Orbit and physical characteristics of the components of the massive Algol V622 Per,a member of the open star cluster χ Per

Analysis of the radial velocities based on spectra of high (near the H _α line) and moderate (4420–4960 Å) resolutions supplemented by the published radial velocities has revealed the binarity of a bright member of the young open star cluster χ Per, the star V622 Per. The derived orbital elements of the binary show that the lines of both components are seen in its spectrum, the orbital period is 5.2 days, and the binary is in the phase of active mass exchange. The photometric variability of the star is caused by the ellipsoidal shape of its components. Analysis of the spectroscopic and photometric variabilities has allowed the absolute parameters of the binary’s orbit and its components to be found. V622 Per is shown to be a classical Algol with moderate mass exchange in the binary. Mass transfer occurs from the less massive (\({M_1} = 9.1 \pm 2.7{M_ \odot }\)) but brighter (\(\log {L_1} = 4.52 \pm 0.10{L_ \odot }\)) component onto the more massive (\({M_2} = 13.0 \pm 3.5{M_ \odot }\)) and less bright (\(\log {L_2} = 3.96 \pm 0.10{L_ \odot }\)) component. Analysis of the spectra has confirmed an appreciable overabundance of CNO-cycle products in the atmosphere of the primary component. Comparison of the positions of the binary’s components on the T _eff–log g diagram with the age of the cluster χ Per points to a possible delay in the evolution of the primary component due to mass loss by no more than 1–2Myr.     

Glaciopanspermia: Seeding the terrestrial planets with life?

The question whether life originated on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system has no obvious answer, since Earth was sterilized by the Moon-forming impact and possibly also during the LHB, about 700 Ma after the formation of the solar system. Seeding by lithopanspermia has to be considered. Possible sources of life include Earth itself, Mars, Venus (if it had a more benign climate than today) and icy bodies of the solar system. The first step of lithopanspermia is the ejection of fragments of the surface into space, which requires achieving at least escape velocity. As the velocity distribution of impact ejecta falls off steeply, attention is drawn to bodies with lower escape velocities. Ceres has had, or still has, an ocean more than 100 km deep, with hydrothermal activity at its rocky core. The possible presence of life, its relative closeness to the terrestrial planets and Ceres' low escape velocity of 510 m/s suggest that Ceres could well be a parent body for life in the solar system.Icy impact ejecta - hence glaciopanspermia - from Ceres will be subject to evaporation of volatiles. Spores may be loosened by evaporation and enter the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets as micrometeorites.The seeding of the terrestrial planets from Ceres would result in (1) detection of life in the crustal layers of Ceres; (2) a commonality of Cerean life with Terran and possible Martian and Venusian life and (3) biomarkers of Cerean life, which might be found in the ice at the Moon's poles and on the surface of other main belt asteroids.     

V 361 Lyrae: An exotic binary system with a “Hot Spot” between the components?

A phenomenological model for V 361 Lyr is proposed. Probably it is a binary system which consists of a mass accreting primary star with mass of about M₁ ≈ 0·81 M⊙ and radius R₁ ≈ (6.1 ± 0·4) · 10¹⁰ cm and a mass losing secondary with about M₂ ≈ 0·77 M⊙ and R₂ ≈ 5.8 · 10¹⁰ cm. The secondary fills its Roche lobe, but the primary is something smaller than this lobe, contrary to the models of W UMa-type systems. So the hot spot appears in the atmosphere of the primary, but not in a disk, like in cataclysmic variables. The luminosity of the hot spot, L = (6-15) · 10³² erg/s, is large enough to be the main emission source of the system in visible light. So phenomenologically the object may be somewhat between W UMa-type stars and cataclysmic variables.     

Did the universe start with the Higgs-field?

In a cosmological model developed by the author in previous articles the universe starts in a geometrical phase transition in Minkowski space. Here the source of the gravitational field is a Higgs-like scalar field $\bar{\phi}$ . A relation of this cosmological field $\bar{\phi}$ with the Higgs-field ? _H in the gauge theory of electroweak interaction is established. This relation leads to two dimensionless constants. One of them is interpreted as a characteristic constant of the phase transition and is connected with the volume of huge bubbles of open universes.     

Does the speed of light decrease with time?

Rust (1974) stated that the classical (e.g., Doppler) explanations of the cosmological red shift contradict the results of astronomical observations of the period of changes in the brightness of supernovae. This paper is an attempt at explaining this discrepancy between observations and the theoretical predictions on the grounds of a hypothesis published by the author (Bellert, 1969). That hypothesis explains the cosmological red shift by the geometry of the space of events, which is a static space.We regret to report that, soon after the submission of this paper, Professor Bellert passed away on 27 March, 1976 in Warsaw.     

Is the CMB shift parameter connected with the growth of cosmological perturbations?

We verify numerically that in the context of general relativity (GR), flat models which have the same Ω_m and cosmic microwave background (CMB) shift parameter R but different   H ( a )  and w ( a ) also have very similar (within less than 8 per cent) growth of perturbations even though the dark energy density evolution is quite different. This provides a direct connection between geometrical and dynamical tests of dark energy and may be used as a cosmological test of GR.     

uvbyβ Electrophotometry of the components of trapezium multiple star systems

The results of electrophotometric observations of the 19 components of six Trapezium multiple star systems with primary stars of class M are presented. The Strömgren spectral intervals are determined. Of the 19 components, 18 belong to interval 3 ("late group").Translated fromAstrofizika, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 407–410, July–September, 1996.     

The seven components of Hα and the 9873 MHz line

Under conditions pertaining to the middle chromosphere, the nlj-substates of the n = 2 and n = 3 states of hydrogen are found to be populated proportionally to their degree of degeneracy. Thus, the non-LTE formation of the H line is not expected to be influenced by some exotic excitation conditions in one of its seven components. The overpopulation of the 2S _1/2 substate relative to the 2P _3/2 substate does not depend upon details of the radiative transfer in H, so that it rests wholly on the transfer in L (Milkey and Mihalas, 1973). One-component plane parallel models of the chromosphere thus further predict that the 2S _1/2-2P _3/2, 9873 MHz (3.04 cm) line will not be observable in the radio-spectrum of the quiet Sun.Astronomische Mitteilungen der Eidgenössischen Sternwarte Zürich, Nr. 367.     

SN 1994W: an interacting supernova or two interacting shells?

We present a multi-epoch quantitative spectroscopic analysis of the Type IIn supernova (Type IIn SN) 1994W, an event interpreted by Chugai et al. as stemming from the interaction between the ejecta of a SN and a  0.4 M_⊙  circumstellar shell ejected 1.5 yr before core collapse. During the brightening phase, our models suggest that the source of optical radiation is not unique, perhaps associated with an inner optically thick cold dense shell and outer optically thin shocked material. During the fading phase, our models support a single source of radiation, an hydrogen-rich optically thick layer with a near-constant temperature of ∼7000 K that recedes from a radius of  4.3 × 10¹⁵  at a peak to  2.3 × 10¹⁵ cm  40 d later. We reproduce the hybrid narrow-core broad-wing line profile shapes of SN 1994W at all times, invoking an optically thick photosphere exclusively (i.e. without any external optically thick shell). In SN 1994W, slow expansion makes scattering with thermal electrons a key escape mechanism for photons trapped in optically thick line cores, and allows the resulting broad incoherent electron-scattering wings to be seen around narrow-line cores. In SNe with larger expansion velocities, the thermal broadening due to incoherent scattering is masked by the broad profile and the dominant frequency redshift occasioned by bulk motions. Given the absence of broad lines at all times and the very low ⁵⁶Ni yields, we speculate whether SN 1994W could have resulted from an interaction between two ejected shells without core collapse. The high conversion efficiency of kinetic to thermal energy may not require a SN-like energy budget for SN1994W.     

MV Lyrae: Entering the period gap?

MV Lyrae was studied on about 2000 photographic plates of the Moscow, Odessa and Sonneberg collections. A brief review of these results in comparison with literature data is given. The object might be a unique system, entering the period gap. Outbursts are observed in the minimum state, which may be possibly explained by the trigger mechanism for the radiation-induced mass outflow from the secondary, underfilling its Roche lobe.     

Are the cometary outbursts caused by impacts with interplanetary vagabonds probable?

The possibility of impacts and their results in relation to the cometary outbursts between comets and other small bodies in the solar system has been investigated. Taking into consideration certain physical features of cometary nuclei and impacting bodies, the probability of impacts of small bodies moving in the main asteroid belt with hypothetical comets which represent three types: Jupiter family comets, Halley family comets and long period comets has been computed. The probability of impacts between comets and meteoroids at large heliocentric distances has also been estimated. Potential consequences of these events in relation to outbursts of the cometary brightness have been discussed. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Variations of the harmonic components of the X-ray pulse profile of PSR B1509–58

We used the Fourier decomposition technique to investigate the stability of the X-ray pulse profile of a young pulsar PSR B1509–58 by studying the relative amplitudes and phase differences of its harmonic components with respect to the fundamental using data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer. Like most young rotation powered pulsars, PSR B1509–58 has a high spin down rate. It also has less timing noise, allowing accurate measurement of higher order frequency derivatives which in turn helps in the study of the physics of pulsar spin down. Detailed investigation of pulse profiles over the years will help us establish any possible connection between the timing characteristics and the high energy emission characteristics for this pulsar.Furthermore, the study of pulse profiles of short period X-ray pulsars can also be useful when used as a means of interplanetary navigation. The X-ray pulse profile of this source has been analyzed for 15 yr(1996–2011). The long term average amplitudes of the first, second and third harmonics(and their standard deviation for individual measurements) compared to the fundamental are 36.9%(1.7%), 13.4%(1.9%) and 9.4%(1.8%) respectively. Similarly, the phases of the three harmonics(and standard deviations) with respect to the fundamental are 0.36(0.06), 1.5(0.2) and 2.5(0.3) radian respectively. We do not find any significant variation of the harmonic components of the pulse profile in comparison to the fundamental.     

Mapping the Milky Way with LAMOST Ⅰ: method and overview

We present a statistical method to derive the stellar density profiles of the Milky Way from spectroscopic survey data,taking into account selection effects.We assume the selection function,which can be altered during observations and data reductions,of the spectroscopic survey is based on photometric colors and magnitude.Then the underlying selection function for a line-of-sight can be recovered well by comparing the distribution of the spectroscopic stars in a color-magnitude plane with that of the photometric dataset.Subsequently,the stellar density profile along a line-of-sight can be derived from the spectroscopically measured stellar density profile multiplied by the selection function.The method is validated using Galaxia mock data with two different selection functions.We demonstrate that the derived stellar density profiles reconstruct the true ones well not only for the full set of targets,but also for sub-populations selected from the full dataset.Finally,the method is applied to map the density profiles for the Galactic disk and halo,using the LAMOST RGB stars.The Galactic disk extends to about R=19 kpc,where the disk still contributes about 10% to the total stellar surface density.Beyond this radius,the disk smoothly transitions to the halo without any truncation,bending or breaking.Moreover,no over-density corresponding to the Monoceros ring is found in the Galactic anti-center direction.The disk shows moderate north–south asymmetry at radii larger than 12 kpc.On the other hand,the R–Z tomographic map directly shows that the stellar halo is substantially oblate within a Galactocentric radius of 20 kpc and gradually becomes nearly spherical beyond 30 kpc.     

IR spectroscopy of COmosphere dynamics with the CO ?rst overtone band

We discuss observations of the weak ?rst overtone (Δν = 2) CO absorption band near 2300 nm with the U.S. National Solar Observatory Array Camera (NAC), a modern mid‐infrared detector. This molecular band provides a thermal diagnostic that forms lower in the atmosphere than the stronger fundamental band near 4600 nm. The observed center‐to‐limb increase in CO line width qualitatively agrees with the proposed higher temperature shocks or faster plasma motions higher in the COmosphere. The spatial extent of chromospheric shock waves is currently at or below the diffraction limit of the available CO lines at existing telescopes. Five minute period oscillations in line strength and measured Doppler shifts are consistent with the p‐mode excitation of the photospheric gas. We also show recent efforts at direct imaging at 4600 nm. We stress that future large‐aperture solar telescopes must be teamed with improved, dynamic mid‐infrared instruments, like the NAC, to capitalize on the features that motivate such facilities (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Are collisions with electrons important for modeling the polarization of the lines of the C_2 solar molecule?

Observations of the second solar spectrum(SSS) revealed the existence of prominent linear polarization signals due to lines of the C_2 molecule.Interpretation of the SSS is the only tool to obtain the weak and turbulent magnetic field which is widespread in the Quiet Sun.However,this interpretation is conditioned by the determination of accurate collisional data.In this context,we present a formulation of the problem of the calculation of the polarization transfer rates by collisions of polarized C_2 states with electrons.The obtained formulae are applied to determine,for the first time,the polarization transfer rates between the C_2 states of the Swan band electronic system(a ~3Π_u d ~3Π_q) and electrons for temperatures going up from 1000 to 10000 K.However,due to the closeness of the electronic states of the C_2 molecule,the two electronic d ~3Π_g and a ~3Π_u cannot be disconnected from the other electronic levels and,thus,a model based on only two states is not sufficient to describe the formation of the lines in the Swan band.Consequently,we also calculated the collisional polarization transfer rates in the case where the first eight electronic states of C_2 are taken into account.All rates are given as functions of the temperature by power laws.Our results should be useful for future solar applications.     

The red-shift hypothesis for quasars: Is the earth the center of the Universe?

It is pointed out that Stephenson (1977) has used incorrect z, and has also made an arithmetical error, which invalidate his claims. Tests for randomness of quasar red-shifts clusters using correct z, have been carried out and it is shown that at least for clusters having three red shifts or more the distribution is highly non-random. The model of the Universe proposed by Stephenson does not in any way explain these red-shift clusters; it merely substitutes one paradox by another.     

Small glitches: the role of strange nuggets?

Pulsar glitches, i.e. the sudden spin-ups of pulsars, have been detected for most known pulsars.The mechanism giving rise to this kind of phenomenon is uncertain, although a large data set has been built.In the framework of the starquake model, based on Baym Pines, the glitch sizes(the relative increases of spin-frequencies during glitches) ??/? depend on the released energies during glitches, with less released energies corresponding to smaller glitch sizes. On the other hand, as one of the dark matter candidates,our Galaxy might be filled with so called strange nuggets(SNs) which are relics from the early Universe.In this case collisions between pulsars and SNs are inevitable, and these collisions would lead to glitches when enough elastic energy has been accumulated during the spin-down process. The SN-triggered glitches could release less energy, because the accumulated elastic energy would be less than that in the scenario of glitches without SNs. Therefore, if a pulsar is hit frequently by SNs, it would tend to have more small glitches, whose values of ??/? are smaller than those in the standard starquake model(with larger amounts of released energy). Based on the assumption that in our Galaxy the distribution of SNs is similar to that of dark matter, as well as on the glitch data in the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue and Jodrell Bank glitch table, we find that in our Galaxy the incidences of small glitches exhibit tendencies consistent with the collision rates between pulsars and SNs. Further testing of this scenario is expected by detecting more small glitches(e.g.,by the Square Kilometre Array).     

V 1329 Cyg: A Nova-like object with recurrent outbursts?

Spectrophotometric observations in optical region ( 38008000 Å) on the symbiotic object V 1329 Cyg (HBV 475) were carried out with the 122 cm telescope of the Astrophysical Observatory of Asiago in 1979 and 1980. Significant changes of intensity of emission lines with a time-scale of a few weeks were observed. The results of these observations suggest that probably V 1329 Cyg is a Nova-like object with recurrent outbursts at intervals of about 950 days. The properties of this object seem to agree with those of a white dwarf which is accreting mass rapidly.