We have determined new statistical relations to estimate the fundamental atmospheric parameters of effective temperature and surface gravity, using MK spectral classification, and vice versa. The relations were constructed based on the published calibration tables (for main sequence stars) and observational data from stellar spectral atlases (for giants and supergiants). These new relations were applied to field giants with known atmospheric parameters, and the results of the comparison of our estimations with available spectral classification had been quite satisfactory.
$Context.$ Pulsating stars are windows to the physics of stars enabling us to see glimpses of their interior. Not all stars pulsate, however. On the main sequence, pulsating stars form an almost continuous sequence in brightness, except for a magnitude range between $δ$ Scuti and slowly pulsating B stars. Against all expectations, 36 periodic variables were discovered in 2013 in this luminosity range in the open cluster NGC 3766, the origins of which was a mystery. $Aims.$ We investigate the properties of those new variability class candidates in relation to their stellar rotation rates and st…
Winds of AGB stars are thought to be driven by a combination of pulsation-induced shock waves and radiation pressure on dust. In dynamic atmosphere and wind models, the stellar pulsation is often simulated by prescribing a simple sinusoidal variation in velocity and luminosity at the inner boundary of the model atmosphere. We experiment with different forms of the luminosity variation in order to assess the effects on the wind velocity and mass-loss rate, when progressing from the simple sinusoidal recipe towards more realistic descriptions. Using state-of-the-art dynamical models of C-rich AG…
Radiation-driven winds of hot luminous stars XVII. Parameters of selected central stars of PN from consistent optical and UV spectral analysis and the universality of the mass-luminosity relation
We show that for a wide range of stellar masses, from 0.3 to 20 Msun, and for evolutionary phases from the main sequence to the beginning of the red giant stage, the stellar flux weighted gravity, g_F ~ g/Teff^4, is tightly correlated with absolute bolometric magnitude Mbol. Such a correlation is predicted by stellar evolution theory. We confirm this relation observationally, using a sample of 445 stars with precise stellar parameters. It holds over 17 stellar magnitudes from Mbol = 9.0 mag to -8.0 mag with a scatter of 0.17 mag above Mbol = -3.0 and 0.29 mag below this value. We then test the…
We construct a scenario where the outburst of the young-stellar-object ASASSN-15qi is an intermediate luminosity optical transient (ILOT). In this scenario a sub-Jupiter young planet was tidally destructed on to a young main-sequence star. The system is young, therefore the radius of the planet is larger than its final value, and consequently its density is smaller. The lower density allows the tidal destruction of the young Saturn-like planet on to the main-sequence star of mass $\approx 2.4~\rm{M_\odot}$, resulting in a formation of a disc and a gravitationally-powered ILOT. Unlike the case …
Asteroseismic Modeling of 1,153 Kepler Red Giant Branch Stars: Improved Stellar Parameters with Gravity-Mode Period Spacings and Luminosity Constraints
(abridged) The flux-weighted gravity-luminosity relationship (FGLR) of blue supergiant stars (BSG) links their absolute magnitude to the spectroscopically determined flux-weighted gravity log g = Teff^4. BSG are the brightest stars in the universe at visual light and the application of the FGLR has become a powerful tool to determine extragalactic distances. Observationally, the FGLR is a tight relationship with only small scatter. It is, therefore, ideal to be used as a constraint for stellar evolution models. The goal of this work is to investigate whether stellar evolution can reproduce the…
Artificially increasing the luminosity and the thermal diffusivity of a model is a common tactic adopted in hydrodynamical simulations of stellar convection. In this work, we analyse the impact of these artificial modifications on the physical properties of stellar interiors and specifically on internal gravity waves. We perform two-dimensional simulations of solar-like stars with the MUSIC code. We compare three models with different luminosity enhancement factors to a reference model. The results confirm that properties of the waves are impacted by the artificial enhancement of the luminosit…
We have compared the star-formation properties of the W49A and W51 regions by using far-infrared data from the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey (Hi-GAL) and 850-um observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) to obtain luminosities and masses, respectively, of associated compact sources. The former are infrared luminosities from the catalogue of Elia et al. (2017), while the latter are from the JCMT Plane survey source catalogue as well as measurements from new data. The clump-mass distributions of the two regions are found to be consistent with each other, as are the clum…
We have analyzed the retrieval of the relation between mass and absolute Gaia G magnitude as obtained from theoretical models by \cite{2012MNRAS.427..127B} for the stars of different luminosity classes. For subgiant and main-sequence stars, we provide approximate analytical direct and inverse relations based on the most probable value of G magnitude in the course of evolution within the given stage. A comparison with (albeit few) observational data confirms that our results can be used for the estimation of the stellar mass from Gaia photometry in the range of 1 to 10 solar mass. We argue that…
We derive semi-analytic solutions for optically thick, super-Eddington stellar winds, induced by an assumed steady energy addition $Δ{\dot E}$ concentrated around a near-surface heating radius $R$ in a massive star of central luminosity $L_\ast$. We show that obtaining steady wind solutions requires both that the resulting total luminosity $L_o = L_\ast + Δ{\dot E}$ exceed the Eddington luminosity, $Γ_o \equiv L_o/L_{Edd} > 1$, and that the induced mass loss rate be such that the "photon-tiring" parameter $m \equiv {\dot M} GM/R L_o \le 1-1/Γ_o$, ensuring the luminosity is sufficient to overco…
Millimeter observations of CO gas in planetesimal belts show a high detection rate around A stars, but few detections for later type stars. We present the first CO detection in a planetesimal belt around an M star, TWA 7. The optically thin CO (J=3-2) emission is co-located with previously identified dust emission from the belt, and the emission velocity structure is consistent with Keplerian rotation around the central star. The detected CO is not well shielded against photodissociation, and must thus be continuously replenished by gas release from exocomets within the belt. We analyze in det…
A pioneering study showed that the fine structure in the luminosity function (LF) of young star clusters contains information about the evolutionary stage (age) and composition of the stellar population. The notable features include the H-peak, which is the result of the onset of hydrogen burning turning pre-main sequence stars into main sequence stars. The feature moves toward the faint end of the LF, and eventually disappears as the population evolves. Another detectable feature is the Wielen dip, a dip at M_V ~ 7 mag in the LF first identified in 1974 for stars in the solar environment. Lat…
We present a library of empirical stellar spectra created using spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The templates cover spectral types O5 through L3, are binned by metallicity from -2.0 dex through +1.0 dex and are separated into main sequence (dwarf) stars and giant stars. With recently developed M dwarf metallicity indicators, we are able to extend the metallicity bins down through the spectral subtype M8, making this the first empirical library with this degree of temperature \emph{and} metallicity coverage. The wavelength coverage for…
We present a survey for water maser emission toward a sample of 44 low-luminosity young objects, comprising (proto-)brown dwarfs, first hydrostatic cores (FHCs), and other young stellar objects (YSOs) with bolometric luminosities lower than 0.4 L$_\odot$. Water maser emission is a good tracer of energetic processes, such as mass-loss and/or accretion, and is a useful tool to study this processes with very high angular resolution. This type of emission has been confirmed in objects with L$_{\rm bol}\ge 1$ L$_\odot$. Objects with lower luminosities also undergo mass-loss and accretion, and thus,…
Space weather plays an important role in the evolution of planetary atmospheres. Observations have shown that stellar flares emit energy in a wide energy range (10^30-10^38 ergs), a fraction of which lies in X-rays and extreme ultraviolet (XUV). These flares heat the upper atmosphere of a planet, leading to increased escape rates, and can result in atmospheric erosion over a period of time. Observations also suggest that primordial terrestrial planets can accrete voluminous H/He envelopes. Stellar radiation can erode these protoatmospheres over time, and the extent of this erosion has implicat…
College of Science, China Three Gorges University(三峡大学理学院);Center for Astronomy and Space Sciences, China Three Gorges University(三峡大学天文与空间科学中心);Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology(斯威本科技大学天体物理与超级计算中心);School of Science, Hangzhou Dianzi University(杭州电子科技大学理学院);Big Data Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University(杭州电子科技大学大数据研究院);Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University(上海交通大学物理与天文学院天文学系);Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MOE) / Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology(粒子天体物理与宇宙学教育部重点实验室 / 上海粒子物理与宇宙学重点实验室);CAS Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院国家天文台光学天文重点实验室);Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University(北京师范大学天文与前沿科学研究院)
Using the Riebel et al. (2012) data set for 6,889 pulsating AGB stars in the LMC, we have derived formulae for mass-loss rate as a function of luminosity and pulsation period or luminosity and mass in three ways, for each of five subsets of data: fundamental mode oxygen rich stars, first overtone mode oxygen rich stars stars, fundamental mode carbon stars, first overtone mode carbon stars, and extreme carbon stars. Using the distribution of the stars in period versus luminosity and mass versus luminosity, we are able to derive a power-law fit to the dependence of mass-loss rate on those quanti…
The nature of very low luminosity objects with the internal luminosity L_obj <= 0.1 Lsun is investigated by means of numerical modeling coupling the core collapse simulations with the stellar evolution calculations. The gravitational collapse of a large sample of model cores in the mass range 0.1-2.0 Msun is investigated. Numerical simulations were started at the pre-stellar phase and terminated at the end of the embedded phase when 90% of the initial core mass had been accreted onto the forming protostar plus disk system. The disk formation and evolution was studied using numerical hydrodynam…
The cross section of material in debris discs is thought to be dominated by the smallest grains that can still stay in bound orbits despite the repelling action of stellar radiation pressure. Thus the minimum (and typical) grain size $s_\text{min}$ is expected to be close to the radiation pressure blowout size $s_\text{blow}$. Yet a recent analysis of a sample of Herschel-resolved debris discs showed the ratio $s_\text{min}/s_\text{blow}$ to systematically decrease with the stellar luminosity from about ten for solar-type stars to nearly unity in the discs around the most luminous A-type stars…
Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams of star forming regions show a large luminosity spread. This is incompatible with well-defined isochrones based on classic non-accreting protostellar evo- lution models. Protostars do not evolve in isolation of their environment, but grow through accretion of gas. In addition, while an age can be defined for a star forming region, the ages of individual stars in the region will vary. We show how the combined effect of a protostellar age spread, a consequence of sustained star formation in the molecular cloud, and time-varying protostellar accretion for individual p…
Massive stars blow powerful stellar winds throughout their evolutionary stages from the main sequence to Wolf-Rayet phases. The amount of mechanical energy deposited in the interstellar medium by the wind from a massive star can be comparable to the explosion energy of a core-collapse supernova that detonates at the end of its life. In this study, we estimate the kinetic energy deposition by massive stars in our Galaxy by considering the integrated Galactic initial mass function and modeling the stellar wind luminosity. The mass loss rate and terminal velocity of stellar winds during the main …
Resolved observations of millimetre-sized dust, tracing larger planetesimals, have pinpointed the location of 26 Edgeworth-Kuiper belt analogs. We report that a belt's distance $R$ to its host star correlates with the star's luminosity $L_{\star}$, following $R\propto L^{0.19}_{\star}$ with a low intrinsic scatter of $\sim$17%. Remarkably, our Edgeworth-Kuiper belt in the Solar System and the two CO snow lines imaged in protoplanetary disks lie close to this $R$-$L_{\star}$ relation, suggestive of an intrinsic relationship between protoplanetary disk structures and belt locations. To test the …
This paper starts with a brief historical review about the PNLF and its use as a distance indicator. Then the PNLF distances are compared with Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) distances and Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) distances. A Monte Carlo method to generate simulated PNLFs is described, leading to the last subject: recent progress in reproducing the expected maximum final mass in old stellar populations, a stellar astrophysics enigma that has been challenging us for quite some time.
We have identified the H-alpha absorption feature as a new spectroscopic diagnostic of luminosity class in K- and M-type stars. From high-resolution spectra of 19 stars with well-determined physical properties (including effective temperatures and stellar radii), we measured equivalent widths for H-alpha and the Ca II triplet and examined their dependence on both luminosity class and stellar radius. H-alpha shows a strong relation with both luminosity class and radius that extends down to late M spectral types. This behavior in H-alpha has been predicted as a result of the density-dependent ov…