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The Complete Census of 70 μm-bright Debris Disks within ``the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems'' Spitzer Legacy Survey of Sun-like Stars
We report detection of cool dust surrounding solar-type stars fromobservations performed as part of the Spitzer Legacy Science ProgramFEPS. From a sample of 328 stars having ages ~0.003-3 Gyr we haveselected sources with 70 μm flux densities indicating excess in theirSEDs above expected photospheric emission. Six strong excess sources arelikely primordial circumstellar disks, remnants of the star formationprocess. Another 25 sources having >=3 σ excesses areassociated with dusty debris disks, generated by collisions withinplanetesimal belts that are possibly stirred by existing planets. Sixadditional sources with >=2 σ excesses require confirmation asdebris disks. In our analysis, most (>80%) 70 μm excess sourceshave >=3 σ excesses at 33 μm as well, while only a minority(<40%) have >=3 σ excesses at 24 μm. The rising SEDstoward (and perhaps beyond) 70 μm imply dust temperatures <45-85 Kfor debris in equilibrium with the stellar radiation field. From fittedsingle-temperature blackbody models we infer bulk dust properties suchas characteristic temperature, location, fractional luminosity, andmass. For >1/3 of the debris sources we find that multipletemperature components are suggested, implying a dust distributionextending over many tens of AU. Because the disks are dominated bycollisional processes, the parent body (planetesimal) belts may beextended as well. Preliminary assessment of the statistics of colddebris around Sun-like stars shows that ~10% of FEPS targets with massesbetween 0.6 and 1.8 Msolar and ages between 30 Myr and 3 Gyrexhibit excess 70 μm emission. We find that fractional excessamplitudes appear higher for younger stars and that there may be a trendin 70 μm excess frequency with stellar mass.
| Outer edges of debris discs. How sharp is sharp?
Context: Rings or annulus-like features have been observed in mostimaged debris discs. Outside the main ring, while some systems (e.g.,β Pictoris and AU Mic) exhibit smooth surface brightness profiles(SB) that fall off roughly as ~r-3.5, others (e.g. HR 4796Aand HD 139664) display large drops in luminosity at the ring's outeredge and steeper radial luminosity profiles. Aims: We seek tounderstand this diversity of outer edge profiles under the“natural” collisional evolution of the system, withoutinvoking external agents such as planets or gas. Methods: We use amulti-annulus statistical code to follow the evolution of a collisionalpopulation, ranging in size from dust grains to planetesimals andinitially confined within a belt (the “birth ring”). Thecrucial effect of radiation pressure on the dynamics and spatialdistribution of the smallest grains is taken into account. We explorethe dependence of the resulting disc surface brightness profile onvarious parameters. Results: The disc typically evolves toward a“standard” steady state, where the radial surface brightnessprofile smoothly decreases with radius as r-3.5 outside thebirth ring. This confirms and extends the semi-analytical study ofStrubbe & Chiang (2006, ApJ, 648, 652) and provides a firm basis forinterpreting observed discs. Deviations from this typical profile, inthe form of a sharp outer edge and a steeper fall-off, occur for two“extreme” cases: 1) when the birth ring is so massive thatit becomes radially optically thick for the smallest grains. However,the required disc mass is probably too high here to be realistic; 2)when the dynamical excitation of the dust-producing planetesimals is solow (< e> and < i> ≤ 0.01) that the smallest grains,which otherwise dominate the optical depth of the system, arepreferentially depleted. This low-excitation case, although possibly notgeneric, cannot be ruled out by observations for most systems, . Conclusions: Our “standard” profile provides a satisfactoryexplanation for a large group of debris discs that show smooth outeredges and SB ∝ r-3.5. Systems with sharper outer edges,barring other confining agents, could still be explained by“natural” collisional evolution if their dynamicalexcitation is very low. We show that such a dynamically-cold caseprovides a satisfactory fit to the specific HR4796A ring.
| The total number of giant planets in debris discs with central clearings
Infrared spectra from the Spitzer Space Telescope (SSC) of many debrisdiscs are well fit with a single blackbody temperature which suggestclearings within the disc. We assume that clearings are caused byorbital instability in multiple planet systems with similarconfigurations to our own. These planets remove dust-generatingplanetesimal belts as well as dust generated by the outer disc that isscattered or drifts into the clearing. From numerical integrations, weestimate a minimum planet spacing required for orbital instability (andso planetesimal and dust removal) as a function of system age and planetmass. We estimate that a 108 yr old debris disc with a dustdisc edge at a radius of 50 au hosted by an A star must containapproximately five Neptune mass planets between the clearing radius andthe iceline in order to remove all primordial objects within it. Weinfer that known debris disc systems contain at least a fifth of aJupiter mass in massive planets. The number of planets and spacingrequired is insensitive to the assumed planet mass. However, an order ofmagnitude higher total mass in planets could reside in these systems ifthe planets are more massive.
| Ages for Illustrative Field Stars Using Gyrochronology: Viability, Limitations, and Errors
We here develop an improved way of using a rotating star as a clock, setit using the Sun, and demonstrate that it keeps time well. Thistechnique, called gyrochronology, derives ages for low-massmain-sequence stars using only their rotation periods and colors. Thetechnique is developed here and used to derive ages for illustrativegroups of nearby field stars with measured rotation periods. We firstdemonstrate the reality of the interface sequence, the unifying featureof the rotational observations of cluster and field stars that makes thetechnique possible, and extend it beyond the proposal of Skumanich byspecifying the mass dependence of rotation for these stars. We delineatewhich stars it cannot currently be used on. We then calibrate the agedependence using the Sun. The errors are propagated to understand theirdependence on color and period. Representative age errors associatedwith the technique are estimated at ~15% (plus possible systematicerrors) for late F, G, K, and early M stars. Gyro ages for the MountWilson stars are shown to be in good agreement with chromospheric agesfor all but the bluest stars, and probably superior. Gyro ages are thencalculated for each of the active main-sequence field stars studied byStrassmeier and collaborators. These are shown to have a median age of365 Myr. The sample of single field stars assembled by Pizzolato andcollaborators is then assessed and shown to have gyro ages ranging fromunder 100 Myr to several Gyr, with a median age of 1.2 Gyr. Finally, wedemonstrate that the individual components of the three wide binariesξ Boo AB, 61 Cyg AB, and α Cen AB yield substantially the samegyro ages.
| The Dust, Planetesimals, and Planets of HD 38529
HD 38529 is a post-main-sequence G8 III/IV star (3.5 Gyr old) with aplanetary system consisting of at least two planets having Msini of 0.8and 12.2 MJup, semimajor axes of 0.13 and 3.74 AU, andeccentricities of 0.25 and 0.35, respectively. Spitzer observations showthat HD 38529 has an excess emission above the stellar photosphere, witha signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) at 70 μm of 4.7, a small excess at 33μm (S/N=2.6), and no excess <30 μm. We discuss the distributionof the potential dust-producing planetesimals from the study of thedynamical perturbations of the two known planets, considering inparticular the effect of secular resonances. We identify threedynamically stable niches at 0.4-0.8, 20-50, and beyond 60 AU. We modelthe spectral energy distribution (SED) of HD 38529 to find out which ofthese niches show signs of harboring dust-producing planetesimals. Thesecular analysis, together with the SED modeling results, suggest thatthe planetesimals responsible for most of the dust emission are likelylocated within 20-50 AU, a configuration that resembles that of theJovian planets + Kuiper Belt in our solar system. Finally, we placeupper limits (8×10-6 lunar masses of 10 μmparticles) to the amount of dust that could be located in thedynamically stable region that exists between the two planets (0.25-0.75AU).
| Collisional processes and size distribution in spatially extended debris discs
Context: New generations of instruments provide, or are about toprovide, pan-chromatic images of debris discs and photometricmeasurements, that require new generations of models, in particular toaccount for their collisional activity. Aims: We present a newmulti-annulus code for the study of collisionally evolving extendeddebris discs. We first aim to confirm and extend our preliminary resultobtained for a single-annulus system, namely that the size distributionin realistic debris discs always departs from the theoreticalcollisional “equilibrium” dN ∝ R-3.5 dRpower law, especially in the crucial size range of observable particles(R⪉ 1 cm), where it displays a characteristic wavy pattern. We alsostudy how debris discs density distributions, scattered light luminosityprofiles, and Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) are affected by thecoupled effect of collisions and radial mixing due to radiation pressureaffected small grains. Methods: The size distribution evolution ismodeled over 10 orders of magnitude, going from μm-sized grains to 50km-sized bodies. The model takes into account the crucial influence ofradiation pressure-affected small grains. We consider the collisionalevolution of a fiducial, idealized a = 120 AU radius disc with aninitial surface density Σ(a) ∝ aα. Severalkey parameters are explored: surface density profile, system's dynamicalexcitation, total dust mass, collision outcome prescriptions. Results:We show that the system's radial extension plays a crucial role and thatthe waviness of the size distribution is amplified by inter-annuliinteractions: in most regions the collisional and size evolution of thedust is imposed by small particles on eccentric or unbound orbitsproduced further inside the disc. Moreover, the spatial distribution ofall grains ⪉1 cm departs significantly from the initial profile inΣ(a) ∝ aα, while the bigger objects,containing most of the system's mass, still follow the initialdistribution. This has consequences on the scattered-light radialprofiles which get significantly flatter. We propose an empirical law totrace back the distribution of large unseen parent bodies from theobserved profiles. We also show that the the waviness of the sizedistribution has a clear observable signature in the far-infrared and at(sub-)millimeter wavelengths. This suggests a test of our collisionmodel, which requires observations with future facilities such asHerschel, SOFIA, SCUBA-2 and ALMA. Finally, we provide empiricalformulae for the collisional size distribution and collision timescalewhich can be used for future debris disc modeling.Appendices A and B are only available in electronic form athttp://www.aanda.org
| Mass and Temperature of the TWA 7 Debris Disk
We present photometric detections of dust emission at 850 and 450 μmaround the pre-main-sequence M1 dwarf TWA 7 using the SCUBA camera onthe James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. These data confirm the presence of acold dust disk around TWA 7, a member of the TW Hydrae Association(TWA). Based on the 850 μm flux, we estimate the mass of the disk tobe 18 Mlunar (0.2 M⊕) assuming a massopacity of 1.7 cm2 g-1 with a temperature of 45 K.This makes the TWA 7 disk (d=55 pc) an order of magnitude more massivethan the disk reported around AU Microscopii (GL 803), the closest (9.9pc) debris disk detected around an M dwarf. This is consistent with TWA7 being slightly younger than AU Mic. We find that the mid-IR andsubmillimeter data require the disk to be comprised of dust at a rangeof temperatures. A model in which the dust is at a single radius fromthe star, with a range of temperatures according to grain size, is aseffective at fitting the emission spectrum as a model in which the dustis of uniform size, but has a range of temperatures according todistance. We discuss this disk in the context of known disks in the TWAand around low-mass stars; a comparison of masses of disks in the TWAreveals no trend in mass or evolutionary state (gas-rich vs. debris) asa function of spectral type.
| HD 97048's Circumstellar Environment as Revealed by a Hubble Space Telescope ACS Coronagraphic Study of Disk Candidate Stars
We present the results of a coronagraphic scattered-light imaging surveyof six young disk candidate stars using the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. The observations made use of the 1.8"occulting spot through the F606W (broad V) filter. Circumstellarmaterial was imaged around HD 97048, a Herbig Ae/Be star located in theChamaeleon I dark cloud at a distance of 180 pc. The material is seenbetween ~2" (360 AU) and ~4" (720 AU) from the star in all directions. A V-band azimuthally averaged radial surface brightness profile peaks atr=2'' with a value of 19.6+/-0.2 mag arcsec-2 andsmoothly decreases with projected distance from the star asI~r-3.3+/-0.5. An integrated flux of 16.8+/-0.1 mag ismeasured between 2" and 4", corresponding to a scattered-lightfractional luminosity lower limit ofLsca/L*>8.4×10-4. Filamentarystructure resembling spiral arms similar to that seen in Herbig Ae/Bedisks is observed. Such structure has been attributed to the influenceof orbiting planets or stellar encounters. Average surface brightnessupper limits are determined for the five nondetections: HD 34282, HD139450, HD 158643, HD 159492, and HD 195627. Possible reasons for thenondetections are disks that are too faint or disks hidden by theocculter.
| Formation of Narrow Dust Rings in Circumstellar Debris Disks
Narrow dust rings observed around some young stars (e.g., HR 4796A) needto be confined. We present a possible explanation for the formation andconfinement of such rings in optically thin circumstellar disks, withoutinvoking shepherding planets. If an enhancement of dust grains (e.g.,due to a catastrophic collision) occurs somewhere in the disk,photoelectric emission from the grains can heat the gas to temperatureswell above that of the dust. The gas orbits with super (sub)-Keplerianspeeds inward (outward) of the associated pressure maximum. This tendsto concentrate the grains into a narrow region. The rise in dust densityleads to further heating and a stronger concentration of grains. Anarrow dust ring forms as a result of this instability. We show thatthis mechanism not only operates around early-type stars that have highUV fluxes, but also around stars with spectral types as late as K. Thisimplies that this process is generic and may have occurred during thelifetime of each circumstellar disk. We examine the stringent upperlimit on the H2 column density in the HR 4796A disk and findit to be compatible with the presence of a significant amount ofhydrogen gas in the disk. We also compute the O I and C II infrared linefluxes expected from various debris disks and show that these will beeasily detectable by the upcoming Herschel mission. Herschel will beinstrumental in detecting and characterizing gas in these disks.
| On the nature of clumps in debris disks
The azimuthal substructure observed in some debris disks, as exemplifiedby ɛ Eridani, is usually attributed to resonances with embeddedplanets. In a standard scenario, the Poynting-Robertson force, possiblyenhanced by the stellar wind drag, is responsible for the delivery ofdust from outer regions of the disk to locations of external mean-motionplanetary resonances; the captured particles then create characteristic"clumps". Alternatively, it has been suggested that the observedfeatures in systems like ɛ Eri may stem from populations ofplanetesimals that have been captured in resonances with the planet,such as Plutinos and Trojans in the solar system. A large fraction ofdust produced by these bodies would stay locked in the same resonance,creating the dusty clumps. To investigate both scenarios and theirapplicability limits for a wide range of stars, planets, disk densities,and planetesimal families we construct simple analytic models for bothscenarios. In particular, we show that the first scenario works fordisks with the pole-on optical depths below about 10-4{-}10-5. Above this optical depth level, thefirst scenario will generate a narrow resonant ring with a hardlyvisible azimuthal structure, rather than clumps. It is slightly moreefficient for more luminous/massive stars, more massive planets, andplanets with smaller orbital radii, but all these dependencies are weak.The efficiency of the second scenario is proportional to the mass of theresonant planetesimal family, as example, a family with a total mass of 0.01 to 0.1 Earth masses could be sufficient to account for the clumpsof ɛ Eridani. The brightness of the clumps produced by thesecond scenario increases with the decreasing luminosity of the star,increasing planetary mass, and decreasing orbital radius of the planet.All these dependencies are much stronger than in the first scenario.Models of the second scenario are quantitatively more uncertain thanthose of the first one, because they are very sensitive to poorly knownproperties of the collisional grinding process.Appendix A is only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
| Discovery of an 86 AU Radius Debris Ring around HD 181327
HST NICMOS PSF-subtracted coronagraphic observations of HD 181327 haverevealed the presence of a ringlike disk of circumstellar debris seen in1.1 μm light scattered by the disk grains, surrounded by a diffuseouter region of lower surface brightness. The annular disk appears to beinclined by 31.7d+/-1.6d from face-on, with the disk major-axis P.A. at107deg+/-2deg. The total 1.1 μm flux density ofthe light scattered by the disk (at 1.2"
| Spitzer IRS Spectroscopy of IRAS-discovered Debris Disks
We have obtained Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph (IRS)5.5-35 μm spectra of 59 main-sequence stars that possess IRAS 60μm excess. The spectra of five objects possess spectral features thatare well-modeled using micron-sized grains and silicates withcrystalline mass fractions 0%-80%, consistent with T Tauri and HerbigAeBe stars. With the exception of η Crv, these objects are youngwith ages <=50 Myr. Our fits require the presence of a cool blackbodycontinuum, Tgr=80-200 K, in addition to hot, amorphous, andcrystalline silicates, Tgr=290-600 K, suggesting thatmultiple parent body belts are present in some debris disks, analogousto the asteroid and Kuiper belts in our solar system. The spectra forthe majority of objects are featureless, suggesting that the emittinggrains probably have radii a>10 μm. We have modeled the excesscontinua using a continuous disk with a uniform surface densitydistribution, expected if Poynting-Robertson and stellar wind drag arethe dominant grain removal processes, and using a single-temperatureblackbody, expected if the dust is located in a narrow ring around thestar. The IRS spectra of many objects are better modeled with asingle-temperature blackbody, suggesting that the disks possess innerholes. The distribution of grain temperatures, based on our blackbodyfits, peaks at Tgr=110-120 K. Since the timescale for icesublimation of micron-sized grains with Tgr>110 K is afraction of a Myr, the lack of warmer material may be explained if thegrains are icy. If planets dynamically clear the central portions ofdebris disks, then the frequency of planets around other stars isprobably high. We estimate that the majority of debris disk systemspossess parent body masses, MPB<1 M⊕. Thelow inferred parent body masses suggest that planet formation is anefficient process.Based on observations with the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope, which isoperated by the California Institute of Technology for NASA.
| Contributions to the Nearby Stars (NStars) Project: Spectroscopy of Stars Earlier than M0 within 40 pc-The Southern Sample
We are obtaining spectra, spectral types, and basic physical parametersfor the nearly 3600 dwarf and giant stars earlier than M0 in theHipparcos catalog within 40 pc of the Sun. Here we report on resultsfor 1676 stars in the southern hemisphere observed at Cerro TololoInter-American Observatory and Steward Observatory. These resultsinclude new, precise, homogeneous spectral types, basic physicalparameters (including the effective temperature, surface gravity, andmetallicity [M/H]), and measures of the chromospheric activity of ourprogram stars. We include notes on astrophysically interesting stars inthis sample, the metallicity distribution of the solar neighborhood, anda table of solar analogs. We also demonstrate that the bimodal nature ofthe distribution of the chromospheric activity parameterlogR'HK depends strongly on the metallicity, andwe explore the nature of the ``low-metallicity'' chromosphericallyactive K-type dwarfs.
| Nearby Debris Disk Systems with High Fractional Luminosity Reconsidered
By searching the IRAS and ISO databases, we compiled a list of 60 debrisdisks that exhibit the highest fractional luminosity values(fd>10-4) in the vicinity of the Sun (d<120pc). Eleven out of these 60 systems are new discoveries. Special carewas taken to exclude bogus disks from the sample. We computed thefractional luminosity values using available IRAS, ISO, and Spitzer dataand analyzed the Galactic space velocities of the objects. The resultsrevealed that stars with disks of high fractional luminosity oftenbelong to young stellar kinematic groups, providing an opportunity toobtain improved age estimates for these systems. We found thatpractically all disks with fd>5×10-4 areyounger than 100 Myr. The distribution of the disks in the fractionalluminosity versus age diagram indicates that (1) the number of oldsystems with high fd is lower than was claimed before, (2)there exist many relatively young disks of moderate fractionalluminosity, and (3) comparing the observations with a currenttheoretical model of debris disk evolution, a general good agreementcould be found.
| How Dry is the Brown Dwarf Desert? Quantifying the Relative Number of Planets, Brown Dwarfs, and Stellar Companions around Nearby Sun-like Stars
Sun-like stars have stellar, brown dwarf, and planetary companions. Tohelp constrain their formation and migration scenarios, we analyze theclose companions (orbital period <5 yr) of nearby Sun-like stars. Byusing the same sample to extract the relative numbers of stellar, browndwarf, and planetary companions, we verify the existence of a very drybrown dwarf desert and describe it quantitatively. With decreasing mass,the companion mass function drops by almost 2 orders of magnitude from 1Msolar stellar companions to the brown dwarf desert and thenrises by more than an order of magnitude from brown dwarfs toJupiter-mass planets. The slopes of the planetary and stellar companionmass functions are of opposite sign and are incompatible at the 3σ level, thus yielding a brown dwarf desert. The minimum number ofcompanions per unit interval in log mass (the driest part of the desert)is at M=31+25-18MJ. Approximately 16%of Sun-like stars have close (P<5 yr) companions more massive thanJupiter: 11%+/-3% are stellar, <1% are brown dwarf, and 5%+/-2% aregiant planets. The steep decline in the number of companions in thebrown dwarf regime, compared to the initial mass function of individualstars and free-floating brown dwarfs, suggests either a differentspectrum of gravitational fragmentation in the formation environment orpost-formation migratory processes disinclined to leave brown dwarfs inclose orbits.
| Abundances of refractory elements in the atmospheres of stars with extrasolar planets
Aims.This work presents a uniform and homogeneous study of chemicalabundances of refractory elements in 101 stars with and 93 without knownplanetary companions. We carry out an in-depth investigation of theabundances of Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Na, Mg and Al. The newcomparison sample, spanning the metallicity range -0.70< [Fe/H]<0.50, fills the gap that previously existed, mainly at highmetallicities, in the number of stars without known planets.Methods.Weused an enlarged set of data including new observations, especially forthe field "single" comparison stars . The line list previously studiedby other authors was improved: on average we analysed 90 spectral linesin every spectrum and carefully measured more than 16 600 equivalentwidths (EW) to calculate the abundances.Results.We investigate possibledifferences between the chemical abundances of the two groups of stars,both with and without planets. The results are globally comparable tothose obtained by other authors, and in most cases the abundance trendsof planet-host stars are very similar to those of the comparison sample.Conclusions.This work represents a step towards the comprehension ofrecently discovered planetary systems. These results could also beuseful for verifying galactic models at high metallicities andconsequently improve our knowledge of stellar nucleosynthesis andgalactic chemical evolution.
| First Scattered Light Images of Debris Disks around HD 53143 and HD 139664
We present the first scattered light images of debris disks around a Kstar (HD 53143) and an F star (HD 139664) using the coronagraphic modeof the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the Hubble SpaceTelescope (HST). With ages of 0.3-1 Gyr, these are among the oldestoptically detected debris disks. HD 53143, viewed ~45° from edge-on,does not show radial variation in disk structure and has a width >55AU. HD 139664 is seen close to edge-on and has a beltlike morphologywith a dust peak 83 AU from the star and a distinct outer boundary at109 AU. We discuss evidence for significant diversity in the radialarchitecture of debris disks that appears unconnected to stellarspectral type or age. HD 139664 and possibly the solar system belong ina category of narrow belts 20-30 AU wide. HD 53143 represents a class ofwide-disk architecture with a characteristic width >50 AU.
| Oxygen abundances in planet-harbouring stars. Comparison of different abundance indicators
We present a detailed and uniform study of oxygen abundances in 155solar type stars, 96 of which are planet hosts and 59 of which form partof a volume-limited comparison sample with no known planets. EWmeasurements were carried out for the [O I] 6300 Å line and the OI triplet, and spectral synthesis was performed for several OH lines.NLTE corrections were calculated and applied to the LTE abundanceresults derived from the O I 7771-5 Å triplet. Abundances from [OI], the O I triplet and near-UV OH were obtained in 103, 87 and 77dwarfs, respectively. We present the first detailed and uniformcomparison of these three oxygen indicators in a large sample ofsolar-type stars. There is good agreement between the [O/H] ratios fromforbidden and OH lines, while the NLTE triplet shows a systematicallylower abundance. We found that discrepancies between OH, [O I] and the OI triplet do not exceed 0.2 dex in most cases. We have studied abundancetrends in planet host and comparison sample stars, and no obviousanomalies related to the presence of planets have been detected. Allthree indicators show that, on average, [O/Fe] decreases with [Fe/H] inthe metallicity range -0.8< [Fe/H] < 0.5. The planet host starspresent an average oxygen overabundance of 0.1-0.2 dex with respect tothe comparison sample.
| Pulkovo compilation of radial velocities for 35495 stars in a common system.
Not Available
| Spectroscopic metallicities for planet-host stars: Extending the samples
We present stellar parameters and metallicities for 29 planet-hoststars, as well as for a large volume-limited sample of 53 stars notknown to be orbited by any planetary-mass companion. These stars add tothe results presented in our previous series of papers, providing twolarge and uniform samples of 119 planet-hosts and 94“single” stars with accurate stellar parameters and [Fe/H]estimates. The analysis of the results further confirms that stars withplanets are metal-rich when compared with average field dwarfs.Important biases that may compromise future studies are also discussed.Finally, we compare the metallicity distributions for singleplanet-hosts and planet-hosts in multiple stellar systems. The resultsshow that a small difference cannot be excluded, in the sense that thelatter sample is slighly overmetallic. However, more data are needed toconfirm this correlation.
| Chemical enrichment and star formation in the Milky Way disk. III. Chemodynamical constraints
In this paper, we investigate some chemokinematical properties of theMilky Way disk, by using a sample composed by 424 late-type dwarfs. Weshow that the velocity dispersion of a stellar group correlates with theage of this group, according to a law proportional to t0.26,where t is the age of the stellar group. The temporal evolution of thevertex deviation is considered in detail. It is shown that the vertexdeviation does not seem to depend strongly on the age of the stellargroup. Previous studies in the literature seem to not have found it dueto the use of statistical ages for stellar groups, rather thanindividual ages. The possibility to use the orbital parameters of a starto derive information about its birthplace is investigated, and we showthat the mean galactocentric radius is likely to be the most reliablestellar birthplace indicator. However, this information cannot bepresently used to derive radial evolutionary constraints, due to anintrinsic bias present in all samples constructed from nearby stars. Anextensive discussion of the secular and stochastic heating mechanismscommonly invoked to explain the age-velocity dispersion relation ispresented. We suggest that the age-velocity dispersion relation couldreflect the gradual decrease in the turbulent velocity dispersion fromwhich disk stars form, a suggestion originally made by Tinsley &Larson (\cite{tinsley}, ApJ, 221, 554) and supported by several morerecent disk evolution calculations. A test to distinguish between thetwo types of models using high-redshift galaxies is proposed.Full Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/423/517
| Meeting the Cool Neighbors. VIII. A Preliminary 20 Parsec Census from the NLTT Catalogue
Continuing our census of late-type dwarfs in the solar neighborhood, wepresent BVRI photometry and optical spectroscopy of 800 mid-type Mdwarfs drawn from the NLTT proper-motion catalog. The targets are takenboth from our own cross-referencing of the NLTT Catalogue and the 2MASSSecond Incremental Data Release, and from the revised NLTT compiledrecently by Salim & Gould. All are identified as nearby-starcandidates based on their location in the(mr,mr-Ks) diagram. Three hundred starsdiscussed here have previous astrometric, photometric, or spectroscopicobservations. We present new BVRI photometry for 101 stars, togetherwith low-resolution spectroscopy of a further 400 dwarfs. In total, wefind that 241 stars are within 20 pc of the Sun, while a further 70 liewithin 1 σ of our distance limit. Combining the present resultswith previous analyses, we have quantitative observations for 1910 ofthe 1913 candidates in our NLTT nearby-star samples. Eight hundredfifteen of those stars have distance estimates of 20 pc or less,including 312 additions to the local census. With our NLTT follow-upobservations essentially complete, we have searched the literature for Kand early-type M dwarfs within the sampling volume covered by the 2MASSsecond release. Comparing the resultant 20 pc census against predictednumbers, derived from the 8 pc luminosity function, shows an overalldeficit of ~20% for stellar systems and ~35% for individual stars.Almost all are likely to be fainter than MJ=7, and at leasthalf are probably as yet undiscovered companions of known nearby stars.Our results suggest that there are relatively few missing systems at thelowest luminosities, MJ>8.5. We discuss possible means ofidentifying the missing stars.
| The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood. Ages, metallicities, and kinematic properties of 14 000 F and G dwarfs
We present and discuss new determinations of metallicity, rotation, age,kinematics, and Galactic orbits for a complete, magnitude-limited, andkinematically unbiased sample of 16 682 nearby F and G dwarf stars. Our63 000 new, accurate radial-velocity observations for nearly 13 500stars allow identification of most of the binary stars in the sampleand, together with published uvbyβ photometry, Hipparcosparallaxes, Tycho-2 proper motions, and a few earlier radial velocities,complete the kinematic information for 14 139 stars. These high-qualityvelocity data are supplemented by effective temperatures andmetallicities newly derived from recent and/or revised calibrations. Theremaining stars either lack Hipparcos data or have fast rotation. Amajor effort has been devoted to the determination of new isochrone agesfor all stars for which this is possible. Particular attention has beengiven to a realistic treatment of statistical biases and errorestimates, as standard techniques tend to underestimate these effectsand introduce spurious features in the age distributions. Our ages agreewell with those by Edvardsson et al. (\cite{edv93}), despite severalastrophysical and computational improvements since then. We demonstrate,however, how strong observational and theoretical biases cause thedistribution of the observed ages to be very different from that of thetrue age distribution of the sample. Among the many basic relations ofthe Galactic disk that can be reinvestigated from the data presentedhere, we revisit the metallicity distribution of the G dwarfs and theage-metallicity, age-velocity, and metallicity-velocity relations of theSolar neighbourhood. Our first results confirm the lack of metal-poor Gdwarfs relative to closed-box model predictions (the ``G dwarfproblem''), the existence of radial metallicity gradients in the disk,the small change in mean metallicity of the thin disk since itsformation and the substantial scatter in metallicity at all ages, andthe continuing kinematic heating of the thin disk with an efficiencyconsistent with that expected for a combination of spiral arms and giantmolecular clouds. Distinct features in the distribution of the Vcomponent of the space motion are extended in age and metallicity,corresponding to the effects of stochastic spiral waves rather thanclassical moving groups, and may complicate the identification ofthick-disk stars from kinematic criteria. More advanced analyses of thisrich material will require careful simulations of the selection criteriafor the sample and the distribution of observational errors.Based on observations made with the Danish 1.5-m telescope at ESO, LaSilla, Chile, and with the Swiss 1-m telescope at Observatoire deHaute-Provence, France.Complete Tables 1 and 2 are only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/418/989
| A search for debris discs around stars with giant planets
Eight nearby stars with known giant planets have been searched forthermal emission in the submillimetre arising from dust debris. The nullresults imply quantities of dust typically less than 0.02 Earth massesper star. Conversely, literature data for 20 Sun-like stars with debrisdiscs show that <= 5 per cent have gas giants inside a fewastronomical units - but the dust distribution suggests that nearly allhave more distant planets. The lack of overlap in these systems - i.e.few stars possess both inner planets and a disc - indicates that thesephenomena either are not connected or are mutually exclusive. Comparisonwith an evolutionary model shows that debris masses are predicted to below by the stellar ages of 2-8 Gyr (unless the colliding parent bodiesare quite distant, located beyond 100-200 au), but it remains to beexplained why stars that do have debris should preferentially only havedistant planets. A simple idea is proposed that could produce theselargely different systems, invoking a difference in the primordial discmass. Large masses promote fast gas giant growth and inwards migration,whereas small masses imply slow evolution, low-mass gas giants andoutwards migration that increases the collision rate of Kuiper Belt-likeobjects. This explanation neglects other sources of diversity betweendiscs (such as density and planetesimal composition and orbits), but itdoes have the merit of matching the observational results.
| Dusty Debris Disks as Signposts of Planets: Implications for Spitzer Space Telescope
Submillimeter and near-infrared images of cool dusty debris disks andrings suggest the existence of unseen planets. At dusty but nonimagedstars, semimajor axes of associated planets can be estimated from thedust temperature. For some young stars these semimajor axes are greaterthan 1" as seen from Earth. Such stars are excellent targets forsensitive near-infrared imaging searches for warm planets. To probe thefull extent of the dust and hence of potential planetary orbits, Spitzerobservations should include measurements with the 160 μm filter.
| Age Dependence of the Vega Phenomenon: Observations
We study the time dependency of Vega-like excesses using infraredstudies obtained with the imaging photopolarimeter ISOPHOT on board theInfrared Space Observatory. We review the different studies published onthis issue and critically check and revise ages and fractionalluminosities in the different samples. The conclusions of our studydiffer significantly from those obtained by other authors (e.g., Hollandand coworkers; Spangler and coworkers), who suggested that there is aglobal power law governing the amount of dust seen in debris disks as afunction of time. Our investigations lead us to conclude that (1) forstars at most ages, a large spread in fractional luminosity occurs, but(2) there are few very young stars with intermediate or small excesses;(3) the maximum excess seen in stars of a given age is aboutfd~10-3, independent of time; and (4) Vega-likeexcess is more common in young stars than in old stars.
| Improved Astrometry and Photometry for the Luyten Catalog. II. Faint Stars and the Revised Catalog
We complete construction of a catalog containing improved astrometry andnew optical/infrared photometry for the vast majority of NLTT starslying in the overlap of regions covered by POSS I and by the secondincremental Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) release, approximately 44%of the sky. The epoch 2000 positions are typically accurate to 130 mas,the proper motions to 5.5 mas yr-1, and the V-J colors to0.25 mag. Relative proper motions of binary components are measured to 3mas yr-1. The false-identification rate is ~1% for11<~V<~18 and substantially less at brighter magnitudes. Theseimprovements permit the construction of a reduced proper-motion diagramthat, for the first time, allows one to classify NLTT stars intomain-sequence (MS) stars, subdwarfs (SDs), and white dwarfs (WDs). We inturn use this diagram to analyze the properties of both our catalog andthe NLTT catalog on which it is based. In sharp contrast to popularbelief, we find that NLTT incompleteness in the plane is almostcompletely concentrated in MS stars, and that SDs and WDs are detectedalmost uniformly over the sky δ>-33deg. Our catalogwill therefore provide a powerful tool to probe these populationsstatistically, as well as to reliably identify individual SDs and WDs.
| The stellar activity-rotation relationship revisited: Dependence of saturated and non-saturated X-ray emission regimes on stellar mass for late-type dwarfs
We present the results of a new study on the relationship betweencoronal X-ray emission and stellar rotation in late-type main-sequencestars. We have selected a sample of 259 dwarfs in the B-V range 0.5-2.0,including 110 field stars and 149 members of the Pleiades, Hyades, alphaPersei, IC 2602 and IC 2391 open clusters. All the stars have beenobserved with ROSAT, and most of them have photometrically-measuredrotation periods available. Our results confirm that two emissionregimes exist, one in which the rotation period is a good predictor ofthe total X-ray luminosity, and the other in which a constant saturatedX-ray to bolometric luminosity ratio is attained; we present aquantitative estimate of the critical rotation periods below which starsof different masses (or spectral types) enter the saturated regime. Inthis work we have also empirically derived a characteristic time scale,taue , which we have used to investigate the relationshipbetween the X-ray emission level and an X-ray-based Rossby numberRe = Prot/taue: we show that ourempirical time scale taue resembles the theoreticalconvective turnover time for 0.4 <~ M/Msun <~ 1.2, butit also has the same functional dependence on B-V asLbol-1/2 in the color range 0.5 <~ B-V <~1.5. Our results imply that - for non-saturated coronae - theLx - Prot relation is equivalent to theLx/Lbol vs. Re relation. Tables 1 and 2are only available in electronic form at \ http://www.edpsciences.org
| Discovery of Reflection Nebulosity around Five Vega-like Stars
Coronagraphic optical observations of six Vega-like stars revealreflection nebulosities, five of which were previously unknown. Thenebulosities illuminated by HD 4881, HD 23362, HD 23680, HD 26676, andHD 49662 resemble that of the Pleiades, indicating an interstellarorigin for dust grains. The reflection nebulosity around HD 123160 has adouble-arm morphology, but no disklike feature is seen as close as 2.5"from the star in K-band adaptive optics data. We demonstrate that auniform density dust cloud surrounding HD 23362, HD 23680, and HD 123160can account for the observed 12-100 μm spectral energy distributions.For HD 4881, HD 26676, and HD 49662, an additional emission source, suchas from a circumstellar disk or nonequilibrium grain heating, isrequired to fit the 12-25 μm data. These results indicate that insome cases, particularly for Vega-like stars located beyond the LocalBubble (>100 pc), the dust responsible for excess thermal emissionmay originate from the interstellar medium rather than from a planetarydebris system.
| Late-type members of young stellar kinematic groups - I. Single stars
This is the first paper of a series aimed at studying the properties oflate-type members of young stellar kinematic groups. We concentrate ourstudy on classical young moving groups such as the Local Association(Pleiades moving group, 20-150Myr), IC 2391 supercluster (35Myr), UrsaMajor group (Sirius supercluster, 300Myr), and Hyades supercluster(600Myr), as well as on recently identified groups such as the Castormoving group (200Myr). In this paper we compile a preliminary list ofsingle late-type possible members of some of these young stellarkinematic groups. Stars are selected from previously established membersof stellar kinematic groups based on photometric and kinematicproperties as well as from candidates based on other criteria such astheir level of chromospheric activity, rotation rate and lithiumabundance. Precise measurements of proper motions and parallaxes takenfrom the Hipparcos Catalogue, as well as from the Tycho-2 Catalogue, andpublished radial velocity measurements are used to calculate theGalactic space motions (U, V, W) and to apply Eggen's kinematic criteriain order to determine the membership of the selected stars to thedifferent groups. Additional criteria using age-dating methods forlate-type stars will be applied in forthcoming papers of this series. Afurther study of the list of stars compiled here could lead to a betterunderstanding of the chromospheric activity and their age evolution, aswell as of the star formation history in the solar neighbourhood. Inaddition, these stars are also potential search targets for directimaging detection of substellar companions.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Τρόπις |
| Right ascension: | 06h59m59.66s |
| Declination: | -61°20'10.2" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 6.808 |
| Distance: | 18.406 parsecs |
| Proper motion RA: | -160.8 |
| Proper motion Dec: | 266.3 |
| B-T magnitude: | 7.801 |
| V-T magnitude: | 6.89 |
Catalogs and designations:
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