arXiv subjects

César Briceño

Publications and source records attributed to César Briceño.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

TOI 564 b and TOI 905 b: Grazing and Fully Transiting Hot Jupiters Discovered by TESS

We report the discovery and confirmation of two new hot Jupiters discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS): TOI 564 b and TOI 905 b. The transits of these two planets were initially observed by TESS with orbital periods of 1.651 d and 3.739 d, respectively. We conducted follow-up observations of each system from the ground, including photometry in multiple filters, speckle interferometry, and radial velocity measurements. For TOI 564 b, our global fitting revealed a classical hot Jupiter with a mass of $1.463^{+0.10}_{-0.096}\ M_J$ and a radius of $1.02^{+0.71}_{-0.29}\ R_J$. TOI 905 b is a classical hot Jupiter as well, with a mass of $0.667^{+0.042}_{-0.041}\ M_J$ and radius of $1.171^{+0.053}_{-0.051}\ R_J$. Both planets orbit Sun-like, moderately bright, mid-G dwarf stars with V ~ 11. While TOI 905 b fully transits its star, we found that TOI 564 b has a very high transit impact parameter of $0.994^{+0.083}_{-0.049}$, making it one of only ~20 known systems to exhibit a grazing transit and one of the brightest host stars among them. TOI 564 b is therefore one of the most attractive systems to search for additional non-transiting, smaller planets by exploiting the sensitivity of grazing transits to small changes in inclination and transit duration over the time scale of several years.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2019

TOI-222: a single-transit TESS candidate revealed to be a 34-day eclipsing binary with CORALIE, EulerCam and NGTS

We report the period, eccentricity, and mass determination for the TESS single-transit event candidate TOI-222, which displayed a single 3000 ppm transit in the TESS two-minute cadence data from Sector 2. We determine the orbital period via radial velocity measurements (P=33.9,days), which allowed for ground-based photometric detection of two subsequent transits. Our data show that the companion to TOI-222 is a low mass star, with a radius of $0.18_{-0.10}^{+0.39}$ Rsun and a mass of $0.23\pm0.01$ Msun. This discovery showcases the ability to efficiently discover long-period systems from TESS single transit events using a combination of radial velocity monitoring coupled with high precision ground-based photometry.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2019

TOI-132 b: A short-period planet in the Neptune desert transiting a $V=11.3$ G-type star

The Neptune desert is a feature seen in the radius-mass-period plane, whereby a notable dearth of short period, Neptune-like planets is found. Here we report the {\it TESS} discovery of a new short-period planet in the Neptune desert, orbiting the G-type dwarf TYC\,8003-1117-1 (TOI-132). {\it TESS} photometry shows transit-like dips at the level of $\sim$1400 ppm occurring every $\sim$2.11 days. High-precision radial velocity follow-up with HARPS confirmed the planetary nature of the transit signal and provided a semi-amplitude radial velocity variation of $\sim$11.5 m s$^{-1}$, which, when combined with the stellar mass of $0.97\pm0.06$ $M_{\odot}$, provides a planetary mass of 22.83$^{+1.81}_{-1.80}$ $M_{\oplus}$. Modeling the {\it TESS} high-quality light curve returns a planet radius of 3.43$^{+0.13}_{-0.14}$ $R_{\oplus}$, and therefore the planet bulk density is found to be 3.11$^{+0.44}_{-0.450}$ g cm$^{-3}$. Planet structure models suggest that the bulk of the planet mass is in the form of a rocky core, with an atmospheric mass fraction of 4.3$^{+1.2}_{-2.3}$\%. TOI-132 b is a {\it TESS} Level 1 Science Requirement candidate, and therefore priority follow-up will allow the search for additional planets in the system, whilst helping to constrain low-mass planet formation and evolution models, particularly valuable for better understanding the Neptune desert.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2019

System IMF of the 25 Ori Group from Planetary-Mass Objects to Intermediate/High-Mass Stars

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is an essential input for many astrophysical studies but only in a few cases it has been determined over the whole cluster mass range, limiting the conclusions about its nature. The 25 Orionis group (25 Ori) is an excellent laboratory to investigate the IMF across the entire mass range of the population, from planetary-mass objects to intermediate/high-mass stars. We combine new deep optical photometry with optical and near-infrared data from the literature to select 1687 member candidates covering a 1.1$^\circ$ radius area in 25 Ori. With this sample we derived the 25 Ori system IMF from 0.012 to 13.1 $M_\odot$. This system IMF is well described by a two-segment power-law with $Γ=-0.74\pm0.04$ for $m<0.4\ M_\odot$ and $Γ=1.50\pm0.11$ for $m\ge0.4\ M_\odot$. It is also well described over the whole mass range by a tapered power-law function with $Γ=1.10\pm0.09$, $m_p=0.31\pm0.03$ and $β=2.11\pm0.09$. The best lognormal representation of the system IMF has $m_c=0.31\pm0.04$ and $σ=0.46\pm0.05$ for $m<1\ M_\odot$. This system IMF does not present significant variations with the radii. We compared the resultant system IMF as well as the BD/star ratio of $0.16\pm0.03$ we estimated for 25 Ori with that of other stellar regions with diverse conditions and found no significant discrepancies. These results support the idea that general star formation mechanisms are probably not strongly dependent to environmental conditions. We found that the substellar and stellar objects in 25 Ori have similar spatial distributions and confirmed that 25 Ori is a gravitationally unbound stellar association.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

QUEST Eclipsing Binaries and ELLISA: Eclipsing binary search in the QUEST low latitude catalogue and the ELLISA light curve simulator

The realistic simulation of variable star populations is fundamental to determine the selection function and contamination in existing and upcoming multi-epoch surveys. We present \ellisa, a simulator that produces an ensemble of mock light curves for a population of eclipsing binaries obtained from physical and orbital parameters consistent with different galactic populations, and which considers user-supplied time sampling and photometric errors to represent any given survey. We carried out a search for eclipsing binaries in the QUEST low-galactic latitude catalogue of variable stars, spanning an area of 476 sq. deg at $-25^\circ \la b \la 30^\circ$ and $190^ \circ \leqslant l \leqslant 230^ \circ$ towards the galactic anti-centre, and use \ellisa~to characterise the completeness of the resulting catalogue in terms of amplitudes and periods of variation as well as eclipsing binary type. The resulting catalogue consists of $1,125$ eclipsing binaries, out of which $179$, $60$ and $886$ are EA, EB and EW types respectively. We estimate, on average, $30\%$ completeness in the period range $0.25 \la P/d \la 1$ for EB+EW binaries and $15\%$ completeness for EA binaries with periods $2 \la P/d \la 10$, being the time sampling the primary factor determining the completeness of each type of eclipsing binary. This is one of few eclipsing binary catalogues reported with an estimate of the selection function. Mock eclipsing binary light curve libraries produced with \ellisa~can be used to estimate the selection function and optimise eclipsing binary searches in upcoming multi-epoch surveys such as Gaia, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, the Zwicky Transient Factory or the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Herschel PACS observations of 4-10 Myr old Classical T Tauri stars in Orion OB1

We present \emph{Herschel} PACS observations of 8 Classical T Tauri Stars in the $\sim 7-10$ Myr old OB1a and the $\sim 4-5$ Myr old OB1b Orion sub-asscociations. Detailed modeling of the broadband spectral energy distributions, particularly the strong silicate emission at 10 $μ$m, shows that these objects are (pre)transitional disks with some amount of small optically thin dust inside their cavities, ranging from $\sim 4$ AU to $\sim 90$ AU in size. We analyzed \emph{Spitzer} IRS spectra for two objects in the sample: CVSO-107 and CVSO-109. The IRS spectrum of CVSO-107 indicates the presence of crystalline material inside its gap while the silicate feature of CVSO-109 is characterized by a pristine profile produced by amorphous silicates; the mechanisms creating the optically thin dust seem to depend on disk local conditions. Using millimeter photometry we estimated dust disk masses for CVSO-107 and CVSO-109 lower than the minimum mass of solids needed to form the planets in our Solar System, which suggests that giant planet formation should be over in these disks. We speculate that the presence and maintenance of optically thick material in the inner regions of these pre-transitional disks might point to low-mass planet formation.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

New Low-Mass Stars in the 25 Orionis Stellar Group and Orion OB1a Sub-association from SDSS-III/BOSS Spectroscopy

The Orion OB1a sub-association is a rich low mass star (LMS) region. Previous spectroscopic studies have confirmed 160 LMSs in the 25 Orionis stellar group (25 Ori), which is the most prominent overdensity of Orion OB1a. Nonetheless, the current census of the 25 Ori members is estimated to be less than 50% complete, leaving a large number of members to be still confirmed. We retrieved 172 low-resolution stellar spectra in Orion OB1a observed as ancillary science in the SDSS-III/BOSS survey, for which we classified their spectral types and determined physical parameters. To determine memberships, we analyzed the H$_α$ emission, LiI$λ$6708 absorption, and NaI$λλ$8183, 8195 absorption as youth indicators in stars classified as M-type. We report 50 new LMSs spread across the 25 Orionis, ASCC 18, and ASCC 20 stellar groups with spectral types from M0 to M6, corresponding to a mass range of 0.10$\le m/\textrm{M}_\odot \le$0.58. This represents an increase of 50% in the number of known LMSs in the area and a net increase of 20% in the number of 25 Ori members in this mass range. Using parallax values from the Gaia DR1 catalog, we estimated the distances to these three stellar groups and found that they are all co-distant, at 338$\pm$66 pc. We analyzed the spectral energy distributions of these LMSs and classified their disks by evolutionary classes. Using H-R diagrams, we found a suggestion that 25 Ori could be slightly older that the other two observed groups in Orion OB1a.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

A Herschel view of protoplanetary disks in the $σ$ Ori cluster

We present new Herschel PACS observations of 32 T Tauri stars in the young ($\sim$3 Myr) $σ$ Ori cluster. Most of our objects are K & M stars with large excesses at 24 $μ$m. We used irradiated accretion disk models of D'Alessio et al. (2006) to compare their spectral energy distributions with our observational data. We arrive at the following six conclusions. (i) The observed disks are consistent with irradiated accretion disks systems. (ii) Most of our objects (60%) can be explained by significant dust depletion from the upper disk layers. (iii) Similarly, 61% of our objects can be modeled with large disk sizes ($\rm R_{\rm d} \geq$ 100 AU). (iv) The masses of our disks range between 0.03 to 39 $\rm M_{Jup}$, where 35% of our objects have disk masses lower than 1 Jupiter. Although these are lower limits, high mass ($>$ 0.05 M$_{\odot}$) disks, which are present e.g, in Taurus, are missing. (v) By assuming a uniform distribution of objects around the brightest stars at the center of the cluster, we found that 80% of our disks are exposed to external FUV radiation of $300 \leq G_{0} \leq 1000$, which can be strong enough to photoevaporate the outer edges of the closer disks. (vi) Within 0.6 pc from $σ$ Ori we found forbidden emission lines of [NII] in the spectrum of one of our large disk (SO662), but no emission in any of our small ones. This suggests that this object may be an example of a photoevaporating disk.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2015

The number fraction of discs around brown dwarfs in Orion OB1a and the 25 Orionis group

We present a study of 15 new brown dwarfs belonging to the $\sim7$ Myr old 25 Orionis group and Orion OB1a sub-association with spectral types between M6 and M9 and estimated masses between $\sim0.07$M$_\odot$ and $\sim0.01$ M$_\odot$. By comparing them through a Bayesian method with low mass stars ($0.8\lesssim$ M/M$_\odot\lesssim0.1$) from previous works in the 25 Orionis group, we found statistically significant differences in the number fraction of classical T Tauri stars, weak T Tauri stars, class II, evolved discs and purely photospheric emitters at both sides of the sub-stellar mass limit. Particularly we found a fraction of $3.9^{+2.4}_{-1.6}~\%$ low mass stars classified as CTTS and class II or evolved discs, against a fraction of $33.3^{+10.8}_{-9.8}~\%$ in the sub-stellar mass domain. Our results support the suggested scenario in which the dissipation of discs is less efficient for decreasing mass of the central object.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

The low mass star and sub-stellar populations of the 25 Orionis group

We present the results of a survey of the low mass star and brown dwarf population of the 25 Orionis group. Using optical photometry from the CIDA Deep Survey of Orion, near IR photometry from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy and low resolution spectroscopy obtained with Hectospec at the MMT, we selected 1246 photometric candidates to low mass stars and brown dwarfs with estimated masses within $0.02 \lesssim M/M_\odot \lesssim 0.8$ and spectroscopically confirmed a sample of 77 low mass stars as new members of the cluster with a mean age of $\sim$7 Myr. We have obtained a system initial mass function of the group that can be well described by either a Kroupa power-law function with indices $α_3=-1.73\pm0.31$ and $α_2=0.68\pm0.41$ in the mass ranges $0.03\leq M/M_\odot\leq 0.08$ and $0.08\leq M/M_\odot\leq0.5$ respectively, or a Scalo log-normal function with coefficients $m_c=0.21^{+0.02}_{-0.02}$ and $σ=0.36\pm0.03$ in the mass range $0.03\leq M/M_\odot\leq0.8$. From the analysis of the spatial distribution of this numerous candidate sample, we have confirmed the East-West elongation of the 25 Orionis group observed in previous works, and rule out a possible southern extension of the group. We find that the spatial distributions of low mass stars and brown dwarfs in 25 Orionis are statistically indistinguishable. Finally, we found that the fraction of brown dwarfs showing IR excesses is higher than for low mass stars, supporting the scenario in which the evolution of circumstellar discs around the least massive objects could be more prolonged.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2012

The QUEST RR Lyrae Survey: III. The Low Galactic Latitude Catalogue

We present results for the QUEST RR Lyrae Survey at low galactic latitude, conducted entirely with observations obtained with the QUEST mosaic camera and the 1.0/1.5m Jürgen Stock Schmidt telescope at the National Observatory of Venezuela. The survey spans an area of 476 sq. deg on the sky, with multi-epoch observations in the V, R and I photometric bands for 6.5x10^6 stars in the galactic latitude range 30<= b(deg) <=+25, in a direction close to the Galactic Anticenter 190<= l(deg)<= 230. The variability survey has a typical number of 30 observations per object in V and I and ~25 in R, with up to ~120-150 epochs in V and I and up to ~100 in R in the best sampled regions. The completeness magnitudes of the survey are V=R=18.5 mag, and I=18.0 mag. We identified 211 RR Lyrae stars, 160 bona fide stars of type ab and 51 candidates of type c, ours being the first deep RR Lyrae survey conducted at low galactic latitude.The completeness of the RR Lyrae survey was estimated in >95 per cent and ~85 per cent for RRab and RRc stars respectively. Photometric metallicities were computed based on the light curves and individual extinctions calculated from minimum light colours for each RRab star. Distances were obtained with typical errors ~7 per cent. The RR Lyrae survey simultaneously spans a large range of heliocentric distances 0.5<= R_hel(kpc)<=40 and heights above the plane -15<=z(kpc)<=+20, with well known completeness across the survey area, making it an ideal set for studying the struc ture of the Galactic thick disk.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2008

A large-scale optical-near infrared survey for brown dwarfs and very low-mass stars in the Orion OB1 association

We report the initial results of a large-scale optical-near infrared survey to extend the known young population of the entire Orion star-forming region down to the substellar domain. Using deep optical I-band photometry and data from the 2MASS survey, we selected candidates across ~14.8 deg^2 in the ~8 Myr old Ori OB1a subassociation and over ~6.7 deg^2 in the Ori OB1b subassociation (age ~3), with completeness down to 0.05Mo and 0.072Mo respectively. We obtained low resolution optical spectra for a subsample of 4 candidates in Ori OB1a and 26 in Ori OB1b; as a result we confirmed 3 new members in Ori OB1a, one of which is substellar, and 19 new members in Ori OB1b, out of which 7 are at the substellar limit and 5 are substellar. We looked into the presence of accretion signatures by measuring the strength of the Ha line in emission. Accordingly, we classified the new members as having Classical T-Tauri star (CTTS) or Weak Lined T Tauri star-like (WTTS) nature. We found that all the new members confirmed in Ori OB1a are WTTSs, while 39 +25/-22 % of the new members in Ori OB1b exhibit CTTS-like behavior, suggestive of ongoing accretion from a circum(sub)stellar disk. Additionally we found that none of the members confirmed in OB1a show near-IR color excess while 38 +26/-21 % of OB1b members show H-K color excess. These results are consistent with recent findings for low mass young stars in Orion OB1. The similarity in CTTS-like properties and near-IR excess across the substellar boundary gives support to the idea of a common formation mechanism for low mass stars and at least the most massive brown dwarfs. Finally, we remark the discovery of two new members classified as CTTSs, both exhibiting W(Ha) < -140 A, suggesting significant ongoing accretion.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Very Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs of the Young Open Cluster IC2391

We have identified a large sample of probable low mass members of the young open cluster IC2391 based on optical (VRIZ) and Infrared (JHK$_s$) photometry. Our sample includes 50 probable members and 82 possible members, both very low mass stars and brown dwarfs. We also provide accurate positions for these stars and brown dwarf candidates derived from red UK Schmidt plates measured using the microdensitometer SuperCOSMOS. Assuming an age of 53 Myr, we estimate that we have reached a mass of 0.025 M$_\odot$, if the identified objects are indeed members of IC2391.

astro-ph↗