arXiv subjects

Ranjan Gupta

Publications and source records attributed to Ranjan Gupta.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

A CCD photometric study of the late type contact binary EK Comae Berenices

We present CCD photometric observations of the W UMa type contact binary EK Comae Berenices using the 2 metre telescope of $IUCAA$ Girawali Observatory, India. The star was classified as a W UMa type binary of subtype-W by \citet{sam1996}. The new V band photometric observations of the star reveal that shape of the light curve has changed significantly from the one observed by \citet{sam1996}. A detailed analysis of the light curve obtained from the high-precision CCD photometric observations of the star indicates that EK Comae Berenices is not a W-type but an A-type totally eclipsing W UMa contact binary. The photometric mass ratio is determined to be 0.349 $\pm$ 0.005. A temperature difference of $ΔT = 141 \pm 10 $ K between the components and an orbital inclination of $i [^{o}] = 89.800 \pm 0.075$ were obtained for the binary system. Absolute values of masses, radii and luminosities are estimated by means of the standard mass-luminosity relation for zero age main-sequence stars. The star shows O'Connell effect, asymmetries in the light curve shape around the primary and secondary maximum. The observed O'Connell effect is explained by the presence of a hot spot on the primary component.

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arXiv2009

Automated star-galaxy segregation using spectral and integrated band data for TAUVEX/ASTROSAT satellite data pipeline

We employ an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based technique to develop a pipeline for automated segregation of stars from the galaxies to be observed by Tel-Aviv University Ultra-Violet Experiment (TAUVEX). We use synthetic spectra of stars from UVBLUE library and selected International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) low resolution spectra for galaxies in the ultraviolet (UV) region from 1250 to 3220Åas the training set and IUE low-resolution spectra for both the stars and the galaxies as the test set. All the data sets have been pre-processed to get band integrated fluxes so as to mimic the observations of the TAUVEX UV imager. We also perform the ANN based segregation scheme using the full length spectral features (which will also be useful for the ASTROSAT mission). Our results suggest that, in the case of the non-availability of full spectral features, the limited band integrated features can be used to segregate the two classes of objects; although the band data classification is less accurate than the full spectral data classification.

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arXiv2009

A study of frequency and size distribution dependence of extinction for astronomical silicate and graphite grains

It is generally agreed that interstellar dust grains consist of two main components, namely, silicates and graphites. Some models, like MRN model, assume these grains to be homogeneous spheres following a power law size distribution. This paper presents, in the framework of Mie theory, a parametrization of extinction spectrum curves of the silicates and the graphites separately in terms of frequency and the minimum and maximum of sizes in the distribution. Analytic expressions in ultraviolet and far-ultraviolet are presented for both types of grains.The values of maximum and minimum sizes for which these equations are valid have been identified. These equations can be useful in a number of situations involving silicate and graphite grains.

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arXiv2009

Composite Grains: Effects of Porosity and Inclusions on the 10$μ$m Silicate Feature

We calculate the absorption efficiency of the composite grains, made up of host silicate spheroids and inclusions of ices/graphites/or voids, in the spectral region $7.0-14.0μ$m The absorption efficiencies of the composite spheroidal grains for three axial ratios are computed using the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) as well as using the effective medium approximation & T-Matrix (EMT-Tmatrix) ap proach. We study the absorption as a function of the volume fraction of the inclusions and porosity. In particular, we study the variation in the $10.0μ$m feature with the volume fraction of the inclusions and porosity. We then calculate the infrared fluxes for these composite grains and compare the model curves with the average observed IRAS-LRS curve, obtained for several circumstellar dust shells around stars. These results on the composite grains show that the wavelength of the peak absorption shifts and the width of the $10.0μ$m feature varies with the variation in the volume fraction of the inclusions. The model curves for composite grains with axial ratios not very large (AR$\sim$1.3) and volume fractions of inclusions with f=0.20, and dust temperature of about 250-300$^{\circ}$K, fit the observed emission curves reasonably well.

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arXiv2008

Automated Classification of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stellar Spectra using Artificial Neural Networks

Automated techniques have been developed to automate the process of classification of objects or their analysis. The large datasets provided by upcoming spectroscopic surveys with dedicated telescopes urges scientists to use these automated techniques for analysis of such large datasets which are now available to the community. Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is one of such surveys releasing massive datasets. We use Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) for automatic classification of about 5000 SDSS spectra into 158 spectral type of a reference library ranging from O type to M type stars.

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arXiv2007

A 3D Automated Classification Scheme for the TAUVEX data pipeline

In order to develop a pipeline for automated classification of stars to be observed by the TAUVEX ultraviolet space Telescope, we employ an artificial neural network (ANN) technique for classifying stars by using synthetic spectra in the UV region from 1250Åto 3220Åas the training set and International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) low resolution spectra as the test set. Both the data sets have been pre-processed to mimic the observations of the TAUVEX ultraviolet imager. We have successfully classified 229 stars from the IUE low resolution catalog to within 3-4 spectral sub-class using two different simulated training spectra, the TAUVEX spectra of 286 spectral types and UVBLUE spectra of 277 spectral types. Further, we have also been able to obtain the colour excess (i.e. E(B-V) in magnitude units) or the interstellar reddening for those IUE spectra which have known reddening to an accuracy of better than 0.1 magnitudes. It has been shown that even with the limitation of data from just photometric bands, ANNs have not only classified the stars, but also provided satisfactory estimates for interstellar extinction. The ANN based classification scheme has been successfully tested on the simulated TAUVEX data pipeline. It is expected that the same technique can be employed for data validation in the ultraviolet from the virtual observatories. Finally, the interstellar extinction estimated by applying the ANNs on the TAUVEX data base would provide an extensive extinction map for our galaxy and which could in turn be modeled for the dust distribution in the galaxy.

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arXiv2007

A Near-Infrared Stellar Spectral Library: III. J-Band Spectra

This paper is the third in the series of papers published on near-infrared (NIR) stellar spectral library by Ranade et al. (2004 & 2007). The observations were carried out with 1.2 meter Gurushikhar Infrared Telescope (GIRT), at Mt. Abu, India using a NICMOS3 HgCdTe $256 \times 256$ NIR array based spectrometer. In paper I (Ranade et al. 2004), H-band spectra of 135 stars at a resolution of $\sim 16$Å& paper II (Ranade et al. 2007), K band spectra of 114 stars at a resolution of $\sim 22$Åwere presented. The J-band library being released now consists of 126 stars covering spectral types O5--M8 and luminosity classes I--V. The spectra have a moderate resolution of $\sim 12.5$Åin the J band and have been continuum shape corrected to their respective effective temperatures. The complete set of library in near-infrared (NIR) will serve as a good database for researchers working in the field of stellar population synthesis. The complete library in J, H & K is available online at: http://vo.iucaa.ernet.in/$\sim$voi/NIR\_Header.html

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arXiv2007

A Near-Infrared Stellar Spectral Library: II. K-Band Spectra

This paper is the second in the series of papers on near-infrared (NIR) stellar spectral library produced by reducing the observations carried out with 1.2 meter Gurushikhar Infrared Telescope (GIRT), at Mt. Abu, India using a NICMOS3 HgCdTe 256 X 256 NIR array based spectrometer. In paper I (Ranade et al. 2004), H-band spectra of 135 stars at a resolution of ~16 Ang were presented. The K-band library being released now consists of 114 stars covering spectral types O7--M7 and luminosity classes I--V. The spectra have a moderate resolution of ~22 Ang in the K band and have been continuum shape corrected to their respective effective temperatures. We hope to release the remaining J-band spectra soon. The complete H and K-Band library is available online at: http://vo.iucaa.ernet.in/~voi/NIR_Header.html

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arXiv2007

Composite Interstellar Grains

The composite grain is made up of a host silicate spheroid and graphite inclusions. The extinction efficiencies of the composite spheroidal grains for three axial ratios are computed using the discrete dipole approximation (DDA). The interstellar extinction curve is evaluated in the spectral region 3.40--0.10$μm$ using the extinction efficiencies of the composite spheroidal grains. The model extinction curves are then compared with the average observed interstellar extinction curve. We also calculate the linear polarization for the spheroidal composite grains at three orientation angles and find the wavelength of maximum polarization. Further, we estimate the volume extinction factor, an important parameter from the point of view of cosmic abundance, for the composite grain models that reproduce the average observed interstellar extinction. The estimated abundances derived from the composite grain models for both carbon and silicon are found to be lower than that are predicted by the bare silicate/graphite grain models but these values are still higher than that are implied from the recent ISM values.

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arXiv2005

Reliability checks on the Indo-US Stellar Spectral Library using Artificial Neural Networks and Principal Component Analysis

The Indo-US coudé feed stellar spectral library (CFLIB) made available to the astronomical community recently by Valdes et al. (2004) contains spectra of 1273 stars in the spectral region 3460 to 9464 Åat a high resolution of 1 ÅFWHM and a wide range of spectral types. Cross-checking the reliability of this database is an important and desirable exercise since a number of stars in this database have no known spectral types and a considerable fraction of stars has not so complete coverage in the full wavelength region of 3460-9464 Å resulting in gaps ranging from a few Åto several tens of Å. In this paper, we use an automated classification scheme based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to classify all 1273 stars in the database. In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) is carried out to reduce the dimensionality of the data set before the spectra are classified by the ANN. Most importantly, we have successfully demonstrated employment of a variation of the PCA technique to restore the missing data in a sample of 300 stars out of the CFLIB.

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arXiv2005

Interstellar Extinction by Spheroidal Dust Grains

Observations of interstellar extinction and polarization indicate that the interstellar medium consists of aligned non-spherical dust grains which show variation in the interstellar extinction curve for wavelengths ranging from NIR to UV. To model the extinction and polarization, one cannot use the Mie theory which assumes the grains as solid spheres. We have used a T-matrix based method for computing the extinction efficiencies of spheroidal silicate and graphite grains of different shapes (axial ratios) and sizes and used these efficiencies to evaluate the interstellar extinction curve in the wavelength range 3.4--1.0 microns. A best fit linear combination of silicate and graphite grains of not very large axial ratio, fits the observed extinction curve reasonably well. We calculate the volume extinction factor Vc, which is an important parameter from the point of view of the cosmic abundance, for the spheroidal grain models that reproduce the interstellar extinction curve. We find that the shape of the grains do not affect the volume extinction factor. Finally we have also studied the extinction and linear polarization efficiencies for aligned spheroids. The results show that the shape of grains affects the linear polarization efficiencies considerably for various orientation angles of the spheroids.

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arXiv2005

Scattering properties and composition of cometary dust

Composition of Comet dust obtained by the dust impact analyser on the Halley probes indicated that the comet dust is a mixure of silicate and carbonaceous material. The collected interplanetary dust particles (IDP's) are fluffy and composite having grains of several different types stuck together. Using Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) we study the scattering properties of composite grains. In particular, we study the angular distribution of the scattered intensity and linear polarization of composite grains. We assume that the composite grains are made up of host silicate sphere/spheroid with the inclusions of graphite. Results of our calculations on the composite grains show that the angle of maximum polarization shifts, and the degree of polarizaion varies with the volume fraction of inclusions. We use these results on the composite grains to interpret the observed scattering in the cometary dust.

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arXiv2004

Automated Classification of 2000 Bright IRAS Sources

An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been employed using a supervised back-propagation scheme to classify 2000 bright sources from the Calgary database of IRAS (Infrared Astronomy Satellite) spectra in the wavelength region of 8-23 microns. The data base has been classified into 17 pre-determined classes based on spectral morphology. We have been able to classify more than 80 percent of the 2000 sources correctly at the first instance. The speed and robustness of the scheme will allow us to classify the whole of LRS database, containing more than 50,000 sources in the future.

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arXiv2004

The Indo-U.S. Library of Coude Feed Stellar Spectra

We have obtained spectra for 1273 stars using the 0.9m Coudé Feed telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. This telescope feeds the coudé spectrograph of the 2.1m telescope. The spectra have been obtained with the #5 camera of the coudé spectrograph and a Loral 3K X 1K CCD. Two gratings have been used to provide spectral coverage from 3460 Åto 9464 Å, at a resolution of $\sim$1ÅFWHM and at an original dispersion of 0.44 Å/pixel. For 885 stars we have complete spectra over the entire 3460 Åto 9464 Åwavelength region (neglecting small gaps of $<$ 50 Å), and partial spectral coverage for the remaining stars. The 1273 stars have been selected to provide broad coverage of the atmospheric parameters T$_{eff}$, log g, and [Fe/H], as well as spectral type. The goal of the project is to provide a comprehensive library of stellar spectra for use in the automated classification of stellar and galaxy spectra and in galaxy population synthesis. In this paper we discuss the characteristics of the spectral library, viz., details of the observations, data reduction procedures, and selection of stars. We also present a few illustrations of the quality and information available in the spectra. The first version of the complete spectral library is now publicly available from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) via FTP and HTTP.

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arXiv1997

An Imaging Polarimeter(IMPOL) for multi-wavelength observations

Taking advantage of the advances in array detector technology, an imaging polarimeter (IMPOL) has been constructed for measuring linear polarization in the wavelength band from 400-800 nm. It makes use of a Wollaston prism as the analyser to measure simultaneously the two orthogonal polarization components that define a Stoke's parameter. An achromatic half-wave plate is used to rotate the plane of polarization with respect to the axis of the analyser so that the second Stoke's parameter also can be determined. With a field of view correponding to about 30x30 sq. mm for a 1.2 m, f/13 telescope, a sensitive, liquid-nitrogen cooled CCD camera as the detector and a built-in acquisition and guidance unit, the instrument can be used for studying stellar fields or extended objects with an angular resolution close to 2 arcsec. The instrumental polarization is less than 0.05% and the accuracies of measurement are primarily limited by photon noise for typical observations.

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