scholarly journals A search for circumstellar material around B-type stars in the Galactic halo

2002 ◽  
Vol 336 (4) ◽  
pp. 1147-1154 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. R. M. Magee ◽  
W. R. J. Rolleston ◽  
P. L. Dufton ◽  
F. P. Keenan ◽  
C. J. Mooney
1988 ◽  
Vol 132 ◽  
pp. 501-506
Author(s):  
C. Sneden ◽  
C. A. Pilachowski ◽  
K. K. Gilroy ◽  
J. J. Cowan

Current observational results for the abundances of the very heavy elements (Z>30) in Population II halo stars are reviewed. New high resolution, low noise spectra of many of these extremely metal-poor stars reveal general consistency in their overall abundance patterns. Below Galactic metallicities of [Fe/H] Ã −2, all of the very heavy elements were manufactured almost exclusively in r-process synthesis events. However, there is considerable star-to-star scatter in the overall level of very heavy element abundances, indicating the influence of local supernovas on element production in the very early, unmixed Galactic halo. The s-process appears to contribute substantially to stellar abundances only in stars more metal-rich than [Fe/H] Ã −2.


1987 ◽  
Vol 117 ◽  
pp. 490-490
Author(s):  
A. K. Drukier ◽  
K. Freese ◽  
D. N. Spergel

We consider the use of superheated superconducting colloids as detectors of weakly interacting galactic halo candidate particles (e.g. photinos, massive neutrinos, and scalar neutrinos). These low temperature detectors are sensitive to the deposition of a few hundreds of eV's. The recoil of a dark matter particle off of a superheated superconducting grain in the detector causes the grain to make a transition to the normal state. Their low energy threshold makes this class of detectors ideal for detecting massive weakly interacting halo particles.We discuss realistic models for the detector and for the galactic halo. We show that the expected count rate (≈103 count/day for scalar and massive neutrinos) exceeds the expected background by several orders of magnitude. For photinos, we expect ≈1 count/day, more than 100 times the predicted background rate. We find that if the detector temperature is maintained at 50 mK and the system noise is reduced below 5 × 10−4 flux quanta, particles with mass as low as 2 GeV can be detected. We show that the earth's motion around the Sun can produce a significant annual modulation in the signal.


Author(s):  
Alon Banet ◽  
Rennan Barkana ◽  
Anastasia Fialkov ◽  
Or Guttman

Abstract The epoch in which the first stars and galaxies formed is among the most exciting unexplored eras of the Universe. A major research effort is focused on probing this era with the 21-cm spectral line of hydrogen. While most research focuses on statistics like the 21-cm power spectrum or the sky-averaged global signal, there are other ways to analyze tomographic 21-cm maps, which may lead to novel insights. We suggest statistics based on quantiles as a method to probe non-Gaussianities of the 21-cm signal. We show that they can be used in particular to probe the variance, skewness, and kurtosis of the temperature distribution, but are more flexible and robust than these standard statistics. We test these statistics on a range of possible astrophysical models, including different galactic halo masses, star-formation efficiencies, and spectra of the X-ray heating sources, plus an exotic model with an excess early radio background. Simulating data with angular resolution and thermal noise as expected for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), we conclude that these statistics can be measured out to redshifts above 20 and offer a promising statistical method for probing early cosmic history.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-89
Author(s):  
Ulysses J. Sofia

Abstract The well measured gas-phase abundances in the low halo suggest that this region of the Galaxy has total (gas plus dust) metal abundances which are close to those in the solar neighborhood. The gas-phase abundances in the halo are generally higher than those seen in the disk, however, this affect is likely due to the destruction of dust in the halo clouds. Observations of high velocity clouds (HVCs) in the halo suggest that these clouds have metal abundances which are substantially lower than those measured for the local interstellar medium. These determinations, however, are often of lower quality than those for the low halo because of uncertainties in the hydrogen abundances along the sightlines, in the incorporation of elements into dust, and in the partial ionization of the clouds.


Author(s):  
Jorge Peñarrubia

Abstract This paper uses statistical and N-body methods to explore a new mechanism to form binary stars with extremely large separations (≳ 0.1 pc), whose origin is poorly understood. Here, ultra-wide binaries arise via chance entrapment of unrelated stars in tidal streams of disrupting clusters. It is shown that (i) the formation of ultra-wide binaries is not limited to the lifetime of a cluster, but continues after the progenitor is fully disrupted, (ii) the formation rate is proportional to the local phase-space density of the tidal tails, (iii) the semimajor axis distribution scales as p(a)da ∼ a1/2da at a ≪ D, where D is the mean interstellar distance, and (vi) the eccentricity distribution is close to thermal, p(e)de = 2ede. Owing to their low binding energies, ultra-wide binaries can be disrupted by both the smooth tidal field and passing substructures. The time-scale on which tidal fluctuations dominate over the mean field is inversely proportional to the local density of compact substructures. Monte-Carlo experiments show that binaries subject to tidal evaporation follow p(a)da ∼ a−1da at a ≳ apeak, known as Öpik’s law, with a peak semi-major axis that contracts with time as apeak ∼ t−3/4. In contrast, a smooth Galactic potential introduces a sharp truncation at the tidal radius, p(a) ∼ 0 at a ≳ rt. The scaling relations of young clusters suggest that most ultra-wide binaries arise from the disruption of low-mass systems. Streams of globular clusters may be the birthplace of hundreds of ultra-wide binaries, making them ideal laboratories to probe clumpiness in the Galactic halo.


Universe ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 233
Author(s):  
Ambra Nanni ◽  
Sergio Cristallo ◽  
Jacco Th. van Loon ◽  
Martin A. T. Groenewegen

Background: Most of the stars in the Universe will end their evolution by losing their envelope during the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase, enriching the interstellar medium of galaxies with heavy elements, partially condensed into dust grains formed in their extended circumstellar envelopes. Among these stars, carbon-rich TP-AGB stars (C-stars) are particularly relevant for the chemical enrichment of galaxies. We here investigated the role of the metallicity in the dust formation process from a theoretical viewpoint. Methods: We coupled an up-to-date description of dust growth and dust-driven wind, which included the time-averaged effect of shocks, with FRUITY stellar evolutionary tracks. We compared our predictions with observations of C-stars in our Galaxy, in the Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) and in the Galactic Halo, characterised by metallicity between solar and 1/10 of solar. Results: Our models explained the variation of the gas and dust content around C-stars derived from the IRS Spitzer spectra. The wind speed of the C-stars at varying metallicity was well reproduced by our description. We predicted the wind speed at metallicity down to 1/10 of solar in a wide range of mass-loss rates.


1997 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 725-726
Author(s):  
K.-W. Hodapp ◽  
E. F. Ladd

Stars in the earliest phases of their formation, i.e., those accreting the main component of their final mass, are deeply embedded within dense cores of dust and molecular material. Because of the high line-of-sight extinction and the large amount of circumstellar material, stellar emission is reprocessed by dust into long wavelength radiation, typically in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter bands. Consequently, the youngest sources are strong submillimeter continuum sources, and often undetectable as point sources in the near-infrared and optical. The most deeply embedded of these sources have been labelled “Class 0” sources by André, Ward-Thompson, & Barsony (1994), in an extension of the spectral energy distribution classification scheme first proposed by Adams, Lada, & Shu (1987).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document