Anusha Ravikumar | Searcharxiv

arXiv2025

The Preliminary Mauve Science Programme: Science themes identified for the first year of operations

Mauve is a low-cost small satellite developed and operated by Blue Skies Space Ltd. The payload features a 13 cm telescope connected with a fibre that feeds into a UV-Vis spectrometer. The detector covers the 200-700 nm range in a single shot, obtaining low resolution spectra at R~20-65. Mauve has launched on 28th November 2025, reaching a 510 km Low-Earth Sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite will enable UV and visible observations of a variety of stellar objects in our Galaxy, filling the gaps in the ultraviolet space-based data. The researchers that have already joined the mission have defined the science themes, observational strategy and targets that Mauve will observe in the first year of operations. To date 10 science themes have been developed by the Mauve science collaboration for year 1, with observational strategies that include both long duration monitoring and short cadence snapshots. Here, we describe these themes and the science that Mauve will undertake in its first year of operations.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

Exploring the binary origin of B and Be rapid rotators

Observational evidence has continued to mount that a significant fraction of rapidly rotating early-B type stars are products of binary mass transfer. However, very few mid- and late-type B stars with rapid rotation have been demonstrated to be post-interaction products, despite a growing sample of SB1 binaries among stars within this range of spectral types. By considering the currently available information over the entire range of rapidly rotating B-type binaries, we argue that a significant fraction of the mid- and late-type rapid rotators found in binaries are also likely the result of past mass transfer episodes. The observed properties of this sample are compared to the predictions from the Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis code (BPASS), with attention given to the expected evolutionary pathways of stripped stars and the stellar and binary properties of both components of post-interaction systems across a range of initial conditions. Prospects for directly detecting and characterizing the stripped cores of the previous mass donors in such systems are described, and the implications for the role of binary interaction in causing rapid rotation are discussed. An accurate description of prevalence of binary interaction, the physics of mass transfer, and the post-interaction configuration of systems over a range of initial conditions has far-reaching implications including double-degenerate binaries and their eventual mergers, the output of ionizing UV flux of stellar populations, and the supernova explosions that can arise from stripped or rapidly-rotating progenitors.

astro-ph.SR↗