We determine rotation periods of a sample of 48 late F-type to mid-M dwarf stars using time series high-resolution spectroscopy of the Ca ii H&K and H α chromospheric activity indicators. We find ...good agreement between the rotation periods obtained from each of these two indicators. An empirical relationship between the level of chromospheric emission measured by
$\log _{10}(R^{\prime }_{\rm HK}$
) and the spectroscopic rotation periods is reported. This relation is largely independent of the spectral type and the metallicity of the stars and can be used to make a reliable prediction of rotation periods for late K to mid-M dwarfs with low levels of activity. For some stars in the sample, the measured spectroscopic rotation periods coincide, or are very close, to the orbital periods of postulated planets. In such cases, further studies are needed to clarify whether the associated periodic radial velocity signals reveal the existence of planets or are due to magnetic activity.
Aims. We investigate the photometric modulation induced by magnetic activity cycles and study the relationship between rotation period and activity cycle(s) in late-type (FGKM) stars. Methods. We ...analysed light curves, spanning up to nine years, of 125 nearby stars provided by the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS). The sample is mainly composed of low-activity, main-sequence late-A to mid-M-type stars. We performed a search for short (days) and long-term (years) periodic variations in the photometry. We modelled the light curves with combinations of sinusoids to measure the properties of these periodic signals. To provide a better statistical interpretation of our results, we complement our new results with results from previous similar works. Results. We have been able to measure long-term photometric cycles of 47 stars, out of which 39 have been derived with false alarm probabilities (FAP) of less than 0.1 per cent. Rotational modulation was also detected and rotational periods were measured in 36 stars. For 28 stars we have simultaneous measurements of activity cycles and rotational periods, 17 of which are M-type stars. We measured both photometric amplitudes and periods from sinusoidal fits. The measured cycle periods range from 2 to 14 yr with photometric amplitudes in the range of 5−20 mmag. We found that the distribution of cycle lengths for the different spectral types is similar, as the mean cycle is 9.5 yr for F-type stars, 6.7 yr for G-type stars, 8.5 yr for K-type stars, 6.0 yr for early M-type stars, and 7.1 yr for mid-M-type stars. On the other hand, the distribution of rotation periods is completely different, trending to longer periods for later type stars, from a mean rotation of 8.6 days for F-type stars to 85.4 days in mid-M-type stars. The amplitudes induced by magnetic cycles and rotation show a clear correlation. A trend of photometric amplitudes with rotation period is also outlined in the data. The amplitudes of the photometric variability induced by activity cycles of main-sequence GK stars are lower than those of early- and mid-M dwarfs for a given activity index. Using spectroscopic data, we also provide an update in the empirical relationship between the level of chromospheric activity as given by log10R 'HK and the rotation periods.
With a current estimate of ~1,000 million tons, mesopelagic fishes likely dominate the world total fishes biomass. However, recent acoustic observations show that mesopelagic fishes biomass could be ...significantly larger than the current estimate. Here we combine modelling and a sensitivity analysis of the acoustic observations from the Malaspina 2010 Circumnavigation Expedition to show that the previous estimate needs to be revised to at least one order of magnitude higher. We show that there is a close relationship between the open ocean fishes biomass and primary production, and that the energy transfer efficiency from phytoplankton to mesopelagic fishes in the open ocean is higher than what is typically assumed. Our results indicate that the role of mesopelagic fishes in oceanic ecosystems and global ocean biogeochemical cycles needs to be revised as they may be respiring ~10% of the primary production in deep waters.
Context. To calibrate automatic pipelines that determine atmospheric parameters of stars, one needs a sample of stars, or “benchmark stars”, with well-defined parameters to be used as a reference. ...Aims. We provide detailed documentation of the iron abundance determination of the 34 FGK-type benchmark stars that are selected to be the pillars for calibration of the one billion Gaia stars. They cover a wide range of temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities. Methods. Up to seven different methods were used to analyze an observed spectral library of high resolutions and high signal-to-noise ratios. The metallicity was determined by assuming a value of effective temperature and surface gravity obtained from fundamental relations; that is, these parameters were known a priori and independently from the spectra. Results. We present a set of metallicity values obtained in a homogeneous way for our sample of benchmark stars. In addition to this value, we provide detailed documentation of the associated uncertainties. Finally, we report a value of the metallicity of the cool giant ψ Phe for the first time.
Context: The effective temperature scale of FGK stars, especially at the lowest metallicities remains a major problem in the chemical abundance analysis of metal-poor stars. Aims: We present a new ...implementation of the infrared flux method (IRFM) using the 2MASS catalogue. Methods: We computed the theoretical quantities in the 2MASS JHKs filters by integrating theoretical fluxes computed from ATLAS models, and compare them directly with the observed 2MASS JHKs magnitudes. This is the main difference between our implementation of the IRFM and that of Ramírez & Meléndez (2005, ApJ, 626, 446, hereafter RM05), since to introduce new stars at the lowest metallicities they transform the 2MASS JHKs magnitudes into the TCS photometric system. We merge in our sample the stars from Alonso et al. (1996, A&AS, 117, 227, hereafter AAM96; 1999, A&AS, 139, 335, hereafter AAM99), and other studies to appropriately cover a wide range of metallicities, ending up with 555 dwarf and subgiant field stars and 264 giant field stars. We derived a new bolometric flux calibration using the available Johnson-Cousins UBV(RI)C and the 2MASS JHKs photometry. We also computed new T_eff versus colour empirical calibrations using our extended sample of stars. Results: We derived effectives temperatures for almost all the stars in the AAM96 and AAM99 samples and find that our scales of temperature are hotter by ˜ }64 K (sigma_T=104 K, N=332 dwarfs) and {˜54 K with a sigma_T=131 K (N=202 giants). The same comparison with the sample of RM05 for stars with Fe/H
We report the discovery of a new broad interstellar (or circumstellar) band at 7088.8 ± 2.0 Å coincident to within the measurement uncertainties with the strongest band of the anthracene cation ...(C14H10+) as measured in gas-phase laboratory spectroscopy at low temperatures. The band is detected in the line of sight of star Cernis 52, a likely member of the very young star cluster IC 348, and is probably associated with cold absorbing material in an intervening molecular cloud of the Perseus star-forming region where various experiments have recently detected anomalous microwave emission. From the measured intensity and available oscillator strength we find a column density of implying that ∼0.008 per cent of the carbon in the cloud could be in the form of C14H10+. A similar abundance has been recently claimed for the naphthalene cation in this cloud. This is the first location outside the Solar system where specific polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are identified. We report observations of interstellar lines of CH and CH+ that support a rather high column density for these species and for molecular hydrogen. The strength ratio of the two prominent diffuse interstellar bands at 5780 and 5797 Å suggests the presence of a ‘zeta’-type cloud in the line of sight (consistent with steep far-ultraviolet extinction and high molecular content). The presence of PAH cations and other related hydrogenated carbon molecules which are likely to occur in this type of clouds reinforces the suggestion that electric dipole radiation from fast-spinning PAHs is responsible of the anomalous microwave emission detected towards Perseus.
The notion that plasma cells (PCs) are terminally differentiated has prevented intensive research in multiple myeloma (MM) about their phenotypic plasticity and differentiation. Here, we demonstrated ...in healthy individuals (n=20) that the CD19-CD81 expression axis identifies three bone marrow (BM)PC subsets with distinct age-prevalence, proliferation, replication-history, immunoglobulin-production, and phenotype, consistent with progressively increased differentiation from CD19+CD81+ into CD19-CD81+ and CD19-CD81- BMPCs. Afterwards, we demonstrated in 225 newly diagnosed MM patients that, comparing to normal BMPC counterparts, 59% had fully differentiated (CD19-CD81-) clones, 38% intermediate-differentiated (CD19-CD81+) and 3% less-differentiated (CD19+CD81+) clones. The latter patients had dismal outcome, and PC differentiation emerged as an independent prognostic marker for progression-free (HR: 1.7; P=0.005) and overall survival (HR: 2.1; P=0.006). Longitudinal comparison of diagnostic vs minimal-residual-disease samples (n=40) unraveled that in 20% of patients, less-differentiated PCs subclones become enriched after therapy-induced pressure. We also revealed that CD81 expression is epigenetically regulated, that less-differentiated clonal PCs retain high expression of genes related to preceding B-cell stages (for example: PAX5), and show distinct mutation profile vs fully differentiated PC clones within individual patients. Together, we shed new light into PC plasticity and demonstrated that MM patients harbouring less-differentiated PCs have dismal survival, which might be related to higher chemoresistant potential plus different molecular and genomic profiles.
Theoretical studies suggest that C/O and Mg/Si are the most important elemental ratios in determining the mineralogy of terrestrial planets. The C/O ratio controls the distribution of Si among ...carbide and oxide species, while Mg/Si gives information about the silicate mineralogy. We present a detailed and uniform study of C, O, Mg, and Si abundances for 61 stars with detected planets and 270 stars without detected planets from the homogeneous high-quality unbiased HARPS GTO sample, together with 39 more planet-host stars from other surveys. We determine these important mineralogical ratios and investigate the nature of the possible terrestrial planets that could have formed in those planetary systems. We find mineralogical ratios quite different from those of the Sun, showing that there is a wide variety of planetary systems which are not similar to our solar system. Many planetary host stars present an Mg/Si value lower than 1, so their planets will have a high Si content to form species such as MgSiO3. This type of composition can have important implications for planetary processes such as plate tectonics, atmospheric composition, or volcanism.
Aims. We aim, on the one hand, to study the possible differences of Li abundances between planet hosts and stars without detected planets at effective temperatures hotter than the Sun, and on the ...other hand, to explore the Li dip and the evolution of Li at high metallicities. Methods. We present lithium abundances for 353 main sequence stars with and without planets in the Teff range 5900–7200 K. We observed 265 stars of our sample with HARPS spectrograph during different planets search programs. We observed the remaining targets with a variety of high-resolution spectrographs. The abundances are derived by a standard local thermodynamic equilibrium analysis using spectral synthesis with the code MOOG and a grid of Kurucz ATLAS9 atmospheres. Results. We find that hot jupiter host stars within the Teff range 5900–6300 K show lower Li abundances, by 0.14 dex, than stars without detected planets. This offset has a significance at the level 7σ, pointing to a stronger effect of planet formation on Li abundances when the planets are more massive and migrate close to the star. However, we also find that the average vsini of (a fraction of) stars with hot jupiters is higher on average than for single stars in the same Teff region, suggesting that rotational-induced mixing (and not the presence of planets) might be the cause for a greater depletion of Li. We confirm that the mass-metallicity dependence of the Li dip is extended towards Fe/H ~ 0.4 dex (beginning at Fe/H ~−0.4 dex for our stars) and that probably reflects the mass-metallicity correlation of stars of the same Teff on the main sequence. We find that for the youngest stars (<1.5 Gyr) around the Li dip, the depletion of Li increases with vsini values, as proposed by rotationally-induced depletion models. This suggests that the Li dip consists of fast rotators at young ages whereas the most Li-depleted old stars show lower rotation rates (probably caused by the spin-down during their long lifes). We have also explored the Li evolution with Fe/H taking advantage of the metal-rich stars included in our sample. We find that Li abundance reaches its maximum around solar metallicity, but decreases in the most metal-rich stars, as predicted by some models of Li Galactic production.
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