arXiv subjects

G. Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to G. Zhao.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Non-LTE analysis of neutral copper in the late-type metal-poor stars

We investigated the copper abundances for $64$ late-type stars in the Galactic disk and halo with effective temperatures from $5400$ K to $6700$ K and [Fe/H] from $-1.88$ to $-0.17$. For the first time, the copper abundances are derived using both local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) calculations. High resolution ($R > 40,000$), high signal-to-noise ratio ($S/N > 100$) spectra from the FOCES spectrograph are used. The atmospheric models are calculated based on the MAFAGS opacity sampling code. All the abundances are derived using the spectrum synthesis methods. Our results indicate that the non-LTE effects of copper are important for metal-poor stars, showing a departure of $\sim 0.17$ dex at the metallicity $\sim -1.5$. We also find that the copper abundances derived from non-LTE calculations are enhanced compared with those from LTE. The enhancements show clear dependence on the metallicity, which gradually increase with decreasing [Fe/H] for our program stars, leading to a flatter distribution of [Cu/Fe] with [Fe/H] than previous work. There is a hint that the thick- and thin-disk stars have different behaviors in [Cu/Fe], and a bending for disk stars may exist.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

Far-infrared study of K giants in the solar neighborhood: Connection between Li enrichment and mass-loss

We searched for a correlation between the two anomalous properties of K giants: Li enhancement and IR excess from an unbiased survey of a large sample of RGB stars. A sample of 2000 low-mass K giants with accurate astrometry from the Hipparcos catalog was chosen for which Li abundances have been determined from low-resolution spectra. Far-infrared data were collected from the $WISE$ and $IRAS$ catalogs. To probe the correlation between the two anomalies, we supplemented 15 Li-rich K giants discovered from this sample with 25 known Li-rich K giants from other studies. Dust shell evolutionary models and spectral energy distributions were constructed using the code DUSTY to estimate different dust shell properties, such as dust evolutionary time scales, dust temperatures, and mass-loss rates. Among 2000 K giants, we found about two dozen K giants with detectable far-IR excess, and surprisingly, none of them are Li-rich. Similarly, the 15 new Li-rich K giants that were identified from the same sample show no evidence of IR excess. Of the total 40 Li-rich K giants, only 7 show IR excess. Important is that K giants with Li enhancement and/or IR excess begin to appear only at the bump on the RGB. Results show that K giants with IR excess are very rare, similar to K giants with Li enhancement. This may be due to the rapid differential evolution of dust shell and Li depletion compared to RGB evolutionary time scales. We also infer from the results that during the bump evolution, giants probably undergo some internal changes, which are perhaps the cause of mass-loss and Li-enhancement events. However, the available observational results do not ascertain that these properties are correlated. That a few Li-rich giants have IR excess seems to be pure coincidence.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

Carbon and oxygen abundances in stellar populations

Abundances of C, O, and Fe are determined for F and G main-sequence stars in the solar neighborhood in order to study trends and systematic differences in the C/Fe, O/Fe, and C/O ratios for stellar populations. Carbon abundances are determined from the CI lines at 5052 and 5380 AA and oxygen abundances from the OI triplet at 7774 AA and the [OI] line at 6300 AA. MARCS model atmospheres are applied and non-LTE corrections for the OI triplet are included. Systematic differences between high- and low-alpha halo stars and between thin- and thick-disk stars are seen in the trends of [C/Fe] and [O/Fe]. The two halo populations and thick-disk stars show the same trend of [C/O] versus [O/H], whereas thin-disk stars are shifted to higher [C/O]. Furthermore, we find some evidence of higher C/O and C/Fe ratios in stars hosting planets than in stars for which no planets have been detected. The results suggest that C and O in both high- and low-alpha halo stars and in thick-disk stars are made mainly in massive stars, whereas thin-disk stars have an additional carbon contribution from low-mass AGB and massive stars of high metallicity causing a rising trend of C/O with increasing metallicity. However, the C/O ratio does not exceed 0.8, which seems to exclude formation of carbon planets if proto-planetary disks have the same composition as their parent stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

A high-contrast coronagraph for earth-like exoplanet direct imaging: design and test

The high-contrast coronagraph for direct imaging earth-like exoplanet at the visible needs a contrast of 10^(-10) at a small angular separation of 4 lambda/D or less. Here we report our recent laboratory experiment that is close to the limits. The test of the high-contrast imaging coronagraph is based on our step-transmission apodized filter. To achieve the goal, we use a liquid crystal array (LCA) as a phase corrector to create a dark hole based on our dedicated focal dark algorithm. We have suppressed the diffracted and speckle noise near the star point image to a level of 1.68 x 10^(-9) at 4 lambda/D, which can be immediately used for the direct imaging of Jupiter like exoplanets. This demonstrates that high-contrast coronagraph telescope in space has the potentiality to detect and characterize earth-like planets.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2014

Possible discovery of the r-process characteristics in the abundances of metal-rich barium stars

We study the abundance distributions of a sample of metal-rich barium stars provided by Pereira et al. (2011) to investigate the s- and r-process nucleosynthesis in the metal-rich environment. We compared the theoretical results predicted by a parametric model with the observed abundances of the metal-rich barium stars. We found that six barium stars have a significant r-process characteristic, and we divided the barium stars into two groups: the r-rich barium stars ($C_r>5.0$, [La/Nd]\,$<0$) and normal barium stars. The behavior of the r-rich barium stars seems more like that of the metal-poor r-rich and CEMP-r/s stars. We suggest that the most possible formation mechanism for these stars is the s-process pollution, although their abundance patterns can be fitted very well when the pre-enrichment hypothesis is included. The fact that we can not explain them well using the s-process nucleosynthesis alone may be due to our incomplete knowledge on the production of Nd, Eu, and other relevant elements by the s-process in metal-rich and super metal-rich environments (see details in Pereira et al. 2011).

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

The lithium abundances for a large sample of red giants

The lithium abundances for 378 G/K giants are derived with non-LTE correction considered. Among these, there are 23 stars that host planetary systems. The lithium abundance is investigated, as a function of metallicity, effective temperature, and rotational velocity, as well as the impact of a giant planet on G/K giants. The results show that the lithium abundance is a function of metallicity and effective temperature. The lithium abundance has no correlation with rotational velocity at vsini $<$ 10 km s$^{-1}$. Giants with planets present lower lithium abundance and slow rotational velocity (vsini $<$ 4 km s$^{-1}$). Our sample includes three Li-rich G/K giants, 36 Li-normal stars and 339 Li-depleted stars. The fraction of Li-rich stars in this sample agrees with the general rate of less than 1$\%$ in literature, and the stars that show normal amounts of Li are supposed to possess the same abundance at the current interstellar medium. For the Li-depleted giants, Li deficiency may have already taken place at the main sequence stage for many intermediate-mass (1.5-5 M$_{\odot}$) G/K giants. Finally, we present the lithium abundance and kinematic parameters for an enlarged sample of 565 giants using a compilation of literature, and confirm that the lithium abundance is a function of metallicity and effective temperature. With the enlarged sample, we investigate the differences between the lithium abundance in thin-/thick-disk giants, which indicate that the lithium abundance in thick-disk giants is more depleted than that in thin-disk giants.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2014

X-ray and EUV spectroscopy of various astrophysical and laboratory plasmas -- Collisional, photoionization and charge-exchange plasmas

Several laboratory facilities were used to benchmark theoretical spectral models those extensively used by astronomical communities. However there are still many differences between astrophysical environments and laboratory miniatures that can be archived. Here we setup a spectral analysis system for astrophysical and laboratory (SASAL) plasmas to make a bridge between them, and investigate the effects from non-thermal electrons, contribution from metastable level-population on level populations and charge stage distribution for coronal-like, photoionized, and geocoronal plasmas. Test applications to laboratory measurement (i.e. EBIT plasma) and astrophysical observation (i.e. Comet, Cygnus X-3) are presented. Time evolution of charge stage and level population are also explored for collisional and photoionized plasmas.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Wavelength calibration of the Hamilton echelle spectrograph

We present the wavelength calibration of the Hamilton echelle spectrograph (the Lick observatory). The main problem of the calibration arises from the fact that thorium lines are absent in the spectrum of "ThAr" hollow-cathode lamp now under the operation. On the other hand, numerous unknown strong lines are present in the spectrum. These lines was identified with titanium. We estimate the temperature of the lamp gas which permits us to calculate the intensities of the lines, and to select a large number of relevant Ti I and Ti II lines. The titanium line list for the Lick hallow-cathode lamp is presented. The wavelength calibration using this line list was made with accuracy about 0.006A.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2013

LSS-GAC - A LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anti-center

As a major component of the LAMOST Galactic surveys, the LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anti-center (LSS-GAC) will survey a significant volume of the Galactic thin/thick disks and halo in a contiguous sky area of ~ 3,400sq.deg., centered on the Galactic anti-center (|b| <= 30°, 150 <= l <= 210°), and obtain λλ3800--9000 low resolution (R ~ 1,800) spectra for a statistically complete sample of >= 3M stars of all colors, uniformly and randomly selected from (r, g - r) and (r, r - i) Hess diagrams obtained from a CCD imaging photometric survey of ~ 5,400sq.deg. with the Xuyi 1.04/1.20 m Schmidt Telescope, ranging from r = 14.0 to a limiting magnitude of r = 17.8 (18.5 for limited fields). The survey will deliver spectral classification, radial velocity Vr and stellar parameters (effective temperature Teff, surface gravity log g and metallicity [Fe/H]) for millions of Galactic stars. Together with Gaia which will provide accurate distances and tangential velocities for a billion stars, the LSS-GAC will yield a unique dataset to study the stellar populations, chemical composition, kinematics and structure of the disks and their interface with the halo, identify streams of debris of tidally disrupted dwarf galaxies and clusters, probe the gravitational potential and dark matter distribution, map the 3D distribution of interstellar dust extinction, search for rare objects (e.g. extremely metal-poor or hyper-velocity stars), and ultimately advance our understanding of the assemblage of the Milky Way and other galaxies and the origin of regularity and diversity of their properties. ... (abridged)

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

Tracers of chromospheric structure. I. CaII H$\&$K emission distribution of 13000 F, G and K stars in SDSS DR7 spectroscopic sample

We present chromospheric activity index $S\rm_{HK}$ measurements for over 13,000 F, G and K disk stars with high signal-to-noise ratio ($>$ 60) spectra in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) spectroscopic sample. A parameter $δ$S is defined as the difference between $S\rm_{HK}$ and a `zero' emission line fitted by several of the most inactive stars. The $S\rm_{HK}$ indices of subgiant stars tend to be much lower than dwarfs, which provide a way to distinguish dwarfs and giants with relatively low resolution spectra. Cooler stars are generally more active and display a larger scatter than hotter stars. Stars associated with the thick disk are in general less active than those of the thin disk. The fraction of K dwarfs that are active drops with vertical distance from the Galactic plane. Metallicity affects $S\rm_{HK}$ measurements differently among F, G and K dwarfs in this sample. Using the open clusters NGC 2420, M67 and NGC6791 as calibrations, ages of most field stars in this SDSS sample range from 3-8 Gyr.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

72 DA White Dwarfs Identified in LAMOST Pilot Survey

We present a spectroscopically identified catalogue of 72 DA white dwarfs from the LAMOST pilot survey. 35 are found to be new identifications after cross-correlation with the Eisenstein et al. and Villanova catalogues. The effective temperature and gravity of these white dwarfs are estimated by Balmer lines fitting. Most of them are hot white dwarfs. The cooling times and masses of these white dwarfs are estimated by interpolation in theoretical evolution tracks. The peak of mass distribution is found to be $\sim$ 0.6 $M_\odot$ which is consistent with prior work in the literature. The distances of these white dwarfs are estimated using the method of Synthetic Spectral Distances. All of these WDs are found to be in the Galactic disk from our analysis of space motions. Our sample supports the expectation white dwarfs with high mass are concentrated near the plane of Galactic disk

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

The CH(G) Index as a New Criterion for Selecting Red Giant Stars

We have measured the CH G band (CH(G)) index for evolved stars in the globular cluster M3 based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic survey. It is found that there is a useful way to select red giant branch (RGB) stars from the contamination of other evolved stars such as asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and red horizontal branch (RHB) stars by using the CH(G) index versus (g-r) diagram if the metallicity is known from the spectra. When this diagram is applied to field giant stars with similar metallicity, we establish a calibration of CH(G)=1.625(g-r)-1.174(g-r)^2-0.934. This method is confirmed by stars with [Fe/H]~2.3 where spectra of member stars in globular clusters M15 and M92 are available in the SDSS database. We thus extend this kind of calibration to every individual metallicity bin ranging from [Fe/H] ~ -3.0 to [Fe/H] ~ 0.0 by using field red giant stars with 0.4 < (g-r) < 1.0. The metallicity-dependent calibrations give CH(G) =1.625(g-r)-1.174(g-r)^2+ 0.060[Fe/H]-0.830 for -3.0 < [Fe/H] <-1.2 and CH(G)=0.953(g-r)-0.655(g-r)^2+0.060[Fe/H]-0.650 for -1.2 < [Fe/H] < 0.0. The calibrations are valid for the SDSS spectroscopic data set, and they cannot be applied blindly to other data sets. With the two calibrations, a significant number of the contaminating stars (AGB and RHB stars) were excluded and thus a clear sample of red giant stars is obtained by selecting stars within 0.05 mag of the calibration. The sample is published online and it is expected that this large and clean sample of RGB stars will provide new information on the formation and evolution of the Galaxy.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Fluorine Abundances of Galactic Low-Metallicity Giants

With abundances and 2σ upper limits of fluorine (F) in seven metal-poor field giants, nucleosynthesis of stellar F at low metallicity is discussed. The measurements are derived from the HF(1-0) R9 line at 23358Å using nearinfrared K-band high-resolution spectra obtained with CRIRES at the Very Large Telescope. The sample reaches lower metallicities than previous studies on F of field giants, ranging from [Fe/H] = -1.56 down to -2.13. Effects of three-dimensional model atmospheres on the derived F and O abundances are quantitatively estimated and shown to be insignificant for the program stars. The observed F yield in the form of [F/O] is compared with two sets of Galactic chemical evolution models, which quantitatively demonstrate the contribution of Type II supernova (SN II) ν-process and asymptotic giant branch/Wolf-Rayet stars. It is found that at this low-metallicity region, models cannot well predict the observed distribution of [F/O], while the observations are better fit by models considering an SN II ν-process with a neutrino energy of E_ν = 3 x 10^53 erg. Our sample contains HD 110281, a retrograde orbiting low-α halo star, showing a similar F evolution as globular clusters. This supports the theory that such halo stars are possibly accreted from dwarf galaxy progenitors of globular clusters in the halo.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Buried heterostructure vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with semiconductor mirrors

We report a buried heterostructure vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser fabricated by epitaxial regrowth over an InGaAs quantum well gain medium. The regrowth technique enables microscale lateral confinement that preserves a high cavity quality factor (loaded $Q\approx$ 4000) and eliminates parasitic charging effects found in existing approaches. Under optimal spectral overlap between gain medium and cavity mode (achieved here at $T$ = 40 K) lasing was obtained with an incident optical power as low as $P_{\rm th}$ = 10 mW ($λ_{\rm p}$ = 808 nm). The laser linewidth was found to be $\approx$3 GHz at $P_{\rm p}\approx$ 5 $P_{\rm th}$.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2012

A Search for Metal-poor Stars Pre-enriched by Pair-instability Supernovae I. A Pilot Study for Target Selection from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

We report on a pilot study on identifying metal-poor stars pre-enriched by Pair-Instability Supernovae (PISNe). Very massive, first generation (Population III) stars (140M\odot \leq M \leq 260M\odot) end their lives as PISNe, which have been predicted by theories, but no relics of PISNe have been observed yet. Among the distinct characteristics of the yields of PISN, as predicted by theoretical calculations, are a strong odd-even effect, and a strong overabundance of Ca with respect to iron and the Solar ratio. We use the latter characteristic to identify metal-poor stars in the Galactic halo that have been pre-enriched by PISN, by comparing metallicites derived from strong, co-added Fe lines detected in low-resolution (i.e., R \sim 2000) spectra of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), with metallicities determined by the SDSS Stellar Parameters Pipeline (SSPP). The latter are based on the strength of the Ca II K line and assumptions on the Ca/Fe abundance ratio. Stars are selected as candidates if their metallicity derived from Fe lines is significantly lower than the SSPP metallicities. In a sample of 12,300 stars for which SDSS spectroscopy is available, we have identified 18 candidate stars. Higher resolution and signal-to-noise ratio spectra of these candidates are being obtained with the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory and the XSHOOTER spectrograph, to determine their abundance patterns, and to verify our selection method. We plan to apply our method to the data base of several million stellar spectra to be acquired with the LAMOST telescope in the next five years.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2012

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: cosmological implications of the large-scale two-point correlation function

We obtain constraints on cosmological parameters from the spherically averaged redshift-space correlation function of the CMASS Data Release 9 (DR9) sample of the Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). We combine this information with additional data from recent CMB, SN and BAO measurements. Our results show no significant evidence of deviations from the standard flat-Lambda CDM model, whose basic parameters can be specified by Omega_m = 0.285 +- 0.009, 100 Omega_b = 4.59 +- 0.09, n_s = 0.96 +- 0.009, H_0 = 69.4 +- 0.8 km/s/Mpc and sigma_8 = 0.80 +- 0.02. The CMB+CMASS combination sets tight constraints on the curvature of the Universe, with Omega_k = -0.0043 +- 0.0049, and the tensor-to-scalar amplitude ratio, for which we find r < 0.16 at the 95 per cent confidence level (CL). These data show a clear signature of a deviation from scale-invariance also in the presence of tensor modes, with n_s <1 at the 99.7 per cent CL. We derive constraints on the fraction of massive neutrinos of f_nu < 0.049 (95 per cent CL), implying a limit of sum m_nu < 0.51 eV. We find no signature of a deviation from a cosmological constant from the combination of all datasets, with a constraint of w_DE = -1.033 +- 0.073 when this parameter is assumed time-independent, and no evidence of a departure from this value when it is allowed to evolve as w_DE(a) = w_0 + w_a (1 - a). The achieved accuracy on our cosmological constraints is a clear demonstration of the constraining power of current cosmological observations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

The Kinematics and Chemistry of Red Horizontal Branch Stars in the Sagittarius Streams

We have selelcted 556 Red Horizontal Branch (RHB) stars along the streams of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr) from SDSS DR7 spectroscopic data using a theoretical model. The metallicity and α-elements distributions are investigated for stars in the Sgr streams and for Galactic stars at the same locations. We find that the Sgr stars have two peaks in the metallicity distribution while the Galactic stars have a more prominent metal-poor peak. Meanwhile, [α/Fe] ratios of the Sgr stars are lower than those of the Galactic stars. Among the Sgr stars, we find a difference in the metallicity distribution between the leading and trailing arms of the Sgr tidal tails. The metallicity and [α/Fe] distribution of the leading arm is similar to that of the Galaxy. The trailing arm is composed mainly of a metal rich component and [α/Fe] is obviously lower than that of the Galactic stars. The metallicity gradient is -(1.8 \pm 0.3)\times10^{-3} dex degree^{-1} in the first wrap of the trailing arm and -(1.5 \pm 0.4)\times10^{-3} dex degree^{-1} in the first wrap of the leading arm. No significant gradient exists along the second wraps of the leading or trailing arms. It seems that the Sgr dwarf galaxy initially lost the metal poor component in the second wrap (older) arms due to the tidal force of our Galaxy and then the metal rich component is disrupted in the first wrap (younger) arms. Finally, we found that the velocity dispersion of the trailing arm from 88^\circ<Λ_\odot<112^\circ is σ= 9.808 \pm 1.0 km s^{-1}, which is consistent with previous work in the literature.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2012

Abundances of neutron-capture elements in G 24-25. A halo-population CH subgiant

The differences between the neutron-capture element abundances of halo stars are important to our understanding of the nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than the iron group. We present a detailed abundance analysis of carbon and twelve neutron-capture elements from Sr up to Pb for a peculiar halo star G24-25 with [Fe/H] = -1.4 in order to probe its origin. The equivalent widths of unblended lines are measured from high resolution NOT/FIES spectra and used to derive abundances based on Kurucz model atmospheres. In the case of CH, Pr, Eu, Gd, and Pb lines, the abundances are derived by fitting synthetic profiles to the observed spectra. Abundance analyses are performed both relative to the Sun and to a normal halo star G16-20 that has similar stellar parameters as G24-25. We find that G24-25 is a halo subgiant star with an unseen component. It has large overabundances of carbon and heavy s-process elements and mild overabundances of Eu and light s-process elements. This abundance distribution is consistent with that of a typical CH giant. The abundance pattern can be explained by mass transfer from a former asymptotic giant branch component, which is now a white dwarf.

astro-ph.SR↗