Search

We present hydrodynamic simulations of stellar wind-magnetosphere interactions in hot Jupiters such as WASP-12b. For fiducial stellar wind rates, we find that a planetary magnetic field of a few G produces a large magnetospheric cavity, which is typically 6-9 planetary radii in size. A bow shock invariably forms ahead of the magnetosphere, but the pre-shock gas is only mildly supersonic (with typical Mach numbers of ≃1.6-1.8) so the shock is weak. This results in a characteristic signature in the ultraviolet (UV) light curve: a broad absorption feature that leads the optical transit by 10-20 per cent in orbital phase. The shapes of our synthetic light curves are consistent with existing observations ofWASP-12b, but the required near-UV optical depth (τ ~ 0.1) can only be achieved if the shocked gas cools rapidly. We further show that radiative cooling is inefficient, so we deem it unlikely that a magnetospheric bow shock is responsible for the observed near-UV absorption. Finally, we apply our model to two other well-studied hot Jupiters (WASP-18b and HD 209458b), and suggest that UV observations of more massive short-period planets (such as WASP-18b) will provide a straightforward test to distinguish between different models of circumplanetary absorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Ionizing feedback from massive stars dramatically affects the interstellar medium local to star-forming regions. Numerical simulations are now starting to include enough complexity to produce morphologies and gas properties that are not too dissimilar from observations. The comparison between the density fields produced by hydrodynamical simulations and observations at given wavelengths relies however on photoionization/chemistry and radiative transfer calculations. We present here an implementation of Monte Carlo radiation transport through a Voronoi tessellation in the photoionization and dust radiative transfer code MOCASSIN. We show for the first time a synthetic spectrum and synthetic emission line maps of a hydrodynamical simulation of a molecular cloud affected by massive stellar feedback. We show that the approach on which previous work is based, which remapped hydrodynamical density fields on to Cartesian grids before performing radiative transfer/photoionization calculations, results in significant errors in the temperature and ionization structure of the region. Furthermore, we describe the mathematical process of tracing photon energy packets through a Voronoi tessellation, including optimizations, treating problematic cases and boundary conditions. We perform various benchmarks using both the original version of MOCASSIN and the modified version using the Voronoi tessellation. We show that for uniform grids, or equivalently a cubic lattice of cell generating points, the new Voronoi version gives the same results as the original Cartesian grid version of MOCASSIN for all benchmarks. For non-uniform initial conditions, such as using snapshots from smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations, we show that the Voronoi version performs better than the Cartesian grid version, resulting in much better resolution in dense regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are observed to be turbulent, but theory shows that without a driving mechanism turbulence should quickly decay. The question arises by which mechanisms turbulence is driven or sustained. It has been shown that photoionizing feedback from massive stars has an impact on the surrounding GMC and can for example create vast HII bubbles. We therefore address the question of whether turbulence is a consequence of this effect of feedback on the cloud. To investigate this, we analyse the velocity field of simulations of high-mass star-forming regions by studying velocity structure functions and power spectra. We find that clouds whose morphology is strongly affected by photoionizing feedback also show evidence of driving of turbulence by preserving or recovering a Kolmogorov-type velocity field. On the contrary, control run simulations without photoionizing feedback have a velocity distribution that bears the signature of gravitational collapse and of the dissipation of energy, where the initial Kolmogorov-type structure function is erased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The discovery with the Herschel Space Observatory of bright far-infrared and submm emission from the ejecta of the core-collapse supernova SN 1987A has been interpreted as indicating the presence of some 0.4-0.7 M☉ of dust. We have constructed radiative transfer models of the ejecta to fit optical to far-infrared observations from the literature at epochs between 615 d and 24 years after the explosion, to determine when and where this unexpectedly large amount of dust formed. We find that the observations by day 1153 are consistent with the presence of 3 × 10-3 M☉ of dust. Although this is a larger amount than has previously been considered possible at this epoch, it is still very small compared to the amount present in the remnant after 24 years, and significantly higher dust masses at the earlier epochs are firmly ruled out by the observations, indicating that the majority of the dust must have formed at very late times. By 8515-9200 d after the explosion, 0.6-0.8M☉ of dust is present, and dust grains with radii greater than 2 μm are required to obtain a fit to the observed spectral energy distribution (SED). This suggests that the dust mass increase at late times was caused by accretion on to and coagulation of the dust grains formed at earlier epochs. These findings provide further confirmation that core-collapse supernovae can create large quantities of dust, and indicate that the reason for small dust masses being estimated in many cases is that the vast majority of the dust forms long after most supernovae have been detectable at mid-infrared wavelengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The time-scale over which and the modality by which young stellar objects (YSOs) disperse their circumstellar discs dramatically influence the eventual formation and evolution of planetary systems. By means of extensive radiative transfer modelling, we have developed a new set of diagnostic diagrams in the infrared colour–colour plane (K − [24] versus K − [8]), to aid with the classification of the evolutionary stage of YSOs from photometric observations. Our diagrams allow the differentiation of sources with unevolved (primordial) discs from those evolving according to different clearing scenarios (e.g. homologous depletion versus inside-out dispersal), as well as from sources that have already lost their disc. Classification of over 1500 sources in 15 nearby star-forming regions reveals that approximately 39 per cent of the sources lie in the primordial disc region, whereas between 31 and 32 per cent disperse from the inside-out and up to 22 per cent of the sources have already lost their disc. Less than 2 per cent of the objects in our sample lie in the homogeneous draining regime. Time-scales for the transition phase are estimated to be typically a few 105 yr independent of stellar mass. Therefore, regardless of spectral type, we conclude that currently available infrared photometric surveys point to fast (of the order of 10 per cent of the global disc lifetime) inside-out clearing as the preferred mode of disc dispersal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...