arXiv subjects

Bertrand Goldman

Publications and source records attributed to Bertrand Goldman.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

The extended Gaia-PS1-SDSS (GPS1+) proper motion catalog

The GPS1 catalog was released in 2017. It delivered precise proper motions for around 350 million sources across three-fourths of the sky down to a magnitude of $r\sim20$\,mag. In this study, we present GPS1+ the extension GPS1 catalog down to $r\sim22.5$\,mag, based on {\it Gaia} DR2, PS1, SDSS and 2MASS astrometry. The GPS1+ totally provides proper motions for $\sim$400 million sources with a characteristic systematic error of less than 0.1\masyr. This catalog is divided into two sub-samples, i.e., the primary and secondary parts. The primary $\sim$264 million sources have either or both of the {\it Gaia} and SDSS astrometry, with a typical precision of 2.0-5.0 \masyr. In this part, $\sim$160 million sources have {\it Gaia} proper motions, we provide another new proper motion for each of them by building a Bayesian model. Relative to {\it Gaia}'s values, the precision is improved by $\sim$0.1\,dex on average at the faint end; $\sim$50 million sources are the objects whose proper motions are missing in {\it Gaia} DR2, we provide their proper motion with a precision of $\sim$4.5\masyr; the remaining $\sim$54 million faint sources are beyond {\it Gaia} detecting capability, we provide their proper motions for the first time with a precision of 7.0 \masyr. However, the secondary $\sim$136 million sources only have PS1 astrometry, the average precision is worse than 15.0 \masyr. All the proper motions have been validated using QSOs and the existing {\it Gaia} proper motions. The catalog will be released on-line and available via the VO-TAP Service, or via the National Astronomical Data Center serviced by China-VO: https://nadc.china-vo.org/data/data/gps1p/f.

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arXiv2019

Discovery of Tidal Tails in Disrupting Open Clusters: Coma Berenices and a Neighbor Stellar Group

We report the discovery of tidal structures around the intermediate-aged ($\sim$ 700--800~Myr), nearby ($\sim85$~pc) star cluster Coma Berenices. The spatial and kinematic grouping of stars is determined with the {\it Gaia} DR2 parallax and proper motion data, by a clustering analysis tool, \textsc{StarGO}, to map 5D parameters ($X, Y, Z$, $μ_α\cosδ, μ_δ$) onto a 2D neural network. A leading and a trailing tails, each with an extension of $\sim50$~pc are revealed for the first time around this disrupting star cluster. The cluster members, totaling to $\sim115^{+5}_{-3}\,\rm {M_\odot}$, are clearly mass segregated, and exhibit a flat mass function with $α\sim 0.79\pm0.16$, in the sense of $dN/dm \propto m^{-α}$, where $N$ is the number of member stars and $m$ is stellar mass, in the mass range of $m=0.25$--$2.51~{\rm M_\odot}$. Within the tidal radius of $\sim$6.9~pc, there are 77 member candidates with an average position, i.e., as the cluster center, of R.A.= 186.8110~deg, and decl.= 25.8112~deg, and an average distance of 85.8~pc. Additional 120 member candidates reside in the tidal structures, i.e., outnumbering those in the cluster core. The expansion of escaping members lead to an anisotropy in the velocity field of the tidal tails. Our analysis also serendipitously uncovers an adjacent stellar group, part of which has been cataloged in the literature. We identify 218 member candidates, 10 times more than previously known. This star group is some 65~pc away from, and $\sim400$~Myr younger than, Coma Ber, but is already at the final stage of disruption.

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arXiv2018

The Hyades tidal tails revealed by Gaia DR2

Within a 200 pc sphere around the Sun we search for the Hyades tidal tails in the Gaia DR2 dataset. We use a modified convergent point method to search for stars with space velocities close to the space velocity of the Hyades cluster. We find a clear indication for the existence of the Hyades tidal tails, a preceding tail extending up to 170 pc from the centre of the Hyades with 292 stars (36 contaminants), and a following tail up to 70 pc with 237 stars (32 contaminants). A comparison with an N-body model of the cluster and its tails shows remarkably good coincidence. Five white dwarfs are found in the tails.

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arXiv2018

A large moving group within the Lower Centaurus Crux association

Scorpius-Centaurus is the nearest OB association and its hundreds of members were divided into sub-groups, including Lower Centaurus Crux. Here we study the dynamics of the Lower Centaurus Crux area stellar content. We report the revelation of a large moving group containing more than 1800 intermediate- and low-mass young stellar objects and brown dwarfs, that escaped identification until Gaia DR2 allowed to perform a kinematic and photometric selection. We investigate the stellar and substellar content of this moving group using the Gaia DR2 astrometric and photometric measurements. The median distance of the members is 114.5 pc and 80% lie between 102 and 135pc from the Sun. Our new members cover a mass range of 5M$_\odot$ to 0.02M$_\odot$, and add up to a total mass of about 700M$_\odot$. The present-day mass function follows a log-normal law with m$_c$ = 0.22 M$_\odot$ and $σ$ = 0.64. We find more than 200 brown dwarfs in our sample. The star formation rate had its maximum of $8\times10^{-5}\rm M_\odot yr^{-1}$ at about 9Myr ago, We grouped the new members in four denser subgroups, which s have increasing age from 7 to 10Myr, surrounded by "free-floating" young stars with mixed ages. Our isochronal ages, now based on accurate parallaxes, are compatible with several earlier studies of the region. The whole complex is presently expanding, and the expansion started between 8 to 10Myr ago. Two hundred members show infrared excess compatible with circumstellar disks from full to debris disks. This discovery provides a large sample of nearby young stellar and sub-stellar objects for disk and exoplanet studies.

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arXiv2018

The White Dwarf Luminosity Functions from the Pan-STARRS 1 3π Steradian Survey

A large sample of white dwarfs is selected by both proper motion and colours from the Pan-STARRS 1 3π Steradian Survey Processing Version 2 to construct the White Dwarf Luminosity Functions of the discs and halo in the solar neighbourhood. Four-parameter astrometric solutions were recomputed from the epoch data. The generalised maximum volume method is then used to calculate the density of the populations. After removal of crowded areas near the Galactic plane and centre, the final sky area used by this work is 7.833 sr, which is 83% of the 3π sky and 62% of the whole sky. By dividing the sky using Voronoi tessellation, photometric and astrometric uncertainties are recomputed at each step of the integration to improve the accuracy of the maximum volume. Interstellar reddening is considered throughout the work. We find a disc-to-halo white dwarf ratio of about 100.

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arXiv2018

Characterization of Stellar and Substellar Members in the Coma Berenices Star Cluster

We have identified stellar and substellar members in the nearby star cluster Coma Berenices, using photometry, proper motions, and distances of a combination of 2MASS, UKIDSS, URAT1, and {\it Gaia}/DR2 data. Those with {\it Gaia}/DR2 parallax measurements provide the most reliable sample to constrain the distance, averaging 86.7~pc with a dispersion 7.1~pc, and the age $\sim800$~Myr, of the cluster. This age is older than the 400--600~Myr commonly adopted in the literature. Our analysis, complete within 5deg of the cluster radius, leads to identification of 192 candidates, among which, after field contamination is considered, about 148 are true members. The members have $J\sim3$~mag to $\sim17.5$~mag, corresponding to stellar masses 2.3--0.06~$M_\odot$. The mass function of the cluster peaks around 0.3~$M_\odot$ and, in the sense of $dN/dm = m^{-α}$, where $N$ is the number of members and $m$ is stellar mass, has a slope $α\approx 0.49\pm0.03$ in the mass range 0.3--2.3~$M_\odot$. This is much shallower than that of the field population in the solar neighborhood. The slope $α=-1.69\pm0.14$ from 0.3~$M_\odot$ to 0.06~$M_\odot$, the lowest mass in our sample. The cluster is mass segregated and has a shape elongated toward the Galactic plane. Our list contains nine substellar members, including three new discoveries of an M8, an L1 and an L4 brown dwarfs, extending from the previously known coolest members of late-M types to even cooler types.

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arXiv2018

STREAMFINDER II: A possible fanning structure parallel to the GD-1 stream in Pan-STARRS1

STREAMFINDER is a new algorithm that we have built to detect stellar streams in an automated and systematic way in astrophysical datasets that possess any combination of positional and kinematic information. In Paper I, we introduced the methodology and the workings of our algorithm and showed that it is capable of detecting ultra-faint and distant halo stream structures containing as few as $\sim 15$ members ($Σ_{\rm G} \sim 33.6\, {\rm mag \, arcsec^{-2}}$) in the Gaia dataset. Here, we test the method with real proper motion data from the Pan-STARRS1 survey, and by selecting targets down to $r_{0}=18.5$ mag we show that it is able to detect the GD-1 stellar stream, whereas the structure remains below a useful detection limit when using a Matched Filter technique. The radial velocity solutions provided by STREAMFINDER for GD-1 candidate members are found to be in good agreement with observations. Furthermore, our algorithm detects a $\sim 40^°$ long structure approximately parallel to GD-1, and which fans out from it, possibly a sign of stream-fanning due to the triaxiality of the Galactic potential. This analysis shows the promise of this method for detecting and analysing stellar streams in the upcoming Gaia DR2 catalogue.

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arXiv2017

A new compact young moving group around V1062 Sco

Aims. We are searching for new open clusters or moving groups in the Solar neighbourhood. Methods. We used the Gaia-TGAS catalogue, cut it into narrow proper motion and parallax slices and searched for significant spatial over-densities of stars in each slice. We then examined stars forming over-densities in optical and near-infrared colour-magnitude diagrams to determine if they are compatible with isochrones of a cluster. Results. We detected a hitherto unknown moving group or cluster in the Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL) section of the Sco-Cen OB-association at a distance of 175 pc from the Sun. It is a group of 63 co-moving stars with ages of less than 10 to about 25 Myr. For the brightest stars, which are present in the Gaia-TGAS catalogue the mean difference between kinematic and trigonometric distance moduli is about 0:01 mag with a standard deviation of 0.11 mag. Fainter cluster candidates are found in the HSOY catalog, where no trigonometric parallaxes are available. For a subset of our candidate stars, we obtained radial velocity measurements at the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope in La Silla. Altogether we found twelve members with confirmed radial velocities and parallaxes, 31 with parallaxes or radial velocities, and 20 candidates from the convergent point method. The isochrone masses of our 63 members range from 2.6 M_Sun to 0.7 M_Sun.

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arXiv2017

A Gaia-PS1-SDSS (GPS1) Proper Motion Catalog Covering 3/4 of the Sky

We combine Gaia DR1, PS1, SDSS and 2MASS astrometry to measure proper motions for 350 million sources across three-fourths of the sky down to a magnitude of $m_r\sim20$\,. Using positions of galaxies from PS1, we build a common reference frame for the multi-epoch PS1, single-epoch SDSS and 2MASS data, and calibrate the data in small angular patches to this frame. As the Gaia DR1 excludes resolved galaxy images, we choose a different approach to calibrate its positions to this reference frame: we exploit the fact that the proper motions of stars in these patches are {\it linear}. By simultaneously fitting the positions of stars at different epochs of -- Gaia DR1, PS1, SDSS, and 2MASS -- we construct an extensive catalog of proper motions dubbed GPS1. GPS1 has a characteristic systematic error of less than 0.3 \masyr\, and a typical precision of $ 1.5-2.0$\masyr. The proper motions have been validated using galaxies, open clusters, distant giant stars and QSOs. In comparison with other published faint proper motion catalogs, GPS1's systematic error ($<0.3$ \masyr) should be nearly an order of magnitude better than that of PPMXL and UCAC4 ($>2.0$ \masyr). Similarly, its precision ($\sim 1.5$ \masyr) is a four-fold improvement relative to PPMXL and UCAC4 ($\sim 6.0$ \masyr). For QSOs, the precision of GPS1 is found to be worse ($\sim 2.0-3.0$\masyr), possibly due to their particular differential chromatic refraction (DCR). The GPS1 catalog will be released on-line and available via the VizieR Service and VO Service. (===GPS1 is available with VO TAP Query now, see http://www2.mpia-hd.mpg.de/~tian/GPS1/ for details=== )

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arXiv2016

A Synoptic Map of Halo Substructures from the Pan-STARRS1 3π Survey

We present a panoramic map of the entire Milky Way halo north of dec~-30 degrees (~30,000 deg^2), constructed by applying the matched-filter technique to the Pan-STARRS1 3Pi Survey dataset. Using single-epoch photometry reaching to g~22, we are sensitive to stellar substructures with heliocentric distances between 3.5 and ~35 kpc. We recover almost all previously-reported streams in this volume and demonstrate that several of these are significantly more extended than earlier datasets have indicated. In addition, we also report five new candidate stellar streams. One of these features appears significantly broader and more luminous than the others and is likely the remnant of a dwarf galaxy. The other four streams are consistent with a globular cluster origin, and three of these are rather short in projection (<10 degrees), suggesting that streams like Ophiuchus may not be that rare. Finally, a significant number of more marginal substructures are also revealed by our analysis; many of these features can also be discerned in matched-filter maps produced by other authors from SDSS data, and hence they are very likely to be genuine. However, the extant 3Pi data is currently too shallow to determine their properties or produce convincing CMDs. The global view of the Milky Way provided by Pan-STARRS1 provides further evidence for the important role of both globular cluster disruption and dwarf galaxy accretion in building the Milky Way's stellar halo.

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arXiv2016

Nine new open clusters within 500 pc from the Sun

One of the results of the Milky Way Star Clusters (MWSC) survey by Kharchenko et al. (2013) was the detection of a slight under-density of old (ca. 1 Gyr) clusters within the nearest kilo-parsec from the Sun. This under-density may be due to an ineffectiveness in the detection of larger structures with lower surface brightness. We report on our attempts to reveal such clusters. We derived proper motions from a combination of Tycho-2 with URAT1, and obtained a mean precision of about 1.4 mas/y per co-ordinate for 1.3 million stars north of -20 degree declination. We cut the sky into narrow proper motion slices and searched for spatial over-densities of stars in each slice. In optical and near-infrared colour-magnitude diagrams stars from over-densities were than examined to determine if they are compatible with isochrones of a cluster. We estimated the field star contamination using our data and the Besancon Galactic model.We detected 9 hitherto unknown open clusters in the vicinity of the Sun with ages between 70 Myr and 1 Gyr, and distances between 200 and 500 pc.

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arXiv2014

Weather on Other Worlds. II. Survey Results: Spots Are Ubiquitous on L and T Dwarfs

We present results from the "Weather on Other Worlds" Spitzer Exploration Science program to investigate photometric variability in L and T dwarfs, usually attributed to patchy clouds. We surveyed 44 L3-T8 dwarfs, spanning a range of $J-K_s$ colors and surface gravities. We find that 14/23 (61%; 95% confidence interval: 41%-78%) of our single L3-L9.5 dwarfs are variable with peak-to-peak amplitudes between 0.2% and 1.5%, and 5/16 (31%; 95% confidence interval: 14%-56%) of our single T0-T8 dwarfs are variable with amplitudes between 0.8% and 4.6%. After correcting for sensitivity, we find that 80% (95% confidence interval: 53%-100%) of L dwarfs vary by >0.2%, and 36% (95% confidence interval: 19%-52%) of T dwarfs vary by >0.4%. Given viewing geometry considerations, we conclude that photospheric heterogeneities causing >0.2% 3-5-micron flux variations are present on virtually all L dwarfs, and probably on most T dwarfs. A third of L dwarf variables show irregular light curves, indicating that L dwarfs may have multiple spots that evolve over a single rotation. Also, approximately a third of the periodicities are on time scales >10 h, suggesting that slowly-rotating brown dwarfs may be common. We observe an increase in the maximum amplitudes over the entire spectral type range, revealing a potential for greater temperature contrasts in T dwarfs than in L dwarfs. We find a tentative association (92% confidence) between low surface gravity and high-amplitude variability among L3-L5.5 dwarfs. Although we can not confirm whether lower gravity is also correlated with a higher incidence of variables, the result is promising for the characterization of directly imaged young extrasolar planets through variability.

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arXiv2014

VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV): Halfway Status and Results

The VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey is one of six public ESO surveys, and is now in its 4th year of observing. Although far from being complete, the VVV survey has already delivered many results, some directly connected to the intended science goals (detection of variables stars, microlensing events, new star clusters), others concerning more exotic objects, e.g. novae. Now, at the end of the fourth observing period, and comprising roughly 50% of the proposed observations, the actual status of the survey, as well some of the results based on the VVV data, are presented.

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arXiv2013

Weather on the Nearest Brown Dwarfs: Resolved Simultaneous Multi-Wavelength Variability Monitoring of WISE J104915.57-531906.1AB

We present two epochs of MPG/ESO 2.2m GROND simultaneous 6-band ($r'i'z'JHK$) photometric monitoring of the closest known L/T transition brown dwarf binary WISE J104915.57-531906.1AB. We report here the first resolved variability monitoring of both the T0.5 and L7.5 components. We obtained 4 hours of focused observations on the night of UT 2013-04-22, as well as 4 hours of defocused (unresolved) observations on the night of UT 2013-04-16. We note a number of robust trends in our light curves. The $r'$ and $i'$ light curves appear to be anticorrelated with $z'$ and $H$ for the T0.5 component and in the unresolved lightcurve. In the defocused dataset, $J$ appears correlated with $z'$ and $H$ and anticorrelated with $r'$ and $i'$, while in the focused dataset we measure no variability for $J$ at the level of our photometric precision, likely due to evolving weather phenomena. In our focused T0.5 component lightcurve, the $K$ band lightcurve displays a significant phase offset relative to both $H$ and $z'$. We argue that the measured phase offsets are correlated with atmospheric pressure probed at each band, as estimated from 1D atmospheric models. We also report low-amplitude variability in $i'$ and $z'$ intrinsic to the L7.5 component.

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arXiv2012

HIP 38939B: A New Benchmark T Dwarf in the Galactic Plane Discovered with Pan-STARRS1

We report the discovery of a wide brown dwarf companion to the mildly metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-0.24), low galactic latitude (b = 1.88 deg) K4V star HIP 38939. The companion was discovered by its common proper motion with the primary and its red optical (Pan-STARRS1) and blue infrared (2MASS) colors. It has a projected separation of 1630 AU and a near-infrared spectral type of T4.5. As such it is one of only three known companions to a main sequence star which have early/mid-T spectral types (the others being HN Peg B and eps Indi B). Using chromospheric activity we estimate an age for the primary of 900{+1900,-600} Myr. This value is also in agreement with the age derived from the star's weak ROSAT detection. Comparison with evolutionary models for this age range indicates that HIP 38939B falls in the mass range 38+/-20 Mjup with an effective temperature range of 1090+/-60 K. Fitting our spectrum with atmospheric models gives a best fitting temperature of 1100 K. We include our object in an analysis of the population of benchmark T dwarfs and find that while older atmospheric models appeared to over-predict the temperature of the coolest objects compared to evolutionary models, more recent atmospheric models provide better agreement.

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arXiv2012

A catalogue of rotation and activity in early-M stars

We present a catalogue of rotation and chromospheric activity in a sample of 334 M dwarfs of spectral types M0--M4.5 populating the parameter space around the boundary to full convection. We obtained high-resolution optical spectra for 206 targets and determined projected rotational velocity, vsini, and Halpha emission. The data are combined with measurements of vsini in field stars of the same spectral type from the literature. Our sample adds 157 new rotation measurements to the existing literature and almost doubles the sample of available vsini. The final sample provides a statistically meaningful picture of rotation and activity at the transition to full convection in the solar neighborhood. We confirm the steep rise in the fraction of active stars at the transition to full convection known from earlier work. In addition, we see a clear rise in rotational velocity in the same stars. In very few stars, no chromospheric activity but a detection of rotational broadening was reported. We argue that all of them are probably spurious detections; we conclude that in our sample all significantly rotating stars are active, and all active stars are significantly rotating. The rotation-activity relation is valid in partially and in fully convective stars. Thus, we do not observe any evidence for a transition from a rotationally dominated dynamo in partially convective stars to a rotation-independent turbulent dynamo in fully convective stars; turbulent dynamos in fully convective stars of spectral types around M4 are still driven by rotation. Finally, we compare projected rotational velocities of 33 stars to rotational periods derived from photometry in the literature and determine inclinations for a few of them.

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arXiv2011

A Search for High Proper Motion T Dwarfs with Pan-STARRS1 + 2MASS + WISE

We have searched ~8200 sq. degs for high proper motion (~0.5-2.7"/year) T dwarfs by combining first-epoch data from the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) 3-Pi Survey, the 2MASS All-Sky Point Source Catalog, and the WISE Preliminary Data Release. We identified two high proper motion objects with the very red (W1-W2) colors characteristic of T dwarfs, one being the known T7.5 dwarf GJ 570D. Near-IR spectroscopy of the other object (PSO J043.5+02 = WISEP J0254+0223) reveals a spectral type of T8, leading to a photometric distance of 7.2+/-0.7 pc. The 2.56"/yr proper motion of PSO J043.5+02 is the second highest among field T dwarfs, corresponding to an tangential velocity of 87+/-8 km/s. According to the Besancon galaxy model, this velocity indicates its galactic membership is probably in the thin disk, with the thick disk an unlikely possibility. Such membership is in accord with the near-IR spectrum, which points to a surface gravity (age) and metallicity typical of the field population. We combine 2MASS, SDSS, WISE, and PS1 astrometry to derive a preliminary parallax of 171+/-45 mas (5.8{+2.0}{-1.2} pc), the first such measurement using PS1 data. The proximity and brightness of PSO J043+02 will facilitate future characterization of its atmosphere, variability, multiplicity, distance, and kinematics. The modest number of candidates from our search suggests that the immediate (~10 pc) solar neighborhood does not contain a large reservoir of undiscovered T dwarfs earlier than about T8.

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arXiv2011

Four new T dwarfs identified in PanSTARRS 1 commissioning data

A complete well-defined sample of ultracool dwarfs is one of the key science programs of the Pan-STARRS 1 optical survey telescope (PS1). Here we combine PS1 commissioning data with 2MASS to conduct a proper motion search (0.1--2.0\arcsec/yr) for nearby T dwarfs, using optical+near-IR colors to select objects for spectroscopic followup. The addition of sensitive far-red optical imaging from PS1 enables discovery of nearby ultracool dwarfs that cannot be identified from 2MASS data alone. We have searched 3700 sq. deg. of PS1 y-band (0.95--1.03 um) data to y$\approx$19.5 mag (AB) and J$\approx$16.5 mag (Vega) and discovered four previously unknown bright T dwarfs. Three of the objects (with spectral types T1.5, T2 and T3.5) have photometric distances within 25 pc and were missed by previous 2MASS searches due to more restrictive color selection criteria. The fourth object (spectral type T4.5) is more distant than 25 pc and is only a single-band detection in 2MASS. We also examine the potential for completing the census of nearby ultracool objects with the PS1 3$π$ survey.

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