arXiv subjects

O. Kochukhov

Publications and source records attributed to O. Kochukhov.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Magnetic Doppler imaging considering atmospheric structure modifications due to local abundances: a luxury or a necessity?

Magnetic Doppler imaging is currently the most powerful method of interpreting high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations of stars. This technique has revealed the presence of unexpected small-scale magnetic fields on the surfaces of Ap stars. These studies were recently criticisied by Stift et al. (2012), who claimed that magnetic inversions are not robust and are undermined by neglecting a feedback on the Stokes line profiles from the local atmospheric structure in the regions of enhanced metal abundance. We show that Stift et al. misinterpreted published magnetic Doppler imaging results and neglected some of the most fundamental principles behind magnetic mapping. We demonstrate that the variation of atmospheric structure across the surface of a star with chemical spots affects the local continuum intensity but is negligible for the normalised local Stokes profiles. For the disk-integrated spectra of an Ap star with extreme abundance variations, we find that the assumption of a mean model atmosphere leads to moderate errors in Stokes I but is negligible for polarisation spectra. Employing a new magnetic inversion code, which incorporates the horizontal variation of atmospheric structure, we reconstructed new maps of magnetic field and Fe abundance for the Ap star alpha^2 CVn. The resulting distribution of chemical spots changes insignificantly compared to the previous modelling based on a single model atmosphere, while the magnetic field geometry does not change at all. This shows that the assertions by Stift et al. are exaggerated as a consequence of unreasonable assumptions and extrapolations, as well as methodological flaws and inconsistencies of their analysis. Our discussion proves that published magnetic inversions based on a mean stellar atmosphere are robust and reliable, and that the presence of small-scale magnetic field structures on the surfaces of Ap stars is real.

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arXiv2011

Discovery of the longest-period rapidly oscillating Ap star HD177765

We present the discovery of a long-period, rapidly oscillating Ap star, HD177765. Using high-resolution time-series observations obtained with UVES at the ESO VLT telescope, we found radial velocity variations with amplitudes 7-150 m/s and a period of 23.6 min, exceeding that of any previously known roAp star. The largest pulsation amplitudes are observed for Eu III, Ce III and for the narrow core of Halpha. We derived the atmospheric parameters and chemical composition of HD177765, showing this star to be similar to other long-period roAp stars. Comparison with theoretical pulsational models indicates an advanced evolutionary state for HD177765. Abundance analyses of this and other roAp stars suggest a systematic variation with age of the rare-earth line anomalies seen in cool Ap stars.

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arXiv2011

Magnetic field measurements and their uncertainties: the FORS1 legacy

During the last decade, the FORS1 instrument of the ESO VLT has been extensively used to study stellar magnetism. A number of interesting discoveries of magnetic fields in several classes of stars have been announced, many of which obtained at a ~3 sigma level; some of the discoveries are confirmed by measurements obtained with other instruments, some are not. Here we investigate the reasons for the discrepancies between the results obtained with FORS1 and those obtained with other instruments. Using the ESO FORS pipeline, we have developed a semi-automatic procedure for magnetic field determination. We have applied this procedure to the full content of circular spectropolarimetric measurements of the FORS1 archive. We have devised and applied a number of consistency checks to our field determinations, and we have compared our results to those previously published in the literature. We find that for high signal-to-noise ratio measurements, photon noise does not account for the full error bars. We discuss how field measurements depend on the specific algorithm adopted for data reduction, and we show that very small instrument flexures, negligible in most of the instrument applications, may be responsible for some spurious field detections in the null profiles. Finally, we find that we are unable to reproduce some results previously published in the literature. Consequently, we do not confirm some important discoveries of magnetic fields obtained with FORS1 and reported in previous publications. Our revised field measurements show that there is no contradiction between the results obtained with the low-resolution spectropolarimeter FORS1 and those obtained with high-resolution spectropolarimeters. FORS1 is an instrument capable of performing reliable magnetic field measurements, provided that the various source of uncertainties are properly taken into account.

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arXiv2011

First HARPSpol discoveries of magnetic fields in massive stars

In the framework of the Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) project, a HARPSpol Large Program at the 3.6m-ESO telescope has recently started to collect high-resolution spectropolarimetric data of a large number of Southern massive OB stars in the field of the Galaxy and in many young clusters and associations. In this Letter, we report on the first discoveries of magnetic fields in two massive stars with HARPSpol - HD 130807 and HD 122451, and confirm the presence of a magnetic field at the surface of HD 105382 that was previously observed with a low spectral resolution device. The longitudinal magnetic field measurements are strongly varying for HD 130807 from $\sim$-100 G to $\sim$700 G. Those of HD 122451 and HD 105382 are less variable with values ranging from $\sim$-40 to -80 G, and from $\sim$-300 to -600 G, respectively. The discovery and confirmation of three new magnetic massive stars, including at least two He-weak stars, is an important contribution to one of the MiMeS objectives: the understanding of origin of magnetic fields in massive stars and their impacts on stellar structure and evolution.

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arXiv2011

Characterizing the magnetic fields of the first tau Sco analogues

The B0.2 V magnetic star tau Sco stands out from the larger population of massive OB stars due to its high X-ray activity, peculiar wind diagnostics and complex magnetic field. Recently, Petit et al. 2011 presented the discovery of the first two tau Sco analogues -- HD 66665 and HD 63425, identified by the striking similarity of their UV spectra to that of tau Sco. ESPaDOnS and Narval spectropolarimetric observations were obtained by the Magnetism in Massive Stars CFHT and TBL Large Programs, in order to characterize the stellar and magnetic properties of these stars. A magnetic field of similar surface strength was found on both stars, reinforcing the connection between the presence of a magnetic field and wind peculiarities. We present additional phase-resolved observations secured by the MiMeS collaboration for HD 66665 in order to measure its magnetic geometry, and correlate that geometry with diagnostics of mass-loss.

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arXiv2011

Magnetic Field and Atmospheric Chemical Abundances of the Magnetic Ap Star HD 318107

New spectra have been obtained with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter supplemented with unpolarised spectra from the ESO UVES, UVES-FLAMES, and HARPS spectrographs of the very peculiar large-field magnetic Ap star HD 318107, a member of the open cluster NGC 6405. The available data provide sufficient material with which to re-analyse the first-order model of the magnetic field geometry and to derive abundances of Si, Ti, Fe, Nd, Pr, Mg, Cr, Mn, O, and Ca. The magnetic field structure was modelled with a low-order colinear multipole expansion, using coefficients derived from the observed variations of the field strength with rotation phase. The abundances of several elements were determined using spectral synthesis. After experiments with a very simple model of uniform abundance on each of three rings of equal width in co-latitude and symmetric about the assumed magnetic axis, we decided to model the spectra assuming uniform abundances of each element over the stellar surface. The new magnetic field measurements allow us to refine the rotation period of HD 318107 to P = 9.7088 +/- 0.0007 days. Appropriate magnetic field model parameters were found that very coarsely describe the (apparently rather complex) field moment variations. Spectrum synthesis leads to the derivation of mean abundances for the elements Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Nd, and Pr. All of these elements except for Mg and Ca are strongly overabundant compared to the solar abundance ratios. There is considerable evidence of non-uniformity, for example in the different values of B_z found using lines of different elements. The present data set, while limited, is nevertheless sufficient to provide a useful first-order assessment of both the magnetic and surface abundance properties of HD 318107, making it one of the very few magnetic Ap stars of well-known age for which both of these properties have been studied.

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arXiv2011

No magnetic field in the spotted HgMn star mu Leporis

Chemically peculiar stars of the mercury-manganese (HgMn) type represent a new class of spotted late-B stars, in which evolving surface chemical inhomogeneities are apparently unrelated to the presence of strong magnetic fields but are produced by some hitherto unknown astrophysical mechanism. The goal of this study is to perform a detailed line profile variability analysis and carry out a sensitive magnetic field search for one of the brightest HgMn stars - mu Lep. We acquired a set of very high-quality intensity and polarization spectra of mu Lep with the HARPSpol polarimeter. These data were analyzed with the multiline technique of least-squares deconvolution in order to extract information on the magnetic field and line profile variability. Our spectra show very weak but definite variability in the lines of Sc, all Fe-peak elements represented in the spectrum of mu Lep, as well as Y, Sr, and Hg. Variability might also be present in the lines of Si and Mg. Anomalous profile shapes of Ti II and Y II lines suggest a dominant axisymmetric distribution of these elements. At the same time, we found no evidence of the magnetic field in mu Lep, with the 3 sigma upper limit of only 3 G for the mean longitudinal magnetic field. This is the most stringent upper limit on the possible magnetic field derived for a spotted HgMn star. The very weak variability detected for many elements in the spectrum mu Lep suggests that low-contrast chemical inhomogeneities may be common in HgMn stars and that they have not been recognized until now due to the limited precision of previous spectroscopic observations and a lack of time-series data. The null result of the magnetic field search reinforces the conclusion that formation of chemical spots in HgMn stars is not magnetically driven.

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arXiv2011

Stellar magnetism through the polarized eyes of the FORS1 instrument

During the last decade, the FORS1 instrument of the ESO Very Large Telescope has been used to obtain low resolution circular polarized spectra for about 500 stars, with the aim of measuring their mean longitudinal magnetic fields. Magnetic field estimates were obtained by different authors, using different software tools. Several interesting detections were obtained at a 3 sigma level; some of them were eventually confirmed by follow-up investigations, some of them were not. This raises issues about the reliability of the stated uncertainties of some of the published field values. To investigate these problems, we have developed a semi-automatic procedure for magnetic field determination, which includes self-consistent checks for field detection reliability. We have applied our procedure to the full content of single star ("fast mode") circular spectropolarimetric measurements of the FORS1 archive, and explored the details and interagreement of various methods for data reduction. We have finally produced a catalogue of FORS1 longitudinal field measurements which includes about 1000 entries. Here we critically review the previously published FORS1 measurements, and, based on our results, we suggest that the incidence of the magnetic field in various classes of stars should be revised.

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arXiv2011

Revisiting the Rigidly Rotating Magnetosphere model for sigma Ori E. I. Observations and Data Analysis

We have obtained 18 new high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations of the B2Vp star sigma Ori E with both the Narval and ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeters. The aim of these observations is to test, with modern data, the assumptions of the Rigidly Rotating Magnetosphere (RRM) model of Townsend & Owocki (2005), applied to the specific case of sigma Ori E by Townsend et al. (2005). This model includes a substantially offset dipole magnetic field configuration, and approximately reproduces previous observational variations in longitudinal field strength, photometric brightness, and Halpha emission. We analyze new spectroscopy, including H I, He I, C II, Si III and Fe III lines, confirming the diversity of variability in photospheric lines, as well as the double S-wave variation of circumstellar hydrogen. Using the multiline analysis method of Least-Squares Deconvolution (LSD), new, more precise longitudinal magnetic field measurements reveal a substantial variance between the shapes of the observed and RRM model time-varying field. The phase resolved Stokes V profiles of He I 5876 A and 6678 A lines are fit poorly by synthetic profiles computed from the magnetic topology assumed by Townsend et al. (2005). These results challenge the offset dipole field configuration assumed in the application of the RRM model to sigma Ori E, and indicate that future models of its magnetic field should also include complex, higher-order components.

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arXiv2011

Rotation, magnetism, and metallicity of M dwarf systems

Close M-dwarf binaries and higher multiples allow the investigation of rotational evolution and mean magnetic flux unbiased from scatter in inclination angle and age since the orientation of the spin axis of the components is most likely parallel and the individual systems are coeval. Systems composed of an early (M0.0 -- M4.0) and a late (M4.0 -- M8.0) type component offer the possibility to study differences in rotation and magnetism between partially and fully convective stars. We have selected 10 of the closest dM systems to determine the rotation velocities and the mean magnetic field strengths based on spectroscopic analysis of FeH lines of Wing-Ford transitions at 1 $μ$m observed with VLT/CRIRES. We also studied the quality of our spectroscopic model regarding atmospheric parameters including metallicity. A modified version of the Molecular Zeeman Library (MZL) was used to compute Landé g-factors for FeH lines. Magnetic spectral synthesis was performed with the Synmast code. We confirmed previously reported findings that less massive M-dwarfs are braked less effectively than objects of earlier types. Strong surface magnetic fields were detected in primaries of four systems (GJ 852, GJ 234, LP 717-36, GJ 3322), and in the secondary of the triple system GJ 852. We also confirm strong 2 kG magnetic field in the primary of the triple system GJ 2005. No fields could be accurately determined in rapidly rotating stars with $\vsini>10$ \kms. For slow and moderately rotating stars we find the surface magnetic field strength to increase with the rotational velocity $\vsini$ which is consistent with other results from studying field stars.

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arXiv2011

First detection of linear polarization in the line profiles of active cool stars

The application of high-resolution spectropolarimetry has led to major progress in understanding the magnetism and activity of late-type stars. During the last decade, magnetic fields have been discovered and mapped for many types of active cool stars using spectropolarimetric data. However, these observations and modeling attempts are fundamentally incomplete since they are based on the interpretation of the circular polarization alone. Taking advantage of the newly built HARPS polarimeter, we have obtained the first systematic observations of several cool active stars in all four Stokes parameters. Here we report the detection of magnetically-induced linear polarization for the primary component of the very active RS CVn binary HR 1099 and for the moderately active K dwarf epsilon Eri. For both stars the amplitude of linear polarization signatures is measured to be ~10^{-4} of the unpolarized continuum, which is approximately a factor of ten lower than for circular polarization. This is the first detection of the linear polarization in line profiles of cool active stars. Our observations of the inactive solar-like star alpha Cen A show neither circular nor linear polarization above the level of 10^{-5}, indicating the absence of a net longitudinal magnetic field stronger than 0.2 G.

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arXiv2011

Chemical spots in the absence of magnetic field in the binary HgMn star 66 Eridani

According to our current understanding, a subclass of the upper main sequence chemically peculiar stars, called mercury-manganese (HgMn), is non-magnetic. Nevertheless, chemical inhomogeneities were recently discovered on their surfaces. At the same time, no global magnetic fields stronger than 1-100 G are detected by modern studies. The goals of our study are to search for magnetic field in the HgMn binary system 66 Eri and to investigate chemical spots on the stellar surfaces of both components. Our analysis is based on high quality spectropolarimetric time-series observations obtained during 10 consecutive nights with the HARPSpol instrument at the ESO 3.6-m telescope. To increase the sensitivity of the magnetic field search we employed a least-squares deconvolution (LSD). We used spectral disentangling to measure radial velocities and study line profile variability. Chemical spot geometry was reconstructed using multi-line Doppler imaging. We report a non-detection of magnetic field in 66 Eri, with error bars 10-24 G for the longitudinal field. Circular polarization profiles also do not indicate any signatures of complex surface magnetic fields. For a simple dipolar field configuration we estimated an upper limit of the polar field strength to be 60-70 G. For the HgMn component we found variability in spectral lines of Ti, Ba, Y, and Sr with the rotational period equal to the orbital one. The surface maps of these elements reconstructed with the Doppler imaging technique, show relative underabundance on the hemisphere facing the secondary component. The contrast of chemical inhomogeneities ranges from 0.4 for Ti to 0.8 for Ba.

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arXiv2010

A detailed spectroscopic analysis of the open cluster NGC 5460

Within the context of a large project aimed at studying early F-, A- and late B-type stars we present the abundance analysis of the photospheres of 21 members of the open cluster NGC 5460, an intermediate age cluster (logt ~ 8.2) previously unstudied with spectroscopy. Our study is based on medium and high resolution spectra obtained with the FLAMES instrument of the ESO/VLT. We show that cluster members have a nearly solar metallicity, and that there is evidence that the abundances of magnesium and iron are correlated with the effective temperature, exhibiting a maximum around Teff=10500 K. No correlations are found between abundances and projected equatorial velocity, except for marginal evidence of barium being more abundant in slower than in faster rotating stars. We discovered two He-weak stars, and a binary system where the hotter component is a HgMn star. We provide new estimates for the cluster distance (720 +/- 50 pc), age (logt = 8.2 +/- 0.1), and mean radial velocity (-17.9 +/- 5.2 km/s).

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arXiv2010

Magnetic fields in M-dwarfs: quantitative results from detailed spectral synthesis in FeH lines

Strong surface magnetic fields are ubiquitously found in M-dwarfs with mean intensities on the order of few thousand Gauss-three orders of magnitude higher than the mean surface magnetic field of the Sun. These fields and their interaction with photospheric convection are the main source of stellar activity, which is of big interest to study links between parent stars and their planets. Moreover, the understanding of stellar magnetism, as well as the role of different dynamo-actions in particular, is impossible without explaining magnetic fields in M-dwarfs. Measuring magnetic field intensities and geometries in such cool objects, however, is strongly limited to our ability to simulate the Zeeman effect in molecular lines. In this work, we present quantitative results of modelling and analysis of the magnetic fields in selected M-dwarfs in FeH Wing-Ford lines and strong atomic lines. Some particular FeH lines are found to be the excellent probes of the magnetic field.

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arXiv2010

The search for magnetic fields in mercury-manganese stars

We performed a highly sensitive search for magnetic fields on a large set of HgMn stars. With the aid of a new polarimeter attached to the HARPS spectrometer at the ESO 3.6m-telescope, we obtained high-quality circular polarization spectra of 41 single and double HgMn stars. Using a multi-line analysis technique on each star, we co-added information from hundreds of spectral lines resulting in significantly greater sensitivity to the presence of magnetic fields, including very weak fields. For the 47 individual objects studied, including 6 components of SB2 systems, we do not detect any magnetic fields at greater than the 3 sigma level. The lack of detection in the circular polarization profiles indicates that if strong fields are present on these stars, they must have complex surface topologies. For simple global fields, our detection limits imply upper limits to the fields present of 2-10 Gauss in the best cases. We conclude that HgMn stars lack large-scale magnetic fields, typical for spotted magnetic Ap stars, sufficient to form and sustain the chemical spots observed on HgMn stars. Our study confirms that in addition to magnetically altered atomic diffusion, there exists another differentiation mechanism operating in the atmospheres of late-B main sequence stars which can compositional inhomogeneities on their surfaces.

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arXiv2010

Modeling the Magnetosphere of the B2Vp star sigma Ori E

This paper presents results obtained from Stokes I and V spectra of the B2Vp star sigma Ori E, observed by both the Narval and ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeters. Using Least- Squares Deconvolution, we investigate the longitudinal magnetic field at the current epoch, including period analysis exploiting current and historical data. sigma Ori E is the prototypical helium-strong star that has been shown to harbor a strong magnetic field, as well as a magnetosphere, consisting of two clouds of plasma forced by magnetic and centrifugal forces to co-rotate with the star on its 1.19 day period. The Rigidly Rotating Magnetosphere (RRM) model of Townsend & Owocki (2005) approximately reproduces the observed variations in longitudinal field strength, photometric brightness, Halpha emission, and various other observables. There are, however, small discrepancies between the observations and model in the photometric light curve, which we propose arise from inhomogeneous chemical abundances on the star's surface. Using Magnetic Doppler Imaging (MDI), future work will attempt to identify the contributions to the photometric variation due to abundance spots and due to circumstellar material.

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arXiv2010

The MiMeS Project: Overview and Current Status

The Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) Project is a consensus collaboration among many of the foremost international researchers of the physics of hot, massive stars, with the basic aim of understanding the origin, evolution and impact of magnetic fields in these objects. At the time of writing, MiMeS Large Programs have acquired over 950 high-resolution polarised spectra of about 150 individual stars with spectral types from B5-O4, discovering new magnetic fields in a dozen hot, massive stars. The quality of this spectral and magnetic matériel is very high, and the Collaboration is keen to connect with colleagues capable of exploiting the data in new or unforeseen ways. In this paper we review the structure of the MiMeS observing programs and report the status of observations, data modeling and development of related theory.

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arXiv2010

Least squares deconvolution of the stellar intensity and polarization spectra

Least squares deconvolution (LSD) is a powerful method of extracting high-precision average line profiles from the stellar intensity and polarization spectra. Despite its common usage, the LSD method is poorly documented and has never been tested using realistic synthetic spectra. In this study we revisit the key assumptions of the LSD technique, clarify its numerical implementation, discuss possible improvements and give recommendations how to make LSD results understandable and reproducible. We also address the problem of interpretation of the moments and shapes of the LSD profiles in terms of physical parameters. We have developed an improved, multiprofile version of LSD and have extended the deconvolution procedure to linear polarization analysis taking into account anomalous Zeeman splitting of spectral lines. This code is applied to the theoretical Stokes parameter spectra. We test various methods of interpreting the mean profiles, investigating how coarse approximations of the multiline technique translate into errors of the derived parameters. We find that, generally, the Stokes parameter LSD profiles do not behave as a real spectral line with respect to the variation of magnetic field and elemental abundance. This problem is especially prominent for the Stokes I variation with abundance and Stokes Q variation with magnetic field. At the same time, the Stokes V LSD spectra closely resemble profile of a properly chosen synthetic line for the magnetic field strength up to 1 kG. We conclude that the usual method of interpreting the LSD profiles by assuming that they are equivalent to a real spectral line gives satisfactory results only in a limited parameter range and thus should be applied with caution. A more trustworthy approach is to abandon the single-line approximation of the average profiles and apply LSD consistently to observations and synthetic spectra.

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