1,947 results on '"Piotto, G"'
Search Results
202. The tidal deformation and atmosphere of WASP-12\,b from its phase curve
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Akinsanmi, B., primary, Barros, S.C., additional, Lendl, M., additional, Carone, L., additional, Cubillos, P.E., additional, Bekkelien, A., additional, Fortier, A., additional, Florén, H.-G., additional, Collier Cameron, A., additional, Boué, G., additional, Bruno, G., additional, Demory, B.-O., additional, Brandeker, A., additional, Sousa, S.G., additional, Wilson, T.G., additional, Deline, A., additional, Bonfanti, A., additional, Scandariato, G., additional, Hooton, M.J., additional, Correia, A.C.M., additional, Demangeon, O.D.S., additional, Smith, A.M.S., additional, Singh, V., additional, Alibert, Y., additional, Alonso, R., additional, Asquier, J., additional, Bárczy, T., additional, Barrado Navascues, D., additional, Baumjohann, W., additional, Beck, M., additional, Beck, T., additional, Benz, W., additional, Billot, N., additional, Bonfils, X., additional, Borsato, L., additional, Broeg, C., additional, Buder, M., additional, Charnoz, S., additional, Csizmadia, Sz., additional, Davies, M.B., additional, Deleuil, M., additional, Delrez, L., additional, Ehrenreich, D., additional, Erikson, A., additional, Farinato, J., additional, Fossati, L., additional, Fridlund, M., additional, Gandolfi, D., additional, Gillon, M., additional, Güdel, M., additional, Günther, M.N., additional, Heitzmann, A., additional, Helling, Ch., additional, Hoyer, S., additional, Isaak, K.G., additional, Kiss, L., additional, Lam, K.W.F., additional, Laskar, J., additional, Lecavelier des Etangs, A., additional, Magrin, D., additional, Maxted, P.F.L., additional, Mecina, M., additional, Mordasini, C., additional, Nascimbeni, V., additional, Olofsson, G., additional, Ottensamer, R., additional, Pagano, I., additional, Pallé, E., additional, Peter, G., additional, Piazza, D., additional, Piotto, G., additional, Pollacco, D., additional, Queloz, D., additional, Ragazzoni, R., additional, Rando, N., additional, Rauer, H., additional, Ribas, I., additional, Santos, N.C., additional, Ségransan, D., additional, Simon, A.E., additional, Stalport, M., additional, Szabó, M. Gy., additional, Thomas, N., additional, Udry, S., additional, Van Grootel, V., additional, Venturini, J., additional, Villaver, E., additional, and Walton, N.A., additional
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- 2024
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203. The GAPS Programme at TNG
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Claudi, R., primary, Bruno, G., additional, Fossati, L., additional, Lanza, A. F., additional, Maggio, A., additional, Micela, G., additional, Maldonado, J., additional, Benatti, S., additional, Biazzo, K., additional, Bignamini, A., additional, Cabona, L., additional, Carleo, I., additional, Danielski, C., additional, Desidera, S., additional, Malavolta, L., additional, Mancini, L., additional, Montalto, M., additional, Nardiello, D., additional, Rainer, M., additional, Scandariato, G., additional, Sozzetti, A., additional, Cosentino, R., additional, Covino, E., additional, Di Fabrizio, L., additional, Ghedina, A., additional, Lorenzi, V., additional, Molinari, E., additional, Molinaro, M., additional, Pagano, I., additional, Piotto, G., additional, and Poretti, E., additional
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- 2024
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204. The GAPS programme at TNG
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Mantovan, G., primary, Malavolta, L., additional, Desidera, S., additional, Zingales, T., additional, Borsato, L., additional, Piotto, G., additional, Maggio, A., additional, Locci, D., additional, Polychroni, D., additional, Turrini, D., additional, Baratella, M., additional, Biazzo, K., additional, Nardiello, D., additional, Stassun, K., additional, Nascimbeni, V., additional, Benatti, S., additional, Anna John, A., additional, Watkins, C., additional, Bieryla, A., additional, Lissauer, J. J., additional, Twicken, J. D., additional, Lanza, A. F., additional, Winn, J. N., additional, Messina, S., additional, Montalto, M., additional, Sozzetti, A., additional, Boffin, H., additional, Cheryasov, D., additional, Strakhov, I., additional, Murgas, F., additional, D’Arpa, M., additional, Barkaoui, K., additional, Benni, P., additional, Bignamini, A., additional, Bonomo, A. S., additional, Borsa, F., additional, Cabona, L., additional, Cameron, A. C., additional, Claudi, R., additional, Cochran, W., additional, Collins, K. A., additional, Damasso, M., additional, Dong, J., additional, Endl, M., additional, Fukui, A., additional, Fűrész, G., additional, Gandolfi, D., additional, Ghedina, A., additional, Jenkins, J., additional, Kabáth, P., additional, Latham, D. W., additional, Lorenzi, V., additional, Luque, R., additional, Maldonado, J., additional, McLeod, K., additional, Molinaro, M., additional, Narita, N., additional, Nowak, G., additional, Orell-Miquel, J., additional, Pallé, E., additional, Parviainen, H., additional, Pedani, M., additional, Quinn, S. N., additional, Relles, H., additional, Rowden, P., additional, Scandariato, G., additional, Schwarz, R., additional, Seager, S., additional, Shporer, A., additional, Vanderburg, A., additional, and Wilson, T. G., additional
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- 2024
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205. The CHEOPS mission
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Benz, W., Broeg, C., Fortier, A., Rando, N., Beck, T., Beck, M., Queloz, D., Ehrenreich, D., Maxted, P. F. L., Isaak, K. G., Billot, N., Alibert, Y., Alonso, R., António, C., Asquier, J., Bandy, T., Bárczy, T., Barrado, D., Barros, S. C. C., Baumjohann, W., Bekkelien, A., Bergomi, M., Biondi, F., Bonfils, X., Borsato, L., Brandeker, A., Busch, M.-D., Cabrera, J., Cessa, V., Charnoz, S., Chazelas, B., Collier Cameron, A., Corral Van Damme, C., Cortes, D., Davies, M. B., Deleuil, M., Deline, A., Delrez, L., Demangeon, O., Demory, B. O., Erikson, A., Farinato, J., Fossati, L., Fridlund, M., Futyan, D., Gandolfi, D., Garcia Munoz, A., Gillon, M., Guterman, P., Gutierrez, A., Hasiba, J., Heng, K., Hernandez, E., Hoyer, S., Kiss, L. L., Kovacs, Z., Kuntzer, T., Laskar, J., Lecavelier des Etangs, A., Lendl, M., López, A., Lora, I., Lovis, C., Lüftinger, T., Magrin, D., Malvasio, L., Marafatto, L., Michaelis, H., de Miguel, D., Modrego, D., Munari, M., Nascimbeni, V., Olofsson, G., Ottacher, H., Ottensamer, R., Pagano, I., Palacios, R., Pallé, E., Peter, G., Piazza, D., Piotto, G., Pizarro, A., Pollaco, D., Ragazzoni, R., Ratti, F., Rauer, H., Ribas, I., Rieder, M., Rohlfs, R., Safa, F., Salatti, M., Santos, N. C., Scandariato, G., Ségransan, D., Simon, A. E., Smith, A. M. S., Sordet, M., Sousa, S. G., Steller, M., Szabó, G. M., Szoke, J., Thomas, N., Tschentscher, M., Udry, S., Van Grootel, V., Viotto, V., Walter, I., Walton, N. A., Wildi, F., and Wolter, D.
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- 2021
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206. Variable stars in two open clusters within the Kepler 2-Campaign-0 field: M 35 and NGC 2158
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Nardiello, D., Bedin, L. R., Nascimbeni, V., Libralato, M., Cunial, A., Piotto, G., Bellini, A., Borsato, L., Brogaard, K., Granata, V., Malavolta, L., Marino, A. F., Milone, A. P., Ochner, P., Ortolani, S., Tomasella, L., Clemens, M., and Salaris, M.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present a multi-year survey aimed at collecting (1) high-precision (~5 milli-mag), (2) fast-cadence (~3 min), and (3) relatively long duration (~10 days) multi-band photometric series. The goal of the survey is to discover and characterize efficiently variable objects and exoplanetary transits in four fields containing five nearby open clusters spanning a broad range of ages. More in detail, our project will (1) constitute a preparatory survey for HARPS-N@TNG, which will be used for spectroscopic follow-up of any target of interest that this survey discovers or characterizes, (2) measure rotational periods and estimate the activity level of targets we are already monitoring with HARPS and HARPS-N for exoplanet transit search, and (3) long term characterization of selected targets of interest in open clusters within the planned K2 fields. In this first paper we give an overview of the project, and report on the variability of objects within the first of our selected fields, which contains two open clusters: M 35 and NGC 2158. We detect 519 variable objects, 273 of which are new discoveries, while the periods of most of the previously known variables are considerably improved., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures (4 at low resolution), 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS on December 17, 2014. Electronic materials available at the url http://groups.dfa.unipd.it/ESPG/aphn.html , and later on the Journal and at the CDS
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- 2014
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207. The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. II. The seven stellar populations of NGC7089 (M2)
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Milone, A. P., Marino, A. F., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Anderson, J., Renzini, A., King, I. R., Bellini, A., Brown, T. M., Cassisi, S., D'Antona, F., Jerjen, H., Nardiello, D., Salaris, M., van der Marel, R. P., Vesperini, E., Yong, D., Aparicio, A., Sarajedini, A., and Zoccali, M.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present high-precision multi-band photometry for the globular cluster (GC) M2. We combine the analysis of the photometric data obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic GCs GO-13297, with chemical abundances by Yong et al.(2014), and compare the photometry with models in order to analyze the multiple stellar sequences we identified in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD). We find three main stellar components, composed of metal-poor, metal-intermediate, and metal-rich stars (hereafter referred to as population A, B, and C, respectively). The components A and B include stars with different $s$-process element abundances. They host six sub-populations with different light-element abundances, and exhibit an internal variation in helium up to Delta Y~0.07 dex. In contrast with M22, another cluster characterized by the presence of populations with different metallicities, M2 contains a third stellar component, C, which shows neither evidence for sub-populations nor an internal spread in light-elements. Population C does not exhibit the typical photometric signatures that are associated with abundance variations of light elements produced by hydrogen burning at hot temperatures. We compare M2 with other GCs with intrinsic heavy-element variations and conclude that M2 resembles M22, but it includes an additional stellar component that makes it more similar to the central region of the Sagittarius galaxy, which hosts a GC (M54) and the nucleus of the Sagittarius galaxy itself., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
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- 2014
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208. Observing multiple stellar populations with FORS2@VLT - Main sequence photometry in outer regions of NGC 6752, NGC 6397, and NGC 6121 (M 4)
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Nardiello, D., Milone, A. P., Piotto, G., Marino, A. F., Bellini, A., and Cassisi, S.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present the photometric analysis of the external regions of three Galactic Globular Clusters: NGC 6121, NGC 6397 and NGC 6752. The main goal is the characterization of the multiple stellar populations along the main sequence (MS) and the study of the radial trend of the different populations hosted by the target clusters. The data have been collected using FORS2 mounted at the ESO/VLT@UT1 telescope in UBVI filters. From these data sets we extracted high-accuracy photometry and constructed color-magnitude diagrams. We exploit appropriate combination of colors and magnitudes which are powerful tools to identify multiple stellar populations, like B versus U-B and V versus c_{U,B,I}=(U-B)-(B-I) CMDs. We confirm previous findings of a split MS in NGC 6752 and NGC 6121. Apart from the extreme case of omega Centauri, this is the first detection of multiple MS from ground-based photometry. For NGC 6752 and NGC 6121 we compare the number ratio of the blue MS to the red MS in the cluster outskirts with the fraction of first and second generation stars measured in the central regions. There is no evidence for significant radial trend. The MS of NGC 6397 is consistent with a simple stellar population. We propose that the lack of multiple sequences is due both to observational errors and to the limited sensitivity of U,B,V,I photometry to multiple stellar populations in metal-poor GCs. Finally, we compute the helium abundance for the stellar populations hosted by NGC 6121 and NGC 6752, finding a mild (Delta Y ~ 0.02) difference between stars in the two sequences., Comment: 16 pages, 5 tables, 17 figures, accepted for pubblication in A&A
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- 2014
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209. The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. I. Overview of the Project and Detection of Multiple Stellar Populations
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Piotto, G., Milone, A. P., Bedin, L. R., Anderson, J., King, I. R., Marino, A., Nardiello, D., Aparicio, A., Barbuy, B., Bellini, A., Brown, T. M., Cassisi, S., Cunial, A., Dalessandro, E., D'Antona, F., Ferraro, F. R., Hidalgo, S., Lanzoni, B., Monelli, M., Ortolani, S., Renzini, A., Salaris, M., Sarajedini, A., van der Marel, R. P., Vesperini, E., and Zoccali, M.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
In this paper we describe a new UV-initiative HST project (GO-13297) that will complement the existing F606W and F814W database of the ACS Globular Cluster (GC) Treasury by imaging most of its clusters through UV/blue WFC3/UVIS filters F275W, F336W and F438W. This "magic trio" of filters has shown an uncanny ability to disentangle and characterize multiple-population (MP) patterns in GCs in a way that is exquisitely sensitive to C, N, and O abundance variations. Combination of these passbands with those in the optical also gives the best leverage for measuring helium enrichment. The dozen clusters that had previously been observed in these bands exhibit a bewildering variety of MP patterns, and the new survey will map the full variance of the phenomenon. The ubiquity of multiple stellar generations in GCs has made the formation of these cornerstone objects more intriguing than ever; GC formation and the origin of their MPs have now become one and the same problem. In the present paper we will describe the data base and our data reduction strategy, as well as the uses we intend to make of the final photometry, astrometry, and proper motions. We will also present preliminary color-magnitude diagrams from the data so far collected. These diagrams also draw on data from GO-12605 and GO-12311, which served as a pilot project for the present GO-13297., Comment: 56 pages, 23 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication on AJ. The official TREASURY webpage can be found at this url: http://groups.dfa.unipd.it/ESPG/treasury.html
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- 2014
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210. Characterization of the Kepler-101 planetary system with HARPS-N. A hot super-Neptune with an Earth-sized low-mass companion
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Bonomo, A. S., Sozzetti, A., Lovis, C., Malavolta, L., Rice, K., Buchhave, L. A., Sasselov, D., Cameron, A. C., Latham, D. W., Molinari, E., Pepe, F., Udry, S., Affer, L., Charbonneau, D., Cosentino, R., Dressing, C. D., Dumusque, X., Figueira, P., Fiorenzano, A. F. M., Gettel, S., Harutyunyan, A., Haywood, R. D., Horne, K., Lopez-Morales, M., Mayor, M., Micela, G., Motalebi, F., Nascimbeni, V., Phillips, D. F., Piotto, G., Pollacco, D., Queloz, D., Ségransan, D., Szentgyorgyi, A., and Watson, C.
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
We report on the characterization of the Kepler-101 planetary system, thanks to a combined DE-MCMC analysis of Kepler data and forty radial velocities obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph. This system was previously validated by Rowe et al. (2014) and is composed of a hot super-Neptune, Kepler-101b, and an Earth-sized planet, Kepler-101c. These two planets orbit the slightly evolved and metal-rich G-type star in 3.49 and 6.03 days, respectively. With mass $M_{\rm p}=51.1_{-4.7}^{+5.1}~M_{\oplus}$, radius $R_{\rm p}=5.77_{-0.79}^{+0.85}~R_{\oplus}$, and density $\rho_{\rm p}=1.45_{-0.48}^{+0.83} \rm g\;cm^{-3}$, Kepler-101b is the first fully-characterized super-Neptune, and its density suggests that heavy elements make up a significant fraction of its interior; more than $60\%$ of its total mass. Kepler-101c has a radius of $1.25_{-0.17}^{+0.19}~R_{\oplus}$, which implies the absence of any H/He envelope, but its mass could not be determined due to the relative faintness of the parent star for highly precise radial-velocity measurements ($K_{\rm p}=13.8$) and the limited number of radial velocities. The $1~\sigma$ upper limit, $M_{\rm p} < 3.8~M_{\oplus}$, excludes a pure iron composition with a $68.3\%$ probability. The architecture of the Kepler-101 planetary system - containing a close-in giant planet and an outer Earth-sized planet with a period ratio slightly larger than the 3:2 resonance - is certainly of interest for planet formation and evolution scenarios. This system does not follow the trend, seen by Ciardi et al. (2013), that in the majority of Kepler systems of planet pairs with at least one Neptune-size or larger planet, the larger planet has the longer period., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted in A&A
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- 2014
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211. A bag of tricks: Using proper motions of Galactic stars to identify the Hercules ultra-faint dwarf galaxy members
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Fabrizio, M., Raimondo, G., Brocato, E., Bellini, A., Libralato, M., Testa, V., Cantiello, M., Musella, I., Clementini, G., Carini, R., Marconi, M., Piotto, G., Ripepi, V., Buonanno, R., Sani, E., and Speziali, R.
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Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
Hercules is the prototype of the ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies. To date, there are still no firm constraints on its total luminosity, due to the difficulty of disentangling Hercules bona-fide stars from the severe Galactic field contamination. In order to better constrain Hercules properties we aim at removing foreground and background contaminants in the galaxy field using the proper motions of the Milky Way stars and the colour-colour diagram. We have obtained images of Hercules in the rSloan, BBessel and Uspec bands with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and LBC-BIN mode capabilities. The rSloan new data-set combined with data from the LBT archive span a time baseline of about 5 yr, allowing us to measure for the first time proper motions of stars in the Hercules direction. The Uspec data along with existing LBT photometry allowed us to use colour-colour diagram to further remove the field contamination. Thanks to a highly-accurate procedure to derive the rSloan-filter geometric distortion solution for the LBC-red, we were able to measure stellar relative proper motions to a precision of better than 5 mas yr^-1 down to rSloan=22 mag and disentangle a significant fraction (\>90\%) of Milky Way contaminants. We ended up with a sample of 528 sources distributed over a large portion of the galaxy body (0.12 deg^2). Of these sources, 171 turned out to be background galaxies and additional foreground stars, from the analysis of the Uspec - BBessel vs. BBessel - rSloan colour-colour diagram. This leaves us with a sample of 357 likely members of the Hercules UFD. We compared the cleaned colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) with evolutionary models and synthetic CMDs, confirming the presence in Hercules of an old population (t=12\pm 2 Gyr), with a wide spread in metallicity (-3.3\<[Fe/H]\<-1.8)., Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in A&A
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- 2014
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212. The GAPS programme with HARPS-N@TNG IV: A planetary system around XO-2S
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Desidera, S., Bonomo, A. S., Claudi, R. U., Damasso, M., Biazzo, K., Sozzetti, A., Marzari, F., Benatti, S., Gandolfi, D., Gratton, R., Lanza, A. F., Nascimbeni, V., Andreuzzi, G., Affer, L., Barbieri, M., Bedin, L. R., Bignamini, A., Bonavita, M., Borsa, F., Calcidese, P., Christille, J. M., Cosentino, R., Covino, E., Esposito, M., Giacobbe, P., Harutyunyan, A., Latham, D., Lattanzi, M., Leto, G., Lodato, G., Lovis, C., Maggio, A., Malavolta, L., Mancini, L., Fiorenzano, A. F. Martinez, Micela, G., Molinari, E., Mordasini, C., Munari, U., Pagano, I., Pedani, M., Pepe, F., Piotto, G., Poretti, E., Rainer, M., Ribas, I., Santos, N. C., Scandariato, G., Silvotti, R., Southworth, J., and Sanchez, R. Zanmar
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
We performed an intensive radial velocity monitoring of XO-2S, the wide companion of the transiting planet-host XO-2N, using HARPS-N at TNG in the framework of the GAPS programme. The radial velocity measurements indicate the presence of a new planetary system formed by a planet that is slightly more massive than Jupiter at 0.48 au and a Saturn-mass planet at 0.13 au. Both planetary orbits are moderately eccentric and were found to be dynamically stable. There are also indications of a long-term trend in the radial velocities. This is the first confirmed case of a wide binary whose components both host planets, one of which is transiting, which makes the XO-2 system a unique laboratory for understanding the diversity of planetary systems., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted on A&A Letter
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- 2014
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213. The halo+cluster system of the Galactic globular cluster NGC1851
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Marino, A. F., Milone, A. P., Yong, D., Dotter, A., Da Costa, G., Asplund, M., Jerjen, H., Mackey, D., Norris, J., Cassisi, S., Sbordone, L., Stetson, P. B., Weiss, A., Aparicio, A., Bedin, L. R., Lind, K., Monelli, M., Piotto, G., Angeloni, R., and Buonanno, R.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
NGC1851 is surrounded by a stellar component that extends more than ten times beyond the tidal radius. Although the nature of this stellar structure is not known, it has been suggested to be a sparse halo of stars or associated with a stellar stream. We analyse the nature of this intriguing stellar component surrounding NGC1851 by investigating its radial velocities and chemical composition, in particular in comparison with those of the central cluster analysed in a homogeneous manner. In total we observed 23 stars in the halo with radial velocities consistent with NGC1851, and for 15 of them we infer [Fe/H] abundances. Our results show that: (i) stars dynamically linked to NGC1851 are present at least up to ~2.5 tidal radii, supporting the presence of a halo of stars surrounding the cluster; (ii) apart from the NGC1851 radial velocity-like stars, our observed velocity distribution agrees with that expected from Galactic models, suggesting that no other sub-structure (such as a stream) at different radial velocities is present in our field; (iii) the chemical abundances for the s-process elements Sr and Ba are consistent with the s-normal stars observed in NGC1851; (iv) all halo stars have metallicities, and abundances for the other studied elements Ca, Mg and Cr, consistent with those exhibited by the cluster. The complexity of the whole NGC1851 cluster+halo system may agree with the scenario of a tidally-disrupted dwarf galaxy in which NGC1851 was originally embedded., Comment: 21 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
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- 2014
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214. TASTE IV. Refining ephemeris and orbital parameters for HAT-P-20b and WASP-1b
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Granata, V., Nascimbeni, V., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Borsato, L., Cunial, A., Damasso, M., and Malavolta, L.
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present four new light curves of transiting exoplanets WASP-1b and HAT-P-20b, observed within the TASTE (The Asiago Search for Transit timing variations of Exoplanets) project. We re-analyzed light curves from the literature in a homogeneous way, calculating a refined ephemeris and orbital-physical parameters for both objects. WASP-1b does not show any significant Transit Timing Variation signal at the 120 s-level. As for HAT-P-20b, we detected a deviation from our re-estimated linear ephemeris that could be ascribed to the presence of a perturber or, more probably, to a previously unnoticed high level of stellar activity. The rotational period of HAT-P-20 A we obtained from archival data (P_rot ~ 14.5 days), combined with its optical variability and strong emission of CaII H&K lines, is consistent with a young stellar age (< 1 Gyr) and support the hypothesis that stellar activity may be responsible of the measured deviations of the transit times., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted to Astronomische Nachrichten
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- 2014
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215. M4 Core Project with HST - III. Search for variable stars in the primary field
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Nascimbeni, V., Bedin, L. R., Heggie, D. C., Berg, M. van den, Giersz, M., Piotto, G., Brogaard, K., Bellini, A., Milone, A. P., Rich, R. M., Pooley, D., Anderson, J., Ubeda, L., Ortolani, S., Malavolta, L., Cunial, A., and Pietrinferni, A.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics - Abstract
We present the results of a photometric search for variable stars in the core of the Galactic globular cluster M4. The input data are a large and unprecedented set of deep Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 images (large program GO-12911; 120 orbits allocated), primarily aimed at probing binaries with massive companions by detecting their astrometric wobbles. Though these data were not optimised to carry out a time-resolved photometric survey, their exquisite precision, spatial resolution and dynamic range enabled us to firmly detect 38 variable stars, of which 20 were previously unpublished. They include 19 cluster-member eclipsing binaries (confirming the large binary fraction of M4), RR Lyrae, and objects with known X-ray counterparts. We improved and revised the parameters of some among published variables., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
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- 2014
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216. The PLATO Simulator: modelling of high-precision high-cadence space-based imaging
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Marcos-Arenal, P., Zima, W., De Ridder, J., Aerts, C., Huygen, R., Samadi, R., Green, J., Piotto, G., Salmon, S., Catala, C., and Rauer, H.
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Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics - Abstract
Many aspects of the design trade-off of a space-based instrument and its performance can best be tackled through simulations of the expected observations. The complex interplay of various noise sources in the course of the observations make such simulations an indispensable part of the assessment and design study of any space-based mission. We present a formalism to model and simulate photometric time series of CCD images by including models of the CCD and its electronics, the telescope optics, the stellar field, the jitter movements of the spacecraft, and all important natural noise sources. This formalism has been implemented in a versatile end-to-end simulation software tool, called PLATO Simulator, specifically designed for the PLATO space mission to be operated from L2, but easily adaptable to similar types of missions. We provide a detailed description of several noise sources and discuss their properties, in connection with the optical design, the allowable level of jitter, the quantum efficiency of the detectors, etc. The expected overall noise budget of generated light curves is computed as a function of the stellar magnitude, for different sets of input parameters describing the instrument properties. The simulator is offered to the scientific community for future use., Comment: Software package available at the PLATO Simulator web site (https://fys.kuleuven.be/ster/Software/PlatoSimulator/)
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- 2014
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217. The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N at TNG. III: The retrograde orbit of HAT-P-18b
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Esposito, M., Covino, E., Mancini, L., Harutyunyan, A., Southworth, J., Biazzo, K., Gandolfi, D., Lanza, A. F., Barbieri, M., Bonomo, A. S., Borsa, F., Claudi, R., Cosentino, R., Desidera, S., Gratton, R., Pagano, I., Sozzetti, A., Boccato, C., Maggio, A., Micela, G., Molinari, E., Nascimbeni, V., Piotto, G., Poretti, E., and Smareglia, R.
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
The measurement of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for transiting exoplanets places constraints on the orientation of the orbital axis with respect to the stellar spin axis, which can shed light on the mechanisms shaping the orbital configuration of planetary systems. Here we present the interesting case of the Saturn-mass planet HAT-P-18b, which orbits one of the coolest stars for which the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect has been measured so far. We acquired a spectroscopic time-series, spanning a full transit, with the HARPS-N spectrograph mounted at the TNG telescope. The very precise radial velocity measurements delivered by the HARPS-N pipeline were used to measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. Complementary new photometric observations of another full transit were also analysed to obtain an independent determination of the star and planet parameters. We find that HAT-P-18b lies on a counter-rotating orbit, the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and the planet orbital axis being lambda=132 +/- 15 deg. By joint modelling of the radial velocity and photometric data we obtain new determinations of the star (M_star = 0.770 +/- 0.027 M_Sun; R_star= 0.717 +/- 0.026 R_Sun; Vsin(I_star) = 1.58 +/- 0.18 km/s) and planet (M_pl = 0.196 +/- 0.008 M_J; R_pl = 0.947 +/- 0.044 R_J) parameters. Our spectra provide for the host star an effective temperature T_eff = 4870 +/- 50 K, a surface gravity of log(g_star) = 4.57 +/- 0.07 cm/s, and an iron abundance of [Fe/H] = 0.10 +/- 0.06. HAT-P-18b is one of the few planets known to transit a star with T_eff < 6250 K on a retrograde orbit. Objects such as HAT-P-18b (low planet mass and/or relatively long orbital period) most likely have a weak tidal coupling with their parent stars, therefore their orbits preserve any original misalignment. As such, they are ideal targets to study the causes of orbital evolution in cool main-sequence stars., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures
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- 2014
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218. Ground-based astrometry with wide field imagers. V. Application to near-infrared detectors: HAWK-I@VLT/ESO
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Libralato, M., Bellini, A., Bedin, L. R., Piotto, G., Platais, I., Kissler-Patig, M., and Milone, A. P.
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Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
High-precision astrometry requires accurate point-spread function modeling and accurate geometric-distortion corrections. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to achieve both requirements with data collected at the high acuity wide-field K-band imager (HAWK-I), a wide-field imager installed at the Nasmyth focus of UT4/VLT ESO 8m telescope. Our final astrometric precision reaches ~3 mas per coordinate for a well-exposed star in a single image with a systematic error less than 0.1 mas. We constructed calibrated astro-photometric catalogs and atlases of seven fields: the Baade's Window, NGC 6656, NGC 6121, NGC 6822, NGC 6388, NGC 104, and the James Webb Space Telescope calibration field in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We make these catalogs and images electronically available to the community. Furthermore, as a demonstration of the efficacy of our approach, we combined archival material taken with the optical wide-field imager at the MPI/ESO 2.2m with HAWK-I observations. We showed that we are able to achieve an excellent separation between cluster members and field objects for NGC 6656 and NGC 6121 with a time base-line of about 8 years. Using both HST and HAWK-I data, we also study the radial distribution of the SGB populations in NGC 6656 and conclude that the radial trend is flat within our uncertainty. We also provide membership probabilities for most of the stars in NGC 6656 and NGC 6121 catalogs and estimate membership for the published variable stars in these two fields., Comment: 36 pages (included appendix), 13 tables, 35 figures (26 in low resolution), accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Online materials will be soon available on CDS. Meanwhile, online materials can be requested directly to the first author
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- 2014
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219. The M4 Core Project with HST -- II. Multiple Stellar Populations at the Bottom of the Main Sequence
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Milone, A. P., Marino, A. F., Bedin, L. R., Piotto, G., Cassisi, S., Dieball, A., Anderson, J., Jerjen, H., Asplund, M., Bellini, A., Brogaard, K., Dotter, A., Giersz, M., Heggie, D. C., Knigge, C., Rich, R. M., Berg, M. van den, and Buonanno, R.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
The M4 Core Project with HST is designed to exploit the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate the central regions of M4, the Globular Cluster closest to the Sun. In this paper we combine optical and near-infrared photometry to study multiple stellar populations in M4. We detected two sequences of M-dwarfs containing ~38% (MS_I) and ~62% (MS_II) of MS stars below the main-sequence (MS) knee. We compare our observations with those of NGC2808, which is the only other GCs where multiple MSs of very low-mass stars have been studied to date. We calculate synthetic spectra for M-dwarfs, assuming the chemical composition mixture inferred from spectroscopic studies of stellar populations along the red giant branch, and different Helium abundances, and we compare predicted and observed colors. Observations are consistent with two populations, one with primordial abundance and another with enhanced nitrogen and depleted oxygen., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure, accepted for publication in MNRAS
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- 2014
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220. A plague of magnetic spots among the hot stars of globular clusters
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Momany, Y., Zaggia, S., Montalto, M., Jones, D., Boffin, H. M. J., Cassisi, S., Moni Bidin, C., Gullieuszik, M., Saviane, I., Monaco, L., Mason, E., Girardi, L., D’Orazi, V., Piotto, G., Milone, A. P., Lala, H., Stetson, P. B., and Beletsky, Y.
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- 2020
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221. Global and non-global parameters of horizontal branch morphology of globular clusters
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Milone, A. P., Marino, A. F., Dotter, A., Norris, J. E., Jerjen, H., Piotto, G., Cassisi, S., Bedin, L. R., Blanco, A. Recio, Sarajedini, A., Asplund, M., Monelli, M., and Aparicio, A.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
The horizontal branch (HB) morphology of globular clusters (GCs) is mainly determined by metallicity. However, the fact that GCs with almost the same metallicity exhibit different HB morphologies demonstrates that at least one more parameter is needed to explain the HB morphology. It has been suggested that one of these should be a global parameter that varies from GC to GC, and the other a non-global parameter that varies within the GC. In this study we provide empirical evidence corroborating this idea. We used the photometric catalogs obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and analyse the CMDs of 74 GCs. The HB morphology of our sample of GCs has been investigated on the basis of the two new parameters L1 and L2 that measure the distance between the RGB and the coolest part of the HB, and the color extension of the HB, respectively. We find that L1 correlates with both metallicity and age, whereas L2 most strongly correlates with the mass of the hosting GC. The range of helium abundance among the stars in a GC, characterised by Delta Y and associated with the presence of multiple stellar populations, has been estimated in a few GCs to date. In these GCs we find a close relationship among Delta Y, GC mass, and L2. We conclude that age and metallicity are the main global parameters while the range of helium abundance within a GC is the main non-global parameter defining the HB morphology of Galactic GCs., Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
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- 2013
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222. The M4 Core Project with HST --- I. Overview and First-Epoch
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Bedin, L. R., Anderson, J., Heggie, D. C., Piotto, G., Milone, A. P., Giersz, M., Nascimbeni, V., Bellini, A., Rich, R. M., Berg, M. van den, Pooley, D., Brogaard, K., Ortolani, S., Malavolta, L., Ubeda, L., and Marino, A. F.
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Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
We present an overview of the ongoing Hubble Space Telescope large program GO-12911. The program is focused on the core of M4, the nearest Galactic globular cluster, and the observations are designed to constrain the number of binaries with massive companions (black holes, neutron stars, or white dwarfs) by measuring the ``wobble'' of the luminous (main-sequence) companion around the center of mass of the pair, with an astrometric precision of ~50 micro-arcseconds. The high spatial resolution and stable medium-band PSFs of WFC3/UVIS will make these measurements possible. In this work we describe: (i) the motivation behind this study, (ii) our observing strategy, (iii) the many other investigations enabled by this unique data set, and which of those our team is conducting, and (iv) a preliminary reduction of the first-epoch data-set collected on October 10, 2012., Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures (9 at low resolution), 3 tables. Published in: Astronomische Nachrichten, Volume 334, Issue 10, pages 1062-1085, December 2013. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asna.201311911/abstract
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- 2013
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223. Helium enhanced stars and multiple populations along the horizontal branch of NGC2808: direct spectroscopic measurements
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Marino, A. F., Milone, A. P., Przybilla, N., Bergemann, M., Lind, K., Asplund, M., Cassisi, S., Catelan, M., Casagrande, L., Valcarce, A. A. R., Bedin, L. R., Cortes, C., D'Antona, F., Jerjen, H., Piotto, G., Schlesinger, K., Zoccali, M., and Angeloni, R.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present an abundance analysis of 96 horizontal branch (HB) stars in NGC2808, a globular cluster exhibiting a complex multiple stellar population pattern. These stars are distributed in different portions of the HB and cover a wide range of temperature. By studying the chemical abundances of this sample, we explore the connection between HB morphology and the chemical enrichment history of multiple stellar populations. For stars lying on the red HB, we use GIRAFFE and UVES spectra to determine Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zn, Y, Ba, and Nd abundances. For colder, blue HB stars, we derive abundances for Na, primarily from GIRAFFE spectra. We were also able to measure direct NLTE He abundances for a subset of these blue HB stars with temperature higher than ~9000 K. Our results show that: (i) HB stars in NGC2808 show different content in Na depending on their position in the color-magnitude diagram, with blue HB stars having higher Na than red HB stars; (ii) the red HB is not consistent with an uniform chemical abundance, with slightly warmer stars exhibiting a statistically significant higher Na content; and (iii) our subsample of blue HB stars with He abundances shows evidence of enhancement with respect to the predicted primordial He content by Delta(Y)=+0.09+-0.01. Our results strongly support theoretical models that predict He enhancement among second generation(s) stars in globular clusters and provide observational constraints on the second-parameter governing HB morphology., Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, 8 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS
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- 2013
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224. The PLATO 2.0 Mission
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Rauer, H., Catala, C., Aerts, C., Appourchaux, T., Benz, W., Brandeker, A., Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Deleuil, M., Gizon, L., Goupil, M. -J., Güdel, M., Janot-Pacheco, E., Mas-Hesse, M., Pagano, I., Piotto, G., Pollacco, D., Santos, N. C., Smith, A., -C., J., Suárez, Szabó, R., Udry, S., Adibekyan, V., Alibert, Y., Almenara, J. -M., Amaro-Seoane, P., Eiff, M. Ammler-von, Asplund, M., Antonello, E., Ball, W., Barnes, S., Baudin, F., Belkacem, K., Bergemann, M., Bihain, G., Birch, A. C., Bonfils, X., Boisse, I., Bonomo, A. S., Borsa, F., Brandão, I. M., Brocato, E., Brun, S., Burleigh, M., Burston, R., Cabrera, J., Cassisi, S., Chaplin, W., Charpinet, S., Chiappini, C., Church, R. P., Csizmadia, Sz., Cunha, M., Damasso, M., Davies, M. B., Deeg, H. J., DÍaz, R. F., Dreizler, S., Dreyer, C., Eggenberger, P., Ehrenreich, D., Eigmüller, P., Erikson, A., Farmer, R., Feltzing, S., Fialho, F. de Oliveira, Figueira, P., Forveille, T., Fridlund, M., García, R. A., Giommi, P., Giuffrida, G., Godolt, M., da Silva, J. Gomes, Granzer, T., Grenfell, J. L., Grotsch-Noels, A., Günther, E., Haswell, C. A., Hatzes, A. P., Hébrard, G., Hekker, S., Helled, R., Heng, K., Jenkins, J. M., Johansen, A., Khodachenko, M. L., Kislyakova, K. G., Kley, W., Kolb, U., Krivova, N., Kupka, F., Lammer, H., Lanza, A. F., Lebreton, Y., Magrin, D., Marcos-Arenal, P., Marrese, P. M., Marques, J. P., Martins, J., Mathis, S., Mathur, S., Messina, S., Miglio, A., Montalban, J., Montalto, M., Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G., Moradi, H., Moravveji, E., Mordasini, C., Morel, T., Mortier, A., Nascimbeni, V., Nelson, R. P., Nielsen, M. B., Noack, L., Norton, A. J., Ofir, A., Oshagh, M., Ouazzani, R. -M., Pápics, P., Parro, V. C., Petit, P., Plez, B., Poretti, E., Quirrenbach, A., Ragazzoni, R., Raimondo, G., Rainer, M., Reese, D. R., Redmer, R., Reffert, S., Rojas-Ayala, B., Roxburgh, I. W., Salmon, S., Santerne, A., Schneider, J., Schou, J., Schuh, S., Schunker, H., Silva-Valio, A., Silvotti, R., Skillen, I., Snellen, I., Sohl, F., Sousa, S. G., Sozzetti, A., Stello, D., Strassmeier, K. G., Švanda, M., Szabó, Gy. M., Tkachenko, A., Valencia, D., van Grootel, V., Vauclair, S. D., Ventura, P., Wagner, F. W., Walton, N. A., Weingrill, J., Werner, S. C., Wheatley, P. J., and Zwintz, K.
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
PLATO 2.0 has recently been selected for ESA's M3 launch opportunity (2022/24). Providing accurate key planet parameters (radius, mass, density and age) in statistical numbers, it addresses fundamental questions such as: How do planetary systems form and evolve? Are there other systems with planets like ours, including potentially habitable planets? The PLATO 2.0 instrument consists of 34 small aperture telescopes (32 with 25 sec readout cadence and 2 with 2.5 sec candence) providing a wide field-of-view (2232 deg2) and a large photometric magnitude range (4-16 mag). It focusses on bright (4-11 mag) stars in wide fields to detect and characterize planets down to Earth-size by photometric transits, whose masses can then be determined by ground-based radial-velocity follow-up measurements. Asteroseismology will be performed for these bright stars to obtain highly accurate stellar parameters, including masses and ages. The combination of bright targets and asteroseismology results in high accuracy for the bulk planet parameters: 2%, 4-10% and 10% for planet radii, masses and ages, respectively. The planned baseline observing strategy includes two long pointings (2-3 years) to detect and bulk characterize planets reaching into the habitable zone (HZ) of solar-like stars and an additional step-and-stare phase to cover in total about 50% of the sky. PLATO 2.0 will observe up to 1,000,000 stars and detect and characterize hundreds of small planets, and thousands of planets in the Neptune to gas giant regime out to the HZ. It will therefore provide the first large-scale catalogue of bulk characterized planets with accurate radii, masses, mean densities and ages. This catalogue will include terrestrial planets at intermediate orbital distances, where surface temperatures are moderate. Coverage of this parameter range with statistical numbers of bulk characterized planets is unique to PLATO 2.0., Comment: 63 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Experimental Astronomy (ExA)
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- 2013
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225. The blue sky of GJ3470b: the atmosphere of a low-mass planet unveiled by ground-based photometry
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Nascimbeni, V., Piotto, G., Pagano, I., Scandariato, G., Sani, E., and Fumana, M.
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
GJ3470b is a rare example of a "hot Uranus" transiting exoplanet orbiting a nearby M1.5 dwarf. It is of crucial interest for atmospheric studies because it is one of the most inflated low-mass planets known, bridging the boundary between "super-Earths" and Neptunian planets. We present two new ground-based light curves of GJ3470b gathered by the LBC camera at the Large Binocular Telescope. Simultaneous photometry in the ultraviolet (lambda_c = 357.5 nm) and optical infrared (lambda_c = 963.5 nm) allowed us to detect a significant change of the effective radius of GJ3470b as a function of wavelength. This can be interpreted as a signature of scattering processes occurring in the planetary atmosphere, which should be cloud-free and with a low mean molecular weight. The unprecedented accuracy of our measurements demonstrates that the photometric detection of Earth-sized planets around M dwarfs is achievable using 8-10m size ground-based telescopes. We provide updated planetary parameters, and a greatly improved orbital ephemeris for any forthcoming study of this planet., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in A&A
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- 2013
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226. Multi-wavelength Hubble Space Telescope photometry of stellar populations in NGC288
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Piotto, G., Milone, A. P., Marino, A. F., Bedin, L. R., Anderson, J., Jerjen, H., Bellini, A., and Cassisi, S.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present new UV observations for NGC288, taken with the WFC3 detector on board the Hubble Space Telescope, and combine them with existing optical data from the archive to explore the multiple-population phenomenon in this globular cluster (GC). The WFC3's UV filters have demonstrated an uncanny ability to distinguish multiple populations along all photometric sequences in GCs, thanks to their exquisite sensitivity to the atmospheric changes that are tell-tale signs of second-generation enrichment. Optical filters, on the other hand, are more sensitive to stellar-structure changes related to helium enhancement. By combining both UV and optical data we can measure helium variation. We quantify this enhancement for NGC288 and find that its variation is typical of what we have come to expect in other clusters., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
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- 2013
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227. CHEOPS: A Transit Photometry Mission for ESA's Small Mission Programme
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Broeg, C., Fortier, A., Ehrenreich, D., Alibert, Y., Baumjohann, W., Benz, W., Deleuil, M., Gillon, M., Ivanov, A., Liseau, R., Meyer, M., Oloffson, G., Pagano, I., Piotto, G., Pollacco, D., Queloz, D., Ragazzoni, R., Renotte, E., Steller, M., Thomas, N., and team, the CHEOPS
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
Ground based radial velocity (RV) searches continue to discover exoplanets below Neptune mass down to Earth mass. Furthermore, ground based transit searches now reach milli-mag photometric precision and can discover Neptune size planets around bright stars. These searches will find exoplanets around bright stars anywhere on the sky, their discoveries representing prime science targets for further study due to the proximity and brightness of their host stars. A mission for transit follow-up measurements of these prime targets is currently lacking. The first ESA S-class mission CHEOPS (CHaracterizing ExoPlanet Satellite) will fill this gap. It will perform ultra-high precision photometric monitoring of selected bright target stars almost anywhere on the sky with sufficient precision to detect Earth sized transits. It will be able to detect transits of RV-planets by photometric monitoring if the geometric configuration results in a transit. For Hot Neptunes discovered from the ground, CHEOPS will be able to improve the transit light curve so that the radius can be determined precisely. Because of the host stars' brightness, high precision RV measurements will be possible for all targets. All planets observed in transit by CHEOPS will be validated and their masses will be known. This will provide valuable data for constraining the mass-radius relation of exoplanets, especially in the Neptune-mass regime. During the planned 3.5 year mission, about 500 targets will be observed. There will be 20% of open time available for the community to develop new science programmes.
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- 2013
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228. A Double White-Dwarf Cooling Sequence in {\omega} Centauri
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Bellini, A., Anderson, J., Salaris, M., Cassisi, S., Bedin, L. R., Piotto, G., and Bergeron, P.
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Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We have applied our empirical-PSF-based photometric techniques on a large number of calibration-related WFC3/UVIS UV-B exposures of the core of {\omega} Cen, and found a well-defined split in the right part of the white-dwarf cooling sequence (WDCS). The redder sequence is more populated by a factor of ~2. We can explain the separation of the two sequences and their number ratio in terms of the He-normal and He-rich subpopulations that had been previously identified along the cluster main sequence. The blue WDCS is populated by the evolved stars of the He-normal component (~0.55 Msun CO-core DA objects) while the red WDCS hosts the end-products of the He-rich population (~0.46 Msun objects, ~10% CO-core and ~90% He-core WDs). The He-core WDs correspond to He-rich stars that missed the central He-ignition, and we estimate their fraction by analyzing the population ratios along the cluster horizontal branch., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. Fixed a typo in the metadata
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- 2013
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229. The GAPS programme with HARPS-N at TNG. I: Observations of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and characterisation of the transiting system Qatar-1
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Covino, E., Esposito, M., Barbieri, M., Mancini, L., Nascimbeni, V., Claudi, R., Desidera, S., Gratton, R., Lanza, A. F., Sozzetti, A., Biazzo, K., Affer, L., Gandolfi, D., Munari, U., Pagano, I., Bonomo, A. S., Cameron, A. Collier, Hébrard, G., Maggio, A., Messina, S., Micela, G., Molinari, E., Pepe, F., Piotto, G., Ribas, I., Santos, N. C., Southworth, J., Shkolnik, E., Triaud, A. H. M. J., Bedin, L., Benatti, S., Boccato, C., Bonavita, M., Borsa, F., Borsato, L., Brown, D., Carolo, E., Ciceri, S., Cosentino, R., Damasso, M., Faedi, F., Fiorenzano, A. F. Martínez, Latham, D. W., Lovis, C., Mordasini, C., Nikolov, N., Poretti, E., Rainer, M., López, R. Rebolo, Scandariato, G., Silvotti, R., Smareglia, R., Alcala, J. M., Cunial, A., Di Fabrizio, L., Di Mauro, M. P., Giacobbe, P., Granata, V., Harutyunyan, A., Knapic, C., Lattanzi, M., Leto, G., Lodato, G., Malavolta, L., Marzari, F., Molinaro, M., Nardiello, D., Pedani, M., Prisinzano, L., and Turrini, D.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
A long-term multi-purpose observational programme has started with HARPS-N@TNG aimed to characterise the global architectural properties of exoplanetary systems. In this first paper we fully characterise the transiting system Qatar-1. We exploit HARPS-N high-precision radial velocity measurements obtained during a transit to measure the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in the Qatar-1 system, and out-of-transit measurements to redetermine the spectroscopic orbit. New photometric transit light-curves are analysed and a spectroscopic characterisation of the host star atmospheric parameters is performed based on various methods (line equivalent width ratios, spectral synthesis, spectral energy distribution). We achieved a significant improvement in the accuracy of the orbital parameters and derived the spin-orbit alignment of the system; this information, combined with the spectroscopic determination of the host star properties, allows us to derive the fundamental physical parameters for star and planet (masses and radii). The orbital solution for the Qatar-1 system is consistent with a circular orbit and the system presents a sky-projected obliquity of lambda = -8.4+-7.1 deg. The planet, with a mass of 1.33+-0.05 M_J, is found to be significantly more massive than previously reported. The host star is confirmed to be metal-rich ([Fe/H]= 0.20+-0.10) and slowly rotating (vsinI = 1.7+-0.3 km/s), though moderately active, as indicated by strong chromospheric emission in the Ca II H&K line cores (logR'_HK about -4.60). The system is well aligned and fits well within the general lambda vs Teff trend. We definitely rule out any significant orbital eccentricity. The evolutionary status of the system is inferred based on gyrochronology, and the present orbital configuration and timescale for orbital decay are discussed in terms of star-planet tidal interactions., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures
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- 2013
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230. The SUMO project I. A survey of multiple populations in globular clusters
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Monelli, M., Milone, A. P., Stetson, P. B., Marino, A. F., Cassisi, S., Molina, A. Del Pino, Salaris, M., Aparicio, A., Asplund, M., Grundahl, F., Piotto, G., Weiss, A., Carrera, R., Cebrian, M., Murabito, S., Pietrinferni, A., and Sbordone, L.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present a general overview and the first results of the SUMO project (a SUrvey of Multiple pOpulations in Globular Clusters). The objective of this survey is the study of multiple stellar populations in the largest sample of globular clusters homogeneously analysed to date. To this aim we obtained high signal-to-noise (S/N>50) photometry for main sequence stars with mass down to ~0.5 M_SUN in a large sample of clusters using both archival and proprietary U, B, V, and I data from ground-based telescopes. In this paper, we focus on the occurrence of multiple stellar populations in twenty three clusters. We have defined a new photometric index cubi= (U-B)-(B-I), that turns out to be very effective for identifying multiple sequences along the red giant branch (RGB). We found that in the V-cubi diagram all clusters presented in this paper show broadened or multimodal RGBs, with the presence of two or more components. We found a direct connection with the chemical properties of different sequences, that display different abundances of light elements (O, Na, C, N, and Al). The cubi index is also a powerful tool to identify distinct sequences of stars along the horizontal branch and, for the first time in the case of NGC104 (47 Tuc), along the asymptotic giant branch. Our results demonstrate that i) the presence of more than two stellar populations is a common feature among globular clusters, as already highlighted in previous work; ii) multiple sequences with different chemical contents can be easily identified by using standard Johnson photometry obtained with ground-based facilities; iii) in the study of GC multiple stellar populations the cubi index is alternative to spectroscopy, and has the advantage of larger statistics., Comment: 23 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
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- 2013
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231. The GAPS Programme with HARPS-N@TNG II: No giant planets around the metal-poor star HIP 11952
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Desidera, S., Sozzetti, A., Bonomo, A. S., Gratton, R., Poretti, E., Claudi, R., Latham, D. W., Affer, L., Cosentino, R., Damasso, M., Esposito, M., Giacobbe, P., Malavolta, L., Nascimbeni, V., Piotto, G., Rainer, M., Scardia, M., Schmid, V. S., Lanza, A. F., Micela, G., Pagano, I., Bedin, L., Biazzo, K., Borsa, F., Carolo, E., Covino, E., Faedi, F., Hebrard, G., Lovis, C., Maggio, A., Mancini, L., Marzari, F., Messina, S., Molinari, E., Munari, U., Pepe, F., Santos, N., Scandariato, G., Shkolnik, E., and Southworth, J.
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
In the context of the program Global Architecture of Planetary Systems (GAPS), we have performed radial velocity monitoring of the metal-poor star HIP 11952 on 35 nights over about 150 days using the newly installed high resolution spectrograph HARPS-N at the TNG and HARPS at ESO 3.6m telescope. The radial velocities show a scatter of 7 m/s, compatible with the measurement errors for such a moderately warm metal-poor star (Teff = 6040+-120K; [Fe/H] =-1.9+-0.1). We then exclude the presence of the two giant planets with periods of 6.95+-0.01 d and 290.0+-16.2 d and radial velocity semi-amplitudes of 100.3+-19.4 m/s and 105.2+-14.7 m/s, respectively, which had recently been announced. This result is important considering that HIP 11952 was thought to be the most metal-poor star hosting a planetary system with giant planets, thus challenging some models of planet formation., Comment: 5 pages, A&A, accepted
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- 2013
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232. Multiple stellar populations in Magellanic Cloud clusters. II. Evidence also in the young NGC1844?
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Milone, A. P., Bedin, L. R., Cassisi, S., Piotto, G., Anderson, J., Pietrinferni, A., and Buonanno, R.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We use HST observations to study the LMC's young cluster NGC1844. We estimate the fraction and the mass-ratio distribution of photometric binaries and report that the main sequence presents an intrinsic breadth which can not be explained in terms of photometric errors only, and is unlikely due to differential reddening. We attempt some interpretation of this feature, including stellar rotation, binary stars, and the presence of multiple stellar populations with different age, metallicity, helium, or C+N+O abundance. Although we exclude age, helium, and C+N+O variations to be responsible of the main-sequence spread none of the other interpretations is conclusive., Comment: 9 Pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&Al
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- 2013
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233. A WFC3/HST view of the three stellar populations in the Globular Cluster NGC6752
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Milone, A. P., Marino, A. F., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Anderson, J., Aparicio, A., Bellini, A., Cassisi, S., D'Antona, F., Grundahl, F., Monelli, M., and Yong, D.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
Multi-band Hubble Space Telescope photometry reveals that the main sequence, sub-giant, and the red giant branch of the globular cluster NGC6752 splits into three main components in close analogy with the three distinct segments along its horizontal branch stars. These triple sequences are consistent with three stellar groups: a stellar population with a chemical composition similar to field halo stars (population a), a population (c) with enhanced sodium and nitrogen, depleted carbon and oxygen and enhanced helium abundance (Delta Y ~0.03), and a population (b) with an intermediate (between population a and c) chemical composition and slightly helium enhanced (Delta Y ~0.01). These components contain ~25% (population a), ~45% (population b), and ~30% (population c) of the stars. No radial gradient for the relative numbers of the three populations has been identified out to about 2.5 half mass radii., Comment: 42 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
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- 2013
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234. The intriguing stellar populations in the globular clusters NGC 6388 and NGC 6441
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Bellini, A., Piotto, G., Milone, A. P., King, I. R., Renzini, A., Cassisi, S., Anderson, J., Bedin, L. R., Nardiello, D., Pietrinferni, A., and Sarajedini, A.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
NGC 6388 and NGC 6441 are two massive Galactic bulge globular clusters which share many properties, including the presence of an extended horizontal branch (HB), quite unexpected because of their high metal content. In this paper we use HST's WFPC2, ACS, and WFC3 images and present a broad multicolor study of their stellar content, covering all main evolutionary branches. The color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) give compelling evidence that both clusters host at least two stellar populations, which manifest themselves in different ways. NGC 6388 has a broadened main sequence (MS), a split sub-giant branch (SGB), and a split red giant branch (RGB) that becomes evident above the HB in our data set; its red HB is also split into two branches. NGC 6441 has a split MS, but only an indication of two SGB populations, while the RGB clearly splits in two from the SGB level upward, and no red HB structure. The multicolor analysis of the CMDs confirms that the He difference between the two main stellar populations in the two clusters must be similar. This is observationally supported by the HB morphology, but also confirmed by the color distribution of the stars in the MS optical band CMDs. However, a MS split becomes evident in NGC 6441 using UV colors, but not in NGC 6388, indicating that the chemical patterns of the different populations are different in the two clusters, with C, N, O abundance differences likely playing a major role. We also analyze the radial distribution of the two populations., Comment: 31 pages, 26 figures (some in low res to fit within astroph 15 MB limit), 7 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal
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- 2013
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235. TASTE. III. A homogeneous study of transit time variations in WASP-3b
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Nascimbeni, V., Cunial, A., Murabito, S., Sada, P. V., Aparicio, A., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Milone, A. P., Rosenberg, A., Borsato, L., Damasso, M., Granata, V., and Malavolta, L.
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
The TASTE project is searching for low-mass planets with the Transit Timing Variation (TTV) technique, by gathering high-precision, short-cadence light curves for a selected sample of transiting exoplanets. It has been claimed that the "hot Jupiter" WASP-3b could be perturbed by a second planet. Presenting eleven new light curves (secured at the IAC80 and UDEM telescopes) and re-analyzing thirty-eight archival light curves in a homogeneous way, we show that new data do not confirm the previously claimed TTV signal. However, we bring evidence that measurements are not consistent with a constant orbital period, though no significant periodicity can be detected. Additional dynamical modeling and follow-up observations are planned to constrain the properties of the perturber or to put upper limits to it. We provide a refined ephemeris for WASP-3b and improved orbital/physical parameters. A contact eclipsing binary, serendipitously discovered among field stars, is reported here for the first time., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in A&A
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- 2012
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236. Spectroscopy of horizontal branch stars in Omega Centauri
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Bidin, C. Moni, Villanova, S., Piotto, G., Moehler, S., Cassisi, S., and Momany, Y.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We analyze the reddening, surface helium abundance and mass of 115 horizontal branch (HB) and blue hook (BH) stars in OmegaCentauri, spanning the HB from the blue edge of the instability strip to Teff~50000K. The mean cluster reddening is E(B-V)=0.115+-0.004, in good agreement with previous estimates, but we evidence a pattern of differential reddening in the cluster area. The stars in the western half are more reddened than in the southwest quadrant by 0.03-0.04 magnitudes. We find that the helium abundances measured on low-resolution spectra are systematically lower by ~0.25 dex than the measurements based on higher resolution. No difference in helium abundance is detected between OmegaCentauri and three comparison clusters, and the stars in the range 11500-20000K follow a trend with temperature, which probably reflects a variable efficiency of the diffusion processes. There is mild evidence that two families of extreme HB (EHB) stars (Teff>20000K) could exist, as observed in the field, with ~15% of the objects being helium depleted by a factor of ten with respect to the main population. The distribution of helium abundance above 30000K is bimodal, but we detect a fraction of He-poor objects lower than previous investigations. The observations are consistent with these being stars evolving off the HB. Their spatial distribution is not uniform, but this asymmetric distribution is only marginally significative. We also find that EHB stars with anomalously high spectroscopic mass could be present in OmegaCentauri, as previously found in other clusters. The derived temperature-color relation reveals that stars hotter than 11000K are fainter than the expectations of the canonical models in the U band, while no anomaly is detected in B and V. This behavior, not observed in NGC6752, is a new peculiarity of OmegaCentauri HB stars., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A
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- 2012
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237. Hubble Space Telescope reveals multiple Sub-Giant Branch in eight Globular Clusters
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Piotto, G., Milone, A. P., Anderson, J., Bedin, L. R., Bellini, A., Cassisi, S., Marino, A. F., Aparicio, A., and Nascimbeni, V.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
In the last few years many globular clusters (GCs) have revealed complex color-magnitude diagrams, with the presence of multiple main sequences (MSs), broaden or multiple sub-giant branches (SGBs) and MS turn offs, and broad or split red giant branches (RGBs). After a careful correction for differential reddening, high accuracy photometry with the Hubble Space Telescope presented in this paper reveals a broadened or even split SGB in five additional Milky Way GCs: NGC 362, NGC 5286, NGC 6656, NGC 6715, and NGC 7089. In addition, we confirm (with new and archival HST data) the presence of a split SGB in 47Tuc, NGC 1851, and NGC 6388. The fraction of faint SGB stars with respect to the entire SGB population varies from one cluster to another and ranges from $\sim$0.03 for NGC 362 to ~0.50 for NGC 6715. The average magnitude difference between the bright SGB and the faint SGB is almost the same at different wavelengths. This peculiarity is consistent with the presence of two groups of stars with either an age difference of about 1-2 Gyrs, or a significant difference in their overall C+N+O content., Comment: 47 pages, 26 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
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- 2012
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238. The infrared eye of the Wide-Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope reveals multiple main sequences of very low-mass stars in NGC 2808
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Milone, A. P., Marino, A. F., Cassisi, S., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Anderson, J., Allard, F., Aparicio, A., Bellini, A., Buonanno, R., Monelli, M., and Pietrinferni, A.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We use images taken with the infrared channel of the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to study the multiple main sequences (MSs) of NGC 2808. Below the turn off, the red, the middle, and the blue MS, previously detected from visual-band photometry, are visible over an interval of about 3.5 F160W magnitudes. The three MSs merge together at the level of the MS bend. At fainter magnitudes, the MS again splits into two components containing ~65% and ~35% of stars, with the most-populated MS being the bluest one. Theoretical isochrones suggest that the latter is connected to the red MS discovered in the optical color-magnitude diagram (CMD), and hence corresponds to the first stellar generation, having primordial helium and enhanced carbon and oxygen abundances. The less-populated MS in the faint part of the near-IR CMD is helium-rich and poor in carbon and oxygen, and it can be associated with the middle and the blue MS of the optical CMD. The finding that the photometric signature of abundance anticorrelation are also present in fully convective MS stars reinforces the inference that they have a primordial origin., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL
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- 2012
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239. Hubble Space Telescope Observations of an Outer Field in Omega Centauri: A Definitive Helium Abundance
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King, I. R., Bedin, L. R., Cassisi, S., Milone, A. P., Bellini, A., Piotto, G., Anderson, J., Pietrinferni, A., and Cordier, D.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
We revisit the problem of the split main sequence (MS) of the globular cluster omega Centauri, and report the results of two-epoch Hubble Space Telescope observations of an outer field, for which proper motions give us a pure sample of cluster members, and an improved separation of the two branches of the main sequence. Using a new set of stellar models covering a grid of values of helium and metallicity, we find that the best possible estimate of the helium abundance of the bluer branch of the MS is Y = 0.39 +/- 0.02. For the cluster center we apply new techniques to old observations: we use indices of photometric quality to select a high-quality sample of stars, which we also correct for differential reddening. We then superpose the color-magnitude diagram of the outer field on that of the cluster center, and suggest a connection of the bluer branch of the MS with one of the more prominent among the many sequences in the subgiant region. We also report a group of undoubted cluster members that are well to the red of the lower MS., Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures (4 in low resolution. AJ accepted on March 21, 2012
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- 2012
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240. An HST search for planets in the lower Main Sequence of the globular cluster NGC 6397
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Nascimbeni, V., Bedin, L. R., Piotto, G., De Marchi, F., and Rich, R. M.
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Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
Searches for planetary transits carried out in open and globular clusters have yielded to date only a handful of weak, unconfirmed candidates. These results have been interpreted either as being insignificant, or as evidence that the cluster chemical or dynamical environment inhibits the planetary formation or survival. Most campaigns were limited by small sample statistics or systematics from ground-based photometry. In this work we performed a search for transiting planets and variables in a deep stellar field of NGC 6397 imaged by HST-ACS for 126 orbits. We analyzed 5,078 light curves, including a pure sample of 2,215 cluster-member M0-M9 dwarfs. The light curves have been corrected for systematic trends and inspected with several tools. No high-significance planetary candidate is detected. We compared this null detection with the most recent results from Kepler, showing that no conclusive evidence of lower planet incidence can be drawn. However, a very small photometric jitter is measured for early-M cluster members (<~2 mmag on 98% of them), which may be worth targeting in the near future with more optimized campaigns. Twelve variable stars are reported for the first time., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in A&A on February 16, 2012. Typos corrected. One figure and a short final note added
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- 2012
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241. The double sub-giant branch of NGC 6656 (M22): a chemical characterization
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Marino, A. F., Milone, A. P., Sneden, C., Bergemann, M., Kraft, R. P., Wallerstein, G., Cassisi, S., Aparicio, A., Asplund, M., Bedin, R. L., Hilker, M., Lind, K., Momany, Y., Piotto, G., Roederer, I. U., Stetson, P. B., and Zoccali, M.
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Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present an abundance analysis of 101 subgiant branch (SGB) stars in the globular cluster M22. Using low resolution FLAMES/GIRAFFE spectra we have determined abundances of the neutron-capture strontium and barium and the light element carbon. With these data we explore relationships between the observed SGB photometric split in this cluster and two stellar groups characterized by different contents of iron, slow neutron-capture process (s-process) elements, and the alpha element calcium, that we previously discovered in M22's red-giant stars. We show that the SGB stars correlate in chemical composition and color-magnitude diagram position: the stars with higher metallicity and relative s-process abundances define a fainter SGB, while stars with lower metallicity and s-process content reside on a relatively brighter SGB. This result has implications for the relative ages of the two stellar groups of M22. In particular, it is inconsistent with a large spread in ages of the two SGBs. By accounting for the chemical content of the two stellar groups, isochrone fitting of the double SGB suggests that their ages are not different by more than 300 Myr., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&A
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- 2012
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242. The helium content of globular clusters: NGC6121 (M4)
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Villanova, S., Geisler, D., Piotto, G., and Gratton, R.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
He has been proposed as a key element to interpret the observed multiple MS, SGB, and RGB, as well as the complex horizontal branch (HB) morphology. Stars belonging to the bluer part of the HB, are thought to be more He rich (\Delta Y=0.03 or more) and more Na-rich/O-poor than those located in the redder part. This hypothesis was only partially confirmed in NGC 6752, where stars of the redder zero-age HB showed a He content of Y=0.25+-0.01, fully compatible with the primordial He content of the Universe, and were all Na-poor/O-rich. Here we study hot blue HB (BHB) stars in the GC NGC 6121 (M4) to measure their He plus O/Na content. We observed 6 BHB stars using the UVES@VLT2 spectroscopic facility. In addition to He, O, Na, and Fe abundances were estimated. Stars turned out to be all Na-rich and O-poor and to have a homogeneous enhanced He content with a mean value of Y=0.29+-0.01(random)+-0.01(systematic). The high He content of blue HB stars in M4 is also confirmed by the fact that they are brighter than red HB stars (RHB). Theoretical models suggest the BHB stars are He-enhanced by \Delta Y=0.02-0.03 with respect to the RHB stars. The whole sample of stars has a metallicity of [Fe/H]=-1.06+-0.02 (internal error). This is a rare direct measurement of the (primordial) He abundance for stars belonging to the Na-rich/O-poor population of GC stars in a temperature regime where the He content is not altered by sedimentation or extreme mixing as suggested for the hottest, late helium flash HB stars. Our results support theoretical predictions that the Na-rich/O-poor population is also more He-rich than the Na-poor/O-rich generation and that a leading contender for the 2^{nd} parameter is the He abundance., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication on ApJ
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- 2012
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243. The C+N+O abundance of Omega Centauri giant stars: implications on the chemical enrichment scenario and the relative ages of different stellar populations
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Marino, A. F., Milone, A. P., Piotto, G., Cassisi, S., D'Antona, F., Anderson, J., Aparicio, A., Bedin, L. R., Renzini, A., and Villanova, S.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present a chemical-composition analysis of 77 red-giant stars in Omega Centauri. We have measured abundances for carbon and nitrogen, and combined our results with abundances of O, Na, La, and Fe that we determined in our previous work. Our aim is to better understand the peculiar chemical-enrichment history of this cluster, by studying how the total C+N+O content varies among the different-metallicity stellar groups, and among stars at different places along the Na-O anticorrelation. We find the (anti)correlations among the light elements that would be expected on theoretical ground for matter that has been nuclearly processed via high-temperature proton captures. The overall [(C+N+O)/Fe] increases by 0.5 dex from [Fe/H] -2.0 to [Fe/H] -0.9. Our results provide insight into the chemical-enrichment history of the cluster, and the measured CNO variations provide important corrections for estimating the relative ages of the different stellar populations., Comment: 26 pages, 9 figure - Accepted for publication in ApJ
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- 2011
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244. The ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. XII. Photometric Binaries along the Main-Sequence
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Milone, A. P., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Aparicio, A., Anderson, J., Sarajedini, A., Marino, A. F., Moretti, A., Davies, M. B., Chaboyer, B., Dotter, A., Hempel, M., Marin-Franch, A., Majewski, S., Paust, N. E. Q., Reid, I. N., Rosenberg, A., and Siegel, M.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
The fraction of binary stars is an important ingredient to interpret globular cluster dynamical evolution and their stellar population. We investigate the properties of main-sequence binaries measured in a uniform photometric sample of 59 Galactic globular clusters that were observed by HST WFC/ACS as a part of the Globular Cluster Treasury project. We measured the fraction of binaries and the distribution of mass-ratio as a function of radial location within the cluster, from the central core to beyond the half-mass radius. We studied the radial distribution of binary stars, and the distribution of stellar mass ratios. We investigated monovariate relations between the fraction of binaries and the main parameters of their host clusters. We found that in nearly all the clusters, the total fraction of binaries is significantly smaller than the fraction of binaries in the field, with a few exceptions only. Binary stars are significantly more centrally concentrated than single MS stars in most of the clusters studied in this paper. The distribution of the mass ratio is generally flat (for mass-ratio parameter q>0.5). We found a significant anti-correlation between the binary fraction in a cluster and its absolute luminosity (mass). Some, less significant correlation with the collisional parameter, the central stellar density, and the central velocity dispersion are present. There is no statistically significant relation between the binary fraction and other cluster parameters. We confirm the correlation between the binary fraction and the fraction of blue stragglers in the cluster., Comment: 43 Pages, 52 figures, accepted for publication in A&A
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- 2011
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245. A Double Main Sequence in the Globular Cluster NGC 6397
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Milone, A. P., Marino, A. F., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Anderson, J., Aparicio, A., Cassisi, S., and Rich, R. M.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
High-precision multi-band HST photometry reveals that the main sequence (MS) of the globular cluster NGC 6397 splits into two components, containing ~30% and ~70% of the stars. This double sequence is consistent with the idea that the cluster hosts two stellar populations: (i) a primordial population that has a composition similar to field stars, and containing ~30% of the stars, and (ii) a second generation with enhanced sodium and nitrogen, depleted carbon and oxygen, and a slightly enhanced helium abundance (Delta Y~0.01). We examine the color difference between the two sequences across a variety of color baselines and find that the second sequence is anomalously faint in m_F336W. Theoretical isochrones indicate that this could be due to NH depletion., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, accepted for pubblication in ApJ
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- 2011
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246. Multiple stellar populations in 47 Tucanae
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Milone, A. P., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., King, I. R., Anderson, J., Marino, A. F., Bellini, A., Gratton, R., Renzini, A., Stetson, P. B., Cassisi, S., Aparicio, A., Bragaglia, A., Carretta, E., D'Antona, F., Di Criscienzo, M., Lucatello, S., Monelli, M., and Pietrinferni, A.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We use Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and ground-based imaging to study the multiple populations of 47 Tuc, combining high-precision photometry with calculations of synthetic spectra. Using filters covering a wide range of wavelengths, our HST photometry splits the main sequence (MS) into two branches, and we find that this duality is repeated in the subgiant and red-giant regions (SGB, RGB), and on the horizontal branch (HB). We calculate theoretical stellar atmospheres for MS stars, assuming different chemical composition mixtures, and we compare their predicted colors through the HST filters with our observed colors. We find that we can match the complex of observed colors with a pair of populations, one with primeval abundance and another with enhanced nitrogen and a small helium enhancement, but with depleted C and O. We confirm that models of RGB and red HB stars with that pair of compositions also give colors that fit our observations. We suggest that the different strengths of molecular bands of OH, CN, CH and NH, falling in different photometric bands, are responsible for the color splits of the two populations. Near the cluster center, in each portion of the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) the population with primeval abundances makes up only ~20% of the stars, a fraction that increases outwards, approachng equality in the outskirts of the cluster, with a fraction ~30% averaged over the whole cluster. Thus the second, He/N-enriched population is more concentrated and contributes the majority of the present-day stellar content of the cluster. We present evidence that the CMD of 47 Tuc consists of intertwined sequences of the two populations, whose separate identities can be followed continuously from the MS up to the RGB, and thence to the HB. A third population is visible only in the SGB, where it includes ~8% of the stars., Comment: 49 pages, 35 figures, accepted for pubblication in ApJ
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- 2011
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247. Luminosity and mass functions of the three main sequences of the globular cluster NGC 2808
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Milone, A. P., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Cassisi, S., Anderson, J., Marino, A. F., Pietrinferni, A., and Aparicio, A.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
High-precision HST photometry has recently revealed that the globular cluster (GC) NGC 2808 hosts a triple main sequence (MS) corresponding to three stellar populations with different helium abundances. We carried out photometry on ACS/WFC HST images of NGC 2808 with the main purpose of measuring the luminosity function (LF) of stars in the three different MSs, and the binary fraction in the cluster. We used isochrones to transform the observed LFs into mass functions (MFs). We estimated that the fraction of binary systems in NGC 2808 is f_bin ~0.05, and find that the three MSs have very similar LFs. The slopes of the corresponding MFs are alpha=-1.2+/-0.3 for the red MS, alpha =-0.9+/-0.3 for the middle MS, and alpha = -0.9+/-0.4 for the blue one, the same, to within the errors. There is marginal evidence of a MF flattening for masses M<~0.6 M_SUN for the the reddest (primordial) MS. These results represent the first direct measurement of the present day MF and LF in distinct stellar populations of a GC, and provide constraints on models of the formation and evolution of multiple generations of stars in these objects., Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, accepted for pubblication in A&A
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
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248. Multiple stellar populations in the Globular Clusters NGC1851 and NGC6656 (M22)
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Milone, A. P., Piotto, G., Bedin, R. L., Marino, A. F., Momany, Y., and Villanova, S.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
In the last years, photometric and spectroscopic evidence has demonstrated that many, maybe all the Globular Clusters (GC) host multiple stellar populations. High-resolution spectroscopy has established that, while most GCs are mono-metallic with no significant abundance spread in $s$-elements, in all the globulars studied to date the presence of different stellar generation is inferred by the Na-O and the C-N anticorrelations. In this context, NGC 1851 and NGC 6656 are among the most intriguing clusters. Contrary to the majority of GCs, they host two groups of stars with different s-elements abundance that are clearly associated to the two distinct sub-giant and red-giant branches detected in their color-magnitude diagrams (CMD). In the case of NGC 6656 s-rich stars are also enriched in iron and calcium. Each $s$-element group exhibits its own Na-O and C-N anticorrelations thus indicating the presence of sub-populations and suggesting that the parent clusters have experienced a very complex star-formation history. In this paper we summarize the properties of multiple populations in NGC 1851 and NGC 6656., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, contribution talk given at the Napoli 2010 workshop "54mo congresso della societa' astronomica italiana" to appear in "Supplementi delle Memorie della Societa' Astronomica Italiana"
- Published
- 2011
249. TASTE. II. A new observational study of transit time variations in HAT-P-13b
- Author
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Nascimbeni, V., Piotto, G., Bedin, L. R., Damasso, M., Malavolta, L., and Borsato, L.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics - Abstract
TASTE (The Asiago Search for Transit timing variations of Exoplanets) project is collecting high-precision, short-cadence light curves for a selected sample of transiting exoplanets. It has been claimed that the hot jupiter HAT-P-13b suddenly deviated from a linear ephemeris by $\sim 20$ min, implying that there is a perturber in the system. Using five new transits, we discuss the plausibility of this transit time variation (TTV), and show that a periodic signal should not be excluded. More follow-up observations are required to constrain the mass and the orbit of the hypothetical perturber., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in A&A on May 22, 2011; typos corrected
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
250. The two metallicity groups of the globular cluster M22: a chemical perspective
- Author
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Marino, A. F., Sneden, C., Kraft, R. P., Wallerstein, G., Norris, J. E., Da Costa, G., Milone, A. P., Ivans, I. I., Gonzalez, G., Fulbright, J. P., Hilker, M., Piotto, G., Zoccali, M., and Stetson, P. B.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present a detailed chemical composition analysis of 35 red giant stars in the globular cluster M22. High resolution spectra for this study were obtained at five observatories, and analyzed in a uniform manner. We have determined abundances of representative light proton-capture, alpha, Fe-peak and neutron-capture element groups. Our aim is to better understand the peculiar chemical enrichment history of this cluster, in which two stellar groups are characterized by a different content in iron, neutron capture elements Y, Zr and Ba, and alpha element Ca. The principal results of this study are: (i) substantial star-to-star metallicity scatter (-2.0<[Fe/H]<-1.6); (ii) enhancement of s-process/r-process neutron-capture abundance ratios in a fraction of giants, positively correlated with metallicity; (iii) sharp separation between the s-process rich and s-process poor groups by [La/Eu] ratio; (iv) possible increase of [Cu/Fe] ratios with increasing [Fe/H], suggesting that this element also has a significant s-process component; and (v) presence of Na-O and C-N anticorrelations in both the stellar groups., Comment: 26 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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