Aims. We report a study on the statistical properties of the multiply imaged quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) to be detected within the Gaia survey. Methods. We considered two types of potential ...deflectors, the singular isothermal sphere (SIS) and the singular isothermal ellipsoid (SIE), to estimate the number of multiply imaged quasars as well as the normalized distributions of the redshifts of the lensed sources and of their associated deflectors. We also investigated the distribution of the lensing events as a function of their angular size and apparent magnitude. We compared the Gaia survey for multiply imaged quasars to typical ground-based surveys and to an ideal survey that would be carried out with a perfect instrument from space. Results. Of the 6.64 × 105 QSOs brighter than G = 20 to be detected by Gaia, we expect the discovery of about 2886 multiply imaged sources, 450 of which are expected to be produced by a late-type galaxy. We expect only ~1600 of these multiply imaged quasars to have an angular separation between their images that is large enough to be resolved from seeing-limited observations, and ~80 of them to have more than two lensed images.
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Context. The XMM-Large Scale Structure survey, covering an area of 11.1 sq. deg., contains more than 6000 X-ray point-like sources detected with the XMM-Newton to a flux of 3 × 10-15 erg s-1 cm-2 in ...the 0.5−2 keV band. The vast majority of these sources have optical (CFHTLS), infrared (SWIRE IRAC and MIPS), near-infrared (UKIDSS), and/or ultraviolet (GALEX) counterparts. Aims. We wish to investigate the environmental properties of the different types of the XMM-LSS X-ray sources by defining their environment using the i′-band CFHTLS W1 catalog of optical galaxies to a magnitude limit of 23.5 mag. Methods. We have classified 4435 X-ray selected sources on the basis of their spectra, SEDs, and X-ray luminosity, and estimated their photometric redshifts, which have a 4−11 band photometry with an accuracy of σ△z/(1+zsp) = 0.076 with 22.6% outliers for i′ < 26 mag. We estimated the local overdensities of 777 X-ray sources that have spectro-z or photo-z calculated by using more than seven bands (accuracy of σ△z/(1+zsp) = 0.061 with 13.8% outliers) within the volume-limited region defined by 0.1 ≤ z ≤ 0.85 and −23.5 < Mi′ < −20. Results. Although X-ray sources may be found in variety of environments, a high fraction (≳55−60%), as verified by comparing with the random expectations, reside in overdense regions. The galaxy overdensities within which X-ray sources reside show a positive recent redshift evolution (at least for the range studied; z ≲ 0.85). We also find that X-ray selected galaxies, when compared to AGN, inhabit significantly higher galaxy overdensities, although their spatial extent appear to be smaller than that of AGN. Hard AGN (HR ≥ −0.2) are located in more overdense regions than soft AGN (HR < −0.2), which is clearly seen in both redshift ranges, although it appears to be stronger in the higher redshift range (0.55 < z < 0.85). Furthermore, the galaxy overdensities (with δ ≳ 1.5) within which soft AGN are embedded appear to evolve more rapidly compared to the corresponding overdensities around hard AGN.
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Annular Groove Phase Mask Coronagraph Mawet, D; Riaud, P; Absil, O ...
The Astrophysical journal,
11/2005, Volume:
633, Issue:
2
Journal Article, Web Resource
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present a new phase mask coronagraph consisting in an optical vortex induced by a space-variant surface relief subwavelength grating. Phase mask coronagraphy is a recent technique aiming at ...accommodating both high dynamic and high angular resolution imaging of faint sources around bright objects such as exoplanets orbiting their parent stars or host galaxies of active galactic nuclei. Subwavelength gratings are known to be artificially birefringent. Their unique dispersive characteristics can be controlled through the grating geometry in order to synthesize achromatic phase shifters. We show that implementing them in a ring-shaped way produces a fully symmetric and achromatic coronagraph without any gap or "dead zone." The practical manufacturing of the device is also discussed.
Abstract
Combining the exquisite angular resolution of Gaia with optical light curves and WISE photometry, the Gaia Gravitational Lenses group (GraL) uses machine-learning techniques to identify ...candidate strongly lensed quasars, and has confirmed over two dozen new strongly lensed quasars from the Gaia Data Release 2. This paper reports on the 12 quadruply imaged quasars identified by this effort to date, which is a ∼20% increase in the total number of confirmed quadruply imaged quasars. We discuss the candidate selection, spectroscopic follow-up, and lens modeling. We also report our spectroscopic failures as an aid for future investigations.
Context. Transition disks offer the extraordinary opportunity to look for newly born planets and to investigate the early stages of planet formation. Aim. In this context we observed the Herbig A5 ...star MWC 758 with the L′-band vector vortex coronagraph installed in the near-infrared camera and spectrograph NIRC2 at the Keck II telescope, with the aim of unveiling the nature of the spiral structure by constraining the presence of planetary companions in the system. Methods. Our high-contrast imaging observations show a bright (ΔL′ = 7.0 ± 0.3 mag) point-like emission south of MWC 758 at a deprojected separation of ~20 au (r = 0.′′111 ± 0.′′004) from the central star. We also recover the two spiral arms (southeast and northwest), already imaged by previous studies in polarized light, and discover a third arm to the southwest of the star. No additional companions were detected in the system down to 5 Jupiter masses beyond 0.′′6 from the star. Results. We propose that the bright L′-band emission could be caused by the presence of an embedded and accreting protoplanet, although the possibility of it being an asymmetric disk feature cannot be excluded. The spiral structure is probably not related to the protoplanet candidate, unless on an inclined and eccentric orbit, and it could be due to one (or more) yet undetected planetary companions at the edge of or outside the spiral pattern. Future observations and additional simulations will be needed to shed light on the true nature of the point-like source and its link with the spiral arms.
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Context. Data processing constitutes a critical component of high-contrast exoplanet imaging. Its role is almost as important as the choice of a coronagraph or a wavefront control system, and it is ...intertwined with the chosen observing strategy. Among the data processing techniques for angular differential imaging (ADI), the most recent is the family of principal component analysis (PCA) based algorithms. It is a widely used statistical tool developed during the first half of the past century. PCA serves, in this case, as a subspace projection technique for constructing a reference point spread function (PSF) that can be subtracted from the science data for boosting the detectability of potential companions present in the data. Unfortunately, when building this reference PSF from the science data itself, PCA comes with certain limitations such as the sensitivity of the lower dimensional orthogonal subspace to non-Gaussian noise. Aims. Inspired by recent advances in machine learning algorithms such as robust PCA, we aim to propose a localized subspace projection technique that surpasses current PCA-based post-processing algorithms in terms of the detectability of companions at near real-time speed, a quality that will be useful for future direct imaging surveys. Methods. We used randomized low-rank approximation methods recently proposed in the machine learning literature, coupled with entry-wise thresholding to decompose an ADI image sequence locally into low-rank, sparse, and Gaussian noise components (LLSG). This local three-term decomposition separates the starlight and the associated speckle noise from the planetary signal, which mostly remains in the sparse term. We tested the performance of our new algorithm on a long ADI sequence obtained on beta Pictoris with VLT/NACO. Results. Compared to a standard PCA approach, LLSG decomposition reaches a higher signal-to-noise ratio and has an overall better performance in the receiver operating characteristic space. This three-term decomposition brings a detectability boost compared to the full-frame standard PCA approach, especially in the small inner working angle region where complex speckle noise prevents PCA from discerning true companions from noise.
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We present high-precision photometry of two transit events of the extrasolar planetary system WASP-5, obtained with the Danish 1.54-m telescope at European Southern Obseratory La Silla. In order to ...minimize both random and flat-fielding errors, we defocused the telescope so its point spread function approximated an annulus of diameter 40 pixel (16 arcsec). Data reduction was undertaken using standard aperture photometry plus an algorithm for optimally combining the ensemble of comparison stars. The resulting light curves have point-to-point scatters of 0.50 mmag for the first transit and 0.59 mmag for the second. We construct detailed signal-to-noise ratio calculations for defocused photometry, and apply them to our observations. We model the light curves with the jktebop code and combine the results with tabulated predictions from theoretical stellar evolutionary models to derive the physical properties of the WASP-5 system. We find that the planet has a mass of Mb= 1.637 ± 0.075 ± 0.033 MJup, a radius of Rb= 1.171 ± 0.056 ± 0.012 R Jup, a large surface gravity of gb= 29.6 ± 2.8 m s−2 and a density of ρb= 1.02 ± 0.14 ± 0.01 ρJup (statistical and systematic uncertainties). The planet's high equilibrium temperature of Teq= 1732 ± 80 K makes it a good candidate for detecting secondary eclipses.
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We present the SEDs of a hard X-ray selected sample containing 136 sources with FSUB2-10keV/SUB>10SUP-14/SUP erg cmSUP-2/SUP sSUP-1/SUP 132 are AGNs. The sources are detected in a 1 degSUP2/SUP area ...of the XMM-Newton Medium Deep Survey where optical data from the VVDS and CFHTLS and infrared data from the SWIRE survey are available. Based on a SED fitting technique we derive photometric redshifts with sigma(1+z)=0.11 and 6% of outliers and identify AGN signatures in 83% of the objects. This fraction is higher than derived when a spectroscopic classification is available. The remaining 17SUP+9/SUPSUB-6/SUB% of AGNs show star-forming galaxy SEDs (SF class). The sources with AGN signatures are divided in two classes, AGN1 (33SUP+6/SUPSUB-1/SUB%) and AGN2 (50SUP+6/SUPSUB-11/SUB%). The AGN1 and AGN2 classes include sources whose SEDs are fitted by type 1 and type 2 AGN templates, respectively. On average, AGN1s show soft X-ray spectra, consistent with being unabsorbed, while AGN2s and SFs show hard X-ray spectra, consistent with being absorbed. The analysis of the average SEDs as a function of X-ray luminosity shows a reddening of the infrared SEDs, consistent with a decreasing contribution from the host galaxy at higher luminosities. The AGNs in the SF classes are likely obscured in the mid-infrared, as suggested by their low LSUB3-20mum/SUB/LSUPcorr/SUPSUB0.5-10keV/SUB ratios. We confirm the previously found correlation for AGNs between the radio luminosity and the X-ray and the mid-infrared luminosities. The X-ray-radio correlation can be used to identify heavily absorbed AGNs. However, the estimated radio fluxes for the missing AGN population responsible for the bulk of the background at E>10 keV are too faint to be detected even in the deepest current radio surveys.
We report 13 high-precision light curves of eight transits of the exoplanet WASP-52 b, obtained by using four medium-class telescopes, through different filters, and adopting the defocussing ...technique. One transit was recorded simultaneously from two different observatories and another one from the same site but with two different instruments, including a multiband camera. Anomalies were clearly detected in five light curves and modelled as star-spots occulted by the planet during the transit events. We fitted the clean light curves with the JKTEBOP code, and those with the anomalies with the PRISM+GEMC codes in order to simultaneously model the photometric parameters of the transits and the position, size and contrast of each star-spot. We used these new light curves and some from the literature to revise the physical properties of the WASP-52 system. Star-spots with similar characteristics were detected in four transits over a period of 43 d. In the hypothesis that we are dealing with the same star-spot, periodically occulted by the transiting planet, we estimated the projected orbital obliquity of WASP-52 b to be ... = 3 Math Processing Error...8 plus or minus 8 Math Processing Error...4. We also determined the true orbital obliquity, ... = 20... plus or minus 50..., which is, although very uncertain, the first measurement of ... purely from star-spot crossings. We finally assembled an optical transmission spectrum of the planet and searched for variations of its radius as a function of wavelength. Our analysis suggests a flat transmission spectrum within the experimental uncertainties. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
Context. Coronagraphy is a powerful technique to achieve high contrast imaging, hence to image faint companions around bright targets. Various concepts have been used in the visible and near-infrared ...regimes, while coronagraphic applications in the mid-infrared nowadays remain largely unexplored. Vector vortex phase masks based on concentric subwavelength gratings show great promise for such applications. Aims. We aim at producing and validating the first high-performance broadband focal plane phase mask coronagraphs for applications in the mid-infrared regime, and in particular the L band with a fractional bandwidth of ~16% (3.5–4.1 μm). Methods. Based on rigorous coupled wave analysis, we designed an annular groove phase mask (AGPM) producing a vortex effect in the L band, and etched it onto a series of diamond substrates. The grating parameters were measured by means of scanning electron microscopy. The resulting components were then tested on a mid-infrared coronagraphic test bench. Results. A broadband raw null depth of 2 × 10-3 was obtained for our best L-band AGPM after only a few iterations between design and manufacturing. This corresponds to a raw contrast of about 6 × 10-5 (10.5 mag) at 2λ/D. This result is fully in line with our projections based on rigorous coupled wave analysis modelling, using the measured grating parameters. The sensitivity to tilt and focus has also been evaluated. Conclusions. After years of technological developments, mid-infrared vector vortex coronagraphs have finally become a reality and live up to our expectations. Based on their measured performance, our L-band AGPMs are now ready to open a new parameter space in exoplanet imaging at major ground-based observatories.
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