Stellar dynamics in razor-thin discs with massive nuclear black holes

The bifurcations of orbit-averaged dynamics are studied in a class of razor-thin discs with central black holes. The model used here consists of a perturbed harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian augmented with a GM r potential. Through a sequence of conformal and canonical transformations, we reduce the phase-space flows of the system to a set of non-linear differential equations on a sphere. Based on the critical points of the averaged system, we classify orbit families and reveal the existence of six types of periodic motions: circular , long - and short-axis elliptical , long - and short-axis radial and inclined radial orbits. Long-axis elliptical orbits and their surrounding tubes have significant features: whilst they keep stars away from the centre, they elongate in the same direction as the density profile. These properties are helpful in the construction of self-consistent equilibria.     

Stellar Inversions

Inversions of oscillation frequencies have proved to be extremelypowerful in studying the structure of the Sun. We examine theconditions under which we can invert oscillation frequenciesof other stars to study their structure. We show that despite thevery limited number of modes that are expected to be observed in otherstars, we can perform inversions that will give localized informationof the stellar core. These results can limit the space of admissiblemodels of a given star.     

Stellar Convection

Seismology provides powerful tests of convection deep instellar interiors. First, the role of convective overshoot and lowefficiency convection, two areas of uncertainty with importantastrophysical implications, are reviewed briefly. In the rest of thetalk, a critical introduction to numerical simulations of radiativehydrodynamics will be given. The basic underlyingassumptions and challenges are explained, and some recent resultsare presented.     

Stellar associations

This article is intended to remind us of the history of the origins of one of the fundamental discoveries of the twentieth century, stellar associations, which are connected with the name of V. A. Ambartsumyan. It is not a complete discussion of all the published work, for this is, of course, impossible. Research on stellar associations began immediately after their discovery and continues to this day. Observations are now also carried out by automatic satellites and a vast amount of observational data has been obtained. Many stellar associations have been discovered, both in our galaxy and in other galaxies. Catalogs of stellar associations have been compiled and many problems relating to stellar associations have been solved. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 171–184 (May 2009).     

Stellar flares

Different aspects of stellar flares as one of the events of stellar activity with different levels of similarity to solar-activity phenomena are briefly discussed: those which are understandable by means of scaling of solar events, those that do not occur on the Sun but general solar features allow us to understand them, and such stellar events that have not been understood as yet.     

Stellar Tomography

I review recent progress in the field of stellar surface imaging, with particular reference to advanced methods for mapping surface-brightness inhomogeneities and the surface vector magnetic field on magnetically active late-type stars. New signal enhancement techniques, utilising profile information from hundreds or thousands of photospheric lines simultaneously, allow images to be derived for stars several magnitudes fainter than was previously possible. For brighter stars, the same techniques make it possible to map features as small as two or three degrees in extent on the stellar surface. This opens up whole new areas of research, such as the ability to use starspot tracking to study surface differential rotation patterns on single and binary stars, and to follow the secular evolution of the magnetic field itself. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

星族合成

以简单星族为例介绍了演化星族合成的算法 ,并总结了在演化星族合成中常用的恒星演化库 ,光谱库 ,初始质量函数和合成判据 ,最后简要讨论了目前星族合成中仍存在的问题。     

Stellar and gas dynamics of late-type barred-spiral galaxies: NGC 3359, a test case

We study the dynamics of a model for the late-type barred-spiral galaxy NGC 3359 by using both observational and numerical techniques. The results of our modelling are compared with photometric and kinematical data. The potential used is estimated directly from observations of the galaxy. It describes with a single potential function, a barred-spiral system with an extended spiral structure. Thus, the study of the dynamics in this potential has an interest by itself. We apply orbital theory and response models for the study of the stellar component, and smoothed particle hydrodynamics for modelling the gas. In particular, we examine the pattern speed of the system and the orbital character (chaotic or ordered) of the spiral arms. We conclude that the spiral pattern rotates slowly, in the sense that its corotation is close to or even beyond the end of the arms. Although a single, slow pattern speed could, under certain assumptions, characterize the whole disc, the comparison with the observational data indicates that probably the bar and the spirals have different angular velocities. In our two pattern speeds model, the best fit is obtained with a bar ending close to its 4:1 resonance and a more slowly rotating spiral. Assuming an 11 Mpc distance to the galaxy, a match of our models with the observed data indicates a pattern speed of about  39 km s⁻¹ kpc⁻¹  for the bar and about  15 km s⁻¹ kpc⁻¹  for the spiral. We do not find any indication for a chaotic character of the arms in this barred-spiral system. The flow in the region of the spirals can best be described as a regular 'precessing-ellipses flow'.     

Stellar dynamic spectroscopy

The dynamic spectrum, a three dimensional record of the radio intensity as a function both of time and frequency, has long been used as a probe of plasma processes in the solar corona. Beginning with the work of Wild and McCready (1950) dynamic spectroscopy has been used to distinguish between the multitude of radio wave emitting phenomena which occur in the solar corona and to infer the physical mechanisms responsible.Stellar dynamic spectroscopy has always been a tantalizing prospect. The vast body of experience with solar dynamic spectroscopy would prove invaluable in interpreting stellar dynamic spectra. Further, the new parameter regimes presented by stellar coronas would allow further insight to be gained in the physical processes at work in stellar coronas.Recently, Bastian and Bookbinder (1987) used the Very Large Array in spectral line mode at 1.4 GHz with a bandwidth of 50 MHz to obtain the first dynamic spectra of nearby flare stars. The spectral resolution was 3.125 MHz and the temporal resolution was 5 s. While the relative bandwidth was less than ideal (/ 5%), the spectra so obtained were sufficient to show the presence of narrowband structure in a radio outburst from the well-known dMe flare star UV Ceti.Several efforts are now underway to obtain stellar dynamic spectra, of both RS CVn binaries and dMe flare stars, with higher degrees of spectral and temporal resolution. Among these are use of a 1024 channel correlator with the 1000' telescope at Arecibo and use of the Berkeley Fast Pulsar Search Machine (Kulkarni et al. 1984) with the Green Bank 140' telescope.

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Stellar Wind Theories

In this lecture I describe the basic theory of stellar winds with momentum input due to a force or with energy input and I formulate the five laws of stellar winds. I review the different wind mechanisms and discuss the line driven wind model and the dust driven wind models. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Stellar chromospheric temperatures

The emission doublet 2800 Mgii of stellar chromospheric origin is always stronger than the emission in the Lα line of hydrogen. At the same time, the ratio of their fluxes,Q=F(Mgii)/F(Lα), varies over a wide range— from 2 up to 20 in stars of one and the same type. Assuming that both emission structures, 2800 Mgii and Lα, are excited in one and the same region of the chromosphere, an attempt is made to represent the ratioQ as a function from one physical parameter only—chromospheric electron temperature. Such an approach explains easily the observed behaviour of the ratioQ in different stars.     

Stellar dynamic spectroscopy

The dynamic spectrum, a three dimensional record of the radio intensity as a function both of time and frequency, has long been used as a probe of plasma processes in the solar corona. Beginning with the work of Wild and McCready (1950) dynamic spectroscopy has been used to distinguish between the multitude of radio wave emitting phenomena which occur in the solar corona and to infer the physical mechanisms responsible.

Stellar dynamic spectroscopy has always been a tantalizing prospect. The vast body of experience with solar dynamic spectroscopy would prove invaluable in interpreting stellar dynamic spectra. Further, the new parameter regimes presented by stellar coronas would allow further insight to be gained in the physical processes at work in stellar coronas.

Recently, Bastian and Bookbinder (1987) used the Very Large Array in spectral line mode at 1.4 GHz with a bandwidth of 50 MHz to obtain the first dynamic spectra of nearby flare stars. The spectral resolution was 3.125 MHz and the temporal resolution was 5 s. While the relative bandwidth was less than ideal (δν/ν ∼ 5%), the spectra so obtained were sufficient to show the presence of narrowband structure in a radio outburst from the well-known dMe flare star UV Ceti.

Several efforts are now underway to obtain stellar dynamic spectra, of both RS CVn binaries and dMe flare stars, with higher degrees of spectral and temporal resolution. Among these are use of a 1024 channel correlator with the 1000' telescope at Arecibo and use of the Berkeley Fast Pulsar Search Machine (Kulkarni et al. 1984) with the Green Bank 140' telescope.

     

Stellar dynamics in young clusters: the formation of massive runaways and very massive runaway mergers

In the present paper we combine an N-body code that simulates the dynamics of young dense stellar systems with a massive star evolution handler that accounts in a realistic way for the effects of stellar wind mass loss. We discuss two topics.

1. The formation and the evolution of very massive stars (with masses >120 M_⊙) is followed in detail. These very massive stars are formed in the cluster core as a consequence of the successive (physical) collisions of the 10–20 most massive stars in the cluster (this process is known as ‘runaway merging’). The further evolution is governed by stellar wind mass loss during core hydrogen and core helium burning (the WR phase of very massive stars). Our simulations reveal that, as a consequence of runaway merging in clusters with solar and supersolar values, massive black holes can be formed, but with a maximum mass ≈70 M_⊙. In low-metallicity clusters, however, it cannot be excluded that the runaway-merging process is responsible for pair-instability supernovae or for the formation of intermediate-mass black holes with a mass of several 100 M_⊙.
2. Massive runaways can be formed via the supernova explosion of one of the components in a binary system (the Blaauw scenario), or via dynamical interaction of a single star and a binary or between two binaries in a star cluster. We explore the possibility that the most massive runaways (e.g. ζ Pup, λ Cep, BD+43°3654) are the product of the collision and merger of two or three massive stars.

     

Nucleosynthesis and Stellar Evolution

Two of the basic building blocks of galaxies are stars and the interstellar medium. The evolution of the abundance composition in the latter and especially the enrichment of heavy elements as a function of space and time reflects in turn the history of star formation and the lifetimes of the diverse contributing stellar objects. Therefore, the understanding of stellar evolution and its endpoints (mainly planetary nebulae, supernovae of type Ia and type II/Ib/Ic) is essential. Despite many efforts, a full and self-consistent understanding of supernovae (the main contributors to nucleosynthesis in galaxies) is not existing, yet. However, they leave fingerprints, seen either in spectra, lightcurves, radioactivities/decay gamma-rays or in galactic evolution. Here we want to address the composition of ejecta, their model uncertainties and relate them to constraints from abundance observations in galactic evolution. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

恒星物质的不透明度

简介介绍了恒星物质的透明性质在恒星结构、演化、振动等许多恒星物理基本问题研究中的重要性和决定恒星物质不透明度的物理过程,回顾了第一代不透明度数据ＬＡＯＬ的发展历程与存在的问题,介绍了新一代不透明度数据ＯＰＡＬ的发展和目前观测与理论之间依然不一致的地方。     

Stellar Rotation and Activity

This review is limited to solar-type stars (late-F to early-K main sequence stars) and to recent developments in the study of the evolution of angular momentum in those stars. Observations of rotation in young clusters are discussed, together with the models that have been put forth to account for what is seen. One key question is whether or not the convective envelopes of solar-type stars decouple from the radiative cores when the stars near the Zero-Age Main Sequence. That question cannot yet be answered, but forthcoming observations are likely to address the issue. Another significant open question is the degree to which any one cluster of stars is typical of all stars at that age, and that too is near to being resolved as we reach deeper into the Galaxy at high spectroscopic resolution. Finally, some general properties of activity in solar-type stars are presented. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.