arXiv subjects

C. Flores

Publications and source records attributed to C. Flores.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Walkaway Star HP Tau/G2: Evidence for a Stellar Merger

HP~Tau/G2 is a luminous, short-period, fast-rotating G-type weak-line T Tauri star with a large radius, an oblate shape with gravity-darkening, little circumstellar material, and centered in a slowly expanding cloud cavity. It is an X-ray source and a variable nonthermal radio source. It forms, together with the late-type T Tauri star KPNO 15, a pair of oppositely directed walkaway stars launched when a multiple system broke apart ~5600 yr ago. Momentum conservation indicates a mass of G2 of only ~0.7 Msun, much lower than the ~1.9 Msun determined from evolutionary models. G2 is virtually a twin of FK Com, the prototype of a class of evolved stars resulting from coalescence of W UMa binaries. We suggest that G2 became a very close and highly eccentric binary during viscous evolution in the protostellar stage and with KPNO 15 formed a triple system, which again was part of a larger unstable group including the binary G3 and the single G1. Dynamical evolution led to multiple bound ejections of KPNO 15 before it finally escaped after ~2 Myr. As a result the G2 binary recoiled and contracted 5600 yr ago, became Darwin unstable and merged in a major outburst ~2000 yr ago. The nearby compact triple system G1+G3 was also disturbed, and broke up 4900 yr ago, forming another walkaway pair. The G5 star HD 283572 has similar unusual properties, indicating that G2 is not a pathological case. G2 is now fading towards a new stable configuration. YSO mergers may be rather common and could explain some FUor eruptions.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

iSHELL $K$-band Survey of Class I and Flat Spectrum Sources: Magnetic field measurements in the protostellar phase

We perform the first magnetic field strength survey of Class I and Flat Spectrum (FS) sources using $K$-band observations with iSHELL. We obtained new observations of 42 Class I and FS sources and additionally included 10 sources from the archive. We detect photospheric lines in 44 of the sources, in addition to Br$\gamma$, H$_2$, and CO emission in several objects. We model the photospheric absorption lines of 32 Class I and FS sources and measure their magnetic field strengths, $K$-band temperatures, gravities, projected rotational velocities, and infrared veiling values. We put the physical properties of Class I and FS sources in context by comparing them to the values derived for a sample of Class II sources. We find that a) the average magnetic field strength of Class I and FS sources $\langle B \rangle=2.0\pm0.15$ kG is consistent with the average magnetic field strength of Class II sources $\langle B \rangle=1.8\pm0.15$ kG, and b) the average gravity of Class I and FS objects $\log{g}=3.43\pm0.07$ is lower than the average gravity of Class II sources $\log{g}=3.75\pm0.04$, although there is significant overlap between both gravity distributions. Furthermore, using stellar evolutionary models, we deduce that Class I and FS sources have a median age of $\sim$0.6 Myr, and are, as a group, younger than the Class II stars with a median age of $\sim$3 Myr. Our results confirm that Class I and FS sources host strong magnetic fields on their photospheres. Thus, it is likely that these sources accrete disk material through a magnetosphere similar to the more evolved T Tauri stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

Haro 5-2: A New Pre-Main Sequence Quadruple Stellar System

We have discovered that the Halpha emission line star Haro 5-2, located in the 3-6 Myr old Ori OB1b association, is a young quadruple system. The system has a 2+2 configuration with an outer separation of 2.6 arcseconds and with resolved subarcsecond inner binary components. The brightest component, Aa, dominates the A-binary, it is a weakline T Tauri star with spectral type M2.5pm1. The two stars of the B component are equally bright at J, but the Bb star is much redder. Optical spectroscopy of the combined B pair indicates a rich emission line spectrum with a M3pm1 spectral type. The spectrum is highly variable and switches back and forth between a classical and a weakline T Tauri star. In the near-infrared, the spectrum shows Paschen beta and Brackett gamma in emission, indicative of active accretion. A significant mid-infrared excess reveals the presence of circumstellar or circumbinary material in the system. Most multiple systems are likely formed during the protostellar phase, involving flybys of neighboring stars followed by an in-spiraling phase driven by accretion from circumbinary material and leading to compact sub-systems. However, Haro 5-2 stands out among young 2+2 quadruples as the two inner binaries are unusually wide relative to the separation of the A and B pair, allowing future studies of the individual components. Assuming the components are coeval, the system could potentially allow stringent tests of PMS evolutionary models.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2022

A highly settled disk around Oph 163131

High dust density in the midplane of protoplanetary disks is favorable for efficient grain growth and can allow fast formation of planetesimals and planets, before disks dissipate. Vertical settling and dust trapping in pressure maxima are two mechanisms allowing dust to concentrate in geometrically thin and high density regions. In this work, we aim to study these mechanisms in the highly inclined protoplanetary disk SSTC2D J163131.2-242627 (Oph163131, i~84deg). We present new high angular resolution continuum and 12CO ALMA observations of Oph163131. The gas emission appears significantly more extended in the vertical and radial direction compared to the dust emission, consistent with vertical settling and possibly radial drift. In addition, the new continuum observations reveal two clear rings. The outer ring, located at ~100 au, is well resolved in the observations, which allows us to put stringent constraints on the vertical extent of millimeter dust particles. We model the disk using radiative transfer and find that the scale height of millimeter sized grains is 0.5au or less at 100au from the central star. This value is about one order of magnitude smaller than the scale height of smaller micron-sized dust grains constrained by previous modeling, which implies that efficient settling of the large grains is occurring in the disk. When adopting a parametric dust settling prescription, we find that the observations are consistent with a turbulent viscosity coefficient of about alpha<=10^-5 at 100au. Finally, we find that the thin dust scale height measured in Oph163131 is favorable for planetary growth by pebble accretion: a 10 M_Earth planet may grow within less than 10 Myr, even in orbits exceeding 50au.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2021

The Effects of Starspots on Spectroscopic Mass Estimates of Low-mass Young Stars

Magnetic fields and mass accretion processes create dark and bright spots on the surface of young stars. These spots manifest as surface thermal inhomogeneities, which alter the global temperature measured on the stars. To understand the effects and implications of these starspots, we conducted a large iSHELL high-resolution infrared spectroscopic survey of T Tauri stars in Taurus-Auriga and Ophiuchus star-forming regions. From the K band spectra, we measured stellar temperatures and magnetic field strengths using a magnetic radiative transfer code. We compared our infrared-derived parameters against literature optical temperatures and found a) a systematic temperature difference between optical and infrared observations, and b) a positive correlation between the magnetic field strengths and the temperature differences. The discrepant temperature measurements imply significant differences in the inferred stellar masses from stellar evolutionary models. To discern which temperature better predicts the mass of the star, we compared our model-derived masses against dynamical masses measured from ALMA and PdBI for a sub-sample of our sources. From this comparison we conclude that, in the range of stellar masses from 0.3 to 1.3 $\rm M_\odot$, neither infrared nor optical temperatures perfectly reproduce the stellar dynamical masses. But, on average, infrared temperatures produce more precise and accurate stellar masses than optical ones.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2021

The Anatomy of an Unusual Edge-on Protoplanetary Disk I. Dust Settling in a Cold Disk

As the earliest stage of planet formation, massive, optically thick, and gas rich protoplanetary disks provide key insights into the physics of star and planet formation. When viewed edge-on, high resolution images offer a unique opportunity to study both the radial and vertical structures of these disks and relate this to vertical settling, radial drift, grain growth, and changes in the midplane temperatures. In this work, we present multi-epoch HST and Keck scattered light images, and an ALMA 1.3 mm continuum map for the remarkably flat edge-on protoplanetary disk SSTC2DJ163131.2-242627, a young solar-type star in $ρ$ Ophiuchus. We model the 0.8 $μ$m and 1.3 mm images in separate MCMC runs to investigate the geometry and dust properties of the disk using the MCFOST radiative transfer code. In scattered light, we are sensitive to the smaller dust grains in the surface layers of the disk, while the sub-millimeter dust continuum observations probe larger grains closer to the disk midplane. An MCMC run combining both datasets using a covariance-based log-likelihood estimation was marginally successful, implying insufficient complexity in our disk model. The disk is well characterized by a flared disk model with an exponentially tapered outer edge viewed nearly edge-on, though some degree of dust settling is required to reproduce the vertically thin profile and lack of apparent flaring. A colder than expected disk midplane, evidence for dust settling, and residual radial substructures all point to a more complex radial density profile to be probed with future, higher resolution observations.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2020

Observations of edge-on protoplanetary disks with ALMA I. Results from continuum data

We analyze a sample of 12 HST-selected edge-on protoplanetary disks for which the vertical extent of the emission layers can be constrained directly. We present ALMA high angular resolution continuum images (0.1arcsec) of these disks at two wavelengths, 0.89mm and 2.06mm (respectively ALMA bands 7 and 4), supplemented with archival band 6 data (1.33mm) where available. For most sources, the millimeter continuum emission is more compact than the scattered light, both in the vertical and radial directions. Six sources are resolved along their minor axis in at least one millimeter band, providing direct information on the vertical distribution of the millimeter grains. For the second largest disk of the sample, the significant difference in vertical extent between band 7 and band 4 suggests efficient size-selective vertical settling of large grains. Furthermore, the only Class I object in our sample shows evidence of flaring in the millimeter. Along the major axis, all disks are well resolved. Four of them are larger in band 7 than in band 4 in the radial direction, and three have a similar radial extent in all bands. For all disks, we also derive the millimeter brightness temperature and spectral index maps. We find that the disks are likely optically thick and that the dust emission reveals low brightness temperatures in most cases (<10K). The integrated spectral indices are similar to those of disks at lower inclination. The comparison of a generic radiative transfer disk model with our data shows that at least 3 disks are consistent with a small millimeter dust scale height, of a few au (measured at r=100au). This is in contrast with the more classical value of h_g\sim10au derived from scattered light images and from gas line measurements. These results confirm, by direct observations, that large (millimeter) grains are subject to significant vertical settling in protoplanetary disks.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

Helmholtz-Hodge decompositions in the nonlocal framework. Well-posedness analysis and applications

Nonlocal operators that have appeared in a variety of physical models satisfy identities and enjoy a range of properties similar to their classical counterparts. In this paper we obtain Helmholtz-Hodge type decompositions for two-point vector fields in three components that have zero nonlocal curls, zero nonlocal divergence, and a third component which is (nonlocally) curl-free and divergence-free. The results obtained incorporate different nonlocal boundary conditions, thus being applicable in a variety of settings.

math.AP↗

arXiv2018

Characterization of low-mass companion HD 142527 B

The circumstellar disk of the Herbig Fe star HD 142527 is host to several remarkable features including a warped inner disk, a 120 au-wide annular gap, a prominent dust trap and several spiral arms. A low-mass companion, HD 142527 B, was also found orbiting the primary star at $\sim$14 au. This study aims to better characterize this companion, which could help explain its impact on the peculiar geometry of the disk. We observed the source with VLT/SINFONI in $H$+$K$ band in pupil-tracking mode. Data were post-processed with several algorithms based on angular differential imaging (ADI). HD 142527 B is conspicuously re-detected in most spectral channels, which enables us to extract the first medium-resolution spectrum of a low-mass companion within 0.1'' from its central star. Fitting our spectrum with both template and synthetic spectra suggests that the companion is a young M2.5$\pm$1.0 star with an effective temperature of $3500\pm100$ K, possibly surrounded with a hot (1700 K) circum-secondary environment. Pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks provide a mass estimate of $0.34\pm0.06 M_{\odot}$, independent of the presence of a hot environment. However, the estimated stellar radius and age do depend on that assumption; we find a radius of $1.37 \pm 0.05 R_{\odot}$ (resp. $1.96 \pm 0.10 R_{\odot}$) and an age of $1.8^{+1.2}_{-0.5}$ Myr (resp. $0.75 \pm 0.25$ Myr) in the case of the presence (resp. absence) of a hot environment contributing in $H$+$K$. Our new values for the mass and radius yield a mass accretion rate of $\sim$5 $\times 10^{-9} M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ (2-3% that of the primary). Our results illustrate thus the potential for SINFONI+ADI to characterize faint close-in companions. The new spectral type makes HD 142527 B a twin of the well known TW Hya T-Tauri star, and the revision of its mass to higher values further supports its role in shaping the disk.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2014

Radiogenic and Muon-Induced Backgrounds in the LUX Dark Matter Detector

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment aims to detect rare low-energy interactions from Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The radiogenic backgrounds in the LUX detector have been measured and compared with Monte Carlo simulation. Measurements of LUX high-energy data have provided direct constraints on all background sources contributing to the background model. The expected background rate from the background model for the 85.3 day WIMP search run is $(2.6\pm0.2_{\textrm{stat}}\pm0.4_{\textrm{sys}})\times10^{-3}$~events~keV$_{ee}^{-1}$~kg$^{-1}$~day$^{-1}$ in a 118~kg fiducial volume. The observed background rate is $(3.6\pm0.4_{\textrm{stat}})\times10^{-3}$~events~keV$_{ee}^{-1}$~kg$^{-1}$~day$^{-1}$, consistent with model projections. The expectation for the radiogenic background in a subsequent one-year run is presented.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2014

A Detailed Look at the First Results from the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Dark Matter Experiment

LUX, the world's largest dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber, with a fiducial target mass of 118 kg and 10,091 kg-days of exposure thus far, is currently the most sensitive direct dark matter search experiment. The initial null-result limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-section was released in October 2013, with a primary scintillation threshold of 2 phe, roughly 3 keVnr for LUX. The detector has been deployed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, and is the first experiment to achieve a limit on the WIMP cross-section lower than $10^{-45}$ cm$^{2}$. Here we present a more in-depth discussion of the novel energy scale employed to better understand the nuclear recoil light and charge yields, and of the calibration sources, including the new internal tritium source. We found the LUX data to be in conflict with low-mass WIMP signal interpretations of other results.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2014

Calibration and performance of the STAR Muon Telescope Detector using cosmic rays

We report the timing and spatial resolution from the Muon Telescope Detector (MTD) installed in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Cosmic ray muons traversing the STAR detector have an average transverse momentum of 6 GeV/c. Due to their very small multiple scattering, these cosmic muons provide an ideal tool to calibrate the detectors and measure their timing and spatial resolution. The values obtained were ~100 ps and ~1-2 cm, respectively. These values are comparable to those obtained from cosmic-ray bench tests and test beams.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2014

First results from the LUX dark matter experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment, a dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Lead, South Dakota), was cooled and filled in February 2013. We report results of the first WIMP search dataset, taken during the period April to August 2013, presenting the analysis of 85.3 live-days of data with a fiducial volume of 118 kg. A profile-likelihood analysis technique shows our data to be consistent with the background-only hypothesis, allowing 90% confidence limits to be set on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering with a minimum upper limit on the cross section of $7.6 \times 10^{-46}$ cm$^{2}$ at a WIMP mass of 33 GeV/c$^2$. We find that the LUX data are in strong disagreement with low-mass WIMP signal interpretations of the results from several recent direct detection experiments.

astro-ph.CO↗