Search

The first generation of ELT instruments includes an optical-infrared high-resolution spectrograph, indicated as ELT-HIRES and recently christened ANDES (ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph). ANDES consists of three fibre-fed spectrographs ([U]BV, RIZ, YJH) providing a spectral resolution of $\sim$100,000 with a minimum simultaneous wavelength coverage of 0.4-1.8 $\mu$m with the goal of extending it to 0.35-2.4 $\mu$m with the addition of a U arm to the BV spectrograph and a separate K band spectrograph. It operates both in seeing- and diffraction-limited conditions and the fibre feeding allows several, interchangeable observing modes including a single conjugated adaptive optics module and a small diffraction-limited integral field unit in the NIR. Modularity and fibre-feeding allow ANDES to be placed partly on the ELT Nasmyth platform and partly in the Coud\'e room. ANDES has a wide range of groundbreaking science cases spanning nearly all areas of research in astrophysics and even fundamental physics. Among the top science cases, there are the detection of biosignatures from exoplanet atmospheres, finding the fingerprints of the first generation of stars, tests on the stability of Nature's fundamental couplings, and the direct detection of the cosmic acceleration. The ANDES project is carried forward by a large international consortium, composed of 35 Institutes from 13 countries, forming a team of almost 300 scientists and engineers which include the majority of the scientific and technical expertise in the field that can be found in ESO member states., Comment: SPIE astronomical telescope and instrumentation 2024, in press

This study presents the results of a search for rotation signature in 250 Gaia DR3 Ultra-Cool Dwarfs (UCDs) with TESS light curves. We identified 71 targets with unambiguous periodicities, of which 61 present rotation signatures and a single source behavior, with periods between 0.133 and 5.81 days. Five UCDs show double-dip features, namely variations with two periods, one approximately double or half the other. The remaining ten UCDs with unambiguous variability present a likely non-single behavior. We also found 20 UCDs showing complex behavior in their light curves, with noticeable fluctuations and irregular structure, with a few exhibiting apparent changes in their temporal structure. The remaining 159 targets show noisy light curves corresponding to low-amplitude signals, whose temporal variation cannot be easily identified. The distribution of the UCDs with rotation signature in the CMD diagram points to a lack of rotating objects within about $11.5

We report the discovery of three Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Objects of Interest (TOI) with signatures of pulsation, observed in more than one sector. Our main goal is to explore how large is the variety of classical pulsators such as $\delta$ Sct, $\gamma$ Dor, RR Lyrae and Cepheid among TOI pulsators. The analysis reveals two stars with signatures of $\delta$ Sct and one of $\gamma$ Dor, out of a sample of 3901 TOIs with available light curves (LCs). To date, there is a very scarce number of known pulsating stars hosting planets. The present finding also emerges as an exciting laboratory for studying different astrophysical phenomena, including the effects of star-planet interaction on pulsation and timing detection of planetary companions. We have also identified 16 TOI stars with periodicities and LCs morphology compatible with different classical pulsating classes, but for most of them, the dominant frequency signals originate from contaminating sources., Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to ApJS and accepted for publication on January 15, 2024

The two-planet transiting system LHS 1140 has been extensively observed since its discovery in 2017, notably with $Spitzer$, HST, TESS, and ESPRESSO, placing strong constraints on the parameters of the M4.5 host star and its small temperate exoplanets, LHS 1140 b and c. Here, we reanalyse the ESPRESSO observations of LHS 1140 with the novel line-by-line framework designed to fully exploit the radial velocity content of a stellar spectrum while being resilient to outlier measurements. The improved radial velocities, combined with updated stellar parameters, consolidate our knowledge on the mass of LHS 1140 b (5.60$\pm$0.19 M$_{\oplus}$) and LHS 1140 c (1.91$\pm$0.06 M$_{\oplus}$) with unprecedented precision of 3%. Transits from $Spitzer$, HST, and TESS are jointly analysed for the first time, allowing us to refine the planetary radii of b (1.730$\pm$0.025 R$_{\oplus}$) and c (1.272$\pm$0.026 R$_{\oplus}$). Stellar abundance measurements of refractory elements (Fe, Mg and Si) obtained with NIRPS are used to constrain the internal structure of LHS 1140 b. This planet is unlikely to be a rocky super-Earth as previously reported, but rather a mini-Neptune with a $\sim$0.1% H/He envelope by mass or a water world with a water-mass fraction between 9 and 19% depending on the atmospheric composition and relative abundance of Fe and Mg. While the mini-Neptune case would not be habitable, a water-abundant LHS 1140 b potentially has habitable surface conditions according to 3D global climate models, suggesting liquid water at the substellar point for atmospheres with relatively low CO$_2$ concentration, from Earth-like to a few bars., Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

We use the ESPRESSO spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope to measure velocity shifts and gravitational redshifts of eight bona fide Hyades white dwarfs, with an accuracy better than 1.5 percent. By comparing the gravitational redshift measurements of the mass-to-radius ratio with the same ratios derived by fitting the \textit{Gaia} photometry with theoretical models, we find an agreement to better than one per cent. It is possible to reproduce the observed white dwarf cooling sequence and the trend of the mass-to-radius ratios as a function of colour using isochrones with ages between 725 and 800 Myr, tuned for the Hyades. One star, EGGR\,29, consistently stands out in all diagrams, indicating that it is possibly the remnant of a blue straggler. We also computed mass-to-radius ratios from published gravities and masses, determined from spectroscopy. The comparison between photometric and spectroscopic stellar parameters reveals that spectroscopic effective temperature and gravity are systematically larger than the photometric values. Spectroscopic mass-to-radius ratios disagree with those measured from gravitational redshift, indicating the presence of systematics affecting the white dwarf parameters derived from the spectroscopic analysis., Comment: MNRAS, accepted for pubblication

A dearth of close-in planets orbiting rapid rotators was reported almost a decade ago. According to this view only slowly spinning stars with rotation periods longer than 5-10 days would host planets with orbital periods shorter than 2 or 3 days. This Letter brings an enlarged and more detailed analysis that led us to the question: Is there really a dearth in that distribution or is it a dearth of data? For this new analysis, we combined different samples of Kepler and TESS stars with confirmed planets or planet candidates with measured stellar rotation periods, using Gaia data to perform an in-depth selection of 1013 planet-hosting main-sequence stars. With the newer, enlarged, and more refined data, the reported dearth of close-in planets orbiting rapid rotators tends to disappear, thus suggesting that it may reflect a scarcity of data in the prior analysis. A two sample statistical test strongly supports our results, showing that the distribution of close-in planets orbiting rapid rotators is almost indistinguishable from that for close-in planets orbiting slow rotators., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

Stellar rotation is a fundamental observable that drives different aspects of stellar and planetary evolution. In this work, we present an unprecedented manifold analysis of 160 B-type stars with light curves collected by the TESS space mission using three different procedures (Fast Fourier Transform, Lomb-Scargle, and wavelet techniques), accompanied by rigorous visual inspection in the search for rotation periodicities. This effort provides rotational periodicities for 6 new TESS B-type stars and confirmed periodicities for 22 targets with rotation periods previously listed in the literature. For other 61 stars, already classified as possible rotational variables, we identify noisy, pulsational, binarity, or ambiguous variability behavior rather than rotation signatures. The total sample of 28 potential rotators shows an overlap of different classes of rotational variables, composed of $\alpha^2$ Canum Venaticorum, rotating ellipsoidal and SX Arietis stars. The combination of the three techniques applied in our analysis offers a solid path to overcome the challenges in the discrimination of rotation from other variabilities in stellar light curves, such as pulsation, binarity or other effects that have no physical meaning. Finally, the rotational periodicities reported in the present study may represent important constraints for improving stellar evolution models with rotation, as well as asteroseismic studies of hot stars., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables

We present the analysis of the molecular gas in the nuclear regions of NGC 4968, NGC 4845, and MCG-06-30-15, with the help of ALMA observations of the CO(2-1) emission line. The aim is to determine the kinematics of the gas in the central (~ 1 kpc) region. We use the 3D-Based Analysis of Rotating Object via Line Observations ($^{3D}$BAROLO) and DiskFit softwares. Circular motions dominate the kinematics of the gas in the central discs, mainly in NGC 4845 and MCG-06-30-15, however there is a clear evidence of non-circular motions in the central ($\sim$ 1 kpc) region of NGC 4845 and NGC 4968. The strongest non-circular motion is detected in the inner disc of NGC 4968 with velocity $\sim 115\, \rm{km\,s^{-1}}$. The bisymmetric model is found to give the best-fit for NGC 4968 and NGC 4845. If the dynamics of NGC 4968 is modeled as a corotation pattern just outside of the bar, the bar pattern speed turns out to be at $\Omega_b$ = $52\, \rm{km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}}$ the corotation is set at 3.5 kpc and the inner Lindblad resonance (ILR) ring at R = 300pc corresponding to the CO emission ring. The 1.2 mm ALMA continuum is peaked and compact in NGC 4968 and MCG-06-30-15, but their CO(2-1) has an extended distribution. Allowing the CO-to-H$_{2}$ conversion factor $\alpha_{CO}$ between 0.8 and 3.2, typical of nearby galaxies of the same type, the molecular mass M(H$_{2}$) is estimated to be $\sim 3-12\times 10^{7} ~{\rm M_\odot}$ (NGC 4968), $\sim 9-36\times 10^{7}~ {\rm M_\odot}$ (NGC 4845), and $\sim 1-4\times 10^{7}~ {\rm M_\odot}$ (MCG-06-30-15). We conclude that the observed non-circular motions in the disc of NGC 4968 and likely that seen in NGC 4845 is due to the presence of the bar in the nuclear region. At the current spectral and spatial resolution and sensitivity we cannot claim any strong evidence in these sources of the long sought feedback/feeding effect due to the AGN presence., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in the Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) journal

In this paper we report the discovery of TOI-220 $b$, a new sub-Neptune detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and confirmed by radial velocity follow-up observations with the HARPS spectrograph. Based on the combined analysis of TESS transit photometry and high precision radial velocity measurements we estimate a planetary mass of 13.8 $\pm$ 1.0 M$_{Earth}$ and radius of 3.03 $\pm$ 0.15 R$_{Earth}$, implying a bulk density of 2.73 $\pm$ 0.47 $\textrm{g cm}^{-3}$. TOI-220 $b$ orbits a relative bright (V=10.4) and old (10.1$\pm$1.4 Gyr) K dwarf star with a period of $\sim$10.69 d. Thus, TOI-220 $b$ is a new warm sub-Neptune with very precise mass and radius determinations. A Bayesian analysis of the TOI-220 $b$ internal structure indicates that due to the strong irradiation it receives, the low density of this planet could be explained with a steam atmosphere in radiative-convective equilibrium and a supercritical water layer on top of a differentiated interior made of a silicate mantle and a small iron core., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the confirmation of a new sub-Neptune close to the transition between super-Earths and sub-Neptunes transiting the M2 dwarf TOI- 269 (TIC 220479565, V = 14.4 mag, J = 10.9 mag, Rstar = 0.40 Rsun, Mstar = 0.39 Msun, d = 57 pc). The exoplanet candidate has been identified in multiple TESS sectors, and validated with high-precision spectroscopy from HARPS and ground-based photometric follow-up from ExTrA and LCO-CTIO. We determined mass, radius, and bulk density of the exoplanet by jointly modeling both photometry and radial velocities with juliet. The transiting exoplanet has an orbital period of P = 3.6977104 +- 0.0000037 days, a radius of 2.77 +- 0.12 Rearth, and a mass of 8.8 +- 1.4 Mearth. Since TOI-269 b lies among the best targets of its category for atmospheric characterization, it would be interesting to probe the atmosphere of this exoplanet with transmission spectroscopy in order to compare it to other sub-Neptunes. With an eccentricity e = 0.425+0.082-0.086, TOI-269 b has one of the highest eccentricities of the exoplanets with periods less than 10 days. The star being likely a few Gyr old, this system does not appear to be dynamically young. We surmise TOI-269 b may have acquired its high eccentricity as it migrated inward through planet-planet interactions., Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

We report on precise Doppler measurements of L231-32 (TOI-270), a nearby M dwarf ($d=22$ pc, $M_\star = 0.39$ M$_\odot$, $R_\star = 0.38$ R$_\odot$), which hosts three transiting planets that were recently discovered using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The three planets are 1.2, 2.4, and 2.1 times the size of Earth and have orbital periods of 3.4, 5.7, and 11.4 days. We obtained 29 high-resolution optical spectra with the newly commissioned Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) and 58 spectra using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS). From these observations, we find the masses of the planets to be $1.58 \pm 0.26$, $6.15 \pm 0.37$, and $4.78 \pm 0.43$ M$_\oplus$, respectively. The combination of radius and mass measurements suggests that the innermost planet has a rocky composition similar to that of Earth, while the outer two planets have lower densities. Thus, the inner planet and the outer planets are on opposite sides of the `radius valley' -- a region in the radius-period diagram with relatively few members, which has been interpreted as a consequence of atmospheric photo-evaporation. We place these findings into the context of other small close-in planets orbiting M dwarf stars, and use support vector machines to determine the location and slope of the M dwarf ($T_\mathrm{eff} < 4000$ K) radius valley as a function of orbital period. We compare the location of the M dwarf radius valley to the radius valley observed for FGK stars, and find that its location is a good match to photo-evaporation and core-powered mass loss models. Finally, we show that planets below the M dwarf radius valley have compositions consistent with stripped rocky cores, whereas most planets above have a lower density consistent with the presence of a H-He atmosphere., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Aims. We study the 2D spectral line profile of HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher), measuring its variation with position across the detector and with changing line intensity. The characterization of the line profile and its variations are important for achieving the precision of the wavelength scales of 10^{-10} or 3.0 cm/s necessary to detect Earth-twins in the habitable zone around solar-like stars. Methods. We used a laser frequency comb (LFC) with unresolved and unblended lines to probe the instrument line profile. We injected the LFC light (attenuated by various neutral density filters) into both the object and the reference fibres of HARPS, and we studied the variations of the line profiles with the line intensities. We applied moment analysis to measure the line positions, widths, and skewness as well as to characterize the line profile distortions induced by the spectrograph and detectors. Based on this, we established a model to correct for point spread function distortions by tracking the beam profiles in both fibres. Results. We demonstrate that the line profile varies with the position on the detector and as a function of line intensities. This is consistent with a charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) effect on the HARPS detector. The estimate of the line position depends critically on the line profile, and therefore a change in the line amplitude effectively changes the measured position of the lines, affecting the stability of the wavelength scale of the instrument. We deduce and apply the correcting functions to re-calibrate and mitigate this effect, reducing it to a level consistent with photon noise., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted

Thanks to the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey it is now possible to explore a large number of objects in those regions. This paper addresses the variability analysis of all VVV point sources having more than 10 observations in VVVDR4 using a novel approach. In total, the near-IR light curves of 288,378,769 sources were analysed using methods developed in the New Insight Into Time Series Analysis project. As a result, we present a complete sample having 44, 998, 752 variable star candidates (VVV-CVSC), which include accurate individual coordinates, near-IR magnitudes (ZYJHKs), extinctions A(Ks), variability indices, periods, amplitudes, among other parameters to assess the science. Unfortunately, a side effect of having a highly complete sample, is also having a high level of contamination by non-variable (contamination ratio of non-variables to variables is slightly over 10:1). To deal with this, we also provide some flags and parameters that can be used by the community to de-crease the number of variable candidates without heavily decreasing the completeness of the sample. In particular, we cross-identified 339,601 of our sources with Simbad and AAVSO databases, which provide us with information for these objects at other wavelegths. This sub-sample constitutes a unique resource to study the corresponding near-IR variability of known sources as well as to assess the IR variability related with X-ray and Gamma-Ray sources. On the other hand, the other 99.5% sources in our sample constitutes a number of potentially new objects with variability information for the heavily crowded and reddened regions of the Galactic Plane and Bulge. The present results also provide an important queryable resource to perform variability analysis and to characterize ongoing and future surveys like TESS and LSST., Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures

We report the detection of a transiting super-Earth-sized planet (R=1.39+-0.09 Rearth) in a 1.4-day orbit around L 168-9 (TOI-134),a bright M1V dwarf (V=11, K=7.1) located at 25.15+-0.02 pc. The host star was observed in the first sector of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and, for confirmation and planet mass measurement, was followed up with ground-based photometry, seeing-limited and high-resolution imaging, and precise radial velocity (PRV) observations using the HARPS and PFS spectrographs. Combining the TESS data and PRV observations, we find the mass of L168-9 b to be 4.60+-0.56 Mearth, and thus the bulk density to be 1.74+0.44-0.33 times larger than that of the Earth. The orbital eccentricity is smaller than 0.21 (95% confidence). This planet is a Level One Candidate for the TESS Mission's scientific objective - to measure the masses of 50 small planets - and is one of the most observationally accessible terrestrial planets for future atmospheric characterization., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in astronomy and Astrophysics

We analyze the data from the 6 gravitational waves signals detected by LIGO through the lens of multifractal formalism using the MFDMA method, as well as shuffled and surrogate procedures. We identified two regimes of multifractality in the strain measure of the time series by examining long memory and the presence of nonlinearities. The moment used to divide the series into two parts separates these two regimes and can be interpreted as the moment of collision between the black holes. An empirical relationship between the variation in left side diversity and the chirp mass of each event was also determined., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of IAU Symposium 346: High-mass X-ray binaries: illuminating the passage from massive binaries to merging compact objects

Context. It is possible to accurately measure the masses of the white dwarfs (WDs) in the Hyades cluster using gravitational redshift, because the radial velocity of the stars can be obtained independently of spectroscopy from astrometry and the cluster has a low velocity dispersion. Aims. We aim to obtain an accurate measurement of the Hyades WD masses by determining the mass-to-radius ratio (M/R) from the observed gravitational redshift, and to compare them with masses derived from other methods. Methods. We analyse archive high-resolution UVES-VLT spectra of six WDs belonging to the Hyades to measure their Doppler shift, from which M/R is determined after subtracting the astrometric radial velocity. We estimate the radii using Gaia photometry as well as literature data. Results. The M/R error associated to the gravitational redshift measurement is about 5%. The radii estimates, evaluated with different methods, are in very good agreement, though they can differ by up to 4% depending on the quality of the data. The masses based on gravitational redshift are systematically smaller than those derived from other methods, by a minimum of $\sim 0.02$ up to 0.05 solar masses. While this difference is within our measurement uncertainty, the fact that it is systematic indicates a likely real discrepancy between the different methods. Conclusions. We show that the M/R derived from gravitational redshift measurements is a powerful tool to determine the masses of the Hyades WDs and could reveal interesting properties of their atmospheres. The technique can be improved by using dedicated spectrographs, and can be extended to other clusters, making it unique in its ability to accurately and empirically determine the masses of WDs in open clusters. At the same time we prove that gravitational redshift in WDs agrees with the predictions of stellar evolution models to within a few percent., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

A multifractal formalism is employed to analyse high-precision time-series data of \textit{Kepler} stars with surface differential rotation traces. The multifractal detrended moving average analysis (MFDMA) algorithm has been explored to characterize the multi-scale behaviour of the observed time series from a sample of 662 stars selected with parameters close to those of the Sun, e.g., effective temperature, mass, effective gravity and rotation period. Among these stars, 141 have surface differential rotation traces, whereas 521 have no detected differential rotation signatures. In our sample, we also include the Sun in its active phase. Our results can be summarized in two points: first, our work suggests that starspots for time series with and without differential rotation have distinct dynamics, and second, the magnetic fields of active stars are apparently governed by two mechanisms with different levels of complexity for fluctuations. Throughout the course of the study, we identified an overall trend whereby the differential rotation is distributed in two $H$ regimes segregated by the degree of asymmetry $A$, where $H$-index denotes the global Hurst exponent which is used as a measure of long-term memory of time series. As a result, we show that the degree of asymmetry can be considered a segregation factor that distinguishes the differential rotation behaviour when related to the effect of the rotational modulation on the time series. In summary, the multifractality signals in our sample are the result of magnetic activity control mechanisms leading to activity-related long-term persistent signatures., Comment: 27 pages, 1 table., 20 figures, accepted to MNRAS

In the present study, high-precision time series photometry for the active \emph{Kepler} stars is described in the language of multifractals. We explore the potential of using the rescaled range analysis ($R/S$) and multifractal detrended moving average analysis (MFDMA) methods to characterize the multiscale structure of the observed time series from a sample of $\sim$40 000 active stars. Among these stars, 6486 have surface differential rotation measurement, whereas 1846 have no signature of differential rotation. As a result, the Hurst exponent ($H$) derived from both methods shows a strong correlation with the period derived from rotational modulation. In addition, the variability range $R_{var}$ reveals how this correlation follows a high activity ``line''. We also verify that the $H$-index is an able parameter for distinguishing the different signs of stellar rotation that can exist between the stars with and without differential rotation. In summary, the results indicate that the Hurst exponent is a promising index for estimating photometric magnetic activity., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted to ApJ

Understanding the properties of the continuum radiation and broad emission lines of active galactic nuclei provide significant information not only to model the radiation mechanism and constrain the geometry and kinematics of the broad-line region (BLR) but also to probe the central engine of the sources. Here we investigate the multifractal behaviour of the H$\beta$ emission line and the 5100 {\AA} continuum flux light curves of NGC 5548. The aim is to search for multi-scaling signatures in the light curves and check if there is a possible nonlinear relationship between them. To this end, we use a multifractality analysis technique called Multifractal Detrended Moving Average (MFDMA) analysis. We detect multifractal (nonlinear) signatures in the full monitoring and densely sampled period of the H$\beta$ line and 5100 {\AA} continuum light curves of NGC 5548, possibly indicating the presence of complex and nonlinear interaction in the 5100 {\AA} continuum and H$\beta$ emission line regions. Moreover, the degree of multifractality of H$\beta$ line is found to be about twice that of the 5100 {\AA} continuum. The nonlinearity of both emissions could be generated when the broad-line region reprocesses the radiation from the central compact source. Finally, we found that anti-persistent long-range temporal correlation is the main source of the multifractality detected in both light curves., Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical journal

Variations in scaling behavior in the flux and emissions of distant astronomical sources with respect to their cosmic time are important l phenomena that can provide valuable information about the dynamics within the sources and their cosmological evolution with time. Different studies have been applying linear analysis to understand and model quasars' light curves. Here, we study the multifractal behavior of selected quasars' radio emissions in their observed frame (at 22 and 37 GHz bands) and and their rest frame. To this end, we apply the wavelet transform-based multifractal analysis formalism called wavelet transform modulus maxima. In addition, we verify whether the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models fit our data or not. In our work, we observe strong multifractal behavior for all the sources. Additionally, we find that the degree of multifractality is strongly similar for each source and significantly different between sources at 22 and 37 GHz. This similarity implies that the two frequencies have the same radiation region and mechanism, whereas the difference indicates that the sources have intrinsically different dynamics. Furthermore, we show that the degree of multifractality is the same in the observed and rest frames of the quasars, i.e., multifractality is an intrinsic property of radio quasars. Finally, we show that the ARIMA models fit the 3C 345 quasar at 22 GHz and partially fit most of the time series with the exception of the 3C 273 and 3C 279 quasars at 37 GHz, for which the models are found to be inadequate., Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

This work brings a wavelet analysis for 14 Kepler white dwarf stars, in order to confirm their photometric variability behavior and to search for periodicities in these targets. From the observed Kepler light curves we obtained the wavelet local and global power spectra. Through this procedure, one can perform an analysis in time-frequency domain rich in details, and so to obtain a new perspective on the time evolution of the periodicities present in these stars. We identified a photometric variability behavior in ten white dwarfs, corresponding to period variations of ~ 2 h to 18 days: among these stars, three are new candidates and seven, earlier identified from other studies, are confirmed., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Knowledge about how the nonlinear behaviour of the intrinsic signal from lensed background sources changes on its path to the observer provides much information, particularly about the matter distribution in lensing galaxies and the physical properties of the current universe, in general. Here, we analyse the multifractal (nonlinear) behaviour of the optical observations of A and B images of Q0957+561 in the $r$ and $g$ bands. AIMS: To verify the presence, or absence, of extrinsic variations in the observed signals of the quasar images and investigate whether extrinsic variations affect the multifractal behaviour of their intrinsic signals. METHOD: We apply a wavelet transform modulus maxima-based multifractality analysis approach. RESULTS: We detect strong multifractal (nonlinear) signatures in the light curves of the quasar images. The degree of multifractality for both images in the $r$ band changes over time in a non-monotonic way, possibly indicating the presence of extrinsic variabilities in the light curves of the images, i.e., the signals of the quasar images are a combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic signals. Additionally, in the r band, in periods of quiescent microlensing activity, we find that the degree of multifractality (nonlinearity) of image A is stronger than that of B, while B has a larger multifractal strength in recent epochs (from day 5564 to day 7527) when it appears to be affected by microlensing. Finally, comparing the optical bands in a period of quiescent microlensing activity, we find that the degree of multifractality is stronger in the $r$ band for both quasar images. In the absence of microlensing, the observed excesses of nonlinearity are most likely generated when the broad-line region (BLR) reprocesses the radiation from the compact sources., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Accepted in MNRAS

Observations of circumstellar disks provide a powerful tool for our understanding of planetary systems dynamics. Analogs to the Solar System asteroid belts, debris disks result from the collision of the remaining solid material of the planet formation process. Even if the presence of disk is now reported for hundreds of stars, its detection around stars similar to the Sun is still very sparse. We report the results of a search for debris disks around Kepler stars with surface physical parameters close to solar values, including rotation period, using observations by the Wide-field infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). From the entire sample of Kepler stars, 881 targets were identified with these parameters and only six of them (KIC 1868785, 7267949, 7435796, 10533222, 11352643, and KIC 11666436) show unambiguous infrared excess, for which we determined debris disk physical parameters. Interestingly, the present study reveals traces of debris disks much more massive and brighter than the Solar System zodiacal dust, probably resulting from recent violent collisional events, orbiting stars with ages around the solar values., Comment: 21 pages, and 3 figures, Accepted for publication on ApJL

We study the accuracy of spectroscopic RVs by comparing spectroscopic and astrometric RVs for stars of the Hyades open cluster. Rather accurate astrometric RVs are available for the Hyades' stars, based on Hipparcos and on the first Gaia data release. We obtained HARPS spectra for a large sample of Hyades stars, and homogeneously analysed them. After cleaning the sample from binaries, RV variables, and outliers, 71 stars remained. The distribution of the observed RV difference (spectroscopic -- astrometric) is skewed and depends on the star right ascension. This is consistent with the Hyades cluster rotating at 42.3 +/- 10 m/s/pc. The two Hyades giants in the sample show, as predicted by gravitational redshift (GR), a spectroscopic RV that is blue-shifted with respect to the dwarfs, and the empirical GR slope is of 626 +/- 131 m/s, in agreement with the theoretical prediction. The difference between spectroscopic and astrometric RVs is very close to zero, within the uncertainties. In particular, the mean difference is of -33 m/s and the median is of -16 m/s when considering the Gaia-based RVs (corrected for cluster rotation), with a sigma of 347 m/s, very close to the expected cluster velocity dispersion. We also determine a new value of the cluster centroid spectroscopic RV: 39.36 +/- 0.26 km/s. The spectroscopic RV measurements are expected, from simulations, to depend on stellar rotation, but our data do not confirm these predictions. We finally discuss other phenomena that can influence the RV difference, such as cluster expansion, stellar activity, general relativity, and Galactic potential. Clusters within the reach of current telescopes are expected to show differences of several hundreds m/s, depending on their position in the Galaxy., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Detecting exoplanets in clusters of different ages is a powerful tool for understanding a number of open questions, such as how the occurrence rate of planets depends on stellar metallicity, on mass, or on stellar environment. We present the first results of our HARPS long-term radial velocity (RV) survey which aims to discover exoplanets around intermediate-mass (between ~ 2 and 6 Msun) evolved stars in open clusters. We selected 826 bona fide HARPS observations of 114 giants from an initial list of 29 open clusters and computed the half peak-to-peak variability of the HARPS RV measurements, namely DeltaRV/2, for each target, to search for the best planet-host candidates. We also performed time series analysis for a few targets with enough observations to search for orbital solutions. Although we attempted to rule out the presence of binaries on the basis of previous surveys, we detected 14 new binary candidates in our sample, most of them identified from a comparison between HARPS and CORAVEL data. We also suggest 11 new planet-host candidates based on a relation between the stellar surface gravity and DeltaRV/2. Ten of the candidates have less than 3 Msun, showing evidence of a low planet occurrence rate for massive stars. One of the planet-host candidates and one of the binary candidates show very clear RV periodic variations, allowing us to confirm the discovery of a new planet and to compute the orbital solution for the binary. The planet is IC 4651 9122b, with a minimum mass of msini = 6.3 MJ and a semi-major axis a = 2.0 AU. The binary companion is NGC 5822 201B, with a very low minimum mass of msini = 0.11 Msun and a semi-major axis a = 6.5 AU, which is comparable to the Jupiter distance to the Sun., Comment: Accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysics. 14 pages, 11 figures

The presence of multifractality in a time series shows different correlations for different time scales as well as intermittent behaviour that cannot be captured by a single scaling exponent. The identification of a multifractal nature allows for a characterization of the dynamics and of the intermittency of the fluctuations in non-linear and complex systems. In this study, we search for a possible multifractal structure (multifractality signature) of the flux variability in the quasar 3C 273 time series for all electromagnetic wavebands at different observation points, and the origins for the observed multifractality. This study is intended to highlight how the scaling behaves across the different bands of the selected candidate which can be used as an additional new technique to group quasars based on the fractal signature observed in their time series and determine whether quasars are non-linear physical systems or not. The Multifractal Detrended Moving Average algorithm (MFDMA) has been used to study the scaling in non-linear, complex and dynamic systems. To achieve this goal, we applied the backward ({\theta} = 0) MFDMA method for one-dimensional signals. We observe weak multifractal (close to monofractal) behaviour in some of the time series of our candidate except in the mm, UV and X-ray bands. The non-linear temporal correlation is the main source of the observed multifractality in the time series whereas the heaviness of the distribution contributes less., Comment: 12 pages, 51 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1312.3434, arXiv:1506.00586, arXiv:1506.08847 by other authors

Magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) turbulence displays velocity anisotropies which reflect the direction of the magnetic field. This anisotropy has led to the development of a number of statistical techniques for studying magnetic fields in the interstellar medium. In this paper, we review and compare three techniques that use radio position-position-velocity data for determining magnetic field strength and morphology : the correlation function anisotropy (CFA), Principal Component Analysis of Anisotropies (PCAA), and the more recent Velocity Gradient Technique (VGT). We compare these three techniques and suggest improvements to the CFA and PCAA techniques to increase their accuracy and versatility. In particular, we suggest and successfully implement a much faster way of calculating non-periodic correlation functions for the CFA. We discuss possible improvements to the current implementation of the PCAA. We show the advantages of the VGT in terms of magnetic field tracing and stress the complementary nature with the other two techniques., Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures, 3 appendices, accepted by ApJ for publication

In the present study, we investigate the multifractal nature of a long-cadence time series observed by the \textit{Kepler} mission for a sample of 34 M dwarf stars and the Sun in its active phase. Using the Multifractal Detrending Moving Average algorithm (MFDMA), which enables the detection of multifractality in nonstationary time series, we define a set of multifractal indices based on the multifractal spectrum profile as a measure of the level of stellar magnetic activity. This set of indices is given by the ($A$,$\Delta \alpha$,$C$,$H$)-quartet, where $A$, $\Delta \alpha$ and $C$ are related to geometric features from the multifractal spectrum and the global Hurst exponent $H$ describes the global structure and memorability of time series dynamics. As a test, we measure these indices and compare them with a magnetic index defined as $S_{ph}$ and verify the degree of correlation among them. First, we apply the Poincar\'e plot method and find a strong correlation between the $\left\langle S_{ph}\right\rangle$ index and one of the descriptors that emerges from this method. As a result, we find that this index is strongly correlated with long-term features of the signal. From the multifractal perspective, the $\left\langle S_{ph}\right\rangle$ index is also strongly linked to the geometric properties of the multifractal spectrum except for the $H$ index. Furthermore, our results emphasize that the rotation period of stars is scaled by the $H$ index, which is consistent with Skumanich's relationship. Finally, our approach suggests that the $H$ index may be related to the evolution of stellar angular momentum and a star's magnetic properties., Comment: 8 figures and 3 tables (Accepted to ApJ)

Magnetic activity on stars manifests itself in the form of dark spots on the stellar surface, that cause modulation of a few percent in the light curve of the star as it rotates. When a planet eclipses its host star, it might cross in front of one of these spots creating a "bump" in the transit light curve. By modelling these spot signatures, it is possible to determine the physical properties of the spots such as size, temperature, and location. In turn, the monitoring of the spots longitude provides estimates of the stellar rotation and differential rotation. This technique was applied to the star Kepler-17, a solar--type star orbited by a hot Jupiter. The model yields the following spot characteristics: average radius of $49 \pm 10$ Mm, temperatures of $5100 \pm 300$ K, and surface area coverage of $6 \pm 4$ \%. The rotation period at the transit latitude, $-5^\circ$, occulted by the planet was found to be $11.92 \pm 0.05$ d, slightly smaller than the out--of--transit average period of $12.4 \pm 0.1$ d. Adopting a solar like differential rotation, we estimated the differential rotation of Kepler-17 to be $\Delta\Omega = 0.041 \pm 0.005$ rd/d, which is close to the solar value of 0.050 rd/d, and a relative differential rotation of $\Delta\Omega/\Omega=8.0 \pm 0.9$ \%. Since Kepler-17 is much more active than our Sun, it appears that for this star larger rotation rate is more effective in the generation of magnetic fields than shear., Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, published in ApJ

The first generation of E-ELT instruments will include an optical-infrared High Resolution Spectrograph, conventionally indicated as EELT-HIRES, which will be capable of providing unique breakthroughs in the fields of exoplanets, star and planet formation, physics and evolution of stars and galaxies, cosmology and fundamental physics. A 2-year long phase A study for EELT-HIRES has just started and will be performed by a consortium composed of institutes and organisations from Brazil, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. In this paper we describe the science goals and the preliminary technical concept for EELT-HIRES which will be developed during the phase A, as well as its planned development and consortium organisation during the study., Comment: 12 pages, in Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 2016, Proc. SPIE 9908, 23

In present paper, we investigate the multifractality signatures in hourly time series extracted from CoRoT spacecraft database. Our analysis is intended to highlight the possibility that astrophysical time series can be members of a particular class of complex and dynamic processes which require several photometric variability diagnostics to characterize their structural and topological properties. To achieve this goal, we search for contributions due to nonlinear temporal correlation and effects caused by heavier tails than the Gaussian distribution, using a detrending moving average algorithm for one-dimensional multifractal signals (MFDMA). We observe that the correlation structure is the main source of multifractality, while heavy-tailed distribution plays a minor role in generating the multifractal effects. Our work also reveals that rotation period of stars is inherently scaled by degree of multifractality. As a result, analyzing the multifractal degree of referred series, we uncover an evolution of multifractality from shorter to larger periods., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

The present study reports the discovery of Sun-like stars, namely main-sequence stars with $T_{\rm eff}$, $\log g$ and rotation periods $P_{rot}$ similar to solar values, presenting evidence of surface differential rotation. An autocorrelation of the time series was used to select stars presenting photometric signal stability from a sample of 881 stars with light curves collected by the $Kepler$ space-borne telescope, in which we have identified 17 stars with stable signals. A simple two-spot model together with a Bayesian information criterion were applied to these stars in the search for indications of differential rotation; in addition, for all 17 stars, it was possible to compute the spot rotation period $P$, the mean values of the individual spot rotation periods and their respective colatitudes, and the relative amplitude of the differential rotation., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication on MNRAS

Since 2008 we used high-precision radial velocity (RV) measurements obtained with different telescopes to detect signatures of massive planets around main-sequence and evolved stars of the open cluster (OC) M67. We aimed to perform a long-term study on giant planet formation in open clusters and determine how this formation depends on stellar mass and chemical composition. A new hot Jupiter (HJ) around the main-sequence star YBP401 is reported in this work. An update of the RV measurements for the two HJ host-stars YBP1194 and YBP1514 is also discussed. Our sample of 66 main-sequence and turnoff stars includes 3 HJs, which indicates a high rate of HJs in this cluster (~5.6% for single stars and ~4.5% for the full sample ). This rate is much higher than what has been discovered in the field, either with RV surveys or by transits. High metallicity is not a cause for the excess of HJs in M67, nor can the excess be attributed to high stellar masses. When combining this rate with the non-zero eccentricity of the orbits, our results are qualitatively consistent with a HJ formation scenario dominated by strong encounters with other stars or binary companions and subsequent planet-planet scattering, as predicted by N-body simulations., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Journal Letters. 6 pages, 5 figures, 4 Tables

We study the distribution of the photometric rotation period (Prot), which is a direct measurement of the surface rotation at active latitudes, for three subsamples of Sun-like stars: one from CoRoT data and two from Kepler data. We identify the main populations of these samples and interpret their main biases specifically for a comparison with the solar Prot. Prot and variability amplitude (A) measurements were obtained from public CoRoT and Kepler catalogs combined with physical parameters. Because these samples are subject to selection effects, we computed synthetic samples with simulated biases to compare with observations, particularly around the location of the Sun in the HR diagram. Theoretical grids and empirical relations were used to combine physical parameters with Prot and A. Biases were simulated by performing cutoffs on the physical and rotational parameters in the same way as in each observed sample. A crucial cutoff is related with the detectability of the rotational modulation, which strongly depends on A. The synthetic samples explain the observed Prot distributions of Sun-like stars as having two main populations: one of young objects (group I, with ages younger than ~1 Gyr) and another of MS and evolved stars (group II, with ages older than ~1 Gyr). The proportions of groups I and II in relation to the total number of stars range within 64-84% and 16-36%, respectively. Hence, young objects abound in the distributions, producing the effect of observing a high number of short periods around the location of the Sun in the HR diagram. Differences in the Prot distributions between the CoRoT and Kepler Sun-like samples may be associated with different Galactic populations. Overall, the synthetic distribution around the solar period agrees with observations, which suggests that the solar rotation is normal with respect to Sun-like stars within the accuracy of current data., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, A&A accepted

Until a few years ago, the amplitude variation in the photometric data had been limitedly explored mainly because of time resolution and photometric sensitivity limitations. This investigation is now possible thanks to the Kepler and CoRoT databases which provided a unique set of data for studying of the nature of stellar variability cycles. The present study characterizes the amplitude variation in a sample of main--sequence stars with light curves collected using CoRoT exo--field CCDs. We analyze potential stellar activity cycles by studying the variability amplitude over small boxes. The cycle periods and amplitudes were computed based on the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, harmonic fits, and visual inspection. As a first application of our approach we have considered the photometric data for 16 CoRoT FGK main sequence stars, revisited during the IRa01, LRa01 and LRa06 CoRoT runs. The 16 CoRoT stars appear to follow the empirical relations between activity cycle periods ($P_{cyc}$) and the rotation period ($P_{rot}$) found by previous works. In addition to the so-called A (active) and I (inactive) sequences previously identified, there is a possible third sequence, here named S (short-cycles) sequence. However, recovery fractions estimated from simulations suggest that only a half of our sample has confident cycle measurements. Therefore, more study is needed to verify our results and Kepler data shall be notably useful for such a study. Overall, our procedure provides a key tool for exploring the CoRoT and Kepler databases to identify and characterize stellar cycle variability., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

For 6 years the Convection, Rotation, and Planetary Transits (CoRoT) space mission has acquired photometric data from more than one hundred thousand point sources towards and directly opposite from the inner and outer regions of the Galaxy. The high temporal resolution of the CoRoT data combined with the wide time span of the observations has enabled the study of short and long time variations in unprecedented detail. From the initial sample of 2534 stars classified as M-giants in the CoRoT databasis, we selected 1428 targets that exhibit well defined variability, using visual inspection. The variability period and amplitude of C1 stars (stars having Teff < 4200 K) were computed using Lomb-Scargle and harmonic fit methods. The trends found in the V-I vs J-K color-color diagram are in agreement with standard empirical calibrations for M-giants. The sources located towards the inner regions of the Galaxy are distributed throughout the diagram while the majority of the stars towards the outer regions of the Galaxy are spread between the calibrations of M-giants and the predicted position for Carbon stars. The stars classified as supergiants follow a different sequence from the one found for giant stars. We also performed a KS test of the period and amplitude of stars towards the inner and outer regions of the Galaxy. We obtained a low probability that the two samples come from the same parent distribution. The observed behavior of the period-amplitude and period-Teff diagrams are, in general, in agreement with those found for Kepler sources and ground based photometry, with pulsation being the dominant cause responsible for the observed modulation. We also conclude that short-time variations on M-Giant stars do not exist orare very rare and the few cases we found are possibly related to biases or background stars., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

Rapidly rotating giant stars are relatively rare and may represent important stages of stellar evolution, resulting from stellar coalescence of close binary systems or accretion of sub-stellar companions by their hosting stars. In the present letter we report 17 giant stars observed in the scope of the Kepler space mission exhibiting rapid rotation behavior. For the first time the abnormal rotational behavior for this puzzling family of stars is revealed by direct measurements of rotation, namely from photometric rotation period, exhibiting very short rotation period with values ranging from 13 to 55 days. This finding points for remarkable surface rotation rates, up to 18 times the Sun rotation. These giants are combined with 6 other recently listed in the literature for mid-IR diagnostic based on WISE information, from which a trend for an infrared excess is revealed for at least a half of the stars, but at a level far lower than the dust excess emission shown by planet-bearing main-sequence stars., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures and 1 table, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

Aims:To support the computation and evolutionary interpretation of periods associated with the rotational modulation, oscillations, and variability of stars located in the CoRoT fields, we are conducting a spectroscopic survey for stars located in the fields already observed by the satellite. These observations allow us to compute physical and chemical parameters for our stellar sample. Method: Using spectroscopic observations obtained with UVES/VLT and Hydra/Blanco, and based on standard analysis techniques, we computed physical and chemical parameters ($T_{\rm{eff}}$, $\log \,(g)$, $\rm{[Fe/H]}$, $v_{\rm{mic}}$, $v_{\rm{rad}}$, $v \sin \,(i)$, and $A(\rm{Li})$) for a large sample of CoRoT targets. Results: We provide physical and chemical parameters for a sample comprised of 138 CoRoT targets. Our analysis shows the stars in our sample are located in different evolutionary stages, ranging from the main sequence to the red giant branch, and range in spectral type from F to K. The physical and chemical properties for the stellar sample are in agreement with typical values reported for FGK stars. However, we report three stars presenting abnormal lithium behavior in the CoRoT fields. These parameters allow us to properly characterize the intrinsic properties of the stars in these fields. Our results reveal important differences in the distributions of metallicity, $T_{\rm eff}$, and evolutionary status for stars belonging to different CoRoT fields, in agreement with results obtained independently from ground-based photometric surveys. Conclusions: Our spectroscopic catalog, by providing much-needed spectroscopic information for a large sample of CoRoT targets, will be of key importance for the successful accomplishment of several different programs related to the CoRoT mission, thus it will help further boost the scientific return associated with this space mission., Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We present the results of a blind exercise to test the recoverability of stellar rotation and differential rotation in Kepler light curves. The simulated light curves lasted 1000 days and included activity cycles, Sun-like butterfly patterns, differential rotation and spot evolution. The range of rotation periods, activity levels and spot lifetime were chosen to be representative of the Kepler data of solar like stars. Of the 1000 simulated light curves, 770 were injected into actual quiescent Kepler light curves to simulate Kepler noise. The test also included five 1000-day segments of the Sun's total irradiance variations at different points in the Sun's activity cycle. Five teams took part in the blind exercise, plus two teams who participated after the content of the light curves had been released. The methods used included Lomb-Scargle periodograms and variants thereof, auto-correlation function, and wavelet-based analyses, plus spot modelling to search for differential rotation. The results show that the `overall' period is well recovered for stars exhibiting low and moderate activity levels. Most teams reported values within 10% of the true value in 70% of the cases. There was, however, little correlation between the reported and simulated values of the differential rotation shear, suggesting that differential rotation studies based on full-disk light curves alone need to be treated with caution, at least for solar-type stars. The simulated light curves and associated parameters are available online for the community to test their own methods., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Accepted, 13 April 2015. Received, 26 March 2015; in original form, 9 November 2014

We performed a uniform and detailed abundance analysis of 12 refractory elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Ni, Co, Sc, Mn, and V) for a sample of 257 G- and K-type evolved stars from the CORALIE planet search program. To date, only one of these stars is known to harbor a planetary companion. We aimed to characterize this large sample of evolved stars in terms of chemical abundances and kinematics, thus setting a solid base for further analysis of planetary properties around giant stars. This sample, being homogeneously analyzed, can be used as a comparison sample for other planet-related studies, as well as for different type of studies related to stellar and Galaxy astrophysics. The abundances of the chemical elements were determined using an LTE abundance analysis relative to the Sun, with the spectral synthesis code MOOG and a grid of Kurucz ATLAS9 atmospheres. To separate the Galactic stellar populations both a purely kinematical approach and a chemical method were applied. We confirm the overabundance of Na in giant stars compared to the field FGK dwarfs. This enhancement might have a stellar evolutionary character, but departures from LTE may also produce a similar enhancement. Our chemical separation of stellar populations also suggests a "gap" in metallicity between the thick-disk and high-alpha metal-rich stars, as previously observed in dwarfs sample from HARPS. The present sample, as most of the giant star samples, also suffers from the B - V colour cut-off, which excludes low-log g stars with high metallicities, and high-logg star with low-[Fe/H]. For future studies of planet occurrence dependence on stellar metallicity around these evolved stars we suggest to use a sub-sample of stars in a "cut-rectangle" in the logg - [Fe/H] diagram to overcome the aforementioned issue., Comment: accepted to MNRAS

The study of stellar parameters of planet-hosting stars, such as metallicity and chemical abundances, help us to understand the theory of planet formation and stellar evolution. Here, we present a catalogue of accurate stellar atmospheric parameters and iron abundances for a sample of 257 K and G field evolved stars that are being surveyed for planets using precise radial--velocity measurements as part of the CORALIE programme to search for planets around giants. The analysis was done using a set of high--resolution and high--signal-to-noise Ultraviolet and Visible Echelle Spectrograph spectra. The stellar parameters were derived using Fe I and II ionization and excitation equilibrium methods. To take into account possible effects related to the choice of the lines on the derived parameters, we used three different iron line-list sets in our analysis, and the results differ among themselves by a small factor for most of stars. {For those stars with previous literature parameter estimates, we found very good agreement with our own values.} In the present catalogue we are providing new precise spectroscopic measurements of effective temperature, surface gravity, microturbulence, and metallicity for 190 stars for which it has not been found or published in previous articles., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication on MNRAS: Accepted 2015 January 26. Received 2015 January 20; in original form 2014 November 26

We analyzed the host stars of the present sample of confirmed planets detected by Kepler and Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) to compute new photometric rotation periods and to study the behavior of their angular momentum. Lomb-Scargle periodograms and wavelet maps were computed for 3,807 stars. For 540 of these stars, we were able to detect rotational modulation of the light curves at a significance level of greater than 99%. For 63 of these 540 stars, no rotation measurements were previously available in the literature. According to the published masses and evolutionary tracks of the stars in this sample, the sample is composed of M- to F-type stars (with masses of 0.48-1.53 M$_{\odot}$) with rotation periods that span a range of 2 to 89 days. These periods exhibit an excellent agreement with previously reported (for the stars for which such values are available), and the observed rotational period distribution strongly agrees with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, for the 540 sources considered here, the stellar angular momentum provides an important test of Kraft's relation based on the photometric rotation periods. Finally, this study directly contributes in a direct approach to our understanding of how angular momentum is distributed between the host star and its (detected) planetary system; the role of angular momentum exchange in such systems is an unavoidable piece of the stellar rotation puzzle., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

The dynamics of the interstellar medium (ISM) are strongly affected by turbulence, which shows increased anisotropy in the presence of a magnetic field. We expand upon the Esquivel & Lazarian method to estimate the Alfven Mach number using the structure function anisotropy in velocity centroid data from position-position-velocity maps. We utilize 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of fully developed turbulence, with a large range of sonic and Alfvenic Mach numbers, to produce synthetic observations of velocity centroids with observational characteristics such as thermal broadening, cloud boundaries, noise, and radiative transfer effects of carbon monoxide. In addition, we investigate how the resulting anisotropy-Alfven Mach number dependency found in Esquivel & Lazarian (2011) might change when taking the second moment of the position-position-velocity cube or when using different expressions to calculate the velocity centroids. We find that the degree of anisotropy is related primarily to the magnetic field strength (i.e. Alfven Mach number) and the line-of-sight orientation, with a secondary effect on sonic Mach number. If the line-of-sight is parallel to up to ~45 deg off of the mean field direction, the velocity centroid anisotropy is not prominent enough to distinguish different Alfvenic regimes. The observed anisotropy is not strongly affected by including radiative transfer, although future studies should include additional tests for opacity effects. These results open up the possibility of studying the magnetic nature of the ISM using statistical methods in addition to existing observational techniques.

Stellar variability in the near-infrared (NIR) remains largely unexplored. The exploitation of public science archives with data-mining methods offers a perspective for the time-domain exploration of the NIR sky. We perform a comprehensive search for stellar variability using the optical-NIR multi-band photometric data in the public Calibration Database of the WFCAM Science Archive (WSA), with the aim of contributing to the general census of variable stars, and to extend the current scarce inventory of accurate NIR light curves for a number of variable star classes. We introduce new variability indices designed for multi-band data with correlated sampling, and apply them for pre-selecting variable star candidates, i.e., light curves that are dominated by correlated variations, from noise-dominated ones. Pre-selection criteria are established by robust numerical tests for evaluating the response of variability indices to colored noise characteristic to the data. We find 275 periodic variable stars and an additional 44 objects with suspected variability with uncertain periods or apparently aperiodic variation. Only 44 of these objects had been previously known, including 11 RR~Lyrae stars in the outskirts of the globular cluster M3 (NGC~5272). We provide a preliminary classification of the new variable stars that have well-measured light curves, but the variability types of a large number of objects remain ambiguous. We classify most of the new variables as contact binary stars, but we also find several pulsating stars, among which 34 are probably new field RR~Lyrae and 3 are likely Cepheids. We also identify 32 highly reddened variable objects close to previously known dark nebulae, suggesting that these are embedded young stellar objects. We publish our results and all light-curve data as the WFCAM Variable Star Catalog., Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures

Aims. The wavelet transform has been used as a powerful tool for treating several problems in astrophysics. In this work, we show that the time-frequency analysis of stellar light curves using the wavelet transform is a practical tool for identifying rotation, magnetic activity, and pulsation signatures. We present the wavelet spectral composition and multiscale variations of the time series for four classes of stars: targets dominated by magnetic activity, stars with transiting planets, those with binary transits, and pulsating stars. Methods. We applied the Morlet wavelet (6th order), which offers high time and frequency resolution. By applying the wavelet transform to the signal, we obtain the wavelet local and global power spectra. The first is interpreted as energy distribution of the signal in time-frequency space, and the second is obtained by time integration of the local map. Results. Since the wavelet transform is a useful mathematical tool for nonstationary signals, this technique applied to Kepler and CoRoT light curves allows us to clearly identify particular signatures for different phenomena. In particular, patterns were identified for the temporal evolution of the rotation period and other periodicity due to active regions affecting these light curves. In addition, a beat-pattern signature in the local wavelet map of pulsating stars over the entire time span was also detected., Comment: Accepted for publication on A&A

We introduce a method of measuring a lower limit to the amplitude of surface differential rotation from high-precision, evenly sampled photometric time series. It is applied to main-sequence late-type stars whose optical flux modulation is dominated by starspots. An autocorrelation of the time series was used to select stars that allow an accurate determination of starspot rotation periods. A simple two-spot model was applied together with a Bayesian information criterion to preliminarily select intervals of the time series showing evidence of differential rotation with starspots of almost constant area. Finally, the significance of the differential rotation detection and a measurement of its amplitude and uncertainty were obtained by an a posteriori Bayesian analysis based on a Monte Carlo Markov Chain approach. We applied our method to the Sun and eight other stars for which previous spot modelling had been performed to compare our results with previous ones. We find that autocorrelation is a simple method for selecting stars with a coherent rotational signal that is a prerequisite for successfully measuring differential rotation through spot modelling. For a proper Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis, it is necessary to take the strong correlations among different parameters that exist in spot modelling into account. For the planet-hosting star Kepler-30, we derive a lower limit to the relative amplitude of the differential rotation of \Delta P / P = 0.0523 \pm 0.0016. We confirm that the Sun as a star in the optical passband is not suitable for measuring differential rotation owing to the rapid evolution of its photospheric active regions. In general, our method performs well in comparison to more sophisticated and time-consuming approaches., Comment: Accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysics, 15 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables and an Appendix