arXiv subjects

F. P. Schloerb

Publications and source records attributed to F. P. Schloerb.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2006

Bright Localized Near-Infrared Emission at 1-4 AU in the AB Aurigae Disk Revealed by IOTA Closure Phases

We report on the detection of localized off-center emission at 1-4 AU in the circumstellar environment of the young stellar object AB Aurigae. We used closure phase measurements in the near-infrared made at the long baseline interferometer IOTA, the first obtained on a young stellar object using this technique. When probing sub-AU scales, all closure phases are close to zero degrees, as expected given the previously-determined size of the AB Aurigae inner dust disk. However, a clear closure phase signal of -3.5 +/- 0.5 degrees is detected on one triangle containing relatively short baselines, requiring a high degree of non-point symmetry from emission at larger (AU-sized) scales in the disk. We have not identified any alternative explanation for these closure phase results and demonstrate that a ``disk hot spot'' model can fit our data. We speculate that such asymmetric near-infrared emission detected might arise as a result of localized viscous heating due to a gravitational instability in the AB Aurigae disk, or to the presence of a close stellar companion or accreting sub-stellar object.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Infrared Imaging of Capella with the IOTA Closure Phase Interferometer

We present infrared aperture synthesis maps produced with the upgraded IOTA interferometer. Michelson interferograms on the close binary system Capella (Alpha Aur) were obtained in the H-band between 2002 November 12 and 16 using the IONIC3 beam combiner. With baselines of 15m < B < 38m, we were able to determine the relative position of the binary components with milliarcsecond (mas) precision and to track their movement along the approx. 14 degree arc covered by our observation run. We briefly describe the algorithms used for visibility and closure phase estimation. Three different Hybrid Mapping and Bispectrum Fitting techniques were implemented within one software framework and used to reconstruct the source brightness distribution. By dividing our data into subsets, the system could be mapped at three epochs, revealing the motion of the stars. The precise position of the binary components was also determined with model fits, which in addition revealed I_Aa/I_Ab=1.49 +/- 0.10 and apparent stellar uniform-disk (UD) diameters of Theta_Aa=8.9 +/- 0.6 mas and Theta_Ab=5.8 +/- 0.8 mas. To improve the u, v-plane coverage, we compensated this orbital motion by applying a rotation-compensating coordinate transformation. The resulting model-independent map with a beam size of 5.4 x 2.6 mas allows the resolution of the stellar surfaces of the Capella giants themselves.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Diameters of Mira Stars Measured Simultenously in the J,H,K' Near-Infrared Bands

We present the first spatially resolved observations of a sample of 23 Mira stars simultaneously measured in the near-infrared J, H and K' bands. The technique used was optical long baseline interferometry, and we present for each star visibility amplitude measurements as a function of wavelength. We also present characteristic sizes at each spectral band, obtained by fitting the measured visibilities to a simple uniform disk model. This approach reveals the general relation J diameter < H diameter < K' diameter.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

LLiST - a new star tracker camera for tip-tilt correction at IOTA

The tip-tilt correction system at the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) has been upgraded with a new star tracker camera. The camera features a backside-illuminated CCD chip offering doubled overall quantum efficiency and a four times higher system gain compared to the previous system. Tests carried out to characterize the new system showed a higher system gain with a lower read-out noise electron level. Shorter read-out cycle times now allow to compensate tip-tilt fluctuations so that their error imposed on visibility measurements becomes comparable to, and even smaller than, that of higher-order aberrations.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

First results with the IOTA3 imaging interferometer: The spectroscopic binaries lambda Vir and WR 140

We report the first spatially-resolved observations of the spectroscopic binaries lambda Vir and WR 140, which includes the debut of aperture-synthesis imaging with the upgraded three-telescope IOTA interferometer. Using IONIC-3, a new integrated optics beam combiner capable of precise closure phase measurement, short observations were sufficient to extract the angular separation and orientation of each binary system and the component brightness ratio. Most notably, the underlying binary in the prototypical colliding-wind source WR 140 (WC7 + O4/5) was found to have a separation of ~13 milli-arcseconds with a position angle consistent with the images of the 2001 dust shell ejection only if the Wolf-Rayet star is fainter than the O star at 1.65 microns. We also highlight lambda Vir whose peculiar stellar properties of the Am star components will permit direct testing of current theories of tidal evolution when the full orbit is determined.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

High-resolution imaging of dust shells using Keck aperture masking and the IOTA Interferometer

We present first results of an experiment to combine data from Keck aperture masking and the Infrared-Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) to image the circumstellar environments of evolved stars with ~20 milliarcsecond resolution. The unique combination of excellent Fourier coverage at short baselines and high-quality long-baseline fringe data allows us to determine the location and clumpiness of the inner-most hot dust in the envelopes, and to measure the diameters of the underlying stars themselves. We find evidence for large-scale inhomogeneities in some dust shells and also significant deviations from uniform brightness for the photospheres of the most evolved M-stars. Deviations from spherically-symmetric mass loss in the red supergiant NML Cyg could be related to recent evidence for dynamically-important magnetic fields and/or stellar rotation. We point out that dust shell asymmetries, like those observed here, can qualitatively explain the difficulty recent workers have had in simultaneously fitting the broad-band spectral energy distributions and high-resolution spatial information, without invoking unusual dust properties or multiple distinct shells (from hypothetical ``superwinds''). This paper is the first to combine optical interferometry data from multiple facilities for imaging, and we discuss the challenges and potential for the future of this method, given current calibration and software limitations.

astro-ph↗