Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate: VIII. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2007 and new orbits of the multiple system Zeta Aqr

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries made during the second semester of 2007, with the speckle camera PISCO at the 102 cm Zeiss telescope of Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate. Our sample contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. We obtained 283 new measurements of 279 objects, with angular separations in the range 0″.17–4″.4, and an average accuracy of 0″.014. The mean error on the position angles is 0°.6. Most of the position angles were determined without the usual 180° ambiguity with the application of triple‐correlation techniques and/or by inspection of the long integration files. We also present the new orbit we have computed for Zeta Aqr AB (ADS 15971), for which our measurements lead to large residuals with the previously computed orbit. We were also able to compute the elements of the perturbation orbit Bb‐P caused by an invisible companion, whose mass is estimated at 0.7 M_⊙ (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate: VI. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2006

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries made during the second semester of 2006, with the speckle camera PISCO at the 102 cm Zeiss telescope of Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate. Our sample contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. We obtained 175 new measurements of 169 objects, with angular separations in the range 0″.1–4″.2, and an average accuracy of 0″.01. The mean error on the position angles is 0°.6. Most of the position angles could be determined without the usual 180° ambiguity with the application of triplecorrelation techniques and/or by inspection of the long integration files.We also present the new orbits we have computed for ADS 11479, 11584 and 16538, for which our measurements lead to large residuals and/or for which the revision was justified by the significant number of observations made since the last orbit computation (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate: IV. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2005

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries made during the second semester of 2005, with the speckle camera PISCO at the 102 cm Zeiss telescope of Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate. Our sample contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. The purpose of this long term program is to improve the accuracy of the orbits and determine the masses of the components. We performed 130 new observations of 120 objects, with most of the angular separations in the range 0″.1–4″, and with an average accuracy of 0″.01. Most of the position angles could be determined without the usual 180. ambiguity with the application of triple‐correlation techniques, and their mean error is 0°8. We have found a possible new triple system: ADS 11077. The measurements of the closest binaries were made with a new data reduction procedure, based on model fitting of the background of the auto‐correlations. As this procedure proved to be very efficient, we have re‐processed the old observations of close binaries made with PISCO in Merate since 2004. We thus improved 20 measurements already published and obtained 7 new measurements for observations that were previously reported as “unresolved”. We finally present revised orbits for ADS 684, MCA 55Aac (in the Beta 1 Cyg–Albireo multiple system) and ADS 14783 for which the previously published orbits led to large residuals with our measurements and for which the new observations made since their computation allowed a significant improvement of those old orbits. The sum of the masses that we derived for those systems are consistent with the spectral type of the stars and the dynamic parallaxes are in good agreement with the parallaxes measured by Hipparcos. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate: X. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2009

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries, made in 2009 with the speckle camera PISCO at the 102 cm Zeiss telescope of Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate. Our observing list contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. We obtained 345 new measurements of 259 objects, with angular separations in the range 0.″18–4.″6, and an average accuracy of 0.″011. The mean error on the position angles is 0.°6. Most of the position angles were determined without the usual 180° ambiguity with the application of triple‐correlation techniques and/or by inspection of the long integration files. We have found a possible new close component for ADS 2377, which would be a new quadruple star system. We also present new revised orbits for ADS 8035, 9982, 11484, and MLR 198, partly derived from those observations, and infer estimated values for the masses of those systems that are compatible with the spectral types (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate: XIII. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2012, and new orbits for ADS 10786 BC, 12144, 12515, 16314 and 16539

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries, made in 2012 with the speckle camera PISCO at the 102‐cm Zeiss telescope of Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate. Our observing list contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. We obtained 355 new measurements of 344 visual binary stars, with angular separations in the range 0′.14–6′.9, and an average accuracy of 0.′02. The mean error on the position angles is 0°.5. Most of the position angles were determined without the usual 180° ambiguity with the application of triple‐correlation techniques and/or by inspection of the long integration files. We also present new revised orbits for ADS 10786 BC, 12144, 12515, 16314, and 16539, partly derived from PISCO observations. The corresponding estimated values for the masses of those systems are compatible with the spectral types. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate (Italy): XIV. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2013 and new orbits for ADS 1097, 5871, 7203, 7775, 9378, 9578, and 11186

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries made in 2013 with the speckle camera PISCO at the 102‐cm Zeiss telescope of Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate. Our observing list contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. We obtained 134 new measurements of 129 visual binary stars, with angular separations in the range 0.≈23–5 and an average accuracy of 0.≈01. The mean error on the position angles is 0.°5. Most of the position angles were determined without the usual 180° ambiguity with the application of triple‐correlation techniques and/or by inspection of the long integration files. We also present new revised orbits for ADS 1097, 5871, 7203, 7775, 9378, 9578, and 11186, partly derived from PISCO observations. The corresponding estimated values for the masses of those systems are compatible with the spectral types. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate – V. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2006

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries made during the first semester of 2006, with the Pupil Interferometry Speckle camera and COronagraph at the 102-cm Zeiss telescope of the Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate. Our sample contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. We obtained 217 new measurements of 194 objects, with angular separations in the range 0.1–4.2 arcsec, and an average accuracy of 0.01 arcsec. The mean error on the position angles is 05. About half of those angles could be determined without the usual 180° ambiguity by the application of triple-correlation techniques. We also present a revised orbit for ADS 277 for which the previously published orbit resulted in a large residual from our measurements.     

Rotation,activity, and lithium abundance in cool binary stars

We have used two robotic telescopes to obtain time‐series high‐resolution optical echelle spectroscopy and VI and/or by photometry for a sample of 60 active stars, mostly binaries. Orbital solutions are presented for 26 double‐lined systems and for 19 single‐lined systems, seven of them for the first time but all of them with unprecedented phase coverage and accuracy. Eighteen systems turned out to be single stars. The total of 6609 R = 55000 échelle spectra are also used to systematically determine effective temperatures, gravities, metallicities, rotational velocities, lithium abundances and absolute Hα‐core fluxes as a function of time. The photometry is used to infer unspotted brightness, V – I and/or b – y colors, spot‐induced brightness amplitudes and precise rotation periods. An extra 22 radial‐velocity standard stars were monitored throughout the science observations and yield a new barycentric zero point for our STELLA/SES robotic system. Our data are complemented by literature data and are used to determine rotation‐temperature‐activity relations for active binary components. We also relate lithium abundance to rotation and surface temperature. We find that 74% of all known rapidly‐rotating active binary stars are synchronized and in circular orbits but 26% (61 systems) are rotating asynchronously of which half have P_rot > P_orb and e > 0. Because rotational synchronization is predicted to occur before orbital circularization active binaries should undergo an extra spin‐down besides tidal dissipation. We suspect this to be due to a magnetically channeled wind with its subsequent braking torque. We find a steep increase of rotation period with decreasing effective temperature for active stars, P_rot α T^–7_eff, for both single and binaries, main sequence and evolved. For inactive, single giants with P_rot > 100 d, the relation is much weaker, P_rot α T^‐1.12_eff. Our data also indicate a period‐activity relation for Hα of the form R_Hα α P_0.24^rot for binaries and R_Hα α P_‐0.14^rot for singles. Its power‐law difference is possibly significant. Lithium abundances in our (field‐star) sample generally increase with effective temperature and are paralleled with an increase of the dispersion. The dispersion for binaries can be 1–2 orders of magnitude larger than for singles, peaking at an absolute spread of 3 orders of magnitude near T_eff ≈ 5000 K. On average, binaries of comparable effective temperature appear to exhibit 0.25 dex less surface lithium than singles, as expected if the depletion mechanism is rotation dependent. We also find a trend of increased Li abundance with rotational period of form log n (Li) α –0.6 log P_rot but again with a dispersion of as large as 3‐4 orders of magnitude (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

New absolute magnitude calibrations for detached binaries

Lutz‐Kelker bias corrected absolute magnitude calibrations for the detached binary systems with main‐sequence components are presented. The absolute magnitudes of the calibrator stars were derived at intrinsic colours of Johnson‐Cousins and 2MASS (Two Micron All Sky Survey) photometric systems. As for the calibrator stars, 44 detached binaries were selected from the Hipparcos catalogue, which have relative observed parallax errors smaller than 15% (σ_π/π ≤ 0.15). The calibration equations which provide the corrected absolute magnitude for optical and near‐infrared pass bands are valid for wide ranges of colours and absolute magnitudes: –0.18 < (B – V)₀ < 0.91, –1.6 < M_V < 5.5 and –0.15 < (J – H)₀ < 0.50, –0.02 < (H – K_s)₀ < 0.13, 0 < M_J < 4, respectively. The distances computed using the luminosity‐colours (LCs) relation with optical (BV) and near‐infrared (JHK_s) observations were compared to the distances found from various other methods. The results show that new absolute magnitude calibrations of this study can be used as a convenient statistical tool to estimate the true distances of detached binaries out of Hipparcos' distance limit. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate – II. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2004

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries taken during the second semester of 2004 with the Pupil Interferometry Speckle camera and Coronagraph (PISCO) at the 1-m Zeiss telescope of the Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate, Italy. We performed 207 new observations of 194 objects with angular separations in the range 0.1–4.0 arcsec and an accuracy better than ∼0.01 arcsec. Our sample contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. Our purpose is to improve the accuracy of the orbits and constrain the masses of the components.
Those measurements show that the orbit of ADS 15115 needs to be revised; we propose a new orbit for this object.     

Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate – VII. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2007

We present relative astrometric measurements of visual binaries made during the first semester of 2007, with the Pupil Interferometry Speckle camera and COronagraph (PISCO) at the 102-cm Zeiss telescope of Brera Astronomical Observatory, in Merate. Our sample contains orbital couples as well as binaries whose motion is still uncertain. We obtained 226 new measurements of 214 objects, with angular separations in the range 0.15–4.5 arcsec, and an average accuracy of 0.013 arcsec. The mean error on the position angles is     . Most of the position angles could be determined without the usual 180° ambiguity with the application of triple-correlation techniques and/or by inspection of the long integration files. We also present the new orbits we have computed for ADS 7871, 7982 and 8128, for which our measurements lead to large residuals and/or for which the revision is justified by the significant number of observations made since the publication of the previous orbit.     

Relative astrometry and near‐infrared differential photometry of nearby southern orbital binaries with adaptive optics

We present relative astrometry and differential photometry measurements for a sample of nearby southern orbital binaries making use of the technique of Adaptive Optics. The observations were made in December 2000, with the ADONIS camera mounted at the 3.6‐m ESO telescope from La Silla Observatory, equipped with the broad‐band near‐infrared filters (J ‐, H ‐, K ‐passbands). Our sample contains stars which do not fit very well the empirical mean mass‐luminosity relation (according to our previous study), but for which accurate parallaxes (determined by the Hipparcos satellite) and high‐quality orbits were available thanks to many previous efforts. We derived accurate positions and J, H, K magnitudes of the individual components of those binaries. The individual stellar components have near‐infrared colour indices well grouped in those plots and are comparable to standard single stars. The data reduction procedure used for deriving those results is described in detail. It is based on a least‐squares fit of Moffat‐Lorentz profiles in direct imaging for well‐resolved systems and on Fourier analysis for very close pairs. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

O'Connell effect in early‐type contact binaries: DU Boo and AG Vir

The paper presents new photoelectric observations of the eclipsing binary systems DU Boo and AG Vir. The systems are somewhat similar – both are A‐type contact binaries with the maximum following the primary minimum being the brighter one. This light curve asymmetry is extremely temporally stable. The phase dependence of the color indices is unexpectedly small for the observed amplitude of the O'Connell effect, amounting to about 0.1 mag in the optical wavelength range which indicates a very large heated area with a temperature contrast of ΔT ≈ 1000–1500 K. The broadening functions (BFs) of the systems do not show any dark solar‐type photospheric spots. On the other hand, there are significant differences of BFs between the quadratures (surprisingly similar in both systems) indicative of stream of matter or bright region causing additional emission seen between the components around the phase 0.25. Absolute parameters of the components slightly depend on the adopted model. Long orbital period of both contact binaries combined with late spectral type indicate that the primary components of either of the systems (but particularly in case of DU Boo) already evolved off the main sequence (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Spot activity on HD 89546 (FG UMa) from long‐term photometry

We present the analysis of 20 years of time‐series BV photometry of the SB1 RS CVn binary HD 89546. The system's yearly mean V brightness, the B – V color index, the photometric period, and the light curve amplitude all show clear cyclic variability with an ≈9‐year time scale. We also find some evidence for brightness variability on a time scale longer than the 20‐year time span of our observations, perhaps indicating a longer cycle analogous to the solar Gleissberg cycle. We estimate the unspotted V magnitude of HD 89546 to be 7.^m154, which is ≈0.^m2 brighter than the observed maximum brightness. Spot modelling of the system shows that spot temperature variations affect the observed B – V color as well as the V brightness. Two active longitudes are observed, centered around 180° and 360° longitude on the G9 III primary, each covering a longitude range of 120°. Furthermore, two inactive longitude zones are seen spanning only 60° between the two active longitudes. The longitudinal distribution of the spots exhibits no strong cyclic variability but does show rapid jumps of 120° that look like the flip‐flop phenomenon. We estimate the differential rotation coefficient of the star as k = 0.086 by considering the range of observed photometric period variations and assumed latitudinal spot variations over 45° (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Eclipsing binaries in the MOST satellite fields

Sixteen new eclipsing binaries have been discovered by the MOST satellite among guide stars used to point its telescope in various fields. Several previously known eclipsing binaries were also observed by MOST with unprecedented quality. Among the objects we discuss in more detail are short‐period eclipsing binaries with eccentric orbits in young open clusters: V578 Mon in NGC 2244 and HD 47934 in NGC 2264. Long nearly‐continuous photometric runs made it possible to discover three long‐period eclipsing binaries with orbits seen almost edge‐on: HD 45972 with P = 28.1 days and two systems (GSC 154 1247 and GSC 2141 526) with P > 25 days. The high precision of the satellite data led to discoveries of binaries with very shallow eclipses (e.g., HD 46180 with A = 0.016 mag, and HD 47934 with A = 0.025 mag). Ground‐based spectroscopy to support the space‐based photometry was used to refine the models of several of the systems (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Galactic X‐ray source populations

The landscape of Galactic X‐ray sources made of accreting binaries, isolated objects and active stellar coronae has been significantly modified by the advent of the Chandra, XMM‐Newton and INTEGRAL satellites. New types of relatively low X‐ray luminosity X‐ray binaries have been unveiled in the Galactic disc, while deep observations of the central regions have revealed large numbers of X‐ray binaries of so far poorly constrained nature. Because of the high spatial resolution needed and faint X‐ray luminosities generally emitted, studying the dependency of the X‐ray source composition with parent stellar population, Galactic disc, bulge, nuclear bulge, etc., is only practicable in our Galaxy. The evolutionary links between low L_X X‐ray binaries and classical X‐ray luminous accreting systems are still open in many cases. In addition, the important question of the nature of the compact sources contributing to the Galactic ridge hard X‐ray emission remains unresolved. We review the most important results gathered by XMM‐Newton over the last years in this domain and show how future observations could be instrumental in addressing several of these issues. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

An analysis of v sin (i) correlations in early-type binaries

We use information on the   v sin ( i )  values of early-type binaries in order to search for correlations which may constrain the relative orientation of the stellar spin axes in binary systems. We find correlations in the case of close binaries which suggest that tidal synchronization is effective for binaries whose separation exceeds the stellar radius by more than an order of magnitude, in line with the theoretical predictions of Goldreich & Nicholson and the previous observational analysis of Giuricin et al. In the case of wide binaries, the   v sin ( i )  values are not well correlated, which requires that the magnitude of the spin speeds is not tightly correlated. Under this assumption, we then find that the data provide no significant constraints on the degree of alignment of spin axes. The data are therefore compatible with scenarios (such as disc fragmentation or capture) which differ widely in the expected degree of spin alignment.     

Contribution to the search for binaries among Am stars – VII. Orbital elements of seven new spectroscopic binaries, implications on tidal effects

We present the results of a radial-velocity study of seven Am stars (HD 3970, 35035, 93946, 151746, 153286, 204751 and 224002) observed at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP) and the Cambridge Observatories with CORAVEL instruments. We find that these systems are single-lined spectroscopic binaries whose orbital elements are determined for the first time. Among this sample, HD 35035 and 153286 have long periods, with   P = 2.8  and 9.5 yr, respectively, which is rather unusual for Am stars. Four systems have orbits with large eccentricities (with   e ≥ 0.4  ). Physical parameters are inferred from this study for the primaries of those systems.
We then investigate the influence of tidal interaction, which has already led to the synchronism of the primaries and/or to the circularization of the orbits of some systems belonging to this sample. We extend this study to the list of 33 objects studied in this series of papers and derive values of the critical fractional radii   r = R / a   for circularization and synchronization of Am-type binaries. We find that the stars with   r ≳ 0.15  are orbiting on circular orbits and that synchronism is likely for all components with   r ≳ 0.20  .     

Measurements of visual double stars with PISCO2 at the Nice 76-cm refractor in 2013–2014 (new data) and in 2015

We present relative astrometric and photometric measurements of visual double stars made in 2013–2015, with PISCO2 installed at the 76-cm refractor of Côte d'Azur Observatory in Nice (France). Our observing list contains orbital couples as well as double stars whose motion is still uncertain. Most of the observations were done in 2015, but some other observations of wide couples were done in 2013–2014 (0.3% of the total of the observations). Three different techniques were used for obtaining measurements: lucky imaging, speckle interferometry and the direct vector autocorrelation method. From our observations of 2837 multiple stars, we obtained 5182 new measurements with angular separations in the range of 0 ${}^{″}$.1–32 ${}^{″}$ and an average accuracy of $0^{″}.018$. The mean error on the position angles is 0°.8. Most of the position angles were determined without the usual 180° ambiguity with the application of the direct vector autocorrelation technique and/or by inspection of the Lucky images or the long integration files. We managed to routinely monitor faint systems ( $m_V\approx 9-11$) with large magnitude difference (up to $\mathrm{\Delta }{m}_V\approx 4.5$). We have thus been able to measure 21 systems containing red dwarf stars that had been poorly monitored since their discovery, from which we estimated the stellar masses thanks to Gaia measurements. We also measured the magnitude difference of the two components of 1079 double stars with an estimated error of 0.2 mag. Except for a few objects that are discussed, our measurements are in good agreement with the ephemerides computed with published orbital elements, even for the double stars whose separation is smaller than the diffraction limit. Thanks to good seeing images and with the use of high-contrast numerical filters, we have also been able to obtain 196 measurements with an angular separation smaller than the diffraction limit of our instrumentation, and consistent with those obtained with larger telescopes. We also report measurements of the 164 new double stars that we found in the files obtained during the observations. Finally, from a study of the DR3 Gaia release, it is shown that all the objects of the Tycho Double Star Catalog that we did not resolve in 2015 are probably false detections by Tycho.     

On the binarity of Herbig Ae/Be stars

We present high-resolution spectro-astrometry of a sample of 28 Herbig Ae/Be and three F-type pre-main-sequence stars. The spectro-astrometry, which is essentially the study of unresolved features in long-slit spectra, is shown from both empirical and simulated data to be capable of detecting binary companions that are fainter by up to 6 mag at separations larger than ∼0.1 arcsec. The nine targets that were previously known to be binary are all detected. In addition, we report the discovery of six new binaries and present five further possible binaries. The resulting binary fraction is 68 ± 11 per cent. This overall binary fraction is the largest reported for any observed sample of Herbig Ae/Be stars, presumably because of the exquisite sensitivity of spectro-astrometry for detecting binary systems. The data hint that the binary frequency of the Herbig Be stars is larger than that of the Herbig Ae stars. The Appendix presents model simulations to assess the capabilities of spectro-astrometry and reinforces the empirical findings. Most spectro-astrometric signatures in this sample of Herbig Ae/Be stars can be explained by the presence of a binary system. Two objects, HD 87643 and Z CMa, display evidence for asymmetric outflows. Finally, the position angles of the binary systems have been compared with available orientations of the circumprimary disc and these appear to be coplanar. The alignment between the circumprimary discs and the binary systems strongly suggests that the formation of binaries with intermediate-mass primaries is due to fragmentation as the alternative, stellar capture, does not naturally predict aligned discs. The alignment extends to the most massive B-type stars in our sample. This leads us to conclude that formation mechanisms that do result in massive stars, but predict random angles between the binaries and the circumprimary discs, such as stellar collisions, are also ruled out for the same reason.