arXiv subjects

Yujuan Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Yujuan Liu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The capability of CSST in characterizing planetary atmospheres. I. transmission spectroscopy of hot Jupiters

Transmission spectroscopy has become a primary tool for probing exoplanetary atmospheres, enabling constraints on their chemical compositions and providing limited information on their thermal properties. We assess the potential of the upcoming Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) for exoplanet atmospheric characterization through transmission spectroscopy. Theoretical spectra of hot gas planets are generated and used to simulate slitless spectroscopic observations with the CSST across the ultraviolet-to-near-infrared range. Atmospheric retrievals performed on the simulated data are compared with the input models to assess the robustness and accuracy of parameter determinations. We find that multi-band observations across three wavelength channels, each with two transits can place meaningful constraints on key atmospheric parameters. For multi-band observations that account for correlated (red) noise, future CSST observations are expected to achieve constraints that are comparable to, or in some cases slightly weaker than, those of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), depending on the noise level and observing strategy. We conclude that CSST will provide unique and complementary constraints on the chemical compositions and physical properties of exoplanetary atmospheres, particularly for atomic species, metal-bearing molecules, and scattering processes accessible in the UV and optical, thereby complementing JWST's infrared sensitivity to molecular species.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES). V. The First Data Release of the DDO51 Band

We present the first public data release of DDO51 band from the Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES), based on Nanshan One-meter Wide-field Telescope (NOWT) observations obtained between 2023 September and 2024 January. This release initiates the DDO51-band component of the survey, covering $\sim$ 2,500 deg$^2$ of the northern sky and including more than 10 million sources. The DDO51 filter is centered near the \ion{Mg}{1}~$b$ triplet and the adjacent MgH feature, offering sensitivity to stellar surface gravity. The data reduction pipeline incorporates an improved astrometric solution anchored to Gaia DR3 and a photometric calibration strategy tied to synthetic photometry from Gaia XP spectra. These procedures yield a point-source depth of $\sim$18.9 mag at S/N$\sim$10 and an internal photometric precision $\approx$6-7 mmag at the bright end. A preliminary color--color analysis using Gaia broadband photometry confirms the expected sensitivity of the DDO51 band to stellar surface gravity, demonstrating a clear photometric separation between dwarf and giant sequences for late-type stars. This dataset, when combined with existing SAGES photometry in other bands, provides a crucial tool for disentangling the substructures of the Milky Way. All data products from this release upon publication will be available.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

The Spectroscopic and Photometric Study of a Star Cluster Sample in Andromeda Halo

Halo star clusters serve as vital tracers for the formation and evolution of the Andromeda galaxy. In this work, we present physical parameters for 29 M31 halo star clusters, derived from a combination of spectroscopic and photometric data. Low-resolution spectra were acquired using the BFOSC spectrograph on the NAOC Xinglong 2.16-m telescope. For the photometric analysis, we utilized uSC and vSAGE bands from the SAGE survey, complemented by archival data from GALEX(NUV, FUV), PAN-STARRS(grizy) and the 2MASS(JHK). Ages and metallicities were determined via ULySS (Vazdekis et al. and pegase-hr) SSP model and the Bruzual & Charlot (2003) (BC03) stellar population synthesis models. The derived parameters show good agreement with literature values. Notably, for three of these clusters, this study represents the first combined photometric and spectroscopic analysis.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Thermal emission spectra of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-33 b

Observations of exoplanetary atmospheres provide critical insights into their chemical composition, formation and evolution history. Ultra-hot Jupiters serve as excellent targets for atmospheric characterization; studies of these planets may yield key understanding of gas giant's formation and evolution history. We present a thermal emission study of WASP-33 b's dayside atmosphere, based on two secondary eclipse observations with CFHT/WIRCam in two specific narrow band filters, namely the CO and CH4$_{\rm on}$ filters, and archival data with HST/WFC3 and Spitzer. Stellar pulsations of the host star induce some quasi-periodic photometric variations, particularly in the CH4$_{\rm on}$ band, which are modelled and corrected in the high-precision differential light curves. An eclipse depth of $1565.2^{+228.6}_{-237.5}$ ppm and $914.3^{+56.1}_{-57.0}$ ppm is determined for the CO and CH4$_{\rm on}$ bands, respectively. Combined with HST/WFC3 and Spitzer data, our joint retrieval of WASP-33 b's dayside atmosphere reveals a high metallicity ([Fe/H] $= 1.52^{+0.35}_{-0.52}$), high C/O ratio (C/O $= 0.78^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$), and a thermal inversion layer, suggesting a formation history involving metal-rich gas accretion. We confirm the presence of the molecules H$_{2}$O, H$^{-}$ and CO, and report a tentative detection of TiO in the dayside atmosphere of WASP-33 b. Future higher precision observations with JWST may provide better understand constraints on the chemical abundances of oxygen and refractory element abundances to better WASP-33 b's formation and evolutionary pathway.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Unraveling Year-Long Radial Velocity Variations in Red Clump Region -- I: Comprehensive analysis of a K0 Giant star, 2 Draconis

Slow-rotating evolved stars frequently exhibit radial velocity (RV) variations on annual timescales, complicated by instrumental systematics and aliasing in the one-year regime. Here we investigate the origin of the near-yearly periodicity in 2 Dra, a star located in the red-clump region, assessing possible causes between stellar activity, instrumental profile (IP) effects, sampling alias, and planetary companions. We applied two independent approaches: (1) constraining diagnostic signals and performing a correlation analysis ($r$) between period-confined signals, and (2) evaluating phase stability by partitioning Keplerian fits. These methods enabled us to examine the physical connections and phase coherence among stellar activity indicators, RV measurements, and IP diagnostics. Our analysis suggests a stellar rotation period of $\simeq270\text{--}320$\,d for 2~Dra. The 340-d RV signal does not appear to originate from stellar activity in this chromospherically quiet star ($|r| \lesssim 0.33$), nor from instrumental systematics near the annual period ($|r| \lesssim 0.1$). This conclusion is supported by contrasting phase behavior: the RV and stellar activity phases remain stable, whereas the IP phases do not. We therefore propose that the 340-d variation likely arises from either small-amplitude intrinsic variability or a tentative gas giant companion with potential weak activity-induced modulation. The case of 2~Dra provides a framework for distinguishing the origins of $\sim$1-yr RV variations in other evolved stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES). IV. Surface Gravity Estimation and Giant-Dwarf Separation with the DDO51 Filter

Reliable estimation of stellar surface gravity (log $g$) for a large sample is crucial for evaluating stellar evolution models and understanding galactic structure; However, it is not easy to accomplish due to the difficulty in gathering a large spectroscopic data set. Photometric sky survey using a specific filter, on the other hand, can play a substantial role in the assessment of log $g$. The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES) utilizes eight filters to provide accurate stellar parameters for $\sim10^{7}$ stars, with its DDO51 intermediate-band filter specifically designed for robust log $g$ determination. In this work, the observed SAGES $u_{\rm SC}$ and $v_{\rm SAGES}$ photometry, the synthetic photometry in $g$, $r$, $i$, and DDO51 bands derived from \textit{Gaia} XP spectra are employed to investigate the importance of the DDO51 filter in the determination of log $g$. We applied machine-learning-based extinction correction and employed XGBoost models, trained on stellar parameters from LAMOST, to predict log $g$ using photometric data. By comparing model predicted log $g$ with LAMOST values, we find that including DDO51 filter improve the accuracies of log $g$ estimates by 21.0\% (from 0.224\,dex to 0.177\,dex) overall, and by 26.5\% (from 0.302\,dex to 0.222\,dex ) for GK-type stars, as compared to those obtained without DDO51. The DDO51 filter is also validated to be particularly effective for metal-poor stars ([Fe/H]$<$-1.0), where it significantly mitigates systematic biases. Our findings highlight the diagnostic power of the SAGES DDO51 filter, providing enhanced stellar characterization vital for future in-depth studies of the Milky Way.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

Looking for Signs of Unresolved Binarity in the Continuum of LAMOST Stellar Spectra

We describe an attempt to derive the binarity rate of samples of 166 A-, F-, G-, and K-type stars from LAMOST DR5 and 1000 randomly selected presumably single stars from Gaia DR3 catalogs. To this end, we compared continua of the observed spectra with the continua of synthetic spectra in the 3700 to 9097 Angstrom range. The latter spectra were reduced to the LAMOST set of wavelengths, while the former ones were smoothed. Next, we searched for every observed star the nearest synthetic spectrum using a four-parameter representation - effective temperature, gravity, [Fe/H], and a range of interstellar absorption values. However, rms deviations of observed spectra from synthetic ones appeared to be not sufficient to claim that any of the stars is a binary. We conclude that comparison of the intensity of pairs of spectral lines remains the best way to detect binarity.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

Robust Atom Interferometry with Super-Gaussian Pulses against Thermal Velocity Spread

Laser frequency fluctuation and atomic thermal motion can lead to errors in pulse duration and detuning in cold atom interferometry, thereby reducing measurement stability and fringe contrast. To address this issue, we investigate the use of super-Gaussian pulses, which are characterized by smooth temporal profiles and centralized energy distribution, in the beam-splitting and reflection stages of an atom interferometer. Through numerical simulations, we compare the performance of rectangular, Gaussian, and 2nd- to 10th-order super-Gaussian pulses subject to deviations in pulse duration and detuning. Our results show that both Gaussian and super-Gaussian pulses offer a significant advantage over traditional rectangular pulses, particularly under thermal conditions where velocity spread is prominent. We find that 4th-order pulses achieving up to a 90\% improvement in contrast over rectangular pulses under realistic conditions, and while their peak performance at very low temperatures is comparable to that of Gaussian pulses, they demonstrate enhanced robustness against combined detuning and pulse-length errors. These findings demonstrate that super-Gaussian pulse shaping is an effective method for enhancing the robustness of atom interferometers against errors induced by thermal motion.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2025

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES). II. Machine Learning-Based Stellar parameters for 21 million stars from the First Data Release

Stellar parameters for large samples of stars play a crucial role in constraining the nature of stars and stellar populations in the Galaxy. An increasing number of medium-band photometric surveys are presently used in estimating stellar parameters. In this study, we present a machine-learning approach to derive estimates of stellar parameters, including [Fe/H], logg, and Teff, based on a combination of medium-band and broad-band photometric observations. Our analysis employs data primarily sourced from the SAGE Survey , which aims to observe much of the Northern Hemisphere. We combine the $uv$-band data from SAGES DR1 with photometric and astrometric data from Gaia EDR3, and apply the random forest method to estimate stellar parameters for approximately 21 million stars. We are able to obtain precisions of 0.09 dex for [Fe/H], 0.12 dex for logg, and 70 K for Teff. Furthermore, by incorporating 2MASS and WISE infrared photometric and GALEX ultraviolet data, we are able to achieve even higher precision estimates for over 2.2 million stars. These results are applicable to both giant and dwarf stars. Building upon this mapping, we construct a foundational dataset for research on metal-poor stars, the structure of the Milky Way, and beyond. With the forthcoming release of additional bands from SAGE Survey such DDO51 and H-alpha, this versatile machine learning approach is poised to play an important role in upcoming surveys featuring expanded filter sets

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

The Terminator Region Atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-77Ab with ESPRESSO/VLT observations

Atmospheric studies are essential for elucidating the formation history, evolutionary processes, and atmospheric dynamics of exoplanets. High-resolution transmission spectroscopy offers the advantage of detecting subtle variations in stellar spectral profiles, thereby enabling the identification of the sources of observed signals. In this study, we present the transmission spectra of the exoplanet WASP-77Ab, a hot Jupiter with a 1.36-day orbital period around a G8 host star with $V=11.29$ mag. These observations were conducted using the high-resolution spectrograph ESPRESSO at the Very Large Telescope over three transit events. We analyze the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for WASP-77A and determine a projected spin-orbit angle of ${λ= 16.131^{\circ}}^{+2.106}_{-2.324}$, indicating that the planet's orbit is nearly aligned. Following the generation of transmission spectra for the three nights, we model and correct for center-to-limb variation and the Rossiter-McLaughlin effects. In the residual transmission spectra, we detect H$α$, H$β$ and CaII H with a significance exceeding 3.5$σ$. After applying 0.1-0.5 Å masks to the cores of these lines to mitigate stellar contamination, all them still shows visible absorptions although not significant, suggesting at least partial planet contribution to them. Therefore, we are yet unable to confirm or reject the planetary origin of these spectral signals based on the current data set. Further investigation of WASP-77Ab's atmosphere, particularly in areas beyond the terminator region, is essential to illuminate the planet's two-dimensional atmospheric structure.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2024

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES) III -- The g/r/i-band Data Release

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES) is a multi-band survey that covers the northern sky area of ~12000 deg2. Nanshan One-meter Wide-field Telescope (NOWT) of Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (XAO) carried out observations on g/r/i bands. We present here the survey strategy, data processing, catalog construction, and database schema. The observations of NOWT started in 2016 August and was completed in 2018 January, total 17827 frames were obtained and ~4600 deg2 sky areas were covered. In this paper, we released the catalog of the data in the g/r/i bands observed with NOWT. In total, there are 109,197,578 items of the source records. The catalog is the supplement for the SDSS for the bright end, and the combination of our catalog and these catalogs could be helpful for source selections for other surveys and the Milky Way sciences, e.g., white dwarf candidates and stellar flares.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Atmospheric composition of WASP-85Ab with ESPRESSO/VLT observations

Transit spectroscopy is the most frequently used technique to reveal the atmospheric properties of exoplanets, while that at high resolution has the advantage to resolve the small Doppler shift of spectral lines, and the trace signal of the exoplanet atmosphere can be separately extracted. We obtain the transmission spectra of the extrasolar planet WASP-85Ab, a hot Jupiter in a 2.655-day orbit around a G5, V=11.2 mag host star, observed by high-resolution spectrograph ESPRESSO at the Very Large Telescope array for three transits. We present an analysis of the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect on WASP-85A, and determine a spin-orbit angle ${λ= -16.155^{\circ}}^{+2.916}_{-2.879}$, suggesting that the planet is in an almost aligned orbit. Combining the transmission spectra of three nights, we tentatively detected H$α$ and Ca II absorption with $\gtrapprox 3σ$ via direct visual inspection of the transmission spectra with the Center-to-Limb variation and the Rossiter-McLaughlin effects removed, which still remain visible after excluding the cores of these strong lines with a 0.1 A mask. These spectral signals seems likely to origin from the planetary atmosphere, but we can not fully exclude their stellar origins. Via the cross-correlation analysis of a set of atoms and molecules, Li I is marginally detected at $\sim4σ$ level, suggesting that Li might be present in the atmosphere of WASP-85Ab.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2023

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES) -- -- I. General Description and the First Data Release (DR1)

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES) of the northern sky is a specifically-designed multi-band photometric survey aiming to provide reliable stellar parameters with accuracy comparable to those from low-resolution optical spectra. It was carried out with the 2.3-m Bok telescope of Steward Observatory and three other telescopes. The observations in the $u_s$ and $v_s$ passband produced over 36,092 frames of images in total, covering a sky area of $\sim9960$ degree$^2$. The median survey completeness of all observing fields for the two bands are of $u_{\rm s}=20.4$ mag and $v_s=20.3$ mag, respectively, while the limiting magnitudes with signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 100 are $u_s\sim17$ mag and $v_s\sim18$ mag, correspondingly. We combined our catalog with the data release 1 (DR1) of the first of Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1, PS1) catalog, and obtained a total of 48,553,987 sources which have at least one photometric measurement in each of the SAGES $u_s$ and $v_s$ and PS1 $grizy$ passbands, which is the DR1 of SAGES and it will be released in our paper. We compare our $gri$ point-source photometry with those of PS1 and found an RMS scatter of $\sim2$% in difference of PS1 and SAGES for the same band. We estimated an internal photometric precision of SAGES to be on the order of $\sim1$%. Astrometric precision is better than $0^{\prime\prime}.2$ based on comparison with the DR1 of Gaia mission. In this paper, we also describe the final end-user database, and provide some science applications.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Detection of rubidium and samarium in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter MASCARA-4b

Ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) possess the most extreme environments among various types of exoplanets, making them ideal laboratories to study the chemical composition and kinetics properties of exoplanet atmosphere with high-resolution spectroscopy (HRS). It has the advantage of resolving the tiny Doppler shift and weak signal from exoplanet atmosphere and has helped to detect dozens of heavy elements in UHJs including KELT-9b, WASP-76b, WASP-121b. MASCARA-4b is a 2.8-day UHJ with an equilibrium temperature of $\sim2250$ K, which is expected to contain heavy elements detectable with VLT. In this letter, we present a survey of atoms/ions in the atmosphere of the MASCARA-4b, using the two VLT/ESPRESSO transits data. Cross-correlation analyses are performed on the obtained transmission spectra at each exposure with the template spectra generated by petitRADTRANS for atoms/ions from element Li to U. We confirm the previous detection of Mg, Ca, Cr and Fe and report the detection of Rb, Sm, Ti+ and Ba+ with peak signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) $>$ 5. We report a tentative detection of Sc+, with peak SNRs $\sim$6 but deviating from the estimated position. The most interesting discovery is the first-time detection of elements Rb and Sm in an exoplanet. Rb is an alkaline element like Na and K, while Sm is the first lanthanide series element and is by far the heaviest one detected in exoplanets. Detailed modeling and acquiring more data are required to yield abundance ratios of the heavy elements and to understand better the common presence of them in UHJ's atmospheres.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2023

Detection of TiO and VO in the atmosphere of WASP-121b and Evidence for its temporal variation

We report the transit observations of the ultra hot Jupiter WASP-121b using the Goodman High Throughput Spectrograph (GHTS) at the 4-meter ground-based telescope Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR), covering the wavelength range $502-900$ nm. By dividing the target and reference star into 19 spectroscopic passbands and applying differential spectrophotometry, we derive spectroscopic transit light curves and fit them using Gaussian process framework to determine transit depths for every passbands. The obtained optical transmission spectrum shows a steep increased slope toward the blue wavelength, which seems to be too steep to be accounted for by the Rayleigh scattering alone. We note that the transmission spectrum from this work and other works differ obviously from each other, which was pointed out previously by \citet{Wilson2021} as evidence for temporal atmospheric variation. We perform a free chemistry retrieval analysis on the optical transmission spectra from this work and the literature HST/WFC3 NIR spectrum. We determine TiO, VO and H$_{2}$O with abundances of $-5.95_{-0.42}^{+0.47}$ dex, $-6.72_{-1.79}^{+0.51}$ dex, and $-4.13_{-0.46}^{+0.63}$ dex, respectively. We compare the abundances of all these three molecules derived from this work and previous works, and find that they are not consistent with each other, indicating the chemical compositions of the terminator region may change over long timescales. Future multi-epoch and high-precision transit observations are required to further confirm this phenomena. We note that when combining the transmission spectra in the optical and in NIR in retrieval analysis, the abundances of V and VO, the NIR-to-optical offset and the cloud deck pressure may be coupled with each other.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2023

Tentative detection of titanium oxide in the atmosphere of WASP-69 b with a 4m ground-based telescope

Transiting planets provide unique opportunities for the atmospheric characterization of exoplanets as they can reveal composition and the temperature structures at the day-night terminator regions in planetary atmospheres, and help understand the atmospheric process and formation environments of exoplanets. Here, we present the optical transmission spectroscopic study of an inflated Saturn-mass planet WASP-69 b, obtained by the 4-meter ground-based telescope Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR). We obtain spectroscopic transit light curves in 20 passbands from 502 to 890 nm, and fit them using Gaussian Processes and an analytical transit model to obtain independent transit depths for each. The derived transmission spectrum of WASP-69 b shows a slope with absorption depth increasing towards blue wavelengths, indicating a Rayleigh scattering in the atmosphere consistent with previous works. The retrieval analysis yields a tentative detection of TiO absorption feature in the transmission spectrum. We present the first results from the SOAR telescope to characterize exoplanetary atmospheres proving its capability and precision for hot Jupiters around bright stars in an area dominated by results from large ground-based telescopes or space telescopes.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2022

ET White Paper: To Find the First Earth 2.0

We propose to develop a wide-field and ultra-high-precision photometric survey mission, temporarily named "Earth 2.0 (ET)". This mission is designed to measure, for the first time, the occurrence rate and the orbital distributions of Earth-sized planets. ET consists of seven 30cm telescopes, to be launched to the Earth-Sun's L2 point. Six of these are transit telescopes with a field of view of 500 square degrees. Staring in the direction that encompasses the original Kepler field for four continuous years, this monitoring will return tens of thousands of transiting planets, including the elusive Earth twins orbiting solar-type stars. The seventh telescope is a 30cm microlensing telescope that will monitor an area of 4 square degrees toward the galactic bulge. This, combined with simultaneous ground-based KMTNet observations, will measure masses for hundreds of long-period and free-floating planets. Together, the transit and the microlensing telescopes will revolutionize our understandings of terrestrial planets across a large swath of orbital distances and free space. In addition, the survey data will also facilitate studies in the fields of asteroseismology, Galactic archeology, time-domain sciences, and black holes in binaries.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2020

The backbone-residual model. Accurately characterising the instrumental profile of a fibre-fed echelle spectrograph

Context: Instrumental profile (IP) is the basic property of a spectrograph. Accurate IP characterisation is the prerequisite of accurate wavelength solution. It also facilitates new spectral acquisition methods such as the forward modeling and deconvolution. Aims: We investigate an IP modeling method for the fibre-fed echelle spectrograph with the emission lines of the ThAr lamp, and explore the method to evaluate the accuracy of IP characterisation. Methods: The backbone-residual (BR) model is put forward and tested on the fibre-fed High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS) at the Chinese Xinglong 2.16-m Telescope, which is the sum of the backbone function and the residual function. The backbone function is a bell-shaped function to describe the main component and the spatial variation of IP. The residual function, which is expressed as the cubic spline function, accounts for the difference between the bell-shaped function and the actual IP. The method of evaluating the accuracy of IP characterisation is based on the spectral reconstruction and Monte Carlo simulation. Results: The IP of HRS is characterised with the BR model, and the accuracy of the characterised IP reaches 0.006 of the peak value of the backbone function. This result demonstrates that the accurate IP characterisation has been achieved on HRS with the BR model, and the BR model is an excellent choice for accurate IP characterisation of fibre-fed echelle spectrographs.

astro-ph.IM↗