Structure of the inner regions of the circumstellar gas envelopes around young hot stars. II. The new cycle of spectral activity of the Herbig Ae star HD 31648

The results of the high-resolution long-term spectral monitoring of the Herbig Ae star HD 31648 in the regions of emission Hα line, Na I D resonance lines and OI 7774 lines are presented. We confirmed the conclusion, made in previous papers, that the spectral variability of the star in the region of Hα line have a cyclic character. It is manifested itself as the changing of the equivalent width and intensity of Hα line of the time scale of about 1200d. It is shown, that the stellar wind is non-homogeneous and consists of several components, which are differed each other by their velocities. They are observed as in the H line as in Na I D resonance lines. The component’s parameters are changed during the cycle of stellar activity (in the maximum of activity the velocity and density of the wind are taken the largest values and then they are gradually decreased). The investigation of rapid variability of the He I 5876 line on the time scale of a few hours allows find the correlation between the variability of the blue and the red wings of the line. It points at the connection between the accretion and the outflows. Such connection, in particularly, is predicted by the modeling of the wind from young stars made in the frame of the magneto-centrifugal model, the accordance of which for the HD 31648 was shown in the previous papers. In the present work we confirmed this conclusion on the basis of the new data. We found the weak variability of the stellar brightness (about 0.2m), which is agree with the spectral variability (the brightness of the star becomes lower in the maximum of the activity). These changes are well explained by the process of the dust transfer from CS disk by the stellar wind. This process is likely to be more effective in the maximum of activity. An analysis of the variability of other spectral lines shows the agreement between the changing of the Hα line, the Na I D resonance doublet lines and KI 7698 line. The weak connection between the He I 5876 and the Na I D lines is also found. Since the formation regions of He I 5876 and Na I D lines are essentially different, we can conclude that the phenomena, responsible for the observed cyclic variability, take place in a spacious region of the CS envelope. We believe that the most plausible reason of found cyclic variability is the reconstruction of the inner structure of the CS gas envelope, caused by the presence around the star a low mass companion or planet. __________ Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 565–588 (November 2007).     

The evolutionary status of HD 104237, ε Cha and HD 100546

Using the new data from Hipparcos and the TD-1 UV data, we fix the positions of three objects, HD 104237, HD 100546 and ε Cha in the HR diagram and discuss their theoretical evolutionary status.     

An atlas of the optical spectrum of supernova 1987A in the large magellanic cloud

Photographic spectra of SN1987A in the LMC have been obtained from 1987 February 25 to 1988 June 30. Microdensitometer tracings of these have been reduced to intensity and corrections for instrumental response have been applied to the spectra. This paper presents these data in an atlas format, discusses the reduction procedures in detail, and presents radial velocity measurements of selected lines in the spectra     

Collisional hardening of compact binaries in globular clusters

We consider essential mechanisms for orbit shrinkage or 'hardening' of compact binaries in globular clusters (GCs) to the point of Roche lobe contact and X-ray emission phase, focusing on the process of collisional hardening due to encounters between binaries and single stars in the cluster core. The interplay between this kind of hardening and that due to emission of gravitational radiation produces a characteristic scaling of the orbit-shrinkage time with the single-star binary encounter rate γ in the cluster which we introduce, clarify and explore. We investigate possible effects of this scaling on populations of X-ray binaries in GCs within the framework of a simple 'toy' scheme for describing the evolution of pre-X-ray binaries in GCs. We find the expected qualitative trends sufficiently supported by data on X-ray binaries in Galactic GCs to encourage us towards a more quantitative study.     

The symbiotic star CH Cygni – I. Non-thermal bipolar jets

Very Large Array surface brightness and spectral index maps of the evolving extended emission of the triple symbiotic star CH Cygni are presented. These are derived from observations at 4.8, 8.4 and 14 GHz between 1985 and 1999. The maps are dominated by thermal emission around the central bright peak of the nebula, but we also find unambiguous non-thermal emission associated with the extended regions. Our observations confirm that this is a jet. The central region has been associated with the stellar components through Hubble Space Telescope imaging. If the jets are the result of ejection events at outburst, expansion velocities are consistent with those from other measurement methods. We propose that the non-thermal emission is caused by material ejected in the bipolar jets interacting with the circumstellar wind envelope. The resulting shocks lead to local enhancements in the magnetic field from the compact component of the order of 3 mG.     

New stellar members of the Coma Berenices open star cluster

We present the results of a survey of the Coma Berenices open star cluster (Melotte 111), undertaken using proper motions from the USNO-B1.0 (United States Naval Observatory) and photometry from the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) Point Source catalogues. We have identified 60 new candidate members with masses in the range  1.007 < M < 0.269 M_⊙  . For each we have estimated a membership probability by extracting control clusters from the proper motion vector diagram. All 60 are found to have greater than 60 per cent probability of being members, more than doubling the number of known cluster members. The new luminosity function for the cluster peaks at bright magnitudes, but is rising at   K ≈ 12  , indicating that it is likely that lower mass members may exist. The mass function also supports this hypothesis.     

Old stellar population synthesis： new age and mass estimates for Mayall Ⅱ = G1

Mayall Ⅱ = G1 is one of the most luminous globular clusters （GCs） in M31. Here, we determine its age and mass by comparing multicolor photometry with theoretical stellar population synthesis models. Based on far- and near-ultraviolet GALEX photometry, broad-band UBVRI, and infrared JHKs 2MASS data, we construct the most extensive spectral energy distribution of G 1 to date, spanning the wavelength range from 1538 to 20 000A. A quantitative comparison with a variety of simple stellar population （SSP） models yields a mean age which is consistent with G1 being among the oldest building blocks of M31 and having formed within ～1.7 Gyr after the Big Bang. Irrespective of the SSP model or stellar initial mass function adopted, the resulting mass estimates （of order 10^7M⊙） indicate that GI is one of the most massive GCs in the Local Group. However, we speculate that the cluster＇s exceptionally high mass suggests that it may not be a genuine GC. Our results also suggest that G1 may contain, on average, （1.65±0.63） × 10^2L⊙ far-ultraviolet-bright, hot, extreme horizontal-branch stars, depending on the adopted SSP model. In addition, we demonstrate that extensive multi-passband photometry coupled with SSP analysis enables one to obtain age estimates for old SSPs that have similar accuracies as those from integrated spectroscopy or resolved stellar photometry, provided that some of the free parameters can be constrained independently.     

Some Problems with Slow Rotation of CP Stars

Some difficulties in explaining the slow rotation of CP stars are discussed. The most likely hypotheses are (1) a loss of angular momentum involving a magnetic field during “pre-main sequence” evolution and (2) the slow rotation existed from the very start of the creation of these stars. The braking hypothesis is supported by only one property of CP stars— the lower the mass of the star is, the greater the difference between its average rotation velocity vsini and that of normal stars. On the other hand, there is another property— the lower the rotation speeds of CP stars are, the greater their fraction among normal stars. The latter property supports the hypothesis that the lower the initial rotation speed of a star is when it is created, the greater the probability will become chemically peculiar. This property is inherent in chemically peculiar stars both with and without a magnetic field. It is proposed that the cause of the slow rotation of CP stars must be sought in the very earliest phases of their formation, as should the cause of the separation into chemically peculiar magnetic, chemically peculiar nonmagnetic, and normal stars.__________Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 229–245 (May 2005).     

Hα Photometry of Two Contact Binaries

We carried out optical and Hα photometry of two contact binaries (V861 Herculis, EQ Tauri). The light curve modeling revealed stellar spots in both contact systems and strong Hα excess in the position of the observed stellar spots. A correlation was found between the V−R and R−H_α colour indices of V861 Her.