Archive for 2017

Resolving the clumpy circumstellar environment of the B[e] supergiant LHA 120-S 35

Andrea F. Torres, Lydia S. Cidale, Michaela Kraus, María L. Arias, Rodolfo H. Barbá, Grigoris Maravelias, Marcelo Borges Fernandes

B[e] supergiants (SGs) are massive post-main-sequence stars, surrounded by a complex circumstellar (CS) environment. The aim of this work is to investigate the structure and kinematics of the CS disc of the B[e] SG LHA 120-S 35. We used high-resolution optical spectra obtained in different years to model the forbidden emission lines and determine the kinematical properties of their line-forming regions, assuming Keplerian rotation. We also used low-resolution near-infrared (IR) spectra to explore the variability of molecular emission. LHA 120-S 35 displays spectral variability in both optical and IR regions. The P-Cygni line profiles of H I, as well as those of Fe II and O I, suggest the presence of a strong bipolar clumped wind. We distinguish density enhancements in the P-Cygni absorption component of the first Balmer lines, which show variations in both velocity and strength. The P-Cygni profile emission component is double-peaked, indicating the presence of a rotating CS disc. We also observe line-profile variations in the permitted and forbidden features of Fe II and O I. In the IR, we detect variations in the intensity of the H I emission lines as well as in the emission of the CO band-heads. Moreover, we find that the profiles of each [Ca II] and [O I] emission lines contain contributions from spatially different (complete or partial) rings. Globally, we find evidence of detached multi-ring structures, revealing density variations along the disc. We suggest that LHA 120-S 35 has passed through the red-supergiant (RSG) phase and evolves back bluewards in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. The formation of the complex CS structure could be the result of the wind-wind interactions of the post-RSG wind with the previously ejected material from the RSG. However, the presence of a binary companion can not be excluded. Finally, we find that LHA 120-S 35 belongs to a young stellar cluster.

arXiv.org: 1712.09759

A short talk on GW170817 at UoC

Posted December 21, 2017 By grigoris

A few weeks ago couple of months ago I gave a small talk during the journal club of the Astronomy group at the University of Crete (on 20/Oct/2017) about the most recent gravitational wave detection (GW170817) corresponding to a neutron star merger. As I have been involved in a couple of papers [1] it was the prime time to present it after the official announcement on Oct 16th. However, I thought that this event deserves a more detailed post (that took a couple of months to finalize).

Before Aug 17th, 2017, there have been only 4 confirmed detections: GW150914 (the first one [2]), GW151226, GW170104, and GW170814 (plus LVT151012 as a tentative detection). The last one (GW170814) is the first detected by both LIGO and VIRGO, which joined the collaboration on Aug 1st, 2017. So, it was only a few days after that that they detected another very important event.

On Aug 17th, 2017, at 12:41:04 UTC, a clear signal was detected by LIGO-Hanford (just at the end of the second LIGO cycle – 9 days later and LIGO would have have been off!). The raw data from LIGO-Livingston detector included a glitch (see Christofer Berry’s post [3]). After reprocessing the data to remove this artifact there was a another clear signal. The VIRGO didn’t manage to show any significant signal but that was due to its antenna orientation and sensitivity (which is important to constrain the sky positions though). The duration of the signal was approximately 60 s allowing for about 3000 cycles. This is the longer and the stronger (at SNR~32.4) signal detected so far (Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration) 2017, [4]).

Time-frequency representations of data containing the gravitational-wave event GW170817, observed by the LIGO-Hanford (top), LIGO-Livingston (middle), and Virgo (bottom) detectors. Times are shown relative to August 17, 2017 12∶41:04 UTC. The amplitude scale in each detector is normalized to that detector’s noise amplitude spectral density. In the LIGO data, independently observable noise sources and a glitch that occurred in the LIGO-Livingston detector have been subtracted. (Text and Fig. 1 from
Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration) 2017, [4])



However, such a long signal is expected to be produced by the merging of neutron stars. And indeed the total mass estimate was 2.73–3.29 M☉ with a mass ratio of 0.4–1.0. This means that the individual masses of the sources that merged were 1.36–2.26 M☉ and 0.86–1.36 M☉, well within the limits of neutron star masses.

GW170817 Localization and Triangulation Annuli. We can pinpoint sources like GW170817 much more accurately now that we can triangulate the signal between Hanford, Livingston, and Virgo. The rapid Hanford-Livingston localization is shown in blue, and the final Hanford-Livingston-Virgo localization is in green. The gray rings are one-sigma triangulation constraints from the three detector pairs. (Text and figure from LIGO page on GW170817 [5])



Almost at the same time (~2s after the GW detection) FERMI (and INTEGRAL) detected a short Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB170817A). The detection of such a contemporaneous signal triggered the community that something exceptional was going on. It is interesting to note that the detection of the GRB only (without any GW detection) wouldn’t be sufficient to mobilize a follow-up campaign, especially because the error of sky position from FERMI is huge. The localization obtained from the GW detection and the information that an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart may exist increased the significance of this source.

Left: GRB data (top) collected by Fermi and gravitational wave data (bottom) collected by LIGO. Right: Source localization on the sky from the INTEGRAL GRB satellite (light blue band), Fermi (the dark blue disk), LIGO alone (green ovals), and LIGO and VIRGO data combined (dark green oval). Notice that all sources identified the LIGO-Virgo area. [Credit: LIGO, Virgo, Fermi, Swope, DLT40] [Text and image (slightly modified) from LivingLigo post [6])



Very soon after the detection all collaborators of LIGO/VIRGO were informed about the possible EM counterpart. Around 70 teams around the world started using almost all available (both ground and space) telescopes to detect and study it. The first group that managed to discover the EM counterpart was the One-Meter, Two-Hemisphere collaboration (Coulter et al. 2017, [7]) that uses the Nickel telescope at Lick Observatory in California and the Swope telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Due to the sky position of the GW source (southern hemisphere and close to the Sun) only the Swope telescope could actually observe around that region, and only for a couple of hours before it set (a month later and this sky region would have been totally hidden behind the Sun). At the time of LIGO trigger it was daylight in Chile they had to wait at least 10 hours before any observation initiates. In the meantime though the collaboration had time to prepare the observing strategy. As they aim to observe the best candidate galaxies according to the properties derived from the GW detection, they built a prioritized list of galaxies based on the position (within the locus identified by LIGO/VIRGO), the distance (around 40 Mpc as estimated by the GW detection), the stellar mass and star formation of the galaxy (for more details see Coulter et al. 2017). The compiled list included 100 galaxies and they start observing them at 23:23 UT.

Sky region covering the 90th-percentile confidence region for the location of GW170817, along with the 50th, 70th, and 90th-percentile contours (indicating the probability to find the host galaxy). Grey circles represent the locations of galaxies observed by the Swope telescope on 2017 August 17-18 to search for the EM counterpart to GW170817. The size of the circle indicates the probability of a particular galaxy being the host galaxy for GW170817. The square regions represent individual Swope pointings with the solid squares specifically chosen to contain multiple galaxies (and labeled in the order that they were observed) and the dotted squares being pointings which contained individual galaxies. The blue square labeled ’9’ contains NGC 4993, whose location is marked by the blue circle, and SSS17a. (Text and figure from Coulter et al. 2017, [7])



After only 20 min (at 23:33 UT equivalent to 10.9 h after LVC trigger), on the 9th image they obtained they identified a new source in the galaxy NGC 4993. An S0 galaxy at 40 Mpc, it was the 12th most probable galaxy to host the GW source with a probability of 2.2%. The new transient, named SSS17a, was detected at i=17.476±0.018 mag (impressively, its V magnitude was at 17.35 mag well within the range of equipment used by amateur astronomers).

3×3 arcmin images centered on NGC 4993 with North up and East left. Panel A: Hubble Space Telescope F606W-band (broad V) image from 4 months before the GW trigger (25, 35). Panel B: Swope image of SSS17a. The i-band image was obtained on 2017 August 17 at 23:33 UT by the Swope telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. SSS17a is marked with the red arrow. No object is present in the Hubble image at the position of SSS17a. (Text and figure from Coulter et al. 2017, [7])



After the discovery of the new transient an intensive spectroscopic and photometric campaign at the Las Campanad Observatory initiated. I was fortunate enough to find myself there (with some colleagues) for an observing run. At the time we were asked to obtain spectra and images of a source without any more information regarding what it was (apart from the fact that these observations were triggered by a LIGO event). Actually one of our images (taken on Aug 21) shows the dramatic change in color of SSS17a, only a few days after its detection.

Pseudo-color images of SSS17a in the galaxy NGC 4993. Images are 1×1 arcmin and centered on NGC 4993; SSS17a is indicated by a blue arrow in each panel. The red, green, and blue channels correspond to the H-band, i-band, and g-band images. (A) Images taken on the night of 2017 August 17, 0.5 days after the merger. (B) Images taken on the night of 2017 August 21, 4.5 days after the merger. Over four days SSS17a both faded and became redder. (Text and figure from Drout et al. 2017, [8])



Both the light curves and the spectra display fast changes in the temperature of the expelled material. Even within the first hour of observations the spectra show a drop of temperature from ~11000K to 9300K, which is indicative of a material expansion at ~0.3c.



Top: Evolution of the ultraviolet to near-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) of SSS17a. (A) The vertical axis is the logarithm of the observed flux. Fluxes have been corrected for foreground Milky Way extinction. Detections are plotted as filled symbols and upper limits for the third epoch (1.0 days post-merger) as downward pointing arrows. Less-constraining upper limits at other epochs are not plotted for clarity. Between 0.5 and 8.5 days after the merger, the peak of the SED shifts from the near-UV (<4500 A) to the near-IR (>1 μm), and fades by a factor >70. The SED is broadly consistent with a thermal distribution and the colored curves represent best-fitting blackbody models at each epoch. In 24 hours after the discovery of SSS17a, the observed color temperature falls from ≳10,000 K to ∼5,000 K. The epoch and best-fitting blackbody temperature (rounded to 100 K) are listed. (B) Filter transmission functions for the observed photometric bands. (Text and figure from Drout et al. 2017, [8])
Bottom: Spectroscopic time series of SSS17a. The vertical axis is observed flux. Observations began ∼0.5 days after the merger and were obtained with the LDSS-3, MagE, and IMACS spectrographs on the Magellan telescopes. These spectra have been calibrated to the photometric observations. Colored bands indicate the wavelength ranges of the g, r, i, z, and Y photometric filters. (Text and figure from Shappee et al. 2017, [9])



In total, its evolution has been faster and unlike anything else we have observed so far. This very fast expansion of the material and its cooling could be attributed to the formation of lanthanide elements through the r-process. All elements up to Fe can be produced within the massive stars and some of the heavier elements during their supernovae explosions. Theory predicted that the majority of the heaviest elements (such as gold, platinum, uranium, etc) should be produced during the merging process of neutron stars, where a large number of neutrons are available within very short times. But we lacked observations up to now.

Spectra of SSS17a compared with a broad range of other astronomical transients at several evolutionary phases. While the ∼0.5 day spectrum of SSS17a has few features and is potentially an extreme version of some other hot and/or fast transients, it evolves rapidly in comparison. Within 3 days of the LIGO trigger, the optical spectrum of SSS17a is no longer similar to other known transients. Dates listed are relative to the time of explosion for all objects. All spectra are divided by their median value and displayed with arbitrary additive offsets for clarity. (A) SSS17a compared to the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) SN2011fe and the afterglow spectrum of the short gamma-ray burst GRB130603B. Few observations of other transients within 1 day of explosion are available. (B) SSS17a at 3.46 d after explosion compared to the SN Ia ASASSN-14lp, the Type II supernova SN2006bp, and the long gamma-ray burst and its associated afterglow and broad-lined Type Ic supernova GRB030329/SN2003dh at similar times relative to explosion. (C) SSS17a at 7.45 d after explosion compared to SN2011fe, the rapid blue transient PS1-12bv, the fast Type Ic supernova SN2005ek, and the GRB/SN GRB980425/SN1998bw. (Text and figure from Shappee et al. 2017, [9])



Apart from the gravitational waves, a neutron star merger would become visible as a transient event, known also as a kilonova [10]. The current models are able to fit only partly the observed data, but help to derive important conclusions regarding the nature of these explosions. In particular, SSS17a could be described better by a two-component mass ejection, with each component being responsible mainly for the the early and later behavior. Estimates of the released material reach up to a few Earth masses for gold and platinum (and up to 16000 Earth masses for heavier elements in total).

Comparison of SSS17a to theoretical models. The vertical axis is observed flux. The models shown are for three possible physical interpretations of SSS17a. While the red kilonova model provides a reasonable likeness to the data at late times, the early time spectra and kinematics require lanthanide-free relativistic material. No single model shown here or described in the current literature can self-consistently reproduce the full spectroscopic time series of SSS17a. (A) Lanthanide-rich red kilonova model from a neutron star merger and dynamical ejection. At each epoch, the absolute luminosity is scaled to match the data. (B) Disk-wind model with a neutron star that immediately collapses after the merger. The absolute luminosity is scaled by a factor of ≳10 at each epoch to match the data. (C) Lanthanide-poor blue kilonova model from a neutron star merger and dynamical ejection. The model has been crafted to match the observations at early times. (Text and figure from Shappee et al. 2017, [9])



It took SSS17a almost 9 days before CHANDRA managed to detect a X-ray faint source, and 16 days from the discovery to become visible in radio wavelengths also, producing finally light across the whole EM spectrum (see the corresponding infographic).

Luck was definitely on our side, as the position and the timings were marginal: the GRB was not exciting by itself, SSS17a was setting within one hour and one month later it would have been hidden behind the Sun, 9 days later LIGO would be down. Despite these constraints, the astronomical community and the whole collaboration proved to be prepared enough not to lose this unique opportunity. The event mobilized almost half the astronomers around the globe (approximately 4000 people in a community of 10000). This led to a an impressive number of publications counting ~250 GCN circulars and ~80 papers during the “first wave” of its announcement only (with the most striking cases of the ApJ Letter of 60 pages containing all obtained observations; LIGO et al. 2017 [11]). The new era of multi-messenger astronomy is here and will routinely discover and study new events aftert the future upgrades of the GW detectors.

Note
–> The captions of the figures have been slightly modified to include most important information (references have been removed for example).

Interesting links
— LIGO GW170817 infographic: https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0146/G1701993/008/infographic.png
— LIGO GW170817 factsheet: www.ligo.org/detections/GW170817/images-GW170817/GW170817_Factsheet.pdf
— GCN circular archive: https://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn3_archive.html
— List of “first-wave” papers: https://lco.global/~iarcavi/kilonovae.html
— ApJL focus publications: http://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205/page/Focus_on_GW170817?utm_medium=email&utm_source=iop&utm_term=&utm_campaign=12734-36073&utm_content=FI
— Official reddit.com page: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/76yu54/we_are_the_ligo_scientific_collaboration_the/
— Christofer Berry’s site: https://cplberry.com/2017/10/16/gw170817/
— LivingLigo: https://stuver.blogspot.com/2017/10/GW170817.html

References
[1] http://maravelias.info/2017/10/the-first-neutron-star-merger
[2] http://maravelias.info/2016/02/gravitational-waves-detected
[3] https://cplberry.com/2017/10/16/gw170817, accessed on 19/Oct/2017
[4] Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration) 2017, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 161101, https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.161101
[5] http://www.ligo.org/detections/GW170817.php, accessed on 19/Oct/2017
[6] https://stuver.blogspot.gr/2017/10/GW170817.html, accessed on 19/Oct/2017
[7] Coulter et al. 2017, Science/eaap9811, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/10/13/science.aap9811
[8] Drout et al. 2017, Science/eaaq0049, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/10/16/science.aaq0049
[9] Shappee et al. 2017, Science/eaaq0186, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/10/13/science.aaq0186
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilonova, accessed on 14/Nov/2017
[11] LIGO et al. 2017, “Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger”, arXiv:1710.05833, https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05833

New Paper on star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Posted December 15, 2017 By grigoris

The distribution and ages of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud: Constraints on the interaction history of the Magellanic Clouds

T. Bitsakis, R. A. Gonzalez-Lopezlira, P. Bonfini, G. Bruzual, G. Maravelias, D. Zaritsky, S. Charlot, V. H. Ramirez-Siordia

We present a new study of the spatial distribution and ages of the star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). To detect and estimate the ages of the star clusters we rely on the new fully-automated method developed by Bitsakis et al. (2017). Our code detects 1319 star clusters in the central 18 deg2 of the SMC we surveyed (1108 of which have never been reported before). The age distribution of those clusters suggests enhanced cluster formation around 240 Myr ago. It also implies significant differences in the cluster distribution of the bar with respect to the rest of the galaxy, with the younger clusters being predominantly located in the bar. Having used the same set-up, and data from the same surveys as for our previous study of the LMC, we are able to robustly compare the cluster properties between the two galaxies. Our results suggest that the bulk of the clusters in both galaxies were formed approximately 300 Myr ago, probably during a direct collision between the two galaxies. On the other hand, the locations of the young (≤50 Myr) clusters in both Magellanic Clouds, found where their bars join the HI arms, suggest that cluster formation in those regions is a result of internal dynamical processes. Finally, we discuss the potential causes of the apparent outside-in quenching of cluster formation that we observe in the SMC. Our findings are consistent with an evolutionary scheme where the interactions between the Magellanic Clouds constitute the major mechanism driving their overall evolution.

2018 ApJ, 853, 104 / NASA/ADS / arXiv: 1712.04974

This is a follow-up paper from the initial work on the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The first neutron star merger

Posted October 16, 2017 By grigoris

A new era, of multi-messenger astronomy (combining gravitational waves, particles, photons), has been born today. LIGO/VIRGO plus 70 teams around the world announced the first detection of colliding neutron stars, which means that a gravitational wave detection (GW170817) triggered the observations using almost everything available (from gamma rays to radio wavelengths) that identify and follow its electromagnetic counterpart.

I feel very fortunate that I participated in the above exciting event, along with Thodoris Bitsakis and Carlson Adams, by obtaining spectroscopic and photometric observations from the Clay telescope (at Las Campanas Observatory), a few days after the event. These are included in the following papers published in Science:

Light curves of the neutron star merger GW170817/SSS17a: Implications for r-process nucleosynthesis

M. R. Drout, A. L. Piro, B. J. Shappee, C. D. Kilpatrick, J. D. Simon, C. Contreras, D. A. Coulter, R. J. Foley, M. R. Siebert, N. Morrell, K. Boutsia, F. Di Mille, T. W.-S. Holoien, D. Kasen, J. A. Kollmeier, B. F. Madore, A. J. Monson, A. Murguia-Berthier, Y.-C. Pan, J. X. Prochaska, E. Ramirez-Ruiz, A. Rest, C. Adams, K. Alatalo, E. Bañados, J. Baughman, T. C. Beers, R. A. Bernstein, T. Bitsakis, A. Campillay, T. T. Hansen, C. R. Higgs, A. P. Ji, G. Maravelias, J. L. Marshall, C. Moni Bidin, J. L. Prieto, K. C. Rasmussen, C. Rojas-Bravo, A. L. Strom, N. Ulloa, J. Vargas-González, Z. Wan, D. D. Whitten

Abstract:
On 17 August 2017, gravitational waves were detected from a binary neutron star merger, GW170817, along with a coincident short gamma-ray burst, GRB170817A. An optical transient source, Swope Supernova Survey 17a (SSS17a), was subsequently identified as the counterpart of this event. We present ultraviolet, optical, and infrared light curves of SSS17a extending from 10.9 hours to 18 days post-merger. We constrain the radioactively powered transient resulting from the ejection of neutron-rich material. The fast rise of the light curves, subsequent decay, and rapid color evolution are consistent with multiple ejecta components of differing lanthanide abundance. The late-time light curve indicates that SSS17a produced at least ~0.05 solar masses of heavy elements, demonstrating that neutron star mergers play a role in r-process nucleosynthesis in the universe.

2017, Sci, 358, 1570 / NASA/ADS / Science 16 Oct 2017, eaaq0049

Early spectra of the gravitational wave source GW170817: Evolution of a neutron star merger

B. J. Shappee, J. D. Simon, M. R. Drout, A. L. Piro, N. Morrell, J. L. Prieto, D. Kasen, T. W.-S. Holoien, J. A. Kollmeier, D. D. Kelson, D. A. Coulter, R. J. Foley, C. D. Kilpatrick, M. R. Siebert, B. F. Madore, A. Murguia-Berthier, Y.-C. Pan, J. X. Prochaska, E. Ramirez-Ruiz, A. Rest, C. Adams, K. Alatalo, E. Bañados, J. Baughman, R. A. Bernstein, T. Bitsakis, K. Boutsia, J. R. Bravo, F. Di Mille, C. R. Higgs, A. P. Ji, G. Maravelias, J. L. Marshall, V. M. Placco, G. Prieto, Z. Wan

Abstract:
On 17 August 2017, Swope Supernova Survey 2017a (SSS17a) was discovered as the optical counterpart of the binary neutron star gravitational wave event GW170817. We report time-series spectroscopy of SSS17a from 11.75 hours until 8.5 days after merger. Over the first hour of observations the ejecta rapidly expanded and cooled. Applying blackbody fits to the spectra, we measure the photosphere cooling from 11000(+3400,-900) Kto 9300(+300,-300) K, and determine a photospheric velocity of roughly 30% of the speed of light. The spectra of SSS17a begin displaying broad features after 1.46 days, and evolve qualitatively over each subsequent day, with distinct blue (early-time) and red (late-time) components. The late-time component is consistent with theoretical models of r-process-enriched neutron star ejecta, whereas the blue component requires high velocity, lanthanide-free material.

2017, Sci, 358, 1574 / NASA/ADS / Science 16 Oct 2017, eaaq0186

[1] About GW170817https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/press-release-gw170817

The last day at Valparaiso

Posted October 3, 2017 By grigoris

I think it had everything:

– waking up early to go to the bank,
– then go to the university and finalize some aspects of my talk (as a final contribution),
– go for lunch with the whole group,
– return to the university,
– to say goodbye to people,
– do the presentation,
– materialize a long-postponed discussion,
– show/discuss a script,
– buy some small gifts on the way home,
– where I just dropped my things,
– to go to an outreach talk (in spanish),
– to continue for the last drinks with all the friends from the university,
– say farewell to all,
– return home to take a shower
– and rest a bit,
– to finally think of today
– and write this post.

Definitely not the most typical day, but it isn’t after all. It is strange as I remember my first days in Valpo, almost 9 months before. It was short but nevertheless a very full experience and I loved it all. I have only a couple of days to spend at Santiago before the final departure on Thursday, to head to Greece. A process ends but another starts.

For lunch with the group (clockwise from left): Ignacio Araya, Michel Cure, Lydia Cidale, Maxi Haucke, Catalina Arcos, Alex Gormaz, and me (I do not smile because I really couldn’t keep my eyes open due to the Sun!)
[Photo by Ignacio]

A memory from Valparaiso.
Gracias a tod@s por todo!
[Photo by Michel]

A short talk for IFA-UV Monday meetings

Posted October 2, 2017 By grigoris

Every Monday the IFA-UV organizes a meeting that starts with a short (or longer) presentation of 20 mins. The whole process requires the active participation by the students to present the speaker, control, the discussion, while there is also a feedback given by the audience to the speaker. This is a great opportunity for the students to help them gain experience especially when they have to present. However, the topics (and the stage) is open to everyone. And this Monday was my turn to present a short talk on:

“Searching for Hα counterparts of Be/X-ray binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud”

Abstract: The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) hosts a large number of high-mass X-ray binaries, and in particular of Be/X-ray Binaries (BeXRBs; neutron stars orbiting OBe-type stars), offering a unique laboratory to address the effect of metalicity. One key property of their optical companion is Hα in emission, which makes them bright sources when observed through a narrow-band Hα filter. We performed a survey of the SMC Bar and Wing regions using wide-field cameras (WFI@MPG/ESO and MOSAIC@CTIO/Blanco) in order to identify the counterparts of the sources detected in our XMM-Newton survey of the same area. We obtained broad-band R and narrow-band Hα photometry, and identified ~10000 Hα emission sources down to a sensitivity limit of 18.7 mag (equivalent to ~B8 type Main Sequence stars). We find the fraction of OBe/OB stars to be 13% down to this limit, and by investigating this fraction as a function of the brightness of the stars we deduce that Hα excess peaks at the O9-B2 spectral range. Using the most up-to-date numbers of SMC BeXRBs we find their fraction over their parent population to be ~0.002-0.025 BeXRBs/OBe, a direct measurement of their formation rate.

After the talks it comes another important step which is the wine and cheese ceremony, accompanying the informal discussions.

Extrapolating for the new post-doc position

Posted September 29, 2017 By grigoris

The idea of this post came to me on my second or third day in Chile when I noticed its flag on some boats. As today is my last day at work, perhaps it is the best (and last) opportunity to make a post about it. (So, practically it is either now or never.)

My previous post-doc position was at Ondrejov village, very close to Prague, Czech Republic. My current position is at Valparaiso of Chile. Now let us place their flags next to each other :

Czech Republic Chile

Taking into account the places also we (at least I) notice some similarities:
I. Both countries start with “C”: Czech Republic and Chile.
II. Each flag is split in three regions with the same colors, i.e. blue on the left, white on top and red at the bottom. [The small white star in Chile’s flag is not statistically important compared to the whole flag pattern.]
III. Both places are close to an UNESCO monument city, i.e. Prague and Valparaiso.
IV. There should be an appropriate workplace in Astronomy (e.g. the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Universidad de Valparaiso).

So, given that I have been to post-doc positions in places with those characteristics, then it is reasonable (what??!!??!) to extrapolate my future track. Let’s see where can I be next.

First, countries starting with “C”:
1. There is Cuba with a slightly different like flag, with alternate blue and white stripes. Havana is an UNESCO heritage city. But there are no job offers in Astronomy. So it is 2.712/4.000 criteria satisfied.

2. Next, there is Croatia, with a different style of flag, with stripes (from top to bottom: red, white, blue) and a big coat of arms. As far as UNESCO cities there is the famous city of Dubrovnik and Trogir, but again no Astronomical institute nearby (by the way I found this historic overview by Garaj 1999, ARSE Conf, 44). In this case we are at 2.187/4.000 criteria satisfied.

With these two countries we actually run out of “C” countries. Then we are left to explore similar flags among other countries.
3. Philippines has almost the same flag to Czech Republic but with only a slight color rearrangement between the triangle (white) and the top stripe (blue). [There is a small symbol within the white triangle but we consider that its significance is rather low compared to the importance of style and colors – similar to what we assumed for Chile’s flag.] There is the historic town of Vigan, but again no astronomical opportunities around this area. So approximately at 2.123/4.000 criteria satisfied.

And then we have practically run out of options, since all other flags have either similar styles but different colors (e.g. Jordan,Sudan), or they have the same colors but with total different styles, such as vertical (e.g. France, Thailand), horizontal stripes (e.g. Russia, Paraguay), and totally different patterns (e.g. USA, UK). So, even though we can find UNESCO cities and astronomical facilities in those countries, these score at most 2.111/4.000.

Thus, we (i.e. I) conclude that there is not an appropriate place (with a score more than 3.455/4.000) that I could continue as a post-doc based on my track so far. In lack of such an option I will have to move to Heraklion (Crete, Greece) up to further changes in the countries that will allow me to reconsider my options!

Proper acknowledgments

Posted September 22, 2017 By grigoris

From a friend with a similar interest in martial arts. He noticed the following acknowledgment (by Zeng & Sasselov 2013, PASP, 125, 227):

We acknowledge partial support for this work by NASA cooperative agreement NNX09AJ50A (Kepler Mission science team).
We would like to thank Michail Petaev and Stein Jacobsen for their valuable comments and suggestions. This research is supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration under the High Energy Density Laboratory Plasmas through DOE grant # DE-FG52-09NA29549 to S. B. Jacobsen (PI) with Harvard University. This research is the authors’ views and not those of the DOE.
Li Zeng would like to thank Professor Pingyuan Li, Li Zeng’s grandfather, in the Department of Mathematics at Chongqing University, for giving Li Zeng important spiritual support and guidance on research. The guidance includes research strategy and approach, methods of solving differential equations and other numeric methods, etc.
Li Zeng would also like to give special thanks to Master Anlin Wang. Master Wang is a Traditional Chinese Kung Fu Master and World Champion. He is also a practitioner and realizer of Traditional Chinese Philosophy of Tao Te Ching, which is the ancient oriental wisdom to study the relation between the universe, nature and humanity. Valuable inspirations were obtained through discussion of Tao Te Ching with Master Wang as well as Qigong cultivation with him.

Personally I find it amazing because it shows the human side of the researchers. Our work does not depend only on the funding scheme! We should be/feel free to credit appropriately what we think.
Plus, I personally sympathize the sentences of the last paragraph …

New paper on the circumstellar environment of MWC 137

Posted September 20, 2017 By grigoris

Resolving the circumstellar environment of the Galactic B[e] supergiant star MWC 137 from large to small scales

Michaela Kraus, Tiina Liimets, Cristina E. Cappa, Lydia S. Cidale, Dieter H. Nickeler, Nicolas U. Duronea, Maria L. Arias, Diah S. Gunawan, Mary E. Oksala, Marcelo Borges Fernandes, Grigoris Maravelias, Michel Cure, Miguel Santander-Garcia

The Galactic object MWC 137 was suggested to belong to the group of B[e] supergiants. However, with its large-scale optical bipolar ring nebula and the high velocity jet and knots, it is a rather atypical representative of this class. We performed multi-wavelength observations spreading from the optical to the radio regime. Based on optical imaging and long-slit spectroscopic data we found that the northern parts of the large-scale nebula are predominantly blue-shifted, while the southern regions appear mostly red-shifted. We developed a geometrical model consisting of two double-cones. While various observational features can be approximated with such a scenario, the observed velocity pattern is more complex. Using near-infrared integral-field unit spectroscopy we studied the hot molecular gas in the close vicinity of the star. The emission from the hot CO gas arises in a small-scale disk revolving around the star on Keplerian orbits. While the disk itself cannot be spatially resolved, its emission is reflected by dust arranged in arc-like structures and clumps surrounding MWC 137 on small scales. In the radio regime we mapped the cold molecular gas in the outskirts of the optical nebula. We found that large amounts of cool molecular gas and warm dust embrace the optical nebula in the east, south and west. No cold gas or dust were detected in the north and north-western regions. Despite the new insights on the nebula kinematics gained from our studies, the real formation scenario of the large-scale nebula remains an open issue.

2017, AJ, 154, 186 / NASA/ADS / arXiv.org: 1709.06439

Tough days the last days

Posted September 18, 2017 By grigoris

A couple of hectic weeks finished on last Friday. After two trips to La Serena to observe from the magnificent facilities at CTIO and LCO (posts still pending since there is an overwhelming amount of photos and videos!), I had an intense week to finalize the paper I am preparing (for some looong time now).

At the same time and during the last week I had to prepare an invited review talk on “The circumstellar structures around B[e] supergiants” at the meeting “Massive Stars in Transition Phases” (Tôravere, Estonia, 11-15 Sep, 2017). I participated remotely that made me to get up at 4am each day, due to the time difference between Estonia and Chile (6 hours).

That alone wouldn’t have been so much of a problem if it wasn’t for a Marie Curie fellowship proposal, with a deadline on the same dates! Thankfully, I had most of all these ready to some extend, but still some fine (or more) tuning was needed.

Preparing for the remote talk: Three monitors, a laptop, and a desktop. Overkill? Possbile, but I split the different functions and it worked great.

After a few days of rest I am back to work, as I have only two and half weeks left before I leave Chile. And there are quite a few things to do …