Search

We report on the results of a time-series photometric survey of M50 (NGC 2323), a open cluster, carried out using the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) 4-m Blanco telescope and Mosaic-II detector as part of the Monitor project. Rotation periods were derived for 812 candidate cluster members over the mass range . The rotation period distributions show a clear mass-dependent morphology, statistically indistinguishable from those in NGC 2516 and M35 taken from the literature. Due to the availability of data from three observing runs separated by ∼10 and 1 month time-scales, we are able to demonstrate clear evidence for evolution of the photometric amplitudes, and hence spot patterns, over the 10 month gap. We are not able to constrain the time-scales for these effects in detail due to limitations imposed by the large gaps in our sampling, which also prevent the use of the phase information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results of a systematic search for transiting planets in a ∼5 Myr open cluster, NGC 2362. We observed ∼1200 candidate cluster members, of which ∼475 are believed to be genuine cluster members, for a total of ∼100 h. We identify 15 light curves with reductions in flux that pass all our detection criteria, and six of the candidates have occultation depths compatible with a planetary companion. The variability in these six light curves would require very large planets to reproduce the observed transit depth. If we assume that none of our candidates are, in fact, planets then we can place upper limits on the fraction of stars with hot Jupiters (HJs) in NGC 2362. We obtain 99 per cent confidence upper limits of 0.22 and 0.70 on the fraction of stars with HJs ( fp) for 1–3 and 3–10 d orbits, respectively, assuming all HJs have a planetary radius of 1.5 RJup. These upper limits represent observational constraints on the number of stars with HJs at an age ≲10 Myr, when the vast majority of stars are thought to have lost their protoplanetary discs. Finally, we extend our results to the entire Monitor project, a survey searching young, open clusters for planetary transits, and find that the survey as currently designed should be capable of placing upper limits on fp near the observed values of fp in the solar neighbourhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the results of a time-series photometric survey of NGC 2362, carried out using the CTIO 4-m Blanco telescope and Mosaic-II detector as part of the Monitor project. Rotation periods were derived for 271 candidate cluster members over the mass range . The rotation period distributions show a clear mass-dependent morphology, qualitatively similar to that in NGC 2264, as would be expected from the age of this cluster. Using models of angular momentum evolution, we show that angular momentum losses over the ∼1–5 Myr age range appear to be needed in order to reproduce the evolution of the slowest rotators in the sample from the ONC to NGC 2362, as found by many previous studies. By incorporating Spitzer IRAC mid-infrared (mid-IR) measurements, we found that three to four objects showing mid-IR excesses indicative of the presence of circumstellar discs were all slow rotators, as would be expected in the disc regulation paradigm for early pre-main-sequence angular momentum evolution, but this result is not statistically significant at present, given the extremely limited sample size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the results of an I-band time-series photometric survey of NGC 2547 using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope with Wide Field Imager, achieving better than 1 per cent photometric precision per data point over . Candidate cluster members were selected from a V versus V− I colour–magnitude diagram over (covering masses from down to below the brown dwarf limit), finding 800 candidates, of which we expect ∼330 to be real cluster members, taking into account contamination from the field (which is most severe at the extremes of our mass range). Searching for periodic variations in these gave 176 detections over the mass range . The rotation period distributions were found to show a clear mass-dependent morphology, qualitatively intermediate between the distributions obtained from similar surveys in NGC 2362 and 2516, as would be expected from the age of this cluster. Models of the rotational evolution were investigated, finding that the evolution from NGC 2362 to 2547 was qualitatively reproduced (given the uncertainty in the age of NGC 2547) by solid body and core-envelope decoupled models from our earlier NGC 2516 study without need for significant modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the discovery of a low-mass pre-main-sequence (PMS) eclipsing binary (EB) with a 5.3 d orbital period. JW 380 was detected as part of a high-cadence time-resolved photometric survey (the Monitor project) using the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope and Wide Field Camera for a survey of a single field in the Orion nebula cluster (ONC) region in V and i bands. The star is assigned a 99 per cent membership probability from proper motion measurements, and radial velocity observations indicate a systemic velocity within 1σ of that of the ONC. Modelling of the combined light and radial velocity curves of the system gave stellar radii of and for the primary and the secondary, with a significant third light contribution which is also visible as a third peak in the cross-correlation functions used to derive radial velocities. The masses and radii appear to be consistent with stellar models for 2–3 Myr age from several authors, within the present observational errors. These observations probe an important region of mass–radius parameter space, where there are currently only a handful of known PMS EB systems with precise measurements available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an extension of the formalism recently proposed by Pepper and Gaudi to evaluate the yield of transit surveys in homogeneous stellar systems, incorporating the impact of correlated noise on transit time-scales on the detectability of transits, and simultaneously incorporating the magnitude limits imposed by the need for radial velocity (RV) follow-up of transit candidates. New expressions are derived for the different contributions to the noise budget on transit time-scales and the least-squares detection statistic for box-shaped transits, and their behaviour as a function of stellar mass is re-examined. Correlated noise that is constant with apparent stellar magnitude implies a steep decrease in detection probability at the high-mass end which, when considered jointly with the RV requirements, can severely limit the potential of otherwise promising surveys in star clusters. However, we find that small-aperture, wide-field surveys may detect hot Neptunes whose RV signal can be measured with present-day instrumentation in very nearby (<100 pc) clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the results of an i-band time-series photometric survey of NGC 2516 using the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) 4-m Blanco telescope and 8k Mosaic-II detector, achieving better than 1 per cent photometric precision per data point over . Candidate cluster members were selected from a V versus colour–magnitude diagram over (covering masses from down to below the brown dwarf limit), finding 1685 candidates, of which we expect ∼1000 to be real cluster members, taking into account contamination from the field (which is most severe at the extremes of our mass range). Searching for periodic variations in these gave 362 detections over the mass range . The rotation period distributions were found to show a remarkable morphology as a function of mass, with the fastest rotators bounded by , and the slowest rotators for bounded by a line of , with those for following a flatter relation closer to . Models of the rotational evolution were investigated, finding that the evolution of the fastest rotators was well reproduced by a conventional solid body model with a mass-dependent saturation velocity, whereas core–envelope decoupling was needed to reproduce the evolution of the slowest rotators. None of our models were able to simultaneously reproduce the behaviour of both populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have begun a large-scale photometric survey of nearby open clusters and star-forming regions, the Monitor project, aiming to measure time-series photometry for >10 000 cluster members over >10 deg2 of sky, to find low-mass eclipsing binary and planet systems. We describe the software pipeline we have developed for this project, showing that we can achieve peak rms accuracy over the entire data set of better than ∼2 mmag using aperture photometry, with rms <1 per cent over ∼4 mag, in data from 2- and 4-m class telescopes with wide-field mosaic cameras. We investigate the noise properties of our data, finding correlated ‘red’ noise at the ∼1–1.5 mmag level in bright stars, over transit-like time-scales of 2.5 h. An important source of correlated noise in aperture photometry is image blending, which produces variations correlated with the seeing. We present a simple blend index based on fitting polynomials to these variations, and find that subtracting the fit from the data provides a method to reduce their amplitude, in lieu of using techniques, such as point spread function fitting photometry, which tackle their cause. Finally, we use thesysrem algorithm to search for any further systematic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the results of a V- and i-band time-series photometric survey of M34 (NGC 1039) using the Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT), achieving better than 1 per cent precision per data point for . Candidate cluster members were selected from a V versus V− I colour–magnitude diagram over , finding 714 candidates, of which we expect ∼400 to be real cluster members (taking into account contamination from the field). The mass function was computed, and found to be consistent with a lognormal distribution in d N/d log M. Searching for periodic variable objects in the candidate members gave 105 detections over the mass range . The distribution of rotation periods for was found to peak at ∼7 d, with a tail of fast rotators down to periods of . For we found a peak at short periods, with a lack of slow rotators (e.g. ), consistent with the work of other authors at very low masses. Our results are interpreted in the context of previous work, finding that we reproduce the same general features in the rotational period distributions. A number of rapid rotators were found with velocities ∼ a factor of 2 lower than in the Pleiades, consistent with models of angular momentum evolution assuming solid body rotation without needing to invoke core–envelope decoupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]