Aims. The intensity profiles of the C_2 Swan bands in cool DQ white dwarfs cannot be adequately fitted with models that otherwise succesfully reproduce spectral features of the molecule CH in these stars. Initial modelling showed that a two-component atmosphere in the style of a spot might be able to solve the problem.
Methods. We photometrically observed the two cool DQ white dwarfs GJ1117 and EGGR78 to search for variability caused by stellar spots.
Results. We have not found any such variability, but we estimate the effects of hypothetical spots on lightcurves. We also estimate detection probabilities for spots in different configurations. Alternative explanations of the problem are needed and briefly discussed.
Classical main-sequence chemically peculiar stars show light variability that originates in surface abundance spots. In the spots, the flux redistribution due to line (bound-bound) and bound-free transitions is modulated by stellar rotation and leads to light variability. White dwarfs and hot subdwarfs may also have surface abundance spots either owing to the elemental diffusion or as a result of accretion of debris. We model the light variability of typical white dwarfs and hot subdwarfs that results from putative surface abundance spots. We show that the spots with radiatively supported iron…
Long-term stability of spotted regions and the activity-induced Rossiter-McLaughlin effect on V889 Herculis. A synergy of photometry, radial velocity measurements, and Doppler imaging
The upcoming NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will obtain space-based uninterrupted light curves for a large sample of bright white dwarfs distributed across the entire sky, providing a very rich resource for asteroseismological studies and the search for transits from planetary debris. We have compiled an all-sky catalogue of ultraviolet, optical, and infrared photometry as well as proper motions, which we propose as an essential tool for the preliminary identification and characterisation of potential targets. We present data for 1864 known white dwarfs and 305 high-probabil…
With the prevalence of wide-field, time-domain photometric sky surveys, the number of eclipsing white dwarf systems being discovered is increasing dramatically. An efficient method to follow these up will be key to determining any population trends and finding any particularly interesting examples. We demonstrate that multi-band eclipse photometry of binaries containing a white dwarf and an M~dwarf can be used to determine the masses and temperatures of the white dwarfs to better than 5 per cent. For the M~dwarfs we measure their parameters to a precision of better than 6 per cent with the unc…
We present 16 new, and confirm 7 previously identified, DA white dwarfs in the Kepler field through ground-based spectroscopy with the Hale 200", Kitt Peak 4-meter, and Bok 2.3-meter telescopes. Using atmospheric models we determine their effective temperatures and surface gravities to constrain their position with respect to the ZZ Ceti (DA pulsator) instability strip, and look for the presence or absence of pulsation with Kepler's unprecedented photometry. Our results are as follows: i) From our measurements of temperature and surface gravity, 12 of the 23 DA white dwarfs from this work fall…
Among the spectroscopically identified white dwarfs, a fraction smaller than 2% have spectra dominated by carbon lines, mainly molecular C2, but also in a smaller group by CI and CII lines. These are together called DQ white dwarfs. We want to derive atmospheric parameters Teff,log g, and carbon abundances for a large sample of these stars and discuss implications for their spectral evolution. Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectra and ugriz photometry were used, together with GAIA Data Release 2 parallaxes and G band photometry. These were fitted to synthetic spectra and theoretical photometry deri…
Doppler imaging combined with high-cadence photometry. I. Revisiting the surface of a pre-main-sequence flare star
Kyoto University（京都大学）；Ankara University（安卡拉大学）；Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung（马克斯·普朗克太阳系研究所）；Hitotsubashi University（一桥大学）；The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University（京都大学哈库比高级研究中心）；NASA Goddard Space Flight Center（美国国家航空航天局戈达德太空飞行中心）；The Catholic University of America（美利坚天主教大学）；National Astronomical Observatory of Japan（日本国立天文台）；Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory, University of Hyogo（兵库县立西播磨天文台）
State of the art radial velocity (RV) exoplanet searches are limited by the effects of stellar magnetic activity. Magnetically active spots, plage, and network regions each have different impacts on the observed spectral lines, and therefore on the apparent stellar RV. Differentiating the relative coverage, or filling factors, of these active regions is thus necessary to differentiate between activity-driven RV signatures and Doppler shifts due to planetary orbits. In this work, we develop a technique to estimate feature-specific magnetic filling factors on stellar targets using only spectrosc…
The unique binary AR Scorpii consists of an asynchronously rotating, magnetized white dwarf (WD) that interacts with its red-dwarf companion to produce a large-amplitude, highly coherent pulsation every 1.97 minutes. Over the course of two years, we obtained thirty-nine hours of time-resolved, optical photometry of AR Sco at a typical cadence of 5 seconds to study this pulsation. We find that it undergoes significant changes across the binary orbital period and that its amplitude, phase, and waveform all vary as a function of orbital phase. We show that these variations can be explained by con…
We present optical high-speed photometry of three millisecond pulsars with low-mass ($< 0.3 M_{\odot}$) white dwarf companions, bringing the total number of such systems with follow-up time-series photometry to five. We confirm the detection of pulsations in one system, the white dwarf companion to PSR J1738+0333, and show that the pulsation frequencies and amplitudes are variable over many months. A full asteroseismic analysis for this star is under-constrained, but the mode periods we observe are consistent with expectations for a $M_{\star} = 0.16 - 0.19 M_{\odot}$ white dwarf, as suggested…
Extensive photometry of the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova V455 And (HS2331+3905): detection of negative superhumps and coherence features of the short-period oscillations
BlackGEM observations of compact pulsating stars: Mode identification for the DOV PG 1159-035 using multi-colour photometry
Radboud University（拉德堡德大学）；KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik（马克斯·普朗克天体物理学研究所）；University of Cape Town（开普敦大学）；South African Astronomical Observatory（南非天文台）；The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, University of Cape Town（开普敦大学数据密集型天文学跨大学研究所）；Hamburger Sternwarte, University of Hamburg（汉堡大学汉堡天文台）；Texas Tech University（德克萨斯理工大学）
Magnetic B-type stars exhibit photometric variability due to diverse causes, and consequently on a variety of timescales. In this paper we describe interpretation of BRITE photometry and related ground-based observations of 4 magnetic B-type systems: $ε$ Lupi, $τ$ Sco, a Cen and $ε$ CMa.
We present analysis of the starspot properties and chromospheric activity on HD 134319 using high precision photometry by TESS in sectors 14-16 (T1), 21-23 (T2) and high-resolution spectroscopy by OHP/ELODIE and Keck/HIRES during years 1995-2013. We applied a two-spot model with GLS determined period $P=4.436391\pm0.00137$ day to model chunks sliding over TESS light curve, and measured relative equivalent widths of Ca II H and K, H$β$ and H$α$ emissions by subtracting overall spectrum from individual spectrum. It was found that a two-spot configuration, i.e. a primary, slowly evolving and long…
We identify a likely member of the NGC 752 open cluster (based on Gaia DR2 proper motions and parallax) having photometry consistent with being a white dwarf and a relatively low-mass main sequence star. If confirmed, this would be the first white dwarf known in this nearby cluster, and the brightest.
Regular spaceborne measurements have revealed that solar brightness varies on multiple timescales, variations on timescales greater than a day being attributed to surface magnetic field. Independently, ground-based and spaceborne measurements suggest that Sun-like stars show a similar, but significantly broader pattern of photometric variability. To understand whether the broader pattern of stellar variations is consistent with the solar paradigm we assess relative contributions of faculae and spots to solar magnetically-driven brightness variability. We investigate how the solar brightness va…
We have established a network of 19 faint (16.5 mag $< V < $19 mag) northern and equatorial DA white dwarfs as spectrophotometric standards for present and future wide-field observatories. Our analysis infers SED models for the stars that are tied to the three CALSPEC primary standards. Our SED models are consistent with panchromatic Hubble Space Telescope ($HST$) photometry to better than 1%. The excellent agreement between observations and models validates the use of non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium (NLTE) DA white dwarf atmospheres extinguished by interstellar dust as accurate spectropho…
We present photometry and spectroscopy for 27 pulsating hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarfs (DAVs, a.k.a. ZZ Ceti stars) observed by the Kepler space telescope up to K2 Campaign 8, an extensive compilation of observations with unprecedented duration (>75 days) and duty cycle (>90%). The space-based photometry reveals pulsation properties previously inaccessible to ground-based observations. We observe a sharp dichotomy in oscillation mode linewidths at roughly 800 s, such that white dwarf pulsations with periods exceeding 800 s have substantially broader mode linewidths, more reminiscent of a dam…
We present optical photometry of the cataclysmic variable LAMOST J024048.51+195226.9 taken with the high-speed, five-band CCD camera HiPERCAM on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). We detect pulsations originating from the spin of its white dwarf, finding a spin period of 24.9328(38)s. The pulse amplitude is of the order of 0.2% in the g-band, below the detection limits of previous searches. This detection establishes LAMOST J024048.51+195226.9 as only the second white dwarf magnetic propeller system, a twin of its long-known predecessor, AE Aquarii. At 24.93s, the white dwarf in LAMOST…
We analyze long-cadence Kepler K2 observations of AR Sco from 2014, along with survey photometry obtained between 2005 and 2016 by the Catalina Real-Time Sky Survey and the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae. The K2 data show the orbital modulation to have been fairly stable during the 78 days of observations, but we detect aperiodic deviations from the average waveform with an amplitude of ~2% on a timescale of a few days. A comparison of the K2 data with the survey photometry reveals that the orbital waveform gradually changed between 2005 and 2010, with the orbital maximum shifting to …
Quantifying the Transit Light Source Effect: Measurements of Spot Temperature and Coverage on the Photosphere of AU Microscopii with High-Resolution Spectroscopy and Multi-Color Photometry
OB stars exhibit various types of spectral variability historically associated with wind structures, including the apparently ubiquitous discrete absorption components (DACs). These features have been proposed to be caused either by magnetic fields or non-radial pulsations. In this second paper of this series, we revisit the canonical phenomenological hydrodynamical modelling used to explain the formation of DACs by taking into account modern observations and more realistic theoretical predictions. Using constraints on putative bright spots located on the surface of the O giant $ξ$ Persei deri…
We present the findings about chromospheric activity nature of KOI-256 obtained from the Kepler Mission data. Firstly, it was found that there are some sinusoidal variations out-of-eclipses due to cool spot activity. The sinusoidal variations modelled by the SPOTMODEL program indicate that the active component has two different active regions. Their longitudinal variation revealed that one of them has a migration period of 3.95 years, while the other has a migration period of 8.37 years. Secondly, 225 flares were detected from the short cadence data in total. The parameters, such as increase (…
We report the discovery of a magnetic white dwarf which shows periodic variability with P=110 min, color-dependent amplitudes and a transient phase shift in the blue compared to the red lightcurve - a previously unknown type of variability for this type of object. We attribute the variations either to a close ultracool (thus far undetected) companion or, more likely, to magnetic spots with unusual temperature structure.
We present precise photometry and spectroscopy for 23 candidate spectrophotometric standard white dwarfs. The selected stars are distributed in the Northern hemisphere and around the celestial equators and are all fainter than r ~ 16.5 mag. This network of stars, when established as standards, together with the three Hubble Space Telescope primary CALSPEC white dwarfs, will provide a set of spectrophotometric standards to directly calibrate data products to better than 1%. These new faint standard white dwarfs will have enough signal-to-noise ratio in future deep photometric surveys and facili…
In this paper, we present the results from spectroscopic and photometric observations of the M-type flare star YZ CMi in the framework of the Optical and Infrared Synergetic Telescopes for Education and Research (OISTER) collaborations during the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observation period. We detected 145 white-light flares from the TESS light curve and 4 H$α$ flares from the OISTER observations performed between 2019-01-16 and 2019-01-18. Among them, 3 H$α$ flares were associated with white-light flares. However, one of them did not show clear brightening in continuum; du…
High-precision time series have recently become available for many stars as a result of data from CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS and have been widely used to study stellar activity. They provide information integrated over the stellar disk, hence many degeneracies between spots and plages or sizes and contrasts. Our aim is to understand how to relate photometric variability to physical parameters in order to help the interpretation of these observations. We computed a large number of synthetic time series of brightness variations for old MS stars within the F6-K4 range, using consistent modeling for …
White dwarfs in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey: The Substellar Companion Fraction
我们提出了一个近红外测光搜索未解决的亚恒星同伴和碎片盘周围的白矮星在UKIRT红外深空大面积调查。我们交叉相关SDSS DR 4和McCook & Sion目录的白矮星与UKIDSS DR 8生产3109和163个独特的匹配分别。冷却模型适用于DA白矮星子样本的光学测光，并推广到近红外。然后与观测到的测光进行比较，以确定那些具有与冷伴星或碎片盘的存在相一致的近红外过量的恒星。在存在的地方，我们已经估计了任何假定的伴星的近似光谱类型，或者碎片盘温度的上限。我们总共确认了14-16个新的候选白矮星+极低质量恒星系统，9-11个候选白矮星+棕矮星系统，3个候选白矮星+碎片盘。我们对所有DA白矮星的未解决（<2英寸）伴星设定了下限，从而评估UKIDSS对此类物体的敏感性。我们使用该结果来估计f（WD+dL）>0.4+/-0.3%，f（WD+dT）>0.2%和f（WD+BD）>0.5+/-0.3%的未分辨二元分数。
