Search

Although the study of X-ray binaries has led to major breakthroughs in high-energy astrophysics, their circumbinary environment at scales of ∼100–10,000 au has not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, we undertake a novel and exploratory study by employing direct and high-contrast imaging techniques on a sample of X-ray binaries, using adaptive optics and the vortex coronagraph on Keck/NIRC2. High-contrast imaging opens up the possibility to search for exoplanets, brown dwarfs, circumbinary companion stars, and protoplanetary disks in these extreme systems. Here we present the first near-infrared high-contrast images of 13 high-mass X-ray binaries located within ∼2–3 kpc. The key results of this campaign involve the discovery of several candidate circumbinary companions ranging from substellar (brown dwarf) to stellar masses. By conducting an analysis based on Galactic population models, we discriminate sources that are likely background/foreground stars and isolate those that have a high probability (≳60%–99%) of being gravitationally bound to the X-ray binary. This paper seeks to establish a preliminary catalog for future analyses of proper motion and subsequent observations. With our preliminary results, we calculate the first estimate of the companion frequency and the multiplicity frequency for X-ray binaries: ≈0.6 and 1.8 ± 0.9, respectively, considering only the sources that are most likely bound to the X-ray binary. In addition to extending our comprehension of how brown dwarfs and stars can form and survive in such extreme systems, our study opens a new window to our understanding of the formation of X-ray binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution spectroscopic characterization of young super-Jovian planets enables precise constraints on elemental and isotopic abundances of their atmospheres. As part of the ESO SupJup Survey, we present high-resolution spectral observations of two wide-orbit super-Jupiters in YSES 1 (or TYC 8998-760-1) using the upgraded VLT/CRIRES ^+ ( ${ \mathcal R }\,\sim \,\rm{100,000}$ ) in K -band. We carry out free atmospheric retrieval analyses to constrain chemical and isotopic abundances, temperature structures, rotation velocities ( $v\sin i$ ), and radial velocities. We confirm the previous detection of ^13 CO in YSES 1 b at a higher significance of 12.6 σ , but point to a higher ^12 CO/ ^13 CO ratio of 88 ± 13 (1 σ confidence interval), consistent with the primary’s isotope ratio 66 ± 5. We retrieve a solar-like composition in YSES 1 b with a C/O = 0.57 ± 0.01, indicating a formation via gravitational instability or core accretion beyond the CO iceline. Additionally, the observations lead to detections of H _2 O and CO in the outer planet YSES 1 c at 7.3 σ and 5.7 σ , respectively. We constrain the atmospheric C/O ratio of YSES 1 c to be either solar or subsolar (C/O = 0.36 ± 0.15), indicating the accretion of oxygen-rich solids. The two companions have distinct $v\sin i$ , 5.34 ± 0.14 km s ^−1 for YSES 1 b and 11.3 ± 2.1 km s ^−1 for YSES 1 c, despite their similar natal environments. This may indicate different spin axis inclinations or effective magnetic braking by the long-lived circumplanetary disk around YSES 1 b. YSES 1 represents an intriguing system for comparative studies of super-Jovian companions and linking present atmospheres to formation histories.

Massive stars are recognized for their high degree of multiplicity, yet the mass ratio regime below 0.1 remains insufficiently explored. It is therefore unknown whether extremely low-mass (possibly substellar) companions can form and survive in the direct UV-irradiated environment of massive stars. In this paper, we discuss Very Large Telescope/Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch integral field spectrograph (0.″15–0.″85) observations of six massive O- and early B-type stars in Sco OB1 and M17 that each have a low-mass candidate companion (CC). Two targets have companions that are brown dwarf candidates. The other four have CCs in the low end of the stellar mass regime (≤0.30 M _⊙ ). For three of these, we have obtained a second epoch observation. At least two sources exhibit similar proper motion to that of their central star. However, given the expected proper motion of background objects, this does not imply certain companionship. We show how future follow-up observations of the brown dwarf CCs in the J , H , and L bands should allow for an unambiguous confirmation of their nature.

We present an atmospheric retrieval analysis on a set of young, cloudy, red L dwarfs—CWISER J124332.12+600126.2 (BD+60 1417B) and WISEP J004701.06+680352.1 (W0047)—using the Brewster retrieval framework. We also present the first elemental abundance measurements of the young K-dwarf (K0) host star, BD+60 1417, using high-resolution ( R = 50,000) spectra taken with the Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope. In the complex cloudy L-dwarf regime the emergence of condensate cloud species complicates retrieval analysis when only near-infrared data are available. We find that for both L dwarfs in this work, despite testing three different thermal profile parameterizations we are unable to constrain reliable abundance measurements and thus the carbon-to-oxygen ratio. While we cannot conclude what the abundances are, we can conclude that the data strongly favor a cloud model over a cloudless model. We note that the difficulty in retrieval constraints persists regardless of the signal-to-noise ratio of the data examined (S/N ∼ 10 for CWISER BD+60 1417B and 40 for WISEP W0047). The results presented in this work provide valuable lessons about retrieving young, low-surface-gravity cloudy L dwarfs. This work provides continued evidence of missing information in models and the crucial need for JWST to guide and inform retrieval analysis in this regime.

Young, self-luminous super-Jovian companions discovered by direct imaging provide a challenging test for planet formation and evolution theories. By spectroscopically characterizing the atmospheric compositions of these super-Jupiters, we can constrain their formation histories. Here we present studies of the recently discovered HIP 99770 b, a 16 M _Jup high-contrast companion on a 17 au orbit, using the fiber-fed high-resolution spectrograph KPIC ( ${ \mathcal R }$ ∼ 35,000) on the Keck II telescope. Our K -band observations led to detections of H _2 O and CO in the atmosphere of HIP 99770 b. We carried out free retrieval analyses using petitRADTRANS to measure its chemical abundances, including the metallicity and C/O ratio, projected rotation velocity ( $v\sin i$ ), and radial velocity (RV). We found that the companion’s atmosphere has C/O $=\,{0.55}_{-0.04}^{+0.06}$ and [M/H] $=\,{0.26}_{-0.23}^{+0.24}$ (1 σ confidence intervals), values consistent with those of the Sun and with a companion formation via gravitational instability or core accretion. The projected rotation velocity $v\sin (i)\lt 7.8$ km s ^−1 is small relative to other directly imaged companions with similar masses and ages. This may imply a nearly pole-on orientation or effective magnetic braking by a circumplanetary disk. In addition, we added the companion-to-primary relative RV measurement to the orbital fitting and obtained updated constraints on orbital parameters. Detailed characterization of super-Jovian companions within 20 au like HIP 99770 b is critical for understanding the formation histories of this population.

Recent observations have confirmed circumplanetary disks (CPDs) embedded in parental protoplanetary disks (PPDs). On the other hand, planetary-mass companions and planetary-mass objects (PMOs) are likely to harbor their own accretion disks. Unlike PPDs, CPDs and other disks around planet analogs are generally too compact to be spatially resolved by current instrumentation. In this study, we generate over 4000 spectral energy distributions of circum-PMO disks (CPMODs) with various host temperature and disk properties, which can be categorized into four prototypes, i.e., full, pretransitional, transitional, and evolved CPMODs. We propose a classification scheme based on their near-to-mid-infrared colors. Using those CPMOD models, we synthesize JWST (NIRCam and MIRI) photometry for F444W, F1000W, and F2550W wide filters. We show that F444W−F1000W and F444−F2550W colors can be applied to distinguish different types of CPMODs, especially for those around hot hosts. Our results indicate that the ongoing and future JWST observations are promising to unveil structures and properties of CPMODs.

We present the discovery of TOI-1994b, a low-mass brown dwarf transiting a hot subgiant star on a moderately eccentric orbit. TOI-1994 has an effective temperature of ${7700}_{-410}^{+720}$ K, V magnitude of 10.51 mag and log( g ) of ${3.982}_{-0.065}^{+0.067}$ . The brown dwarf has a mass of ${22.1}_{-2.5}^{+2.6}$ M _J , a period of 4.034 days, an eccentricity of ${0.341}_{-0.059}^{+0.054}$ , and a radius of ${1.220}_{-0.071}^{+0.082}$ R _J . TOI-1994b is more eccentric than other transiting brown dwarfs with similar masses and periods. The population of low-mass brown dwarfs may have properties similar to planetary systems if they were formed in the same way, but the short orbital period and high eccentricity of TOI-1994b may contrast this theory. An evolved host provides a valuable opportunity to understand the influence stellar evolution has on the substellar companion’s fundamental properties. With precise age, mass, and radius, the global analysis and characterization of TOI-1994b augments the small number of transiting brown dwarfs and allows the testing of substellar evolution models.

Young, low-mass brown dwarfs orbiting early-type stars, with low mass ratios ( q ≲ 0.01), appear to be intrinsically rare and present a formation dilemma: could a handful of these objects be the highest-mass outcomes of “planetary” formation channels (bottom up within a protoplanetary disk), or are they more representative of the lowest-mass “failed binaries” (formed via disk fragmentation or core fragmentation)? Additionally, their orbits can yield model-independent dynamical masses, and when paired with wide wavelength coverage and accurate system age estimates, can constrain evolutionary models in a regime where the models have a wide dispersion depending on the initial conditions. We present new interferometric observations of the 16 Myr substellar companion HD 136164 Ab (HIP 75056 Ab) made with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI)/GRAVITY and an updated orbit fit including proper motion measurements from the Hipparcos–Gaia Catalog of Accelerations. We estimate a dynamical mass of 35 ± 10 M _J ( q ∼ 0.02), making HD 136164 Ab the youngest substellar companion with a dynamical mass estimate. The new mass and newly constrained orbital eccentricity ( e = 0.44 ± 0.03) and separation (22.5 ± 1 au) could indicate that the companion formed via the low-mass tail of the initial mass function. Our atmospheric fit to a SPHINX M-dwarf model grid suggests a subsolar C/O ratio of 0.45 and 3 × solar metallicity, which could indicate formation in a circumstellar disk via disk fragmentation. Either way, the revised mass estimate likely excludes bottom-up formation via core accretion in a circumstellar disk. HD 136164 Ab joins a select group of young substellar objects with dynamical mass estimates; epoch astrometry from future Gaia data releases will constrain the dynamical mass of this crucial object further.

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 δ Sct, γ Dor, RR Lyrae and Cepheid among TOI pulsators. The analysis reveals two stars with signatures of δ Sct and one of γ 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.

We present 1–5 μ m spectroscopy of the young planetary mass companion TWA 27B (2M1207B) performed with NIRSpec on board the James Webb Space Telescope. In these data, the fundamental band of CH _4 is absent, and the fundamental band of CO is weak. The nondetection of CH _4 reinforces a previously observed trend of weaker CH _4 with younger ages among L dwarfs, which has been attributed to enhanced nonequilibrium chemistry among young objects. The weakness of CO may reflect an additional atmospheric property that varies with age, such as the temperature gradient or cloud thickness. We are able to reproduce the broad shape of the spectrum with an ATMO cloudless model that has T _eff = 1300 K, nonequilibrium chemistry, and a temperature gradient reduction caused by fingering convection. However, the fundamental bands of CH _4 and CO are somewhat stronger in the model. In addition, the model temperature of 1300 K is higher than expected from evolutionary models given the luminosity and age of TWA 27B ( T _eff = 1200 K). Previous models of young L-type objects suggest that the inclusion of clouds could potentially resolve these issues; it remains to be seen whether cloudy models can provide a good fit to the 1–5 μ m data from NIRSpec. TWA 27B exhibits emission in Paschen transitions and the He I triplet at 1.083 μ m, which are signatures of accretion that provide the first evidence of a circumstellar disk. We have used the NIRSpec data to estimate the bolometric luminosity of TWA 27B (log L / L _⊙ = −4.466 ± 0.014), which implies a mass of 5–6 M _Jup according to evolutionary models.

While secondary mass inferences based on single-lined spectroscopic binary (SB1) solutions are subject to $\sin i$ degeneracies, this degeneracy can be lifted through the observations of eclipses. We combine the subset of Gaia Data Release 3 SB1 solutions consistent with brown dwarf-mass secondaries with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Object of Interest (TOI) list to identify three candidate transiting brown dwarf systems. Ground-based precision radial velocity follow-up observations confirm that TOI-2533.01 is a transiting brown dwarf with $M={72}_{-3}^{+3}\,{M}_{\mathrm{Jup}}={0.069}_{-0.003}^{+0.003}\,{M}_{\odot }$ orbiting TYC 2010-124-1 and that TOI-5427.01 is a transiting very low-mass star with $M={93}_{-2}^{+2}\,{M}_{\mathrm{Jup}}={0.088}_{-0.002}^{+0.002}\,{M}_{\odot }$ orbiting UCAC4 515-012898. We validate TOI-1712.01 as a very low-mass star with $M={82}_{-7}^{+7}\,{M}_{\mathrm{Jup}}={0.079}_{-0.007}^{+0.007}\,{M}_{\odot }$ transiting the primary in the hierarchical triple system BD+45 1593. Even after accounting for third light, TOI-1712.01 has a radius nearly a factor of 2 larger than predicted for isolated stars with similar properties. We propose that the intense instellation experienced by TOI-1712.01 diminishes the temperature gradient near its surface, suppresses convection, and leads to its inflated radius. Our analyses verify Gaia DR3 SB1 solutions in the low Doppler semiamplitude limit, thereby providing the foundation for future joint analyses of Gaia radial velocities and Kepler, K2, TESS, and PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations light curves for the characterization of transiting massive brown dwarfs and very low-mass stars.

The HR 2562 system is a rare case where a brown dwarf companion resides in a cleared inner hole of a debris disk, offering invaluable opportunities to study the dynamical interaction between a substellar companion and a dusty disk. We present the first ALMA observation of the system as well as the continued Gemini Planet Imager monitoring of the companion’s orbit with six new epochs from 2016 to 2018. We update the orbital fit, and in combination with absolute astrometry from GAIA, place a 3 σ upper limit of 18.5 M _J on the companion’s mass. To interpret the ALMA observations, we used radiative transfer modeling to determine the disk properties. We find that the disk is well resolved and nearly edge-on. While the misalignment angle between the disk and the orbit is weakly constrained, due to the short orbital arc available, the data strongly support a (near) coplanar geometry for the system. Furthermore, we find that the models that describe the ALMA data best have inner radii that are close to the companion’s semimajor axis. Including a posteriori knowledge of the system’s SED further narrows the constraints on the disk’s inner radius and places it at a location that is in reasonable agreement with (possibly interior to) predictions from existing dynamical models of disk truncation by an interior substellar companion. HR 2562 has the potential over the next few years to become a new test bed for dynamical interaction between a debris disk and a substellar companion.

We describe a new catalog of accelerating star candidates with Gaia G ≤ 17.5 mag and distances d ≤ 100 pc. Designated as the Gaia Nearby Accelerating Star Catalog (GNASC), it contains 29,684 members identified using a supervised machine-learning algorithm trained on the Hipparcos–Gaia Catalog of Accelerations (HGCA), Gaia Data Release 2, and Gaia Early Data Release 3. We take advantage of the difference in observation timelines between the two Gaia catalogs and information about the quality of the astrometric modeling based on the premise that acceleration will correlate with astrometric uncertainties. Catalog membership is based on whether constant proper motion over three decades can be ruled out at high confidence (greater than 99.9%). Test data suggest that catalog members each have a 68% likelihood of true astrometric acceleration; subsets of the catalog perform even better, with the likelihood exceeding 85%. We compare the GNASC with Gaia Data Release 3 and its table of stars for which acceleration is detected at high confidence based on precise astrometric fits. Our catalog, derived without this information, captures over 96% of the sources in the table that meet our selection criteria. In addition, the GNASC contains bright, nearby candidates that were not in the original Hipparcos survey, including members of known binary systems as well as stars with companions yet to be identified. It thus extends the HGCA and demonstrates the potential of the machine-learning approach for discovering hidden partners of nearby stars in future astrometric surveys.