Analysis of the X-ray emission of OB stars: O stars

We investigate the global properties of X-ray emission from O stars, analyzing the X-ray spectra of 32 O stars from archival data of the XMM-Newton space observatory. We examine two hypotheses about of the origin of X-ray emission from O stars. The first is a paradigm proposed by Pollock, that was revealed from an analysis of the ζ Ori X-ray observation. The second is the magnetically confined wind-shock(MCWS) model. For checking Pollock's hypothesis, we determine the distribution of the ratio of half width at half maximum(HWHM) to the wind terminal velocity for lines in spectra of all examined stars. In addition, we check three probable consequences from the MCWS model. We analyze if a correlation exists between the spectral hardness and such stellar parameters as the wind terminal velocity, stellar magnetic field and mass loss rate. The result showed that Pollock's hypothesis is not correct. We also established that not all consequences of the MCWS model considered by us are confirmed. In addition, our spectral analysis method indicated that O stars probably have clumped stellar winds with spherical clumps.     

Analysis of the X-ray emission of OB stars II: B stars

This paper is the second part of an investigation into the mechanism for the origin of X-rays in early-type stars. Archival X-ray observations of 25 B stars, obtained by the XMM-Newton satellite, are analysed. We check two hypotheses on the origin of X-ray emission: the Magnetically Confined Wind Shock Model(MCWS) and Pollock's paradigm. For all studied stars, the mean ratio of the half widths at half maximum to the terminal velocities appears to be R ≈ 0.15-0.20 in contradiction to Pollock's hypothesis that R ≈ 0.5. We checked three possible consequences of the MCWS model: correlations between the hardness of the X-ray spectra for B stars and terminal wind velocities, mass loss rates and magnetic fields.It was shown that such correlations are marginal or even absent both for magnetic and non-magnetic B stars.     

X-ray activity from different types of stars

X-ray emission is an important indicator of stellar activity. In this paper, we study stellar Xray activity using the XMM-Newton and LAMOST data for different types of stars. We provide a sample including 1259 X-ray-emitting stars, of which 1090 have accurate stellar parameter estimations. Our sample size is much larger than those used in previous works. We find a bimodal distribution of the X-ray to optical flux ratio(log(fX/fV)) for G and K stars. We interpret that this bimodality is due to two subpopulations with different coronal heating rates. Furthermore, using the full widths at half maxima calculated from Hα and Hβ lines, we show that these stars in the inactive peaks have smaller rotational velocities. This is consistent with the magnetic dynamo theory that presumes stars with low rotational velocities have low levels of stellar activity. We also examine the correlation between log(fX/fV) and luminosity of the excess emission in the Hα line, and find a tight relation between the coronal and chromospheric activity indicators.     

Measurements of the Ca II infrared triplet lines of young stellar objects

Equivalent widths and line widths of Ca II infrared triplet emission lines were measured in the high-resolution optical spectra of 39 young stellar objects.We found that the equivalent widths of the emission lines decrease with stellar evolution.It has often been claimed that strong chromospheric activity is generated by a dynamo process caused by fast rotation of the photosphere.However,we found no clear correlation between the strength of the Ca II lines and the stellar rotation velocity.Instead,we found that the objects with high mass accretion rates had stronger Ca II emission lines.This correlation supports the turbulent chromosphere model or the magnetic accretion theory for classical T Tauri stars.We also noticed that the equivalent widths of Ca II lines in transitional disk objects are one-tenth of those in classical T Tauri stars,even if the masses of the circumstellar disks are comparable.     

A catalog of early-type emission-line stars and Hα line profiles from LAMOST DR2

We present a catalog including 11 204 spectra of 10 436 early-type emission-line stars from LAMOST DR2, among which 9752 early-type emission-line spectra are newly discovered. For these earlytype emission-line stars, we discuss the morphological and physical properties of their low-resolution spectra. In this spectral sample, the Hα emission profiles display a wide variety of shapes. Based on the Hα line profiles, these spectra are categorized into five distinct classes: single-peak emission, single-peak emission in absorption, double-peak emission, double-peak emission in absorption, and P-Cygni profiles. To better understand what causes the Hα line profiles, we divide these objects into four types from the perspective of physical classification, which include classical Be stars, Herbig Ae/Be stars, close binaries and spectra contaminated by H II regions. The majority of Herbig Ae/Be stars and classical Be stars are identified and separated using a(H-K, K-W1) color-color diagram. We also discuss 31 binary systems that are listed in the SIMBAD on-line catalog and identify 3600 spectra contaminated by H II regions after cross-matching with positions in the Dubout-Crillon catalog. A statistical analysis of line profiles versus classifications is then conducted in order to understand the distribution of Hα profiles for each type in our sample. Finally, we also provide a table of 172 spectra with Fe II emission lines and roughly calculate stellar wind velocities for seven spectra with P-Cygni profiles.     

Spin Evolution of Neutron Stars in OB／X-ray Binaries

We have investigated the relation between the orbital period Porb and the spin period Ps of neutron stars in OB/X-ray binaries. By simulating the time-development of the mass loss rate and radius expansion of a 20A⊙ donor star, we have calculated the detailed spin evolution of the neutron star before steady wind accretion occurs (that is, when the break spin period is reached), or when the OB star begins evolving off the main sequence or has filled its Roche lobe. Our results are compatible with the observations of OB/X-ray binaries. We find that in relatively narrow systems with orbital periods less than tens of days, neutron stars with initial magnetic field B0 stronger than about 3×1012 G can reach the break spin period to allow steady wind accretion in the main sequence time, whereas neutron stars with B0 < 3×1012 G and/or in wide systems would still be in one of the pulsar, rapid rotator or propeller phases when the companion evolves off the main sequence or fills its Roche lobe. Our results may     

Analysis of X-Ray Emission from OB Stars. IV. About X-Ray Emission from Inhomogeneous Winds of OB Stars

We study the origin of X-ray emission from OB stars due to collisions of stellar winds and/or inhomogeneities in the winds. The low-resolution X-ray spectra of a big sample of OB stars were fitted by both the stationary APEC/MEKAL models and by this model with an additional PSHOCK component describing the nonstationary X-ray emission. These spectra were also described by two-temperature PSHOCK models. More than ～50% of considered spectra can be described by the above-mentioned model combinations...     

The Magnetic Field Effect on Planetary Nebulae

In our previous work on the 3-dimensional dynamical structure of planetary nebulae the effect of magnetic field was not considered. Recently Jordan et al. have directly detected magnetic fields in the central stars of some planetary nebulae. This discovery supports the hypothesis that the non-spherical shape of most planetary nebulae is caused by magnetic fields in AGB stars. In this study we focus on the role of initially weak toroidal magnetic fields embedded in a stellar wind in altering the shape of the PN. We found that magnetic pressure is probably influential on the observed shape of most PNe.     

Physical properties of γ Doradus pulsating stars and their relationship with long-period δ Scuti variables

We present LAMOST data on 168 γ Doradus(γ Dor) pulsating stars including stellar atmospheric parameters of 137 variables and spectral types for all of the samples. The distributions of period(P), temperature(T), gravitational acceleration(log(g)) and metallicity [Fe/H] are shown. It is found that most γ Dor variables are main-sequence stars with early F spectral types and temperatures from 6880 K to7280 K. They are slightly more metal poor than the Sun with a metallicity range from-0.4 to 0. On the H-R and log g-T diagrams, both the γ Dor and δ Scuti(δ Sct) stars occupy in the same region and some are beyond the borders predicted by current stellar pulsation theories. It is discovered that the physical properties of γ Dor stars are similar to those of long-period δ Sct(P 0.3 d) stars. The stellar atmospheric parameters are all correlated with the pulsation period for short-period δ Sct variables(P 0.3 d), but there are no such relations for γ Dor or long-period δ Sct stars. These results reveal that γ Dor and long-period δ Sct are the same group of pulsating stars and they are different from short-period δ Sct variables. Meanwhile, 33γ Dor stars are identified as candidates of binary or multiple systems.     

Spatial dependence of high energy electrons and their radiations in pulsar wind nebulae

We investigate the spatial dependence of high energy electrons and their radiations in pulsar wind nebulae(PWNe).By assuming a time-dependent broken power-law injection and spatial dependence of convection velocity,magnetic field strength and diffusion coefficient on the radial distance of an expanding system,we numerically solve the Fokker-Planck transport equation including convection,diffusion,adiabatic loss and radiative loss in spherical coordinates,and investigate the effects of magnetic field,PWN age,maximum energy of electrons,and diffusion coefficient on electron spectra and non-thermal photon emissions.Our results indicate that(1) electron spectra and the corresponding photon spectra are a function of radial distance r of the expanding system;(2) for a given expansion velocity,the increase of the PWN age causes a slower decrease of the convection velocity(V ∝ r~(-β)) and a more rapid decrease of the magnetic field strength(B ∝ r~(-1+β)),but a more rapid increase of the diffusion coefficient(κ∝ r~(1-β)) because the index β decreases with the PWN age;and(3) the lower energy part of the electron spectra is dominated by convection and adiabatic loss,but the higher energy part is dominated by the competition between synchrotron loss and diffusion,and such a competition is a function of radial distance.Therefore the diffusion effect has an important role in the evolution of electron spectra as well as non-thermal photon spectra in a PWN.     

A method of measuring the [α/Fe] ratios from the spectra of the LAMOST survey

The [α/Fe] ratios in stars are good tracers to probe the formation history of stellar populations and the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. The spectroscopic survey of LAMOST provides a good opportunity to determine [α/Fe] of millions of stars in the Galaxy. We present a method of measuring the [α/Fe]ratios from LAMOST spectra using the template-matching technique of the LSP3 pipeline. We use three test samples of stars selected from the ELODIE and MILES libraries, as well as the LEGUE survey to validate our method. Based on the test results, we conclude that our method is valid for measuring [α/Fe]from low-resolution spectra acquired by the LAMOST survey. Within the range of the stellar parameters Teff= [5000, 7500] K, log g = [1.0, 5.0] dex and [Fe/H]= [onsistent with values derived from high-resolution spectra,-1.5, +0.5] dex, our [α/Fe] measurements are c and the accuracy of our [α/Fe] measurements from LAMOST spectra is better than 0.1 dex with spectral signal-to-noise higher than 20.     

The Impact of Tidal Migration of Hot Jupiters on the Rotation of Sun-like Main-sequence Stars

The tidal interactions of planets affect the stellar evolutionary status and the constraint of their physical parameters by gyrochronology. In this work, we incorporate the tidal interaction and magnetic braking of the stellar wind into MESA and calculate a large grid of 25,000 models, covering planets with masses of 0.1–13.0 MJwith different orbital distances that orbit late-type stars of different metallicities. We also explore the effect of different stellar initial rotations on the tidal int...     

Automated Separation os Stars and Normal Galaxies Based on Statistical Mixture Modeling with RBF Neural Net—works

For LAMOST,the largest sky survey program in China,the solution of the problem of automatic discrimination of stars from galaxies by spectra has shown that the results of the PSF test can be significantly refined.However,the problem is made worse when the redshifts of galaxies are not available.We present a new automatic method of star/(normal)galaxy separation,which is based on Statistical Mixture Modeling with Radial Basis Function Neural netrworks(SMM-RBFNN).This work is a continuation of our previous one,where active and non-active celestial objects were successfully segregated.By combining the method in this paper and the previous one,stars can now be effectively separated from galaxies and AGNs by their spectra-a major goal of LAMOST,and an indispensable step in any automatic spectrum classification system.In our work,the training set includes standard stellar spectra from Jacoby‘s spectrum library and simulated galaxy spectra of EO,SO,Sa,Sb types with redshift ranging from 0 to 1.2,and the test set of stellar spectra from Pickles‘atlas and SDSS spectra of normal galaxies with SNR of 13.Experiments show that our SMM-RBFNN is more efficient in both the training and testing stages than the BPNN(back propagation neural networks),and more importantly,it can achieve a good classification accuracy of 99.22% and 96.52%,respectively for stars and normal galaxies.     

Equivalent Widths of 15 Extrasolar-Planet Host Stars

We present the equivalent widths of 15 extrasolar-planet host stars. These data were based on the high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectra obtained with the 2.16m telescope at Xinglong station. The error in the Xinglong equivalent width is estimated by a comparison of these data with those given in previous studies of common stars.     

Overview of the LAMOST-Kepler project

The NASA Kepler mission obtained long-term high-quality photometric observations for a large number of stars in its original field of view from 2009 to 2013. To provide reliable stellar parameters in a homogeneous way, the LAMOST telescope began to carry out low-resolution spectroscopic observations for as many stars as possible in the Kepler field in 2012. By June 2018, 238 386 low-resolution spectra with SNRg ≥ 6 had been collected for 155 623 stars in the Kepler field, enabling the determination of atmospheric parameters and radial velocities, as well as spectral classification of the target stars.This information has been used by astronomers to carry out research in various fields, including stellar pulsations and asteroseismology, exoplanets, stellar magnetic activity and flares, peculiar stars and the Milky Way, binary stars, etc. We summarize the research progress in these fields where the usage of data from the LAMOST-Kepler(LK) project has played a role. In addition, time-domain medium-resolution spectroscopic observations have been carried out for about 12 000 stars in four central plates of the Kepler field since 2018. The currently available results show that the LAMOST-Kepler medium resolution(LKMRS) observations provide qualified data suitable for research in additional science projects including binaries, high-amplitude pulsating stars, etc. As LAMOST is continuing to collect both low-and mediumresolution spectra of stars in the Kepler field, we expect more data to be released continuously and new scientific results to appear based on the LK project data.     

Stellar mass estimation based on IRAC photometry for Spitzer SWIRE-field galaxies

We analyze the feasibility of estimating the stellar mass of galaxies by mid-infrared luminosities based on a large sample of galaxies cross-identified from Spitzer SWIRE fields and the SDSS spectrographic survey.We derived the formulae to calculate the stellar mass by using IRAC 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm luminosities.The massto-luminosity ratios of IRAC 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm luminosities are more sensitive to the star formation history of galaxies than to other factors,such as the intrinsic extinction,metallicity and star formation rate.To remove the effect of star formation history,we used g-r color to recalibrate the formulae and obtain a better result.Researchers must be more careful when estimating the stellar mass of low metallicity galaxies using our formulae.Due to the emission from dust heated by the hottest young stars,luminous infrared galaxies present higher IRAC 4.5 μm luminosities compared to IRAC 3.6 μm luminosities.For most of type-Ⅱ AGNs,the nuclear activity cannot enhance 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm luminosities compared with normal galaxies.Star formation in our AGNhosting galaxies is also very weak,almost all of which are early-type galaxies.     

Exploring the spectral information content in the LAMOST medium-resolution survey(MRS)

Although high-resolution stellar spectra allow us to derive precise stellar labels(effective temperature, metallicity, surface gravity, elemental abundances, etc.) based on resolved atomic lines and molecular bands, low-resolution spectra have been proved to be competitive in determining many stellar labels at comparable precision. It is useful to consider the spectral information content when assessing the capability of a stellar spectrum in deriving precise stellar labels. In this work, we quantify the information content brought by the LAMOST-II medium-resolution spectroscopic survey(MRS) using the gradient spectra as well as the coefficients-of-dependence(CODs). In general, the wavelength coverage of the MRS well constrains the stellar labels but the sensitivities of different stellar labels vary with spectral types and metallicity of the stars of interest. Consequently, this affects the performance of the stellar label determination from the MRS spectra. By applying the SLAM method to the synthetic spectra which mimic the MRS data, we find that the precision of the fundamental stellar parameters Teff, log g and [M/H] are better when combining both the blue and red bands of the MRS. This is especially important for warm stars because the Hα line located in the red part plays a more important role in determining the effective temperature for warm stars. With blue and red parts together, we are able to reach similar performance to the low-resolution spectra except for warm stars. However, at [M/H] ~-2.0 dex, the uncertainties of fundamental stellar labels estimated from MRS are substantially larger than that from low-resolution spectra. We also tested the uncertainties of T_(eff), log g and [M/H] from MRS data induced from the radial velocity mismatch and find that a mismatch of about 1 km s~(-1), which is typical for LAMOST MRS data, would not significantly affect the stellar label estimates. Finally, reference precision limits are calculated using synthetic gradient spectra, according to which we expect abundances of at least 17 elements to be measured precisely from MRS spectra.     

Stellar X-ray Sources in the Rosette Nebula

We present optical photometric and spectroscopic studies of ROSAT X-ray stellar sources in the Rosette Nebula star-forming region. The brightest X-ray sources are either massive stars or active T Tauri stars associated with the open cluster NGC 2244, or are foreground stars. Some of the spectra of the young stars newly identified in the region are presented.     

Spectral Properties of Anomalous X-ray Pulsars

We examine the spectra of the persistent emission from anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and their variati on with the spin-down rate Ω. Based onan accretion-powered model, the influences of both the magnetic field and the mass accretion rate on the spectral properties of AXPs are addressed. We then investigate the relation between the spectral property of AXPs and mass accretion rate M. The result shows that there exists a linear correlation between the photon index and the mass accretion rate: the spectral hardness increases with increasing M. A possible emission mechanism for the explanation of the spectral properties of AXPs is also discussed.     

Relation between Starlight and Nebular Emission Lines of Star-Forming Galaxies

We present an exercise that intends to establish a relationship between the strength of nebular emission lines and optical stellar features in the spectrum of a galaxy. After accurately subtracting the stellar continuum and the underlying stellar absorption, we made reliable measurements of the emission lines of all the galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2 (SDSS DR2). More than 4000 star-forming galaxies with high S/N ratio of both the stellar spectrum and the emission lines are selected. These galaxy spectra are fitted with the 10 PCs of Yip et al., after all the emission line regions have been filtered out. We find that the flux of hydrogen Balmer emission lines, Hα and Hβ can be well recovered from the PCs, while the metal lines are not well reproduced. The fluxes of Hα and Hβ measured from the PC-reconstructed spectra and from the observed spectra agree well with an rms scatter of only - 0.1 dex. This result suggests that, with moderate spectral resolution and S/N ratio, the optical stellar spectrum of a galaxy can serve as an indicator of star formation rate.