Search

In this paper, we present high-resolution spectroscopic transit observations from ESPRESSO of the super-Neptune WASP-166~b. In addition to spectroscopic ESPRESSO data, we analyse photometric data from {\sl TESS} of six WASP-166~b transits along with simultaneous NGTS observations of the ESPRESSO runs. These observations were used to fit for the planetary parameters as well as assessing the level of stellar activity (e.g. spot crossings, flares) present during the ESPRESSO observations. We utilise the Reloaded Rossiter McLaughlin (RRM) technique to spatially resolve the stellar surface, characterising the centre-to-limb convection-induced variations, and to refine the star-planet obliquity. We find WASP-166~b has a projected obliquity of $\lambda = -15.52^{+2.85}_{-2.76}$$^{\circ}$ and $v\sin(i) = 4.97 \pm 0.09$~kms$^{-1}$ which is consistent with the literature. We were able to characterise centre-to-limb convective variations as a result of granulation on the surface of the star on the order of a few kms$^{-1}$ for the first time. We modelled the centre-to-limb convective variations using a linear, quadratic and cubic model with the cubic being preferred. In addition, by modelling the differential rotation and centre-to-limb convective variations simultaneously we were able to retrieve a potential anti-solar differential rotational shear ($\alpha \sim$ -0.5) and stellar inclination ($i_*$ either 42.03$^{+9.13}_{-9.60}$$^{\circ}$ or 133.64$^{+8.42}_{-7.98}$$^{\circ}$ if the star is pointing towards or away from us). Finally, we investigate how the shape of the cross-correlation functions change as a function of limb angle and compare our results to magnetohydrodynamic simulations., Comment: 18 Pages, 13 Figures, 4 Tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present results of time-series analysis of the first year of the Fairall 9 intensive disc-reverberation campaign. We used Swift and the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network to continuously monitor Fairall 9 from X-rays to near-infrared at a daily to subdaily cadence. The cross-correlation function between bands provides evidence for a lag spectrum consistent with the τ ∝ λ4/3 scaling expected for an optically thick, geometrically thin blackbody accretion disc. Decomposing the flux into constant and variable components, the variable component’s spectral energy distribution is slightly steeper than the standard accretion disc prediction. We find evidence at the Balmer edge in both the lag and flux spectra for an additional bound-free continuum contribution that may arise from reprocessing in the broad-line region. The inferred driving light curve suggests two distinct components, a rapidly variable (100 d) component with an opposite lag to the reverberation signal.

This publication is based on data collected under the NGTS project at the ESO La Silla Paranal Observatory. The NGTS instrument and operations are funded by the consortium institutes and by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC; project reference ST/M001962/1). The WHT and its service program are operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. This paper also uses observations made at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). SLC acknowledges support from LISEO at the University of Leicester. EG acknowledges support from the Winton foundation. MRG and MRB are supported by an STFC consolidated grant (ST/N000757/1). PJW, RGW and TL are supported by an STFC consolidated grant (ST/P000495/1). JSJ acknowledges support by FONDECYT grant 1161218 and partial support by CATA-Basal (PB06, CONICYT). This work utilizes the ELLC exoplanet and binary star model developed by P. F. L. Maxted, and we thank him for his specific recommendations for using this model.

We have performed extensive simulations to explore the possibility of detecting eclipses and transits of close, substellar and planetary companions to white dwarfs in WASP (the UK Wide-Angle Search for Planets) light curves. Our simulations cover companions ∼0.3 < Rpl < 12 RGraphic and orbital periods 2 < P < 15 d, equivalent to orbital radii 0.003 < a < 0.1 au. For Gaussian random noise, WASP is sensitive to transits by companions as small as the Moon orbiting a V≃ 12 white dwarf. For fainter white dwarfs, WASP is sensitive to increasingly larger radius bodies. However, in the presence of correlated noise structure in the light curves, the sensitivity drops, although Earth-sized companions remain detectable, in principle, even in low signal-to-noise data. Mars-sized, and even Mercury-sized, bodies yield reasonable detection rates in high-quality light curves with little residual noise. We searched for eclipses and transit signals in long-term light curves of a sample of 194 white dwarfs resulting from a cross-correlation of the McCook & Sion catalogue and the WASP archive. No evidence for eclipsing or transiting substellar and planetary companions was found. We used this non-detection and results from our simulations to place tentative upper limits to the frequency of such objects in close orbits at white dwarfs. While only weak limits can be placed on the likely frequency of Earth-sized or smaller companions, brown dwarfs and gas giants (radius ≈Rjup) with periods

We apply a recently developed method for classifying broad absorption line quasars (BALQSOs) to the latest QSO catalogue constructed from Data Release 5 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our new hybrid classification scheme combines the power of simple metrics, supervised neural networks and visual inspection. In our view the resulting BALQSO catalogue is both more complete and more robust than all previous BALQSO catalogues, containing 3552 sources selected from a parent sample of 28,421 QSOs in the redshift range 1.7, Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table available through the VizieR server. To appear in MNRAS

The early optical emission of the moderately high redshift (2 = 3.08) GRB 060607A shows a remarkable broad and strong peak with a rapid rise and a relatively slow power-law decay. It is not coincident with the strong early-time flares seen in the X-ray and gamma-ray energy bands. There is weak evidence for variability superposed on this dominant component in several optical bands that can be related to flares in high-energy bands. While for a small number of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), well-sampled optical flares have been observed simultaneously with X-ray and gamma-ray pulses, GRB 060607A is one of the few cases where the early optical emission shows no significant evidence for correlation with the prompt emission. In this work we first report in detail the broad-band observations of this burst by Swift. Then by applying a simple model for the dynamics and the synchrotron radiation of a relativistic shock, we show that the dominant component of the early emissions in optical wavelengths has the same origin as the tail emission produced after the main gamma-ray activity. The most plausible explanation for the peak in the optical light curve seems to be the cooling of the prompt after the main collisions, shifting the characteristic synchrotron frequency to the optical bands. The fact that the early emission in X-ray does not show a steep decay, like what is observed in many other GRBs, is further evidence for slow cooling of the prompt shell within this GRB. It seems that the cooling process requires a steepening of the electron energy distribution and/or a break in this distribution at high energies. From simultaneous gamma-ray emission during the first flare, the behaviour of hardness ratio, and the lack of spectral features, we conclude that the X-ray flares are due to the collision of late shells rather than late reprocessing of the central engine activities. The sharp break in the X-ray light curve at few thousands of seconds after the trigger, is not observed in the infrared/optical/ultraviolet bands, and therefore cannot be a jet break. Either the X-ray break is due to a change in the spectrum of the accelerated electrons or the lack of an optical break is due to the presence of a related delayed response component.

We describe observations of GRB 050422, a Swift-discovered gamma-ray burst. The prompt gamma-ray emission had a T90 duration of 59 s and was multipeaked, with the main peak occurring at T + 53 s. Swift was able to follow the X-ray afterglow within 100 s of the burst trigger. The X-ray light curve, which shows a steep early decline, can be described by a broken power law with an initial decay slope of α1 ∼ 5.0, a break time tb ∼ 270 s and a post-break decay slope of α2 ∼ 0.9, when the zero time of the X-ray emission is taken to be the burst trigger time. However, if the zero time is shifted to coincide with the onset of main peak in the gamma-ray light curve then the initial decay slope is shallower with α1 ∼ 3.2. The initial gamma-ray spectrum can be modelled by a power law with a spectral index of β B = 0.50 ± 0.19. However, the early time X-ray spectrum is significantly steeper than this and requires a spectral index of βX = 2.33 +0.58 −0.55. In comparison with other Swift bursts, GRB 050422 was unusually X-ray faint, had a soft X-ray spectrum, and had an unusually steep early X-ray decline. Even so, its behaviour can be accommodated by standard models. The combined BAT/XRT light curve indicates that the initial, steeply declining, X-ray emission is related to the tail of the prompt gamma-ray emission. The shallower decay seen after the break is consistent with the standard afterglow model.

We present results from a 112 ks long look by XMM-Newton at the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg II X-1, long thought to be the one of best candidates for the missing class of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs). Our data comprises the first high quality XMM-Newton/RGS spectrum of an ULX, and an XMM-Newton/EPIC spectrum with unprecedented signal-to-noise. A detailed timing analysis shows that any variability on time-scales of minutes to hours is very weak (< few per cent fractional rms), though larger amplitude variations on much shorter time-scales could be hidden by photon counting statistics. This result suggests that if Ho II X-1 harbours an IMBH, then we are observing this source in a highly unusual and atypical state when compared with the known variability behaviour of other accreting systems of large mass. Moreover unlike Galactic X-ray binaries, our spectral analysis indicates the possible presence of an optically-thick low temperature corona. Taken together our timing and spectral analysis suggests that the compact companion is most-likely a high luminosity analogue of black hole binary systems similar to GRS 1915+105, the Galactic microquasar, harbouring a compact object of mass no greater than 100 solar masses.

We have searched the broad-absorption-line quasar (BAL QSO) sample presented by Reichard et al. for objects exhibiting the so-called `ghost of Lyman alpha'. This ghost manifests as a hump near -5900kms in the troughs of the broad absorption lines and provides strong evidence for the importance of line-driving in powering the outflows from BAL QSOs. Of the 224 sample BAL QSOs selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Early Data Release (EDR), 198 satisfy our redshift constraints and 58 show clear evidence of multiple-trough (MT) structure in the CIV line. A composite spectrum constructed from this MT sample already shows evidence for a ghost feature. Narrowing our classification scheme further, we define a set of 36 objects that individually show evidence of a ghost feature, and then apply further cuts to arrive at a final `best sample' that contains our seven strongest ghost candidates. A further five objects show evidence for a ghost feature that is almost strong enough to merit inclusion in our best sample. Despite its limited size, our best sample more than doubles the number of known BAL QSOs with clear ghost signatures and should make an excellent basis for detailed follow-up studies.

We present a detailed study of the long-timescale X-ray variability of the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) Galaxy MCG-6-30-15, based on 8 years of frequent observations with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. Combined with short timescale XMM-Newton observations, we derive the powerspectral density (PSD) covering 6 decades from ~10^{-8} to ~10^{-2} Hz. As with NGC4051, another NLS1, the PSD of MCG-6-30-15 is a close analogue of the PSD of a Galactic Black Hole X-ray binary system (GBH) in a `high' rather than a `low' state. Like high state GBHs, its PSD is better fitted by a smoothly bending rather than sharply breaking powerlaw model and the break frequency is 7.6^{+10}_{-3} x 10^{-5} Hz. Assuming linear scaling of break frequency with mass, we estimate the black hole (BH) mass in MCG-6-30-15 to be ~2.9^{+1.8}_{-1.6} X 10^{6} solar masses. We also derive the BH mass using a variety of new optical observations and find a value between 3.6 and 6 x 10^{6} solar masses, consistent with the mass derived from the PSD. Combining these data with revised reverberation masses for other AGN we update the BH mass/break timescale diagram. The observations are consistent with NLS1s having shorter break timescales, for a given mass, than broad line AGN, probably reflecting a higher accretion rate. However the data are also consistent with all of the X-ray bright AGN being high state objects. This result may simply be a selection effect, based on their selection from X-ray all sky catalogues, and their consequent typically high X-ray/radio ratios, which indicate high state systems.

We present the results of two XMM-Newton observations of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 5204 X-1. The EPIC spectra are well-fit by the standard spectral model of a black-hole X-ray binary, comprising a soft multi-colour disc blackbody component plus a harder power-law continuum. The cool (kT_in ~ 0.2 keV) inner-disc temperature required by this model favours the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) in this system, though we highlight a possible anomaly in the slope of the power-law continuum in such fits. We discuss the interpretation of this and other, non-standard spectral modelling of the data., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS [version including full resolution Figure 1 available from http://www.star.le.ac.uk/~tro/papers/n5204_xmm.pdf]

We have used the ROSAT Bright Source Catalogue to extract a complete sample of sources selected in the band from 0.1-0.4 keV. This 1/4 keV-selected sample is comprised of 54 Seyfert galaxies, 25 BL Lacertae objects, 4 clusters and 27 Galactic stars or binaries. Seyfert-type galaxies with ``ultrasoft'' X-ray spectra can very often be classed optically as Narrow-line Seyfert 1s (NLS1s). Such objects are readily detected in 1/4 keV surveys; the sample reported here contains 20 NLS1s, corresponding to a 40% fraction of the Seyferts. Optical spectra of the Seyfert galaxies were gathered for correlative analysis, which confirmed the well-known relations between X-ray slope and optical spectral properties (e.g., [O III]/H-beta ratio; Fe II strength, H-beta width). The various intercorrelations are most likely driven, fundamentally, by the shape of the photoionising continuum in Seyfert nuclei. We argue that a steep X-ray spectrum is a better indicator of an ``extreme'' set of physical properties in Seyfert galaxies than is the narrowness of the optical H-beta line. (Abridged)

We present response functions for a large number of emission lines covering a wide variety of ionization states emitted from a spherical broad-line region (BLR). The line emissivities are calculated using a photoionization code for a cloud distribution where the cloud properties and covering factor are constrained by a pressure law. Emissivity-weighted and responsivity-weighted response functions are compared for different lines emitted from the same spatially extended BLR gas, and we discuss their dependences on the radial ionization parameter and density gradients. Depending on the local physical conditions, we show that some lines can have negative response functions, particularly if the BLR contains a region of optically thin clouds

We have searched the hybrid BALQSO catalogue of Scaringi et al. derived from DR5 of the SDSS in order to compile the largest sample of objects displaying spectral signatures which may be indicative of radiative line driving. The feature in question is the "ghost of Ly-alpha", a line-locking feature previously identified in the broad C IV and Si IV absorption lines of a small fraction of BALQSOs, and formed via the interaction of Ly-alpha photons with N V ions. We test, where possible the criteria required to produce an observable ghost feature and find that these criteria are not met significantly more often in ghost-candidates than in a comparison sample chosen to exhibit relatively featureless broad absorption troughs. Indeed, the only significant differences we find between our ghost-candidate and comparison samples, is that on average, our ghost-candidate sample displays (i) significantly stronger N V absorption, and (ii) the onset of absorption occurs at lower velocities in our ghost-candidate objects. Significantly, we find no evidence for an excess of objects whose absorption troughs bracket the location of the Ly-alpha-N V line-locking region, rather the location of ghost-like features appears to be independent of any systematic velocity. Thus, the majority of objects identified here as strong ghost-candidates are likely multi-trough interlopers whose absorption feature simply bracket the region of interest.