The slope of the RR Lyrae M_V–[Fe/H] relation     

Fernley  Carney  Skillen  Cacciari  & Janes 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,293(3):L61-L64

We review the available observational data to show that the slope of the RR Lyrae M_V –[Fe/H] relation is 0.18±0.03. The recent claim by Feast that, because of biases, the true slope is much steeper is not justified.  相似文献   

On the properties of strange modes     

Hideyuki Saio  Norman H. Baker  & Alfred Gautschy 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,294(4):622-634

Properties of the so-called strange modes occurring in linear stability calculations of stellar models are discussed. The behaviour of these modes is compared for two different sets of stellar models, for very massive zero-age main-sequence stars and for luminous hydrogen-deficient stars, both with high luminosity-to-mass ratios. We have found that the peculiar behaviour of the frequencies of the strange modes with the change of a control parameter is caused by the pulsation amplitude of a particular eigenmode being strongly confined to the outer part of the envelope, around the density inversion zone. The frequency of a strange mode changes because the depth of the confinement zone changes with the control parameter. Weakly non-adiabatic strange modes tend to be overstable because the amplitude confinement quenches the effect of radiative damping. On the other hand, extremely non-adiabatic strange modes become overstable because the perturbation of radiation force (gradient of radiation pressure) provides a restoring force that can be out of phase with the density perturbation. We discuss this mechanism by using a plane-parallel two-zone model.  相似文献   

Observations of the SW Sextantis star UU Aquarii     

Hoard  Still  Paula Szkody  Robert Connon Smith  & Buckley 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,294(4):689-704

We present 14 nights of medium resolution (1–2 Å) spectroscopy of the eclipsing cataclysmic variable UU Aquarii obtained during a high accretion state in 1995 August–October. UU Aqr appears to be an SW Sextantis (SW Sex) star, as noted by Baptista, Steiner & Horne, and we discuss its spectroscopic behaviour in the context of the SW Sex phenomenon. Emission-line equivalent width curves, Doppler tomography, and line profile simulation provide evidence for the presence of a bright spot at the impact site of the accretion stream with the edge of the disc, and a non-axisymmetric, vertically and azimuthally extended absorbing structure in the disc. The absorption has maximum depth in the emission lines around orbital phase 0.8, but is present from φ≈0.4 to φ≈0.95. An origin is explored for this absorbing structure (as well as for the other spectroscopic behaviour of UU Aqr) in terms of the explosive impact of the accretion stream with the disc.  相似文献   

Metallicity of clusters from RRab pulsators: results of an automatic analysis     

A. Schwarzenberg-Czerny  & J. Kaluzny 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,300(1):251-256

The stability of massive stars is re-examined with respect to an adiabatic dynamical instability discovered by Stothers & Chin. An adiabatic stability analysis is performed, its validity for the objects being considered is discussed, and the relation between the mean adiabatic index and adiabatic stability is commented on. As the results of Stothers & Chin could not be confirmed, we suspect that luminous blue variable instability is due to non-adiabatic effects.  相似文献   

Evolutionary sequences for Nova V1974 Cygni using new nuclear reaction rates and opacities     

S. Starrfield  J. W. Truran  M. C. Wiescher  & W. M. Sparks 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,296(3):502-522

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'Stokes imaging' of the accretion region in magnetic cataclysmic variables — I. Conception and realization     

S. B. Potter  P. J. Hakala  & Mark Cropper 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,297(4):1261-1268

Modelling the polarized cyclotron emission from magnetic cataclysmic variables has been a pivotal technique for determining the structure of the accretion zones on the white dwarf. To date, model solutions have been obtained from trial fits to the intensity and polarization data, which have been constructed from emission regions (for example arcs and spots) put in by hand. These models were all inferred indirectly from arguments based on the polarization and X-ray light curves.   We present a more analytical and objective technique using optimization by a genetic algorithm, Tikhonov regularization and Powell's method that robustly models the details of polarized emission.   To demonstrate the success of this technique, we show the results of several simulations in which we calculated the intensity and polarization curves from arbitrarily shaped emission regions on the surface of a sphere and then applied our code to these curves to recover the original test data. We also show how adding artificial noise affects the outcome of the optimization technique.  相似文献   

Determining temperature amplitude as a function of depth in the atmospheres of rapidly oscillating Ap stars     

R. Medupe  & D. W. Kurtz 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,299(2):371-378

We present numerical models based on realistic treatment of the intensity spectrum (from model atmospheres), and demonstrate that they are consistent with Kurtz and Medupe's recent formula in showing that limb darkening is too small an effect to explain the observed sharp decline of pulsation light amplitude with wavelength in rapidly oscillating Ap stars. Kurtz and Medupe's formula is shown to be a special form of Watson's earlier general formula for non-radial light variations of a star pulsating in any mode ( l m ). Using a technique suggested by Kurtz and Medupe we derive temperature semi-amplitude as a function of depth in the atmospheres of α Cir and HR 3831, assuming that we can neglect non-adiabatic effects.  相似文献   

Spectral line profile variations in the γ Doradus variable HD 164615: non-radial pulsations versus star-spots     

A. P. Hatzes 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》1998,299(2):403-409

High-resolution spectral data of the Fe  II 5318 Å line in the γ Doradus star HD 164615 are presented. These show systematic changes in the spectral lineshapes with the photometric period of 0.8133 d which are modelled using either non-radial pulsations or cool star-spots. The non-radial modes that can fit the lineshape changes have m degree of 2–4. However, only the m = 2 mode seems to be consistent with the amplitude of the radial velocity variations measured for this star. The star-spot model, although it can qualitatively fit the lineshape changes, is excluded as a possible hypothesis on the basis of (1) poorer fits to the observed spectral line profiles, (2) an inability to account for the large changes in the spectral linewidth as a function of phase, (3) a predicted radial velocity curve that looks qualitatively different from the observed one, and (4) a predicted photometric curve that is a factor of 5 larger than the observed light curve (and with the wrong qualitative shape). Finally, a 'Doppler image' (assuming cool spots) derived from a sequence of synthetic line profiles having non-radial pulsations results in an image that is almost identical to the Doppler image derived for HD 164615. These results provide strong evidence that non-radial pulsations are indeed the explanation for the variability of HD 164615 as well as the other γ Dor variables.  相似文献   

On the galactic motion     

F. M. F. El-Sabaa  H. H. Sherief 《Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy》1990,49(3):233-247

A certain potential function is studied as a possible model for the galactic potential. Some solutions are obtained. Also the numerical study of some of the orbits and their stability is carried out.  相似文献   

The population of AM CVn stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey     

G. H. A. Roelofs  G. Nelemans  P. J. Groot 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2007,382(2):685-692

The AM Canum Venaticorum (AM CVn) stars are rare interacting white dwarf binaries, whose formation and evolution are still poorly known. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey provides, for the first time, a sample of six AM CVn stars (out of a total population of 18) that are sufficiently homogeneous that we can start to study the population in some detail.
We use the Sloan sample to 'calibrate' theoretical population synthesis models for the space density of AM CVn stars. We consider optimistic and pessimistic models for different theoretical formation channels, which yield predictions for the local space density that are more than two orders of magnitude apart. When calibrated with the observations, all models give a local space density  ρ₀= 1–3 × 10⁻⁶ pc⁻³  , which is lower than expected.
We discuss the implications for the formation of AM CVn stars, and conclude that at least one of the dominant formation channels (the double-degenerate channel) has to be suppressed relative to the optimistic models. In the framework of the current models this suggests that the mass transfer between white dwarfs usually cannot be stabilized. We furthermore discuss evolutionary effects that have so far not been considered in population synthesis models, but which could be of influence for the observed population. We finish by remarking that, with our lower space density, the expected number of Galactic AM CVn stars resolvable by gravitational-wave detectors like the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna ( LISA ) should be lowered from current estimates, to about 1000 for a mission duration of 1 yr.  相似文献