14709478
The lick AGN monitoring project: photometric light curves and optical variability characteristics
The Lick AGN Monitoring Project targeted 13 nearby Seyfert 1 galaxies with the intent of measuring the masses of their central black holes using reverberation mapping. The sample includes 12 galaxies selected to have black holes with masses roughly in the range 106-107 M ☉, as well as the well-studied active galactic nucleus (AGN) NGC 5548. In conjunction with a spectroscopic monitoring campaign, we obtained broadband B and V images on most nights from 2008 February through 2008 May. The imaging observations were carried out by four telescopes: the 0.76 m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, the 2 m Multicolor Active Galactic Nuclei Monitoring telescope, the Palomar 60 inch (1.5 m) telescope, and the 0.80 m Tenagra II telescope. Having well-sampled light curves over the course of a few months is useful for obtaining the broad-line reverberation lag and black hole mass, and also allows us to examine the characteristics of the continuum variability. In this paper, we discuss the observational methods and the photometric measurements, and present the AGN continuum light curves. We measure various variability characteristics of each of the light curves. We do not detect any evidence for a time lag between the B- and V-band variations, and we do not find significant color variations for the AGNs in our sample.
9685561
Hubble Space Telescope and Ground-based Optical and Ultraviolet Observations of GRB 010222
We report on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 optical and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) near-ultraviolet MAMA observations and ground-based optical observations of GRB 010222, spanning 15 hr to 71 days. The observations are well described by a relativistic blast wave model with a hard electron energy distribution, p = 1.57, and a jet transition at t* = 0.93 days. These values are slightly larger than previously found as a result of a correction for the contribution from the host galaxy to the late-time ground-based observations and the larger temporal baseline provided by the HST observations. The host galaxy is found to contain a very compact core (size <025), which coincides with the position of the optical transient. The STIS near-ultraviolet MAMA observations allow for an investigation of the extinction properties along the line of sight to GRB 010222. We find that the far-ultraviolet curvature component c4 is rather large. In combination with the low optical extinction, AV = 0.110 mag, when compared with the hydrogen column inferred from X-ray observations, we suggest that this is evidence for dust destruction.
118530564
DISCOVERY OF A RED GIANT WITH SOLAR-LIKE OSCILLATIONS IN AN ECLIPSING BINARY SYSTEM FROM KEPLER SPACE-BASED PHOTOMETRY
Oscillating stars in binary systems are among the most interesting stellar laboratories, as these can provide information on the stellar parameters and stellar internal structures. Here we present a red giant with solar-like oscillations in an eclipsing binary observed with the NASA Kepler satellite. We compute stellar parameters of the red giant from spectra and the asteroseismic mass and radius from the oscillations. Although only one eclipse has been observed so far, we can already determine that the secondary is a main-sequence F star in an eccentric orbit with a semi-major axis larger than 0.5 AU and orbital period longer than 75 days.
119293956
The Kepler Asteroseismic Investigation: Scientific goals and first results
Kepler is a NASA mission designed to detect exoplanets and characterize the properties of exoplanetary systems. Kepler also includes an asteroseismic programme which is being conducted through the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC), whose 400 members are organized into 13 working groups by type of variable star. So far data have been available from the first 7 month of the mission containing a total of 2937 targets observed at a 1-min cadence for periods between 10 days and 7 months. The goals of the asteroseismic part of the Kepler project is to perform detailed studies of stellar interiors. The first results of the asteroseismic analysis are orders of magnitude better than seen before, and this bodes well for how the future analysis of Kepler data for many types of stars will impact our general understanding of stellar structure and evolution (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
119288725
Observational detection of eclipses of J5 Amalthea by the Galilean satellites
Aims. We carried out observations of the small jovian satellite Amalthea (J5) as it was being eclipsed by the Galilean satellites near the 2009 equinox of Jupiter in order to apply the technique of mutual event photometry to the astrometric determination of this satellite’s position. Methods. The observations were carried out during the period 06/2009−09/2009 from the island of Maui, Hawaii and Siding Spring, Australia with the 2m Faulkes Telescopes North and South respectively. We observed in the near-infrared part of the spectrum using a PanStarrs-Z filter with Jupiter near the edge of the field in order to mitigate against the glare from the planet. Frames were acquired at rates >1/min during eclipse times predicted using recent JPL ephemerides for the satellites. Following subtraction of the sky background from these frames, differential aperture photometry was carried out on Amalthea and a nearby field star. Results. We have obtained three lightcurves which show a clear drop in the flux from Amalthea, indicating that an eclipse took place as predicted. These were model-fitted to yield best estimates of the time of maximum flux drop and the impact parameter. These are consistent with Amalthea’s ephemeris but indicate that Amalthea is slightly ahead of, and closer to Jupiter than, its predicted position by approximately half the ephemeris uncertainty in these directions. We argue that a ground-based campaign of higher-cadence photometry accurate at the 5% level or better during the next season of eclipses in 2014-15 should yield positions to within 0. �� 05 and affect a corresponding improvement in Amalthea’s ephemeris.
15724697
The Hubble Deep Field South - STIS imaging
We present the imaging observations made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) of the Hubble Deep Field South. The field was imaged in four bandpasses: a clear CCD bandpass for 156 ks, a long-pass filter for 22–25 ks pixel-1 typical exposure, a near-UV bandpass for 23 ks, and a far-UV bandpass for 52 ks. The clear, visible image is the deepest observation ever made in the UV-optical wavelength region, reaching a 10 σ AB magnitude of 29.4 for an object of area 0.2 arcsec2. The field contains QSO J2233-606, the target of the STIS spectroscopy, and extends 50'' × 50'' for the visible images, and 25'' × 25'' for the ultraviolet images. We present the images, catalog of objects, and galaxy counts obtained in the field.
14120815
The Star Formation History in the Andromeda Halo
I present the preliminary results of a program to measure the star formation history in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy. Using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope, we obtained the deepest optical images of the sky to date, in a field on the southeast minor axis of Andromeda, 51 arcmin (11 kpc) from the nucleus. The resulting color-magnitude diagram (CMD) contains approximately 300,000 stars and extends more than 1.5 mag below the main sequence turnoff, with 50% completeness at V=30.7 mag. We interpret this CMD using comparisons to ACS observations of five Galactic globular clusters through the same filters, and through chi-squared fitting to a finely-spaced grid of calibrated stellar population models. We find evidence for a major (approximately 30%) intermediate-age (6-8 Gyr) metal-rich ([Fe/H] > -0.5) population in the Andromeda halo, along with a significant old metal-poor population akin to that in the Milky Way halo. The large spread in ages suggests that the Andromeda halo formed as a result of a more violent merging history than that in our own Milky Way.
14396627
Deep Optical Photometry of Six Fields in the Andromeda Galaxy
Using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have obtained deep optical images reaching well below the oldest main-sequence turnoff in six fields of the Andromeda Galaxy. The fields fall at four positions on the southeast minor axis, one position in the giant stellar stream, and one position on the northeast major axis. These data were obtained as part of three large observing programs designed to probe the star formation history of the stellar population in various structures of the galaxy. In this paper, we present the images, catalogs, and artificial star tests for these observing programs as a supplement to the analyses published previously. These high-level science products are also archived at the Multimission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
17435928
Deep photometry of Andromeda reveals striking similarities in the tidal stream and spheroid populations
We present a color-magnitude diagram (CMD) for a field in the giant tidal stream of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). These observations, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope, are 50% complete at V ? 30 mag, reaching 1 mag below the oldest main-sequence turnoff. Striking similarities between the stream and a previous spheroid CMD imply that they have very similar age and metallicity distributions, but present something of an enigma; we speculate on possible interpretations of this result, but we note that none are without problems. Distinct multiple turnoffs, as might be expected from pulses of star formation caused by interaction with Andromeda, are not apparent in the stream CMD. Star formation in both fields lasted about 6 billion years, building up to relatively high metallicities and being largely complete 6 billion years ago. The close similarity of the spheroid and stream suggests that both may have derived from the same event; it would be worth exploring to what extent stars in these structures are the remnants of a disk galaxy that interacted with M31 or even were disrupted from the M31 disk itself by the interaction.
7045461
Permutations and the loop
We consider the one-loop two-point function for multi-trace operators in the U(2) sector of = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills at finite N. We derive an expression for it in terms of U(N) and Sn+1 group theory data, where n is the length of the operators. The Clebsch-Gordan operators constructed in [1], which are diagonal at tree level, only mix at one loop if you can reach the same (n+1)-box Young diagram by adding a single box to each of the n-box Young diagrams of their U(N) representations (which organise their multi-trace structure). Similar results are expected for higher loops and for other sectors of the global symmetry group.
6330621
UVUDF: Ultraviolet Imaging of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field with Wide-Field Camera 3
We present an overview of a 90 orbit Hubble Space Telescope treasury program to obtain near-ultraviolet imaging of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field using the Wide Field Camera 3 UVIS detector with the F225W, F275W, and F336W filters. This survey is designed to: (1) investigate the episode of peak star formation activity in galaxies at 1 < z < 2.5; (2) probe the evolution of massive galaxies by resolving sub-galactic units (clumps); (3) examine the escape fraction of ionizing radiation from galaxies at z ~ 2-3; (4) greatly improve the reliability of photometric redshift estimates; and (5) measure the star formation rate efficiency of neutral atomic-dominated hydrogen gas at z ~ 1-3. In this overview paper, we describe the survey details and data reduction challenges, including both the necessity of specialized calibrations and the effects of charge transfer inefficiency. We provide a stark demonstration of the effects of charge transfer inefficiency on resultant data products, which when uncorrected, result in uncertain photometry, elongation of morphology in the readout direction, and loss of faint sources far from the readout. We agree with the STScI recommendation that future UVIS observations that require very sensitive measurements use the instrument's capability to add background light through a "post-flash." Preliminary results on number counts of UV-selected galaxies and morphology of galaxies at z ~ 1 are presented. We find that the number density of UV dropouts at redshifts 1.7, 2.1, and 2.7 is largely consistent with the number predicted by published luminosity functions. We also confirm that the image mosaics have sufficient sensitivity and resolution to support the analysis of the evolution of star-forming clumps, reaching 28-29th magnitude depth at 5σ in a 0."2 radius aperture depending on filter and observing epoch.