arXiv subjects

Zhaoji Jiang

Publications and source records attributed to Zhaoji Jiang.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

The sky brightness and transparency in i-band at Dome A, Antarctica

The i-band observing conditions at Dome A on the Antarctic plateau have been investigated using data acquired during 2008 with the Chinese Small Telescope ARray. The sky brightness, variations in atmospheric transparency, cloud cover, and the presence of aurorae are obtained from these images. The median sky brightness of moonless clear nights is 20.5 mag arcsec^{-2} in the SDSS $i$ band at the South Celestial Pole (which includes a contribution of about 0.06 mag from diffuse Galactic light). The median over all Moon phases in the Antarctic winter is about 19.8 mag arcsec^{-2}. There were no thick clouds in 2008. We model contributions of the Sun and the Moon to the sky background to obtain the relationship between the sky brightness and transparency. Aurorae are identified by comparing the observed sky brightness to the sky brightness expected from this model. About 2% of the images are affected by relatively strong aurorae.

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arXiv2010

Determination of fundamental properties of an M31 globular cluster from main-sequence photometry

M31 globular cluster B379 is the first extragalactic cluster, the age of which was determined by main-sequence photometry. In this method, the age of a cluster is obtained by fitting its CMD with stellar evolutionary models. However, different stellar evolutionary models use different parameters of stellar evolution, such as range of stellar masses, different opacities and equations of state, and different recipes, and so on. So, it is interesting to check whether different stellar evolutionary models can give consistent results for the same cluster. Brown et al. (2004a) constrained the age of B379 by comparing its CMD with isochrones of the 2006 VandenBerg models. Using SSP models of BC03 and its multi-photometry, Ma et al. (2007) independently determined the age of B379, which is in good agreement with the determination of Brown et al. (2004a). The BC03 models are calculated based on the Padova evolutionary tracks. It is necessary to check whether the age of B379 which, being determined based on the Padova evolutionary tracks, is in agreement with the determination of Brown et al. (2004a). So, in this paper, we re-determine its age using isochrones of the Padova stellar evolutionary models. In addition, the metal abundance, the distance modulus, and the reddening value for B379 are also determined in this paper. The results obtained in this paper are consistent with the previous determinations, which including the age obtained by Brown et al. (2004a). So, this paper confirms the consistence of the age scale of B379 between the Padova isochrones and the 2006 VandenBerg isochrones, i.e. the results' comparison between Brown et al. (2004a) and Ma et al. (2007) is meaningful. The results obtained in this paper are: the metallicity [M/H]=-0.325, the age $τ=11.0\pm1.5$ Gyr, the reddening value E(B-V)=0.08, and the distance modulus $(m-M)_{0}=24.44\pm0.10$.

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arXiv2010

The Correlations between the Intrinsic Colors and Spectroscopic Metallicities of M31 Globular Clusters

We present the correlations between the spectroscopic metallicities and ninety-three different intrinsic colors of M31 globular clusters, including seventy-eight BATC colors and fifteen SDSS and near infrared ugrizK colors. The BATC colors were derived from the archival images of thirteen filters (from c to p), which were taken by Beijing-Arizona-Taiwan-Connecticut (BATC) Multicolor Sky Survey with a 60/90 cm f/3 Schmidt telescope. The spectroscopic metallicities adopted in our work were from literature. We fitted the correlations of seventy-eight different BATC colors and the metallicities for 123 old confirmed globular clusters, and the result implies that correlation coefficients of twenty-three colors r>0.7. Especially, for the colors $(f-k)_0$, $(f-o)_0$, and $(h-k)_0$, the correlation coefficients are r>0.8. Meanwhile, we also note that the correlation coefficients (r) approach zero for $(g-h)_0$, $(k-m)_0$, $(k-n)_0$, and $(m-n)_0$, which are likely to be independent of metallicity. Similarity, we fitted the correlations of metallicity and ugrizK colors for 127 old confirmed GCs. The result indicates that all these colors are metal-sensitive (r>0.7), of which $(u-K)_0$ is the most metal-sensitive color. Our work provides an easy way to simply estimate the metallicity from colors.

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arXiv2010

The First Release of the CSTAR Point Source Catalog from Dome A, Antarctica

In 2008 January the 24th Chinese expedition team successfully deployed the Chinese Small Telescope ARray (CSTAR) to DomeA, the highest point on the Antarctic plateau. CSTAR consists of four 14.5cm optical telescopes, each with a different filter (g, r, i and open) and has a 4.5degree x 4.5degree field of view (FOV). It operates robotically as part of the Plateau Observatory, PLATO, with each telescope taking an image every 30 seconds throughout the year whenever it is dark. During 2008, CSTAR #1 performed almost flawlessly, acquiring more than 0.3 million i-band images for a total integration time of 1728 hours during 158 days of observations. For each image taken under good sky conditions, more than 10,000 sources down to 16 mag could be detected. We performed aperture photometry on all the sources in the field to create the catalog described herein. Since CSTAR has a fixed pointing centered on the South Celestial Pole (Dec =-90 degree), all the sources within the FOV of CSTAR were monitored continuously for several months. The photometric catalog can be used for studying any variability in these sources, and for the discovery of transient sources such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts and minor planets.

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arXiv2010

Testing and Data Reduction of the Chinese Small Telescope Array (CSTAR) for Dome A, Antarctica

The Chinese Small Telescope ARray (hereinafter CSTAR) is the first Chinese astronomical instrument on the Antarctic ice cap. The low temperature and low pressure testing of the data acquisition system was carried out in a laboratory refrigerator and on the 4500m Pamirs high plateau, respectively. The results from the final four nights of test observations demonstrated that CSTAR was ready for operation at Dome A, Antarctica. In this paper we present a description of CSTAR and the performance derived from the test observations.

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arXiv2009

Optical Variability of the Radio Source J 1128+5925 -- II. Confirmation of its Optical Quietness

The source J 1128+5925 was found recently to show strong intraday variability at radio wavelengths and its radio variability may come from interstellar scintillation. In optical, the object was quiet in our 2007 monitoring session. Here we report the results of our new optical monitoring of this source in 2008. In addition to confirm our 2007 results, that the object did not display any clear variation on timescales from hour--day to month, we provide evidence that the object does not vary on timescale of one year, and it is probably intrinsically quiet in optical domain. Its very different behaviors in optical and radio regimes can be naturally explained if its strong radio variability comes from interstellar scintillation.

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arXiv2007

Optical Variability of the Radio Source J 1128+5925

Very recently, J 1128+5925 was found to show strong intraday variability at radio wavelengths and may be a new source with annual modulation of the timescale of its radio variability. Therefore, its radio variability can be best explained via interstellar scintillation. Here we present the properties of its optical variability for the first time after a monitoring program in 2007 May. Our observations indicate that in this period J 1128+5925 only showed trivial optical variability on internight timescale, and did not show any clear intranight variability. This behavior is quite different from its strong radio intraday variability. Either this object was in a quiescent state in optical in this period, or it is intrinsically not so active in optical as it is in radio regimes.

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arXiv2007

Metal Abundance Properties of M81 Globular Cluster System

This paper is the third in the series of papers on M81 globular clusters. In this paper, we present spatial and metal abundance properties of 95 M81 globular clusters, which comprise nearly half of all the M81 globular cluster system. These globular clusters are divided into two M81 metallicity groups by a KMM test. Our results show that, the metal-rich clusters did not demonstrate a centrally concentrated spatial distribution as ones in M31, and metal-poor clusters tend to be less spatially concentrated. In other words, the distribution of the metal-rich clusters in M81 is not very similar to that of M31. Most of the metal-rich clusters distribute at projected radii of 4-8 kpc. It is also noted that the metal-rich clusters distribute within the inner 20 kpc, and the metal-poor ones do out to radii of ~40 kpc. Like our Galaxy and M31, the metallicity distribution of globular clusters in M81 along galactocentric radius suggests that some dissipation occurred during the formation of the globular cluster system, i.e. smooth, pressure-supported collapse models of galaxies are unlikely to produce such radial distribution of metallicity presented in this paper. There is not evident correlation between globular cluster luminosity and metallicity in M81 globular clusters. The overwhelming conclusion of this paper seems to be that a more complete and thorough cluster search is needed in M81.

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arXiv2006

Optical Monitoring of BL Lacertae Object S5 0716+714 with a Novel Multi-Peak Interference Filter

We at first introduce a novel photometric system, which consists of a Schmidt telescope, an objective prism, a CCD camera, and, especially, a multi-peak interference filter. The multi-peak interference filter enables light in multi passbands to pass through it simultaneously. The light in different passbands is differentially refracted by the objective prism and is focused on the CCD separately, so we have multi "images" for each object on the CCD frames. This system enables us to monitor blazars exactly simultaneously in multi wavebands on a single telescope, and to accurately trace the color change during the variation. We used this novel system to monitor the BL Lacertae object S5 0716+714 during 2006 January and February and achieved a very high temporal resolution. The object was very bright and very active during this period. Two strong flares were observed, with variation amplitudes of about 0.8 and 0.6 mags in the $V'$ band, respectively. Strong bluer-when-brighter correlations were found for both internight and intranight variations. No apparent time lag was observed between the $V'$- and $R'$-band variations, and the observed bluer-when-brighter chromatism may be mainly attributed to the larger variation amplitude at shorter wavelength. In addition to the bluer-when-brighter trend, the object also showed a bluer color when it was more active. The observed variability and its color behaviors are consistent with the shock-in-jet model.

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arXiv2006

Evolution of Galaxy Luminosity Function and Luminosity Function by Density Environment at 0.03<z<0.5

Using galaxy sample observed by the BATC large-field multi-color sky survey and galaxy data of SDSS in the overlapped fields, we study the dependence of the restframe $r$-band galaxy luminosity function on redshift and on large-scale environment. The large-scale environment is defined by isodensity contour with density contrast δρ/ρ. The data set is a composite sample of 69,671 galaxies with redshifts 0.03 < z < 0.5 and r < 21.5 mag. The redshifts are composed by three parts: 1) spectroscopic redshifts in SDSS for local and most luminous galaxies; 2) 20-color photometric redshifts derived from BATC and SDSS; 3) 5-color photometric redshifts in SDSS. We find that the faint-end slope αsteepens slightly from -1.21 at z ~ 0.06 to -1.35 at z ~ 0.4, which is the natural consequence of the hierarchical formation of galaxies. The luminosity function also differs with different environments. The value of αchanges from -1.21 at underdense regions to -1.37 at overdense regions and the corresponding M* brightens from -22.26 to -22.64. This suggests that the fraction of faint galaxies is larger in high density regions than in low density regions.

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arXiv2006

Optical Monitoring of BL Lacertae Object OJ 287: a 40-Day Period?

We present the results of our optical monitoring of the BL Lacertae object OJ 287 during the first half of 2005. The source did not show large-amplitude variations during this period and was in a relatively quiescent state. A possible period of 40 days was derived from its light curves in three BATC wavebands. A bluer-when-brighter chromatism was discovered, which is different from the extremely stable color during the outburst in 1994--96. The different color behaviors imply different variation mechanisms in the two states. We then re-visited the optical data on OJ 287 from the OJ-94 project and found as well a probable period of 40 days in its optical variability during the late-1994 outburst. The results suggest that two components contribute to the variability of OJ 287 during its outburst state. The first component is the normal {\sl blazar} variation. This component has an amplitude similar to that of the quiescent state and also may share a similar periodicity. The second component can be taken as a `low-frequency modulation' to the first component. It may be induced by the interaction of the assumed binary black holes in the center of this object. The 40-day period may be related to the helical structure of the magnetic field at the base of the jet, or to the orbital motion close to the central primary black hole.

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arXiv2005

Optical Photometry of Type II-P Supernova 2004dj in NGC 2403

We present photometric data of the type II-P supernova (SN) 2004dj in NGC 2403. The multicolor light curves cover the SN from $\sim$ 60 to 200 days after explosion, and are measured with a set of intermediate-band filters that have the advantage of tracing the strength variations of some spectral features. The light curves show a flat evolution in the middle of the plateau phase, then decline exponentially at the late times, with a rate of 0.10$\pm$0.03 mag (10 days)$^{-1}$ in most of the filters. In the nebular phase, the spectral energy distribution (SED) of SN 2004dj shows a steady increase in the flux near 6600 Åand 8500 Å, which may correspond to the emission lines of H$α$ and Ca II near-IR triplet, respectively. The photometric behavior suggests that SN 2004dj is a normal SN II-P. Compared with the light curves of another typical SN II-P 1999em, we estimate the explosion date to be June 10$\pm$21 UT, 2004 (JD 2453167$\pm$21) for SN 2004dj. We also estimate the ejected nickel mass during the explosion to be $M(^{56}\rm{Ni})$ = 0.023 $\pm$ 0.005 $M_{\odot}$ from two different methods, which is typical for a SN II-P. We derive the explosion energy $E \approx 0.75^{+0.56}_{-0.38}\times10^{51}$ erg, the ejecta mass $M \approx 10.0^{+7.4}_{-5.2}$ $M_{\odot}$, and the initial radius $R \approx 282^{+253}_{-122}$ $R_{\odot}$ for the presupernova star of SN 2004dj, which are consistent with other typical SNe II-P.

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arXiv2005

Age Estimations of M31 Globular Clusters from Their Spectral Energy Distributions

This paper presents accurate spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 16 M31 globular clusters (GCs) confirmed by spectroscopy and/or high spatial-resolution imaging, as well as 30 M31 globular cluster candidates detected by Mochejska et al. Most of these candidates have m_V > 18, deeper than previous searches, and these candidates have not yet been confirmed to be globular clusters. The SEDs of these clusters and candidates are obtained as part of the BATC Multicolor Survey of the Sky, in which the spectrophotometrically-calibrated CCD images of M31 in 13 intermediate-band filters from 4000 to 10000 A were observed. These filters are specifically designed to exclude most of the bright and variable night-sky emission lines including the OH forest. In comparison to the SEDs of true GCs, we find that some of the candidate objects are not GCs in M31. SED fits show that theoretical simple stellar population (SSP) models can fit the true GCs very well. We estimate the ages of these GCs by comparing with SSP models. We find that, the M31 clusters range in age from a few ten Myr to a few Gyr old, as well as old GCs, confirming the conclusion that has been found by Barmby et a, Williams & Hodge, Beasley et al., Burstein et al. and Puzia et al. in their investigations of the SEDs of M31 globular clusters.

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arXiv2005

Spectral Energy Distributions of M81 Globular Clusters in BATC Multicolor Survey

In this paper, we give the spectral energy distributions of 42 M81 globular clusters in 13 intermediate-band filters from 4000 to 10000 A, using the CCD images of M81 observed as part of the BATC multicolor survey of the Sky. The BATC multicolor filter system is specifically designed to exclude most of the bright and variable night-sky emission lines including the OH forest. Hence, it can present accurate SEDs of the observed objects. These spectral energy distributions are low-resolution spectra, and can reflect the stellar populations of the globular clusters. This paper confirms the conclusions of Schroder et al. that, M81 contains clusters as young as a few Gyrs, which also were observed in both M31 and M33

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arXiv2005

037-B327 in M31: Luminous Globular Cluster or Core of a Former Dwarf Spheroidal Companion to M31?

037-B327 is of interest because it is both the most luminous and the most highly reddened cluster known in M31. Deep observations with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope provide photometric data in the F606W band, and also show that this cluster is crossed by a dust lane. We determined the structural parameters of 037-B327 by fitting the observed surface brightness distribution to a King model with r_c=0.72" (=2.69 pc), and r_t=5.87" (=21.93 pc), and a concentration index c=log(r_t/r_c)=0.91. The surface brightness profile appears to be essentially flat within 0.25" of the center and shows no signs of core collapse. Although the dust lane affects the photometry, the King model fits the surface brightness profile well except for the regions badly affected by the dust lane. We also calculate the half-light radius r_h=1.11" (=4.15 pc). Combined with previous photometry, we find that this object falls in the same region of the M_V versus log R_h diagram as do Omega Centauri, M54 and NGC 2419 in the Milky Way and the massive cluster G1 in M31. All four of these objects have been claimed to be the stripped cores of former dwarf galaxies. This suggests that 037-B327 may also be the stripped core of a former dwarf companion to M31.

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arXiv2005

Identification of X-ray Point Sources and Study on the Nature of 62 X-ray Globular Cluster Candidates in M31

This paper includes two parts. The first is to present the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 49 globular cluster (GC) X-ray sources in the BATC 13 intermediate-band filters from 3800 to 10000 A, and identify 8 unidentified X-ray sources in M31. Using the X-ray data of Einstein observation from 1979 to 1980, ROSAT HRI observation in 1990, Chandra HRC and ACIS-I observations from 1999 to 2001, and the BATC optical survey from 1995 to 1999, we find 49 GC X-ray sources and 8 new unidentified X-ray sources in the BATC M31 field. By analyzing SEDs and FWHMs, 4 of the 8 X-ray sources may be GC candidates. The second is to present some statistical relationships about 62 GC X-ray sources, of which 58 are already known, and 4 are identified in this paper. The distribution of M31 GC X-ray sources' V mags is bimodal, with peaks at m_v = 15.65 and m_v = 17.89, which is different from the distribution of GC candidates. The distribution of B-V color shows that,the GC X-ray sources seem to be associated preferentially with the redder GCs, in agreement with the previous results. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test shows that the maximum value of the absolute difference of B-V distributions of GC X-ray sources and GCs is D_{max}=0.181, and the probability P=0.068 which means we can reject the hypothesis that the two distributions are the same at the 90.0% confidence level. In the end, we study the correlation between X-ray luminosity (0.3-10 keV) and the optical luminosity (in V band) of the GC X-ray sources in M31, and find that there exits a weak relationship with the linear correlation coefficient r = 0.36 at the confidence level of 98.0%.

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arXiv2005

Color and Metallicity Distributions of M81 Globular Clusters

In this paper we present catalogs of photometric and spectroscopic data for M81 globular clusters (GCs). The catalogs include B- and V- photometric and reddening data of 95 GCs, and spectroscopic metallicities of 40 GCs in M81. Using these data, we make some statistical correlations. The results show that the distributions of intrinsic B and V colors and metallicities are bimodal, with metallicity peaks at [Fe/H]=-1.45 and -0.53, respectively as has been demonstrated for our Milky Way and M31. The relation between spectroscopic metallicity and intrinsic B and V color also exists as it does for the Milky Way and M31.

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arXiv2005

Optical Monitoring of BL Lac Object S5 0716+714 with High Temporal Resolution

Optical monitoring of S5 0716+714 was performed with a 60/90 Schmidt telescope in 2003 November and December and 2004 January for studying the variability of the object on short timescales. Due to the high brightness of the source we could carry out quasi-simultaneous measurements in three bands with a temporal resolution of about 20 minutes by using one single telescope. Intraday and intranight variations were observed with an overall change of ~0.9 mag during the whole campaign. Two outbursts were recorded on JD 2453005 and JD 2453009. Minimum timescales of a few hours were derived from the light curves of individual nights but were different from night to night. A bluer-when-brighter chromatism was present when the object was in fast flare, but was absent when it was in a relatively quiescent state. Our results are basically consistent with the shock-in-jet model and demonstrate that the geometrical effects can sometimes play an important role in the variability of blazars.

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