arXiv subjects

Dorota M. Skowron

Publications and source records attributed to Dorota M. Skowron.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Eppur binaria non è esclusa: Pulsations in CZ Tuc appear to be tidally excited by its veiled companion

Long secondary periods (LSPs), observed in about one-third of pulsating red giants, remain unexplained despite decades of study, with binarity and non-radial oscillations as the leading competing hypotheses. If LSP variables are indeed interacting, eccentric binary systems consisting of a red giant and a substellar object, tidally excited oscillations (TEOs) would be expected to appear in a fraction of them. Therefore, detection of TEOs offers an independent test of the binary scenario that has not previously been applied to LSP stars. Using a combined, approximately 80-year light curve assembled from Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard (DASCH), Hipparcos, and All Sky Automatic Survey (ASAS) photometry, we find that CZ Tucanae (CZ Tuc) exhibits a pulsation period of $55.4734\pm0.0074$ days along with its LSP of $443.62\pm0.12$ days, with a ratio of $7.9970\pm0.0024$ - consistent with a TEO. Theoretical models show the observed amplitude of the candidate TEO could be produced after adopting the estimated fundamental parameters of CZ Tuc. Our findings identify CZ Tuc as the first candidate LSP star with a TEO, providing independent evidence for binarity among at least a subset of these enigmatic variables.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

Rogue Ones: Orbital census of Galactic Cepheids and their Anomalies

Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) are excellent standard candles expected to trace the spatial and kinematic distribution of the Galaxy's young and dynamically cold stellar disc. Using the most precise mid-infrared DCEP distances to date combined with Gaia-DR3 astrometry and line-of-sight velocities, we perform a comprehensive 6D dynamical census of the Milky Way's DCEP population. While the vast majority exhibit the expected disc-like kinematics, we identify 18 kinematically anomalous Cepheids. These `rogue' stars reside on highly inclined orbits (three at > 70 degrees), including two in retrograde motion and one with a total velocity of ~480 \kms. Despite their extreme trajectories, their optical light curves are consistent with DCEP classifications. We explore whether these anomalies originate from possible classification systematics or physical processes and find only three of our sources are likely misclassified. Assuming a runaway scenario we derive dynamical ages for the kinematic anomalies, which we find highly consistent with their Cepheid ages. Spectroscopic follow-up would be insightful as one source in particular is exceptionally metal poor ([Fe/H] ~ -1.6 dex), which is highly atypical for a DCEP. Integrating photometric classification with 6D kinematics will help fully characterise the Galaxy's variable star populations.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Multiplicity of Cool Stars and their Evolution

Making up a sizeable portion of the galactic census, stellar multiples are experiencing a renaissance. Enabling the study of multiple strands of the study of cool stars, stellar multiples have been found and characterised in great numbers by the missions of the last decade, allowing the exploration of stellar parameters and populations, observation of stellar interactions, studies into stellar formation and evolution, and characterisation of circumbinary systems. This exciting explosion of science is only set to continue, with future missions set to offer even further insights into the topic. Within these proceedings we will summarise the presentations and discussions on cool stellar multiplicity within our splinter sessions at the 23rd Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun, as we examine the present state of the field and look to what the future may bring.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

Incorporating physical source parameters into microlensing modeling

Modeling of complex microlensing events suffers from many difficult-to-disentangle degeneracies. This is especially the case for orbital motion of the source in a binary system, the so-called xallarap effect. To address the degeneracies inherent in xallarap modeling, we developed a novel approach that directly samples the physical parameters of the source stars (initial mass, evolutionary phase, metallicity, distance, and reddening) during MCMC fitting. In our approach the physical parameters of the source are estimated using MIST stellar evolution models. This parametrization imposes astrophysical constraints that help identify the physically most probable solutions. We test our method on the complex microlensing event OGLE-2017-BLG-0114, which exhibits signatures that can be traced to the complexity of the source system. We successfully constrained the microlensing models, achieving improvements in the Einstein ring radius estimates by up to an order of magnitude in the case of binary source models.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

Eppur binaria non é esclusa: Gaia astrometry does not disfavor a binary origin for Long Secondary Periods

We present an independent reassessment of the nearby long secondary period (LSP) stars analyzed by Shariat et al. (2026). By inspecting long-term All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) light curves, together with Gaia Focused Product Release (Gaia FPR) radial velocity (RV) curves, for 221 LSP candidates (out of 224) located within 1.5 kpc from the Sun, we find that less than half of the sample (103 objects, $\sim 47$%) exhibit convincing LSP-like behavior. The remaining part of the sample could be more naturally interpreted as that of semi-regular variables (SRVs), characterized by irregular or multi-periodic pulsations. This indicates that the analyzed sample is significantly contaminated by non-LSP objects and therefore is not representative of the classical period-luminosity sequence-D population. Using the gaiamock tool to predict Gaia renormalized unit weight error (RUWE) values for binary systems, we show that even the nearest LSP stars do not have to exhibit elevated RUWE values as a consequence of their binarity. We also argue that the binary-nature hypothesis for LSP stars does not lead to a discrepancy between the observed and expected distance-RUWE relation for these variables.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

The Role of Long Period Variable Stars in Observational Astrophysics

Long-period variables (LPVs) are evolved red giant and supergiant stars whose pulsations provide unique insights into late stages of stellar evolution and serve as essential tools in modern astrophysics. Their period-luminosity and period-age relations make them valuable distance and age indicators, while their light curve morphology, amplitudes, and multiperiodicity reveal the underlying physics of stellar interiors and mass-loss. In this review, we provide an overview of the current status of LPV studies, focusing on their observational properties and applications, including: - Modern classification of LPVs into Miras, semiregular variables (SRVs), and OGLE small-amplitude red giants (OSARGs), which occupy multiple period-luminosity sequences associated with different pulsation modes, chemical compositions, and evolutionary stages - Mira variables as reliable distance indicators across diverse stellar environments and their increasing role as standard candles - The increasing role of SRVs and OSARGs - Long secondary period (LSP) variables as potential tracers of exoplanets Together with advances in theoretical modeling, these developments establish LPVs as valuable tracers of Galactic structure, stellar populations, and the extragalactic distance scale.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

A free-floating-planet microlensing event caused by a Saturn-mass object

A population of free-floating planets is known from gravitational microlensing surveys. None have a directly measured mass, owing to a degeneracy with the distance, but the population statistics indicate that many are less massive than Jupiter. We report a microlensing event -- KMT-2024-BLG-0792/OGLE-2024-BLG-0516, which was observed from both ground- and space-based telescopes -- that breaks the mass-distance degeneracy. The event was caused by an object with 0.219^{+0.075}_{-0.046} Jupiter masses that is either gravitationally unbound or on a very wide orbit. Through comparison with the statistical properties of other observed microlensing events and predictions from simulations, we infer that this object likely formed in a protoplanetary disk (like a planet), not in isolation (like a brown dwarf), and dynamical processes then ejected it from its birth place, producing a free-floating object.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2025

Eppur si eclissa: Eccentric low-mass companions and time-in-dust selection explain long secondary periods

[abbreviated] Long Secondary Periods (LSPs) are observed in about one third of pulsating red giants yet remain unexplained. Four key observational constraints anchor the discussion: (i) a roughly 30 percent occurrence rate in semi-regular variable AGB stars (SRVs), with a much lower rate or absence in regularly pulsating Mira-type AGB stars (Miras), (ii) about 50 percent of LSP stars show a secondary mid-infrared minimum, (iii) Keplerian fits to radial-velocity curves favor argument of periastron greater than 180 degrees, and (iv) the radial-velocity to light-curve phase lag clusters around minus 90 degrees. We test whether a close-in, eccentric, low-mass companion that spends only part of its orbit within the giant's dust-formation zone can match all four empirical constraints. Guided by observed radial-velocity amplitudes and periods of about 500 to 1500 days, we adopt companion masses of 0.08 to 0.25 solar masses, orbital separations of 1.5 to 3 AU, eccentricities up to 0.6, and dust condensation radii of about 2.5 to 3 AU for SRVs (larger for Miras via scaling with luminosity). We compute the fraction of the orbit spent outside the condensation radius and apply line-of-sight criteria for detectability. We test the first three empirical constraints analytically, then model the phase offset using three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. Our scenario explains the observed excess of systems with argument of periastron greater than 180 degrees and yields LSP detectability of about 27 percent for SRVs and about 2.5 percent for Miras, with a conditional secondary mid-infrared eclipse fraction of about 44 percent. The hydrodynamical models place the optical-depth maximum downstream of the companion near apastron and then shift it forward by roughly 90 to 225 degrees later in the orbit, consistent with the observed radial-velocity to light-curve offsets.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

The Local Distance Network: a community consensus report on the measurement of the Hubble constant at 1% precision

The direct, empirical determination of the local value of the Hubble constant (H0) has markedly advanced thanks to improved instrumentation, measurement techniques, and distance estimators. However, combining determinations from different estimators is non-trivial, due to correlated calibrations and different analysis methodologies. Using covariance weighting and leveraging the broad and comprehensive community of experts, we constructed a rigorous and transparent Distance Network (DN) to find a consensus value and uncertainty for the local H0. All critically reviewed the available data sets, spanning parallaxes, detached eclipsing binaries, masers, Cepheids, the TRGB, Miras, JAGB stars, SN Ia, Surface Brightness Fluctuations, SN II, the Fundamental Plane, and Tully-Fisher relations and voted for indicators to define a `baseline' DN and others to assess robustness and sensitivity of the results. We provide open-source software and data products to support full transparency and future extensions of this effort. Our conclusions: 1) Local H0 is robustly determined, with first-rank indicators internally consistent within their uncertainties; 2) A covariance-weighted combination yields an uncertainty of 1.1% (baseline) or 0.9% (all estimators); 3) The contribution from SNe Ia is consistent across four current compilations of optical magnitudes or using NIR-only magnitudes; 4) Removing either Cepheids or TRGB has minimal effect; 5) Replacing SNe Ia with galaxy-based indicators changes H0 by less than 0.1 km/s/Mpc, while doubling its uncertainty; 6) The baseline result is H0=73.50+/-0.81 km/s/Mpc. Compared to early Universe results, our result differs by 7.1sigma from flat ΛCDM with Planck+SPT+ACT and 5.0 sigma with BBN+BAO (DESI2). A networked approach is invaluable for enabling further progress in accuracy and precision without overreliance on any single method, sample or group.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

The Milky Way as Seen by Classical Cepheids II: Spiral Structure

As a relatively young and bright population and the archetype of standard candles, classical Cepheids are an ideal population on which to trace the non-axisymmetric structure in the young stellar disk to large distances. We used the new distances derived in Paper I based on mid-IR WISE photometry for a selected sample of 2857 dynamically young Cepheids to trace the spiral arms of the Milky Way. The Perseus and Sagittarius-Carina arms are clearly evident in the third and fourth Galactic quadrants, while the Local and Scutum arms are much weaker, and extinction severely limits our view of the latter innermost spiral arm. Pitch angles were derived for each arm over various ranges of Galactic azimuth, each covering at least 90deg in azimuth. Our method of detecting spiral arms and deriving pitch angles does not rely on pre-assigning sources to specific arms. While the spiral structure in the first and second quadrant is not obvious in part because of extinction effects, it is not inconsistent with the structure seen in the third and fourth quadrants. In summary, the Cepheids allow us to map spiral structure in the third and fourth Galactic quadrants where currently few masers have astrometric parallaxes, significantly extending our understanding of the Milky Way at large scales.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

The Milky Way as Seen by Classical Cepheids I: Distances Based on Mid-infrared Photometry

Classical Cepheids are the archetype of the standard candle, thanks to the period-luminosity relation which allows to measure their intrinsic brightness. They are also relatively young and bright, potentially making them excellent tracers of the young stellar population that is responsible for shaping the visible aspect of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. However, being observers embedded in the dusty interstellar medium of the Galaxy, deriving reliable photometric distances to classical Cepheids of the Milky Way is a challenge. The typical approach is to use "reddening-free" indices, such as Wesenheit magnitudes, to obviate the need for an extinction correction. However, this approach could lead to unknown systematics - especially toward the inner Galaxy - as its assumption of a universal total-to-selective extinction ratio is not satisfied, particularly in lines of sight where the extinction is high and crosses spiral arms. We instead estimate new distances for 3424 Cepheids based on mid-IR photometry from WISE, which suffers minimally from extinction, and by adopting a 3D extinction map to calculate the necessary (albeit small) extinction corrections. We show that our distances are consistent with Gaia's parallaxes for the subset with relative parallax errors smaller than 10%, verifying that our mean distance errors are of the order of 6% and that the mean parallax zero point for this subsample is 7 $μ$as.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Virial Black Hole Masses for AGNs behind the Magellanic Clouds

We use the spectroscopic data collected by the Magellanic Quasars Survey (MQS) as well as the photometric V- and I-band data from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) to measure the physical parameters for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) located behind the Magellanic Clouds. The flux-uncalibrated MQS spectra were obtained with the 4-m Anglo-Australian Telescope and the AAOmega spectroscope (R=1300) in a typical ~1.5-hour visit. They span a spectral range of 3700-8500 Angstroms and have S/N ratios in a range of 3-300. We report the discovery and observational properties of 161 AGNs in this footprint, which expands the total number of spectroscopically confirmed AGNs by MQS to 919. After converting the OGLE mean magnitudes to the monochromatic luminosities at 5100 Angstroms, 3000 Angstroms, and 1350 Angstroms, we reliably measured the black hole masses for 165 out of 919 AGNs. The remaining physical parameters we provide are the bolometric luminosities and the Eddington ratios. A fraction of these AGNs have been observed by the OGLE survey since 1997 (all of them since 2001), enabling studies of correlations between their variability and physical parameters.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

A three-dimensional map of the Milky Way using 66,000 Mira variable stars

We study the three-dimensional structure of the Milky Way using 65,981 Mira variable stars discovered by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) survey. The spatial distribution of the Mira stars is analyzed with a model containing three barred components that include the X-shaped boxy component in the Galactic center (GC), and an axisymmetric disk. We take into account the distance uncertainties by implementing the Bayesian hierarchical inference method. The distance to the GC is $R_0 = 7.66 \pm 0.01 \mathrm{(stat.)} \pm 0.39 \mathrm{(sys.)}$ kpc, while the inclination of the major axis of the bulge to the Sun-GC line-of-sight is $θ= 20.2^\circ \pm 0.6^\circ \mathrm{(stat.)} \pm 0.7^\circ \mathrm{(sys.)} $. We present, for the first time, a detailed three-dimensional map of the Milky Way composed of young and intermediate-age stellar populations. Our analysis provides independent evidence for both the X-shaped bulge component and the flaring disk (being plausibly warped). We provide the complete dataset of properties of Miras that were used for calculations in this work. The table includes: mean brightness and amplitudes in nine photometric bands (covering a range of wavelength from 0.5 to 12 $μ$m), photometric chemical type, estimated extinction, and calculated distance with its uncertainty for each Mira variable. The median distance accuracy to a Mira star is at the level of $6.6\%$.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

An X-ray quiet black hole born with a negligible kick in a massive binary within the Large Magellanic Cloud

Stellar-mass black holes are the final remnants of stars born with more than 15 solar masses. Billions are expected to reside in the Local Group, yet only few are known, mostly detected through X-rays emitted as they accrete material from a companion star. Here, we report on VFTS 243: a massive X-ray faint binary in the Large Magellanic Cloud. With an orbital period of 10.4-d, it comprises an O-type star of 25 solar masses and an unseen companion of at least nine solar masses. Our spectral analysis excludes a non-degenerate companion at a 5-sigma confidence level. The minimum companion mass implies that it is a black hole. No other X-ray quiet black hole is unambiguously known outside our Galaxy. The (near-)circular orbit and kinematics of VFTS 243 imply that the collapse of the progenitor into a black hole was associated with little or no ejected material or black-hole kick. Identifying such unique binaries substantially impacts the predicted rates of gravitational-wave detections and properties of core-collapse supernovae across the Cosmos.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

The OGLE Collection of Variable Stars. One Thousand Heartbeat Stars in the Galactic Bulge and Magellanic Clouds

We present a collection of 991 heartbeat star (HBS) candidates found in the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) project data archive. We discuss the selection process of the HBS candidates and the structure of the catalog itself. It consists of 512 stars located toward the Galactic bulge (GB), 439 stars located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and 40 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The collection contains two large groups of HBSs with different physical properties. The main distinction between the two groups is the evolutionary status of the primary star. The first group of about 100 systems contains a hot main-sequence (MS) or a Hertzsprung-gap primary star, while the second group of about 900 systems includes a red giant (RG). For each star, we provide two-decade-long time-series photometry, in the Cousins $I$- and Johnson $V$-band filters, obtained by the OGLE project. We also present basic observational information as well as orbital parameters derived from the light curve modeling.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2022

The OGLE Collection of Variable Stars. Nearly 66,000 Mira stars in the Milky Way

We present a collection of 65,981 Mira-type variable stars found in the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) project database. Two-thirds of our sample (40,356 objects) are located in the Galactic bulge fields, whereas 25,625 stars are in the Galactic disk. The vast majority of the collection (47,532 objects) are new discoveries. We provide basic observational parameters of the Mira variables: equatorial coordinates, pulsation periods, $I$-band and $V$-band mean magnitudes, $I$-band brightness amplitudes, and identifications in other catalogs of variable stars. We also provide the $I$-band and $V$-band time-series photometry collected since 1997 during the OGLE-II, OGLE-III, and OGLE-IV phases. The classical selection process, i.e., mostly based on the visual inspection of light curves by experienced astronomers, led us to the high purity of the catalog. As a result, this collection can be used as a training set in the machine learning classification algorithms. Using overlapping parts of adjacent OGLE fields, we estimate the completeness of the catalog to be about 96%. We compare and discuss the statistical features of Miras located in different regions of the Milky Way. We show examples of stars that change their type over time, from a semi-regular variable to Mira and vice versa. This dataset is perfectly suited to study the three-dimensional structure of the Milky Way, and it may help to explain the puzzle of the X-shaped bulge.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2021

Multiwavelength properties of Miras

We comprehensively study the variability of Miras in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by simultaneous analysing light curves in 14 bands in the range of 0.5$-$24 microns. We model over 20-years-long, high cadence $I$-band light curves collected by The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) and fit them to light curves collected in the remaining optical/near-infrared/mid-infrared bands to derive both the variability amplitude ratio and phase-lag as a function of wavelength. We show that the variability amplitude ratio declines with the increasing wavelength for both oxygen-rich (O-rich) and carbon-rich (C-rich) Miras, while the variability phase-lag increases slightly with the increasing wavelength. In a significant number of Miras, mostly the C-rich ones, the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) require a presence of a cool component (dust) in order to match the mid-IR data. Based on SED fits for a golden sample of 140 Miras, we calculated synthetic period-luminosity relations (PLRs) in 42 bands for the existing and future sky surveys that include OGLE, The VISTA Near-Infrared $YJK_\mathrm{s}$ Survey of the Magellanic Clouds System (VMC), Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), Gaia, Spitzer, The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly WFIRST), and The Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We show that the synthetic PLR slope decreases with increasing wavelength for both the O-rich and C-rich Miras in the range of 0.1$-$40 microns. Finally, we show the location and motions of Miras on the color-magnitude (CMD) and color-color (CCD) diagrams.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

Metal-Rich RRc stars in the Carnegie RR Lyrae Survey

We describe and employ a stacking procedure to investigate abundances derived from the low S/N spectra obtained in the Carnegie RR Lyrae Survey (CARRS; Kollmeier et al. 2013). We find iron metallicities that extend from [Fe/H] ~ -2.5 to values at least as large as [Fe/H] ~ -0.5 in the 274-spectrum CARRS RRc data set. We consider RRc sample contamination by high amplitude solar metallicity delta Scuti stars (HADS) at periods less than 0.3 days, where photometric discrimination between RRc and delta Scuti stars has proven to be problematic. We offer a spectroscopic discriminant, the well-marked overabundance of heavy elements, principally [Ba/H], that is a common, if not universal, characteristic of HADS of all periods and axial rotations. No bona fide RRc stars known to us have verified heavy-element overabundances. Three out of 34 stars in our sample with [Fe/H] > -0.7 exhibit anomalously strong features of Sr, Y, Zr, Ba, and many rare earths. However, carbon is not enhanced in these three stars, and we conclude that their elevated n-capture abundances have not been generated in interior neutron-capture nucleosynthesis. Contamination by HADS appears to be unimportant, and metal-rich RRc stars occur in approximately the same proportion in the Galactic field as do metal-rich RRab stars. An apparent dearth of metal-rich RRc is probably a statistical fluke. Finally we show that RRc stars have a similar inverse period-metallicity relationship as has been found for RRab stars.

astro-ph.SR↗