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A. M. Cherepashchuk

Publications and source records attributed to A. M. Cherepashchuk.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Accuracy of the component mass estimation methods in LMXB

There is a mismatch between modelled and observed distributions of optical stars masses in BH LMXB. Companion masses in BH LMXB are found in the mass range 0.1 - 1.6 $M_{\odot}$ with the peak at 0.6 $M_{\odot}$. The standard evolutionary scenarios require the donor mass distribution peaks to be at least $\sim 1\, M_{\odot}$ to eject a massive envelope of the black hole progenitor. Imperfect of the methods of optical stars masses determination may cause this difference. Two common used approximations of real Roche lobe filling star as distortion sources have been tested. On the one hand, there is the a approximation of real Roche lobe filling optical stars as sphere. We tested rotational broadening of absorption lines based on an exact calculation of CaI $λ6439.075 \, Å$ absorption profiles in the spectra of Roche lobe filling optical stars. There is overestimation of projected equatorial rotational velocity $V_{rot} \sin i$ and, accordingly, underestimation of mass ratio $q=M_x/M_v$ in the spherical star model. On the other hand, the approximation of a real Roche lobe filling star as disk with uniform local profile and linear limb darkening law is more rough. In this case overestimation of projected equatorial rotational velocity $V_{rot} \sin i$ is $ \sim 20\%$. Such overestimation of $V_{rot} \sin i$ can result in significant underestimation of mass ratio $q=M_x/M_v$ at hight value of $q=M_x/M_v$. Refined value of $q$ does not affect the mass of a black hole, but the mass of an optical star has shrunk 1.5 times. Hence, the masses of optical stars in BH LMXB must be corrected downward, despite the contradictions to the standard evolutionary scenarios.

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Review of scientific topics for Millimetron space observatory

This paper describes outstanding issues in astrophysics and cosmology that can be solved by astronomical observations in a broad spectral range from far infrared to millimeter wavelengths. The discussed problems related to the formation of stars and planets, galaxies and the interstellar medium, studies of black holes and the development of the cosmological model can be addressed by the planned space observatory Millimetron (the "Spectr-M" project) equipped with a cooled 10-m mirror. Millimetron can operate both as a single-dish telescope and as a part of a space-ground interferometer with very long baseline.

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Supermassive Black Holes and Nuclear Star Clusters: Connection with the Host Galaxy Kinematics and Color

We consider the relationship between the masses of the central objects in disky galaxies - supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and nuclear star clusters (NCs) - and various parameters of parent galaxies: velocity of rotation $V_{(2)}$ at $R= 2$ kpc, maximal velocity of rotation $V_{\textrm{max}}$, the indicative dynamical mass $M_{25}$, the total mass of the stellar population $M_{*}$, and the total color index ($B{-}V$). The mass of nuclear clusters $M_{\rm nc}$ correlates more closely with the kinematic parameters and total mass of galaxies than the mass of central black holes $M_{\rm bh}$, including correlation with the velocity $V_{\textrm{max}}$, which characterizes the virial mass of the dark halo. On average, lenticular galaxies are distinguished by higher masses $M_{\rm bh}$ compared to other types of galaxies with similar characteristics. The dependence of masses of central objects on the color index is bimodal: galaxies of the red group (red-sequence), which have ($B{-}V) > 0.6{-}0.7$, being mostly early-type galaxies, differ from bluer galaxies, by higher values of $M_{\rm nc}$ and $M_{\rm bh}$. The red-group galaxies have systematically higher $M_{\rm bh}$ values, even when the host-galaxy parameters are similar. In contrast, in the case of nuclear stellar clusters, the "blue" and "red" galaxies form unified sequences at the diagrams. The results agree with scenarios in which most red-group galaxies form as a result of the partial or complete loss of interstellar gas in a stage of high nuclear activity in galaxies whose central black-hole mass exceeds $10^6 {-} 10^7 M_{\odot}$ (depending on the total mass of a galaxy). Most of galaxies with $M_{\rm bh}> 10^7 M_{\odot}$ are lenticular galaxies (types S0, E/S0), whose disks are usually devoid of gas.

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The K-corrections to radial velocity curves of optical components in X-Ray Binaries. HMXB with weak X-ray heating

The radial velocity curves of optical components in X-ray binary systems can differ from the radial velocity curves of their barycenters due to tidal distortion, gravitational darkening, X-ray heating, etc. This motivated us to investigate how the semiamplitudes of the radial velocity curves of these optical components can depend on the binary-system parameters in a Roche model. The K-correction is taken to be the ratio of the radial velocity semiamplitude for a star in the Roche model to the corresponding value for the stellar barycenter. K-corrections are tabulated for the optical stars in the massive X-ray binaries Cen X-3, LMC X-4, SMC X-1, Vela X-1, and 4U 1538-52.

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INTEGRAL observations of SS433: system's parameters and nutation of supercritical accretion disk

Based on multiyear INTEGRAL observations of SS433 in 2003-2011, a composite IBIS/ISGRI 18-60 keV orbital light curve is constructed around zero precessional phases psi_{pr}= 0 at the maximim accretion disk opening angle. It shows a peculiar shape with significant excess near the orbital phase phi_orb= 0.25, which is not seen in the softer 2-10 keV energy band. The 40-60 keV orbital light curve demonstrates two almost equal humps at phases \sim 0.25 and \sim 0.75, most likely due to nutation effects of the accretion disk. The nutational variability of SS433 in 15-50 keV with a period of 6.290 days is independently found from timing analysis of Swift/BAT data. The change of the off-eclipse 18-60 keV X-ray flux with the precessional phase shows a double-wave form with strong primary maximum at psi_{pr}= 0 and weak but significant secondary maximum at psi_{pr}= 0.6. A weak variability of the 18-60 keV flux in the middle of the orbital eclipse correlated with the disk precessional phase is also observed. The joint analysis of the broadband 18-60 keV orbital and precessional light curves confirms the presence of a hot extended corona in the central parts of the supercritical accretion disk and constrains the binary mass ratio in SS433 in the range 0.5>q>0.3, suggesting the black hole nature of the compact object.

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Modelling light curves of binary systems: accounting for extended winds

We suggest a simple synthesis model of an eclipsing binary system which includes one component with strong stellar wind. Numerical simulations show that the shape of the light curve (and in particularly the widths of the minima) strongly depends on wind parameters. Wind effects are crucial in modelling light curves of binaries including e.g., WR stars.

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The Mass of the Compact Object in the X-Ray Binary Her X-1/HZ Her

We have obtained the first estimates of the masses of the components of the Her X-1/HZ Her X-ray binary system taking into account non-LTE effects in the formation of the H_gamma absorption line: mx=1.8Msun and mv=2.5Msun. These mass estimates were made in a Roche model based on the observed radial-velocity curve of the optical star, HZ Her. The masses for the X-ray pulsar and optical star obtained for an LTE model lie are mx=0.85\pm0.15Msun and mv=1.87\pm0.13Msun. These mass estimates for the components of Her X-1/HZ Her derived from the radial-velocity curve should be considered tentative. Further mass estimates from high-precision observations of the orbital variability of the absorption profiles in a non-LTE model for the atmosphere of the optical component should be made.

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The Mass of the Compact Object in the Low-Mass X-ray Binary 2S 0921-630

We interpret the observed radial-velocity curve of the optical star in the low-mass X-ray binary 2S 0921-630 using a Roche model, taking into account the X-ray heating of the optical star and screening of X-rays coming from the relativistic object by the accretion disk. Consequences of possible anisotropy of the X-ray radiation are considered.We obtain relations between the masses of the optical and compact (X-ray) components, mv and mx, for orbital inclinations i=60, 75, 90 degrees. Including X-ray heating enabled us to reduce the compact object's mass by near 0.5-1Msun, compared to the case with no heating. Based on the K0III spectral type of the optical component (with a probable mass of mv=2.9Msun, we concluded that mx=2.45-2.55Msun (for i=75-90 degrees). If the K0III star has lost a substantial part of its mass as a result of mass exchange, as in the V404 Cyg and GRS 1905+105 systems, and its mass is $m_v=0.65-0.75Msun, the compact object's mass is close to the standard mass of a neutron star, mx=1.4Msun (for i=75-90 degrees). Thus, it is probable that the X-ray source in the 2S 0921-630 binary is an accreting neutron star.

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Analysis of Light Curves of Eclipsing Systems with Exoplanets: HD 189733

High-accuracy multicolor light curves of the binary system HD 189733, which contains an exoplanet, are analyzed. We have determined the radii of the star and the planet in the binary system, as well as the orbital inclination. The limb-darkening coefficients of the stellar disk were obtained in 10 filters in the wavelength interval 5500-10500 AA. The uncertainties of the fitted parameters were estimated using the differential-correction and confidence-area methods. The wavelength dependence of the limb-darkening coefficients is compared to the corresponding theoretical function for a model thin stellar atmosphere. We confirm the wavelength dependence of the exoplanet's radius found by Pont et al. The exoplanet radius increases with decreasing wavelength, which seems to argue for the presence of an atmosphere around the planet.

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Supermassive Black Holes and Kinematics of Disc Galaxies

The statistical relations between the masses of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in disk galaxies and the kinematic properties of their host galaxies are analyzed. We use the radial velocity profiles for several galaxies obtained earlier at the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences parallel with the data for other galaxies taken from the literature. We demonstrate that the SMBH masses correlate well with the velocities of rotation of disks at a fixed distance R \approx 1 kpc (V1), which characterize the mean density of the central region of the galaxy. The SMBH masses correlate appreciably weaker with the asymptotic velocity at large distances from the center and with the angular velocity at the optical radius R_{25}. We suggest that the growth of the SMBH occurs inside of the forming "classical" bulge during a monolithic collapse of gas in the central kpc-size region of the protogalaxy. We have also found a correlation between the SMBH mass and the total (indicative) mass of the galaxy M_{25} within the optical radius R_{25}, which includes both baryonic and "dark" mass. The masses of the nuclear star clusters in early-type disk galaxies (based on the catalog of Seth et al.) are also scaled with the dynamical mass M_{25}, whereas the correlations with the luminosity and velocity of rotation of galaxies are practically absent for them. For a given M_{25} the masses of the nuclear clusters are, on average, nearly order of magnitude higher in S0-Sbc galaxies than in late-type galaxies.

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MN112: a new Galactic candidate Luminous Blue Variable

We report the discovery of a new Galactic candidate Luminous Blue Variable (cLBV) via detection of an infrared circular nebula and follow-up spectroscopy of its central star. The nebula, MN112, is one of many dozens of circular nebulae detected at $24 μ$m in the {\it Spitzer Space Telescope} archival data, whose morphology is similar to that of nebulae associated with known (c)LBVs and related evolved massive stars. Specifically, the core-halo morphology of MN112 bears a striking resemblance to the circumstellar nebula associated with the Galactic cLBV GAL 079.29+00.46, which suggests that both nebulae might have a similar origin and that the central star of MN112 is a LBV. The spectroscopy of the central star showed that its spectrum is almost identical to that of the bona fide LBV P Cygni, which also supports the LBV classification of the object. To further constrain the nature of MN112, we searched for signatures of possible high-amplitude ($\ga 1$ mag) photometric variability of the central star using archival and newly obtained photometric data covering a 45 year period. We found that the B magnitude of the star was constant ($\simeq$ 17.1$\pm$0.3 mag) over this period, while in the I band the star brightened by $\simeq 0.4$ mag during the last 17 years. Although the non-detection of large photometric variability leads us to use the prefix `candidate' in the classification of MN112, we remind that the long-term photometric stability is not unusual for genuine LBVs and that the brightness of P Cygni remains relatively stable during the last three centuries.

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Discovery of a new Wolf-Rayet star and its ring nebula in Cygnus

We report the serendipitous discovery of a ring nebula around a candidate Wolf-Rayet (WR) star, HBHA 4202-22, in Cygnus using the Spitzer Space Telescope archival data. Our spectroscopic follow-up observations confirmed the WR nature of this star (we named it WR138a) and showed that it belongs to the WN8-9h subtype. We thereby add a new example to the known sample of late WN stars with circumstellar nebulae. We analyzed the spectrum of WR138a by using the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) model atmospheres, obtaining a stellar temperature of 40 kK. The stellar wind composition is dominated by helium with 20 per cent of hydrogen. The stellar spectrum is highly reddened and absorbed (E_{B-V} = 2.4 mag, A_V = 7.4 mag). Adopting a stellar luminosity of log L/Lsun = 5.3, the star has a mass-loss rate of 10^{-4.7} Msun yr^{-1}, and resides in a distance of 4.2 kpc. We measured the proper motion for WR138a and found that it is a runaway star with a peculiar velocity of ~50 km/s. Implications of the runaway nature of WR138a for constraining the mass of its progenitor star and understanding the origin of its ring nebula are discussed.

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The Mass of the Black Hole in the X-ray Binary M33 X-7 and the Evolutionary Status of M33 X-7 and IC 10 X-1

We have analyzed the observed radial-velocity curve for the X-ray binary M33 X-7 in a Roche model. We have analyzed the dependence between the component masses and the degree of filling of the optical star's Roche lobe to obtain the ratio of the masses of the optical star and compact object. For the most probable mass of the optical star, $m_v=70M_{\odot}$, the mass of the compact object is $m_x=15.55\pm3.20 M_{\odot}$. It has been shown that black holes with masses of $m_x=15M_{\odot}$ and even higher can form in binaries. We present characteristic evolutionary tracks for binary systems passing through an evolutionary stage with properties similar to M33 X-7 - type objects. According to population-synthesis analyses, such binaries should be present in galaxies with masses of at least $10^{11}M_{\odot}$. The present number of such systems in M33 should be of the order of unity. We have also studied the evolutionary status of the X-ray binary IC 10 X-1 with a Wolf-Rayet component, which may contain a massive black hole. The final stages of the evolution of the M33 X-7 and IC 10 X-1 systems should be accompanied by the radiation of gravitational waves.

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Analysis of hard X-ray eclipse in SS433 from INTEGRAL observations

The analysis of hard X-ray INTEGRAL observations (2003-2008) of superaccreting galactic microquasar SS433 at precessional phases of the source with the maximum disk opening angle is carried out. It is found that the shape and width of the primary X-ray eclipse is strongly variable suggesting additional absorption in dense stellar wind and gas outflows from the optical A7I-component and the wind-wind collision region. The independence of the observed hard X-ray spectrum on the accretion disk precessional phase suggests that hard X-ray emission (20-100 keV) is formed in an extended, hot, quasi-isothermal corona, probably heated by interaction of relativistic jet with inhomogeneous wind outflow from the precessing supercritical accretion disk. A joint modeling of X-ray eclipsing and precessional hard X-ray variability of SS433 revealed by INTEGRAL by a geometrical model suggests the binary mass ratio $q=m_x/m_v\simeq 0.25÷0.5$. The absolute minimum of joint orbital and precessional $χ^2$ residuals is reached at $q\simeq 0.3$. The found binary mass ratio range allows us to explain the substantial precessional variability of the minimum brightness at the middle of the primary optical eclipse. For the mass function of the optical star $f_v=0.268 M_\odot$ as derived from Hillwig & Gies data, the obtained value of $q\simeq 0.3$ yields the masses of the components $m_x\simeq 5.3 M_\odot$, $m_v\simeq 17.7 M_\odot$, confirming the black hole nature of the compact object in SS433.

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Monte-Carlo simulations of the broadband X-ray continuum of SS433

We develop a Monte-Carlo technique based on L.B. Lucy's indivisible photon packets method to calculate X-ray continuum spectra of comptonized thermal plasma in arbitrary geometry and apply it to describe the broadband X-ray continuum of the galactic superaccreting microquasar SS433 observed by INTEGRAL. A physical model of the X-ray emitting region is proposed that includes thermal emission from the accretion disk, jets and hot corona where the photons of different origin are comptonized. From comparison with INTEGRAL observations, we estimate physical parameters of the complex X-ray emitting region in SS433 and present model spectra for different viewing angles of the object.

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Search for exotic matter from gravitational microlensing observations of stars

We consider small-scale spheroidal clusters of weakly interacting massive particles in our Galaxy as non-compact gravitational microlenses and predict the appearance of caustics in the plane of a lensed source. The crossing of these caustics by a lensed star can produce a large variety of light curves, including some observed in actual microlensing events that have been interpreted as manifestations of binary gravitational lenses. We consider also observable effects during the gravitational microlensing of stars of non-zero angular size with a given brightness distribution across their disks by such an exotic objects as natural wormholes and objects whose space-time environment is described with the NUT metric. We demonstrate that, under certain conditions, the microlensing light curves, chromatic and polarizational effects due to the properties of the lens and the star disk brightness distributions can differ considerably from those observed for a Schwarzschild gravitational lens, so that their analysis can facilitate the identification of such objects.

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Eclipsing Binary System WN3(h)+O5V BAT99-129: Analysis of the MACHO Light Curve and the Parameters of the Components

BAT99-129 is a massive eclipsing binary system in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) which consists of WN3(h) and O5V components. A broad-band MACHO light curve of the system is studied in the present paper. A dense and extended atmosphere of the Wolf-Rayet (WR) star does not allow one to analyze the light curve in terms of standard parametric models of Wilson-Devinney type. Distributions of brightness and absorption across the WR star disk are restored using direct solution of integral equations describing eclipses in the system. As a result, reliable estimates of the orbital inclination and component parameters have been obtained. The orbital inclination is 78 deg, the orbital separation is 28.5 solar radii, the radius of the O component is 7.1 solar radii. The size of the WR component core opaque in optical continuum is 3.4 solar radii. The brightness temperature in the center of the WR disk is about 45000K. Probable errors of the parameters are discussed. Evolutionary status of the system is discussed.

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INTEGRAL Observations of SS433: Analysis of Precessional and Orbital X-ray Periodicities

Hard X-ray INT observations of SS 433 carried out during 2003-2005 years with an analysis of precessional and orbital variability is presented. The width of X-ray eclipse in the 25-50 keV range at the precessional phase $ψ=0.1$ (accretion disk is open to observer) is higher than that in the Ginga 18.4-27.6 keV range. This fact suggests existance the presence of hot extended corona around the supercritical accretion disk. Spectrum of hard X-rays in the range 10-200 keV does not change with the precessional phase which also suggests that hard X-ray flux is generated in the hot extended corona around the accretion disk. The parameters of this hot corona are: kT=23-25 keV, τ= 1.8-2.8. Mass ratio estimated from the analysis of the ingress part of the eclipse light curve is in the range q=m_x/m_v=0.3-0.5.

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