 18°, electron density distribution varying as r^−2.11, and turbulent and expanding wind velocities of 60 and 500 km s⁻¹.

There have been several recent claims of black hole binaries in globular clusters. I show that these candidate systems could instead be ultracompact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) in which a neutron star accretes from a white dwarf. They would represent a slightly earlier evolutionary stage of known globular cluster UCXBs such as 4U 1820–30, with white dwarf masses ∼0.2 M_☉ and orbital periods below 5 minutes. Accretion is slightly super-Eddington and makes these systems ultraluminous sources with rather mild beaming factors b ∼ 0.3. Their theoretical luminosity function flattens slightly just above L_Edd and then steepens at ∼3L_Edd. It predicts of order two detections in elliptical galaxies such as NGC 4472, as observed. The very bright X-ray source HLX-1 lies off the plane of its host S0a galaxy. If this is an indication of globular cluster membership, it could conceivably be a more extreme example of a UCXB with white dwarf mass M₂ ≃ 0.34 M_☉. The beaming here is tighter (b ∼ (2.5–9) × 10⁻³), but the system's distance of 95 Mpc easily eliminates any need to invoke improbable alignment of the beam for detection. If its position instead indicates membership of a satellite dwarf galaxy, HLX-1 could have a much higher accretor mass ∼1000 M_☉

We have combined multi-epoch images from the Infrared Side Port Imager on the CTIO 4 m telescope to derive a 3σ limit of J = 21.7 for the ultra cool brown dwarf companion to WD 0806–661 (GJ 3483). We find that J − [4.5] > 4.95, redder than any other brown dwarf known to date. With theoretical evolutionary models and ages 1.5–2.7 Gyr, we estimate the brown dwarf companion to have mass <10–13 M_Jup and temperature ≲ 400 K, providing evidence that this is among the coolest brown dwarfs currently known. The range of masses for this object is consistent with that anticipated from Jeans-mass fragmentation and we present this as the likely formation mechanism. However, we find that substellar companions of similar mass (∼7–17 M_Jup) are distributed over a wide range of semimajor axes, which suggests that giant planet and low-mass brown dwarf formation overlap in this mass range.

We examine heating and cooling in protostellar disks using three-dimensional radiation-MHD calculations of a patch of the Solar nebula at 1 AU, employing the shearing-box and flux-limited radiation diffusion approximations. The disk atmosphere is ionized by stellar X-rays, well coupled to magnetic fields, and sustains a turbulent accretion flow driven by magnetorotational instability, while the interior is resistive and magnetically dead. The turbulent layers are heated by absorbing the light from the central star and by dissipating the magnetic fields. They are optically thin to their own radiation and cool inefficiently. The optically thick interior in contrast is heated only weakly, by re-emission from the atmosphere. The interior is colder than a classical viscous model and isothermal. The magnetic fields support an extended atmosphere that absorbs the starlight 1.5 times higher than the hydrostatic viscous model. The disk thickness thus measures not the internal temperature, but the magnetic field strength. Fluctuations in the fields move the starlight-absorbing surface up and down. The height ranges between 13% and 24% of the radius over timescales of several orbits, with implications for infrared variability. The fields are buoyant, so the accretion heating occurs higher in the atmosphere than the stresses. The heating is localized around current sheets, caused by magnetorotational instability at lower elevations and by Parker instability at higher elevations. Gas in the sheets is heated above the stellar irradiation temperature, even though accretion is much less than irradiation power when volume averaged. The hot optically thin current sheets might be detectable through their line emission.

The Fokker–Planck equation for cosmic-ray particles in a spatially varying guide magnetic field in a turbulent plasma is analyzed. An expression is derived for the mean rate of change of particle momentum, caused by the effect of adiabatic focusing in a non-uniform guide field. Results of an earlier diffusion-limit analysis are confirmed, and the physical picture is clarified by working directly with the Fokker–Planck equation. A distributed first-order Fermi acceleration mechanism is identified, which can be termed focused acceleration. If the forward- and backward-propagating waves have equal polarizations, focused acceleration operates when the net cross helicity of an Alfvénic slab turbulence is either negative in a diverging guide field or positive in a converging guide field. It is suggested that focused acceleration can contribute to the formation of the anomalous cosmic-ray spectrum at the heliospheric termination shock.

Relaxed, massive galactic objects have been identified at redshifts z = 4, 5, and 6 in hydrodynamical simulations run in a large cosmological volume. This allowed us to analyze the assembly patterns of the high-mass end of the galaxy distribution at these high z's, by focusing on their structural and dynamical properties. Our simulations indicate that massive objects at high redshift already follow certain scaling relations. These relations define virial planes at the halo scale, whereas at the galactic scale they define intrinsic dynamical planes that are, however, tilted relative to the virial plane. Therefore, we predict that massive galaxies must lie on fundamental planes from their formation. We briefly discuss the physical origin of the tilt in terms of the physical processes underlying massive galaxy formation at high z, in the context of a two-phase galaxy formation scenario. Specifically, we have found that it lies on the different behavior of the gravitationally heated gas as compared with cold gas previously involved in caustic formation and the mass dependence of the energy available to heat the gas.

We find a distinct stellar population in the counterrotating and kinematically decoupled core of the isolated massive elliptical galaxy NGC 1700. Coinciding with the edge of this core, we find a significant change in the slope of the gradient of various representative absorption line indices. Our age estimate for this core is markedly younger than the main body of the galaxy. We find lower values for the age, metallicity, and Mg/Fe abundance ratio in the center of this galaxy when we compare them with other isolated elliptical galaxies with similar velocity dispersion. We discuss the different possible scenarios that might have lead to the formation of this younger kinematically decoupled structure and conclude that, in light of our findings, the ingestion of a small stellar companion on a retrograde orbit is the most favored.

Astrometric monitoring of the Sirius binary system over the past century has yielded several predictions for an unseen third system component, the most recent one suggesting a ≲50 M_Jup object in a ∼6.3 year orbit around Sirius A. Here we present two epochs of high-contrast imaging observations performed with Subaru IRCS and AO188 in the 4.05 μm narrowband Br α filter. These data surpass previous observations by an order of magnitude in detectable companion mass, allowing us to probe the relevant separation range down to the planetary-mass regime (6–12 M_Jup at 1'', 2–4 M_Jup at 2'', and 1.6 M_Jup beyond 4''). We complement these data with one epoch of M-band observations from MMT/AO Clio, which reach comparable performance. No data set reveals any companion candidates above the 5σ level, allowing us to refute the existence of Sirius C as suggested by the previous astrometric analysis. Furthermore, our Br α photometry of Sirius B confirms the lack of an infrared excess beyond the white dwarf's blackbody spectrum.

We report the discovery of a bright (f(250 μm)>400 mJy), multiply lensed submillimeter galaxy HERMES J105751.1+573027 inHerschel/SPIRE Science Demonstration Phase data from the HerMES project. Interferometric 880 μm Submillimeter Array observations resolve at least four images with a large separation of ∼9''. A high-resolution adaptive optics K_p image with Keck/NIRC2 clearly shows strong lensing arcs. Follow-up spectroscopy gives a redshift of z = 2.9575, and the lensing model gives a total magnification of μ ∼ 11 ± 1. The large image separation allows us to study the multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) of the lensed source unobscured by the central lensing mass. The far-IR/millimeter-wave SED is well described by a modified blackbody fit with an unusually warm dust temperature, 88 ± 3 K. We derive a lensing-corrected total IR luminosity of (1.43 ± 0.09) × 10¹³ L_☉, implying a star formation rate of ∼2500 M_☉ yr⁻¹. However, models primarily developed from brighter galaxies selected at longer wavelengths are a poor fit to the full optical-to-millimeter SED. A number of other strongly lensed systems have already been discovered in early Herscheldata, and many more are expected as additional data are collected.

We have used the AAOMEGA spectrograph to obtain R ∼ 1500 spectra of 714 stars that are members of two red clumps in the Plaut Window Galactic bulge field (l, b) = (0°, − 8°). We discern no difference between the clump populations based on radial velocities or abundances measured from the Mgb index. The velocity dispersion has a strong trend with Mgb-index metallicity, in the sense of a declining velocity dispersion at higher metallicity. We also find a strong trend in mean radial velocity with abundance. Our red clump sample shows distinctly different kinematics for stars with [Fe/H] <−1, which may plausibly be attributable to a minority classical bulge or inner halo population. The transition between the two groups is smooth. The chemo-dynamical properties of our sample are reminiscent of those of the Milky Way globular cluster system. If correct, this argues for no bulge/halo dichotomy and a relatively rapid star formation history. Large surveys of the composition and kinematics of the bulge clump and red giant branch are needed to further define these trends.