arXiv subjects

Zhijia Tian

Publications and source records attributed to Zhijia Tian.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Mass and Age of Red Giant Branch Stars Observed with LAMOST and \emph{Kepler}

Obtaining accurate and precise masses and ages for large numbers of giant stars is of great importance for unraveling the assemblage history of the Galaxy. In this paper, we estimate masses and ages of 6940 red giant branch (RGB) stars with asteroseismic parameters deduced from \emph{Kepler} photometry and stellar atmospheric parameters derived from LAMOST spectra. The typical uncertainties of mass is a few per cent, and that of age is $\sim$\,20 per cent. The sample stars reveal two separate sequences in the age -- [$α$/Fe] relation -- a high--$α$ sequence with stars older than $\sim$\,8\,Gyr and a low--$α$ sequence composed of stars with ages ranging from younger than 1\,Gyr to older than 11\,Gyr. We further investigate the feasibility of deducing ages and masses directly from LAMOST spectra with a machine learning method based on kernel based principal component analysis, taking a sub-sample of these RGB stars as a training data set. We demonstrate that ages thus derived achieve an accuracy of $\sim$\,24 per cent. We also explored the feasibility of estimating ages and masses based on the spectroscopically measured carbon and nitrogen abundances. The results are quite satisfactory and significantly improved compared to the previous studies.

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arXiv2017

Stellar Parameters of Main Sequence Turn-off Star Candidates Observed with the LAMOST and Kepler

Main sequence turn-off (MSTO) stars have advantages as indicators of Galactic evolution since their ages could be robustly estimated from atmospheric parameters. Hundreds of thousands of MSTO stars have been selected from the LAMOST Galactic sur- vey to study the evolution of the Galaxy, and it is vital to derive accurate stellar parameters. In this work, we select 150 MSTO star candidates from the MSTO stars sample of Xiang that have asteroseismic parameters and determine accurate stellar parameters for these stars combing the asteroseismic parameters deduced from the Kepler photometry and atmospheric parameters deduced from the LAMOST spectra.With this sample, we examine the age deter- mination as well as the contamination rate of the MSTO stars sample. A comparison of age between this work and Xiang shows a mean difference of 0.53 Gyr (7%) and a dispersion of 2.71 Gyr (28%). The results show that 79 of the candidates are MSTO stars, while the others are contaminations from either main sequence or sub-giant stars. The contamination rate for the oldest stars is much higher than that for the younger stars. The main cause for the high contamination rate is found to be the relatively large systematic bias in the LAMOST surface gravity estimates.

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arXiv2017

Discovery of two new hypervelocity stars from the LAMOST spectroscopic surveys

We report the discovery of two new unbound hypervelocity stars (HVSs) from the LAMOST spectroscopic surveys. They are respectively a B2V type star of ~ 7 M$_{\rm \odot}$ with a Galactic rest-frame radial velocity of 502 km/s at a Galactocentric radius of ~ 21 kpc and a B7V type star of ~ 4 M$_{\rm \odot}$ with a Galactic rest-frame radial velocity of 408 km/s at a Galactocentric radius of ~ 30 kpc. The origins of the two HVSs are not clear given their currently poorly measured proper motions. However, the future data releases of Gaia should provide proper motion measurements accurate enough to solve this problem. The ongoing LAMOST spectroscopic surveys are expected to yield more HVSs to form a statistical sample, providing vital constraint on understanding the nature of HVSs and their ejection mechanisms.

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arXiv2017

Ages and masses of million Galactic disk main sequence turn-off and sub-giant stars from the LAMOST Galactic spectroscopic surveys

We present estimates of stellar age and mass for 0.93 million Galactic disk main sequence turn-off and sub-giant stars from the LAMOST Galactic Spectroscopic Surveys. The ages and masses are determined by matching with stellar isochrones using Bayesian algorithm, utilizing effective temperature $T_{\rm eff}$, absolute magnitude ${\rm M}_V$, metallicity [Fe/H] and $α$-element to iron abundance ratio [$α$/Fe] deduced from the LAMOST spectra. Extensive examinations suggest the age and mass estimates are robust. The overall sample stars have a median error of 34 per cent for the age estimates, and half of the stars older than 2\,Gyr have age uncertainties of only 20--30 per cent. Median error for the mass estimates of the whole sample stars is $\sim8$ per cent. The huge dataset demonstrates good correlations among stellar age, [Fe/H] ([$α$/H]) and [$α$/Fe]. Particularly, double sequence features are revealed in the both the age--[$α$/Fe] and age--[Fe/H]([$α$/H]) spaces. In the [Fe/H]--[$α$/Fe] space, stars of 8--10\,Gyr exhibit both the thin and thick disk sequences, while younger (older) stars show only the thin (thick) disk sequence, indicating that the thin disk became prominent 8--10\,Gyr ago, while the thick disk formed earlier and almost quenched 8\,Gyr ago. Stellar ages exhibit positive vertical and negative radial gradients across the disk, and the outer disk of $R\gtrsim$\,9\,kpc exhibits a strong flare in stellar age distribution.

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arXiv2017

Seismic diagnostics of solar-like oscillating stars

High precision and long-lasting \emph{Kepler} data enabled us to estimate stellar properties with asteroseismology as an accurate tool. We performed asteroseismic analysis on six solar-like stars observed by the \emph{Kepler} mission: KIC 6064910, KIC 6766513, KIC 7107778, KIC 10079226, KIC 10147635 and KIC 12069127. The extraction of seismic information includes two parts. First, we obtained two global asteroseismic parameters, mean large separation $Δν$ and frequency of maximum power $ν_{\rm{max}}$, with autocorrelation function and collapsed autocorrelation function. Second, we extracted individual oscillation modes $ν_{nl}$ with low-$l$ degree using a least-squares fit. Stellar grid models were built with Yale Rotating Stellar Evolution Code (YREC) to analyze stellar properties. They covered the range of $M=0.8\sim1.8$ $M_{\odot}$ with a step of 0.02 $M_{\odot}$ and $\rm{[Fe/H]}=-0.3\sim0.4$ $\rm{dex}$ with a step of 0.1 $\rm{dex}$. We used a Bayesian approach to estimate stellar fundamental parameters of the six stars, under the constraints of asteroseismic parameters ($Δν$, $ν_{\rm{max}}$) and non-asteroseismic parameters ($T_{\rm{eff}}$, $\rm{[Fe/H]}$). We discover that the six targets include five sub-giant stars with $1.2\sim1.5$ $M_{\odot}$ and one main-sequence star with $1.08M_{\odot}$, and with ages in the range of $3\sim5$ $\rm{Gyr}$.

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arXiv2017

The effects of the overshooting of the convective core on main-sequence turnoffs of young- and intermediate-age star clusters

Recent investigations have shown that the extended main-sequence turnoffs (eMSTOs) are a common feature of intermediate-age star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds. The eMSTOs are also found in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of young-age star clusters. The origin of the eMSTOs is still an open question. Moreover, asteroseismology shows that the value of the overshooting parameter $δ_{\rm ov}$ of the convective core is not fixed for the stars with an approximatelly equal mass. Thus the MSTO of star clusters may be affected by the overshooting of the convective core (OVCC). We calculated the effects of the OVCC with different $δ_{\rm ov}$ on the MSTO of young- and intermediate-age star clusters. \textbf{If $δ_{\rm ov}$ varies between stars in a cluster,} the observed eMSTOs of young- and intermediate-age star clusters can be explained well by the effects. The equivalent age spreads of MSTO caused by the OVCC are related to the age of star clusters and are in good agreement with observed results of many clusters. Moreover, the observed eMSTOs of NGC 1856 are reproduced by the coeval populations with different $δ_{\rm ov}$. The eMSTOs of star clusters may be relevant to the effects of the OVCC. The effects of the OVCC \textbf{are similar to that of rotation in some respects. But the effects cannot result in a significant split of main sequence of young star clusters at $m_{U}\lesssim 21$.} The presence of a rapid rotation can make the split of main sequence of young star clusters more significant.

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arXiv2017

LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anticentre (LSS-GAC): the second release of value-added catalogues

We present the second release of value-added catalogues of the LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anticentre (LSS-GAC DR2). The catalogues present values of radial velocity $V_{\rm r}$, atmospheric parameters --- effective temperature $T_{\rm eff}$, surface gravity log$g$, metallicity [Fe/H], $α$-element to iron (metal) abundance ratio [$α$/Fe] ([$α$/M]), elemental abundances [C/H] and [N/H], and absolute magnitudes ${\rm M}_V$ and ${\rm M}_{K_{\rm s}}$ deduced from 1.8 million spectra of 1.4 million unique stars targeted by the LSS-GAC since September 2011 until June 2014. The catalogues also give values of interstellar reddening, distance and orbital parameters determined with a variety of techniques, as well as proper motions and multi-band photometry from the far-UV to the mid-IR collected from the literature and various surveys. Accuracies of radial velocities reach 5kms$^{-1}$ for late-type stars, and those of distance estimates range between 10 -- 30 per cent, depending on the spectral signal-to-noise ratios. Precisions of [Fe/H], [C/H] and [N/H] estimates reach 0.1dex, and those of [$α$/Fe] and [$α$/M] reach 0.05dex. The large number of stars, the contiguous sky coverage, the simple yet non-trivial target selection function and the robust estimates of stellar radial velocities and atmospheric parameters, distances and elemental abundances, make the catalogues a valuable data set to study the structure and evolution of the Galaxy, especially the solar-neighbourhood and the outer disk.

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arXiv2016

Constraining the Galactic structure parameters with the XSTPS-GAC and SDSS photometric surveys

Photometric data from the Xuyi Schmidt Telescope Photometric Survey of the Galactic Anticentre (XSTPS-GAC) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) are used to derive the global structure parameters of the smooth components of the Milky Way. The data, which cover nearly 11,000 deg$^2$ sky area and the full range of Galactic latitude, allow us to construct a globally representative Galactic model. The number density distribution of Galactic halo stars is fitted with an oblate spheroid that decays by power law. The best-fit yields an axis ratio and a power law index $κ=0.65$ and $p=2.79$, respectively. The $r$-band differential star counts of three dwarf samples are then fitted with a Galactic model. The best-fit model yielded by a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis has thin and thick disk scale heights and lengths of $H_{1}=$ 322\,pc and $L_{1}=$2343\,pc, $H_{2}=$794\,pc and $L_{2}=$3638\,pc, a local thick-to-thin disk density ratio of $f_2=$11\,per\,cent, and a local density ratio of the oblate halo to the thin disk of $f_h=$0.16\,per\,cent. The measured star count distribution, which is in good agreement with the above model for most of the sky area, shows a number of statistically significant large scale overdensities, including some of the previously known substructures, such as the Virgo overdensity and the so-called "north near structure", and a new feature between 150\degr $< l < $ 240\degr~and $-1$5\degr $< b < $ $-$5\degr, at an estimated distance between 1.0 and 1.5\,kpc. The Galactic North-South asymmetry in the anticentre is even stronger than previously thought.

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arXiv2015

Asteroseismic analysis of Kepler target KIC 2837475

The ratios $r_{01}$ and $r_{10}$ of small to large separations of KIC 2837475 primarily exhibit an increase behavior in the observed frequency range. The calculations indicate that only the models with overshooting parameter $δ_{\rm ov}$ between approximately 1.2 and 1.6 can reproduce the observed ratios $r_{01}$ and $r_{10}$ of KIC 2837475. The ratios $r_{01}$ and $r_{10}$ of the frequency separations of p-modes with inner turning points that are located in the overshooting region of convective core can exhibit an increase behavior. The frequencies of the modes that can reach the overshooting region decrease with the increase in $δ_{\rm ov}$. Thus the ratio distributions are more sensitive to $δ_{\rm ov}$ than to other parameters. The increase behavior of the KIC 2837475 ratios results from a direct effect of the overshooting of convective core. The characteristic of the ratios provides a strict constraint on stellar models. Observational constraints point to a star with $M=1.490\pm0.018$ $M_{\odot}$, $R=1.67\pm0.01$ $R_{\odot}$, age $=2.8\pm0.4$ Gyr, and $1.2\lesssim$ $δ_{\rm ov}$ $\lesssim1.6$ for KIC 2837475.

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arXiv2015

Asteroseismic analysis of solar-mass subgiants KIC 6442183 and KIC 11137075 observed by Kepler

Asteroseismology provides a powerful way to constrain stellar parameters. Solar-like oscillations have been observed on subgiant stars with the \emph{Kepler\/} mission. The continuous and high-precision time series enables us to carry out a detailed asteroseismic study for these stars. We carry out data processing of two subgiants of spectral type G: KIC 6442183 and KIC 11137075 observed with the \emph{Kepler} mission, and perform seismic analysis for the two evolved stars. We estimate the values of global asteroseismic parameters: $Δν=64.9\pm 0.2 $ $μ$Hz and $ν_{\rm max}=1225 \pm 17$ $μ$Hz for KIC 6442183, $Δν=65.5\pm 0.2 $ $μ$Hz and $ν_{\rm max}=1171 \pm 8$ $μ$Hz for KIC 11137075, respectively. In addition, we extract the individual mode frequencies of the two stars. We compare stellar models and observations, including mode frequencies and mode inertias. The mode inertias of mixed modes, which are sensitive to the stellar interior, are used to constrain stellar models. We define a quantity $dν_{\rm m-p}$ that measures the difference between the mixed modes and the expected pure pressure modes, which is related to the inertia ratio of mixed modes to radial modes. Asteroseismic together with spectroscopic constraints provide the estimations of the stellar parameters: $M = 1.04_{-0.04}^{+0.01} M_{\odot}$, $R = 1.66_{-0.02}^{+0.01} R_{\odot}$ and $t=8.65_{-0.06}^{+1.12}$ Gyr for KIC 6442183, and $M = 1.00_{-0.01}^{+0.01} M_{\odot}$, $R = 1.63_{-0.01}^{+0.01} R_{\odot}$ and $t=10.36_{-0.20}^{+0.01}$ Gyr for KIC 11137075. Either mode inertias or $dν_{\rm m-p}$ could be used to constrain stellar models.

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arXiv2014

Exploring the sources of p-mode frequency shifts in the CoRoT target HD 49933

The oscillations of the solar-like star HD 49933 have been observed thoroughly by CoRot. Two dozens of frequency shifts, which are closely related with the change in magnetic activity, have been measured. To explore the effects of the magnetic activity on the frequency shifts, we calculate frequency shifts for the radial and $l = 1$ p-modes of HD 49933 with the general variational method, which evaluates the shifts using a spatial integral of the product of a kernel and some sources. The theoretical frequency shifts well reproduce the observation. The magnitudes and positions of the sources are determined according to the $χ^2$ criterion. We predict the source that contributes to both $l = 0$ and $l = 1$ modes is located at $0.48 - 0.62$Mm below the stellar surface. In addition, based on the assumption that $A_{0}$ is proportional to the change in the MgII activity index $Δ{i}_{MgII}$, we obtained that the change of MgII index between minimum and maximum of HD 49933 cycle period is about 0.665. The magnitude of the frequency shifts compared to the Sun already told us that HD 49933 is much more active than the Sun, which is further confirmed in this paper. Furthermore, our calculation on the frequency shifts of $l = 1$ modes indicates the variation of turbulent velocity in the stellar convective zone may be an important source for the $l = 1$ shifts.

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arXiv2013

Asteroseismic analysis of the CoRoT target HD49933

The frequency ratios and of HD 49933 exhibit an increase at high frequencies. This behavior also exists in the ratios of other stars, which is considered to result from the low signal-to-noise ratio and the larger line width at the high-frequency end and could not be predicted by stellar models in previous work. Our calculations show that the behavior not only can be reproduced by stellar models, but can be predicted by asymptotic formulas of the ratios. The frequency ratios of the Sun, too, can be reproduced well by the asymptotic formulas. The increased behavior derives from the fact that the gradient of mean molecular weight at the bottom of the radiative region hinders the propagation of p-modes, while the hindrance does not exist in the convective core. This behavior should exist in the ratios of stars with a large convective core. The characteristic of the ratios at high frequencies provides a strict constraint on stellar models and aids in determining the size of the convective core and the extent of overshooting. Observational constraints point to a star with $M=1.28\pm0.01 M_{\odot}$, $R=1.458\pm0.005 R_{\odot}$, $t=1.83\pm0.1$ Gyr, $r_{cc}=0.16\pm0.02 R_{\odot}$, $α=1.85\pm0.05$, and $δ_{ov}=0.6\pm0.2$ for HD 49933.

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arXiv2013

Evolution of rotational velocities of A-type stars

It was found that the equatorial velocity of A-type stars undergoes an acceleration in the first third of the main sequence (MS) stage, but the velocity decreases as if the stars were not undergoing any redistribution of angular momentum in the external layers in the last stage of the MS phase. Our calculations show that the acceleration and the decrease of the equatorial velocity can be reproduced by the evolution of the differential rotation zero-age MS model with the angular momentum transport caused by hydrodynamic instabilities during the MS stage. The acceleration results from the fact that the angular momentum stored in the interiors of the stars is transported outwards. In the last stage, the core and the radiative envelope are uncoupling, and the rotation of the envelope is a quasi-solid rotation; the uncoupling and the expansion of the envelope lead to that the decrease of the equatorial velocity approximately follows the slope for the change in the equatorial velocity of the model without any redistribution of angular momentum. When the fractional age 0.3 $\lesssim\mathrm{t/t_{MS}}\lesssim$ 0.5, the equatorial velocity remains almost constant for the stars whose central density increases with age in the early stage of the MS phase, while the velocity decreases with age for the stars whose central density decreases with age in the early stage of the MS phase.

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arXiv2012

Characteristics of solar-like oscillations of secondary red clump stars

We calculated the populations of core-helium-burning (CHeB) stars and found that the secondary red clump (SRC) stars can form an SRC peak in the distributions of the frequency of maximum seismic amplitude ($ν_{max}$) and mean large-frequency separation ($Δν$) of CHeB stars when metallicity $Z \geq$ 0.02. The $ν_{max}$ and $Δν$ of CHeB stars are dependent not only on He core mass but on H-shell burning. The SRC peak is composed of the CHeB stars with mass roughly between the critical mass M_{Hef} and M_{Hef}+0.2 while He core mass is between about 0.33 and 0.36 M_{sun}. The location of the SRC peak can be affected by the mixing-length parameter $α$, metallicity $Z$, and overshooting parameter $δ_{ov}$. A decrease in $α$ or increase in $Z$ or $δ_{ov}$ leads to a movement of the SRC peak towards a lower frequency. However, the change in $Z$ and $α$ only slightly affects the value of M_{Hef} but the variation in $δ_{ov}$ can significantly affects the value of M_{Hef}. Thus the SRC peak might aid in determining the value of M_{Hef} and calibrating $δ_{ov}$. In addition, the effects of convective acceleration of SRC stars and the $ν_{max}$ of `semi-degenerate' stars decreasing with mass result in the appearance of a shoulder between about 40 and 50 $μ$hz in the \dnu{} distribution. However, the convective acceleration of stars with M < M_{Hef} leads to the deficit in the $ν_{max}$ distribution between about 9 and 20 $μ$hz{}. Moreover, the value of the parameter $b$ of the relation between $ν_{max}$ and $Δν$ for the populations with M > M_{Hef} is obviously larger than that for the populations with $M <$ \dmhef{}.

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arXiv2011

The Contributions of Interactive Binary Stars to Double Main Sequence Turn-Offs and Dual Red Clump of Intermediate-Age Star Clusters

Double or extended main-sequence turn-offs (DMSTOs) and dual red clump (RC) were observed in intermediate-age clusters, such as in NGC 1846 and 419. the DMSTOs are interpreted as that the cluster has two distinct stellar popula- tions with differences in age of about 200-300 Myr but with the same metallicity. The dual RC is interpreted as a result of a prolonged star formation. Using a stellar population-synthesis method, we calculated the evolutions of binary-star stellar population (BSP). We found that binary interactions and merging can reproduce the dual RC in the color-magnitude diagrams of an intermediate-age cluster, whereas in actuality only a single population exists. Moreover, the binary interactions can lead to an extended MSTO rather than DMSTOs. However, the rest of main sequence, subgiant branch and first giant branch are hardly spread by the binary interactions. Part of the observed dual RC and extended MSTO may be the results of binary interactions and merger.

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