arXiv subjects

Zhong-Rui Bai

Publications and source records attributed to Zhong-Rui Bai.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Searching for Magnetic White Dwarfs in LAMOST DR10

Magnetic white dwarfs (MWDs) are key to understanding the origin and evolution of magnetic fields in compact stars. While large spectroscopic surveys such as SDSS have greatly expanded the known sample, the potential of LAMOST has not yet been fully explored. Our aim is to identify and characterize isolated MWDs in the LAMOST DR10 database. We cross-matched LAMOST DR10 spectra with white dwarf candidates from Gaia EDR3 and with recent SDSS-based catalogs of MWDs. Zeeman splitting in Balmer and helium absorption lines was used as the primary diagnostic to identify magnetic fields and to estimate their strengths. Reference objects from SDSS catalogs were used to test the detectability of MWDs in LAMOST low-resolution spectra. We identified 63 isolated MWDs in LAMOST DR10, of which 32 are new discoveries. Surface magnetic field strengths were measured from Zeeman splitting, covering a range from a few MG up to several tens of MG. For previously known SDSS MWDs, our LAMOST-based field measurements show mostly agreement with published values. This work demonstrates the capability of LAMOST low-resolution spectroscopy to identify and characterize isolated MWDs. The newly discovered objects expand the known population and provide valuable targets for future high-resolution spectroscopic and polarimetric follow-up studies. Our results highlight the potential of combining LAMOST with Gaia and other large surveys to build a more complete census of MWDs.

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arXiv2026

Weighing Hidden Companions of Compact Object Candidates via Rotational Broadening

The determination of unseen companion masses ($M_1$) is essential for identifying compact objects in binary systems, yet obtaining reliable orbital inclinations remains one of the most difficult challenges. In this study, we focus on ten targets selected from a sample of 89 compact object candidates characterized by large mass functions, rapid rotation, and high-quality Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) spectra. We measure their projected rotational velocities ($v \sin i$) from the LAMOST medium-resolution spectra and, combined with stellar radii, derive orbital inclinations and the corresponding companion masses. Our results show that five sources exhibit mass ratios $M_1 / M_2 > 2/3$, with no detectable spectral signatures of the unseen companions, providing strong evidence for their compact nature. Two particularly notable cases, J0341 and J0359, host companions with inferred masses of $1.39^{+0.09}_{-0.10}$ $M_\odot$ and $1.34^{+0.08}_{-0.09}$ $M_\odot$, respectively. These masses suggest that the invisible objects are either neutron stars or massive white dwarfs with masses close to the Chandrasekhar limit. If they are white dwarfs, these two targets are highly likely to be Type Ia supernova progenitors. This study highlights the potential of $v \sin i$ measurements as a systematic approach to unveiling compact objects in binaries.

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arXiv2025

Refined M-type Star Catalog from LAMOST DR10: Measurements of Radial Velocities, $T_\text{eff}$, log $g$, [M/H] and [$\alpha$/M]

Precise stellar parameters for M-type stars, the Galaxy's most common stellar type, are crucial for numerous studies. In this work, we refined the LAMOST DR10 M-type star catalog through a two-stage process. First, we purified the catalog using techniques including deep learning and color-magnitude diagrams to remove 22,496 non-M spectra, correct 2,078 dwarf/giant classifications, and update 12,900 radial velocities. This resulted in a cleaner catalog containing 870,518 M-type spectra (820,493 dwarfs, 50,025 giants). Second, applying a label transfer strategy using values from APOGEE DR16 for parameter prediction with a ten-fold cross-validated CNN ensemble architecture, we predicted $T_\text{eff}$, $\log g$, [M/H], and [$\alpha$/M] separately for M dwarfs and giants. The average internal errors for M dwarfs/giants are respectively: $T_\text{eff}$ 30/17 K, log $g$ 0.07/0.07 dex, [M/H] 0.07/0.05 dex, and [$\alpha$/M] 0.02/0.02 dex. Comparison with APOGEE demonstrates external precisions of 34/14 K, 0.12/0.07 dex, 0.09/0.04 dex, and 0.03/0.02 dex for M dwarfs/giants, which represents precision improvements of over 20\% for M dwarfs and over 50\% for M giants compared to previous literature results. The catalog is available at https://nadc.china-vo.org/res/r101668/.

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arXiv2022

Compact Object Candidates with K/M-dwarf Companions from LAMOST Low-resolution Survey

Searching for compact objects (black holes, neutron stars, or white dwarfs) in the Milky Way is essential for understanding the stellar evolution history, the physics of compact objects, and the structure of our Galaxy. Compact objects in binaries with a luminous stellar companion are perfect targets for optical observations. Candidate compact objects can be achieved by monitoring the radial velocities of the companion star. However, most of the spectroscopic telescopes usually obtain stellar spectra at a relatively low efficiency, which makes a sky survey for millions of stars practically impossible. The efficiency of a large-scale spectroscopic survey, the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopy Telescope (LAMOST), presents a specific opportunity to search for compact object candidates, i.e., simply from the spectroscopic observations. Late-type K/M stars are the most abundant populations in our Galaxy. Owing to the relatively large Keplerian velocities in the close binaries with a K/M-dwarf companion, a hidden compact object could be discovered and followed-up more easily. In this study, compact object candidates with K/M-dwarf companions are investigated with the LAMOST low-resolution stellar spectra. Based on the LAMOST Data Release 5, we obtained a sample of $56$ binaries, each containing a K/M-dwarf with a large radial velocity variation $\Delta V_{\rm R} > 150~{\rm km~s}^{-1}$. Complemented with the photometric information from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, we derived a sample of $35$ compact object candidates, among which, the orbital periods of $16$ sources were revealed by the light curves. Considering two sources as examples, we confirmed that a compact object existed in the two systems by fitting the radial velocity curve. This study demonstrates the principle and the power of searching for compact objects through LAMOST.

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arXiv2022

A long-period pre-ELM system discovered from LAMOST medium-resolution survey

We present LAMOST~J041920.07+072545.4 (hereafter J0419), a close binary consisting of a bloated extremely low mass pre-white dwarf (pre-ELM WD) and a compact object with an orbital period of 0.607189~days. The large-amplitude ellipsoidal variations and the evident Balmer and He~I emission lines suggest a filled Roche lobe and ongoing mass transfer. No outburst events were detected in the 15 years of monitoring of J0419, indicating a very low mass transfer rate. The temperature of the pre-ELM, $T_\mathrm{eff} = 5793_{-133}^{+124}\,\rm K$, is cooler than the known ELMs, but hotter than most CV donors. Combining the mean density within the Roche lobe and the radius constrained from our SED fitting, we obtain the mass of the pre-ELM, $M_1 = 0.176\pm 0.014\,M_\odot$. The joint fitting of light and radial velocity curves yields an inclination angle of $i = 66.5_{-1.7}^{+1.4}$ degrees, corresponding to the compact object mass of $M_2 = 1.09\pm 0.05\,M_\odot$. The very bloated pre-ELM has a smaller surface gravity ($\log g = 3.9\pm 0.01$, $R_1 = 0.78 \pm 0.02\,R_\odot$) than the known ELMs or pre-ELMs. The temperature and the luminosity ($L_\mathrm{bol} = 0.62_{-0.10}^{+0.11}\,L_\odot$) of J0419 are close to the main sequence, which makes the selection of such systems through the HR diagram inefficient. Based on the evolutionary model, the relatively long period and small $\log g$ indicate that J0419 could be close to the "bifurcation period" in the orbit evolution, which makes J0419 to be a unique source to connect ELM/pre-ELM WD systems, wide binaries and cataclysmic variables.

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arXiv2022

Ultracool dwarfs identified using spectra in LAMOST DR7

In this work, we identify 734 ultracool dwarfs with a spectral type of M6 or later, including one L0. Of this sample, 625 were studied spectroscopically for the first time. All of these ultracool dwarfs are within 360~pc, with a \textit{Gaia} G magnitude brighter than ~19.2 mag. By studying the spectra and checking their stellar parameters (Teff, logg, and [FeH] derived with the LAMOST pipeline, we found their cool red nature and their metallicity to be consistent with the nature of Galactic thin-disk objects. Furthermore, 77 of them show lithium absorption lines at 6708A, further indicating their young ages and substellar nature. Kinematics obtained through LAMOST radial velocities, along with the proper motion and parallax data from Gaia EDR3, also suggest that the majority of our targets are thin-disk objects. Kinematic ages were estimated through the relationship between the velocity dispersion and the average age for a certain population. Moreover, we identified 35 binaries, with 6 of them reported as binaries for the first time.

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arXiv2021

The First Data Release of LAMOST Low Resolution Single Epoch Spectra

LAMOST Data Release 5, covering $\sim$17,000 $deg^2$ from $-10^{\circ}$ to $80^{\circ}$ in declination, contains 9 millions co-added low resolution spectra of celestial objects, each spectrum combined from repeat exposure of two to tens of times during Oct 2011 to Jun 2017. In this paper, We present the spectra of individual exposures for all the objects in LAMOST Data Release 5. For each spectrum, equivalent width of 60 lines from 11 different elements are calculated with a new method combining the actual line core and fitted line wings. For stars earlier than F type, the Balmer lines are fitted with both emission and absorption profiles once two components are detected. Radial velocity of each individual exposure is measured by minimizing ${\chi}^2$ between the spectrum and its best template. Database for equivalent widths of spectral lines and radial velocities of individual spectra are available online. Radial velocity uncertainties with different stellar type and signal-to-noise ratio are quantified by comparing different exposure of the same objects. We notice that the radial velocity uncertainty depends on the time lag between observations. For stars observed in the same day and with signal-to-noise ratio higher than 20, the radial velocity uncertainty is below 5km/s, and increase to 10km/s for stars observed in different nights.

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arXiv2020

On the radial velocity calibrations in the LAMOST Medium-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey of Nebulae

Accurate radial velocity determinations of optical emission lines (i.e. [NII]${\lambda}{\lambda}$6548,6584, H${\alpha}$, and [SII]${\lambda}{\lambda}$6717,6731) are very important for investigating the kinematics and dynamics properties of nebulae. The second stage survey program of Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) has started a sub-survey of nebulae (MRS-N) which will spectroscopically observe the optical emission lines of a large sample of nebulae near the Galactic plane. Until now, 15 MRS-N plates have been observed from 2017 September to 2019 June. Based on fitting the sky emission lines in the red band spectra of MRS-N, we investigate the precision of wavelength calibration and find there are systematic deviations of radial velocities (RVs) from $\sim$0.2 to 4 km/s for different plates. Especially for the plates obtained in 2018 March, the systematic deviations of RVs can be as large as $\sim$4 km/s, which then go down to $\sim$0.2-0.5 km/s at the end of 2018 and January 2019. A RVs calibration function is proposed for these MRS-N plates, which can simultaneously and successfully calibration the systematic deviations and improve the precision of RVs.

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arXiv2020

LAMOST Medium-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey (LAMOST-MRS): Scientific goals and survey plan

Since September 2018, LAMOST starts a new 5-year medium-resolution spectroscopic survey (MRS) using bright/gray nights. We present the scientific goals of LAMOST-MRS and propose a near optimistic strategy of the survey. A complete footprint is also provided. Not only the regular medium-resolution survey, but also a time-domain spectroscopic survey is being conducted since 2018 and will be end in 2023. According to the detailed survey plan, we expect that LAMOST-MRS can observe about 2 million stellar spectra with ~7500 and limiting magnitude of around G=15 mag. Moreover, it will also provide about 200 thousand stars with averagely 60-epoch observations and limiting magnitude of G~14 mag. These high quality spectra will give around 20 elemental abundances, rotational velocities, emission line profiles as well as precise radial velocity with uncertainty less than 1 km/s. With these data, we expect that LAMOST can effectively leverage sciences on stellar physics, e.g. exotic binary stars, detailed observation of many types of variable stars etc., planet host stars, emission nebulae, open clusters, young pre-main-sequence stars etc.

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arXiv2019

Searching for Black Hole Candidates by LAMOST and ASAS-SN

Most dynamically confirmed stellar-mass black holes and the candidates were originally selected from X-ray outbursts. In the present work, we search for black hole candidates in the LAMOST survey by using the spectra along with photometry from the ASAS-SN survey, where the orbital period of the binary may be revealed by the periodic light curve, such as the ellipsoidal modulation type. Our sample consists of 9 binaries, where each source contains a giant star with large radial velocity variation ($\Delta V_{\rm R} > 70~{\rm km~s^{-1}}$) and periods known from light curves. We focus on the 9 sources with long periods ($T_{\rm ph} > 5$ days) and evaluate the mass $M_2$ of the optically invisible companion. Since the observed $\Delta V_{\rm R}$ from only a few repeating spectroscopic observations is a lower limit of the real amplitude, the real mass $M_2$ can be significantly higher than the current evaluation. It is likely an efficient method to place constraints on $M_2$ by combining $\Delta V_{\rm R}$ from LAMOST and $T_{\rm ph}$ from ASAS-SN, particularly by the ongoing LAMOST Medium Resolution Survey.

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arXiv2019

A Method to Search for Black Hole Candidates with Giant Companions by LAMOST

We propose a method to search for stellar-mass black hole (BH) candidates with giant companions from spectroscopic observations. Based on the stellar spectra of LAMOST Data Release 6, we obtain a sample of seven giants in binaries with large radial velocity variation $\Delta V_R > 80~{\rm km~s^{-1}}$. With the effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity provided by LAMOST, and the parallax given by {\it Gaia}, we can estimate the mass and radius of the giant, and therefore evaluate the possible mass of the optically invisible star in the binary. We show that the sources in our sample are potential BH candidates, and are worthy of dynamical measurement by further spectroscopic observations. Our method may be particularly valid for the selection of BH candidates in binaries with unknown orbital periods.

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arXiv2018

New Oe stars in LAMOST DR5

Stars of spectral type Oe are very rare. To date, only 13 Oe stars have been identified within our Galaxy. In this paper, we present six new Oe stars and four new B0e stars found in LAMOST DR5. Repeated spectral observations of the same Oe stars show some emission line variability. The H$\beta$ emission of TYC 4801-17-1 shows rapid V/R variation. Phase lags in the V/R ratio of TYC 4801-17-1 spectra are also seen. We found the unusual O4.5 star RL 128 is an Oe star with variable H$\alpha$ intensity and its Ca II triplet emission appears when H$\alpha$ emission reaches maximum intensity. These newly identified early type Oe and B0e stars significantly increase the known sample.

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arXiv2017

The LAMOST Complete Spectroscopic Survey of Pointing Area (LaCoSSPAr) in the Southern Galactic Cap I. The Spectroscopic Redshift Catalog

We present a spectroscopic redshift catalog from the LAMOST Complete Spectroscopic Survey of Pointing Area (LaCoSSPAr) in the Southern Galactic Cap (SGC), which is designed to observe all sources (Galactic and extra-galactic) by using repeating observations with a limiting magnitude of $r=18.1~mag$ in two $20~deg^2$ fields. The project is mainly focusing on the completeness of LAMOST ExtraGAlactic Surveys (LEGAS) in the SGC, the deficiencies of source selection methods and the basic performance parameters of LAMOST telescope. In both fields, more than 95% of galaxies have been observed. A post-processing has been applied to LAMOST 1D spectrum to remove the majority of remaining sky background residuals. More than 10,000 spectra have been visually inspected to measure the redshift by using combinations of different emission/absorption features with uncertainty of $\sigma_{z}/(1+z)<0.001$. In total, there are 1528 redshifts (623 absorption and 905 emission line galaxies) in Field A and 1570 redshifts (569 absorption and 1001 emission line galaxies) in Field B have been measured. The results show that it is possible to derive redshift from low SNR galaxies with our post-processing and visual inspection. Our analysis also indicates that up to 1/4 of the input targets for a typical extra-galactic spectroscopic survey might be unreliable. The multi-wavelength data analysis shows that the majority of mid-infrared-detected absorption (91.3%) and emission line galaxies (93.3%) can be well separated by an empirical criterion of $W2-W3=2.4$. Meanwhile, a fainter sequence paralleled to the main population of galaxies has been witnessed both in $M_r$/$W2-W3$ and $M_*$/$W2-W3$ diagrams, which could be the population of luminous dwarf galaxies but contaminated by the edge-on/highly inclined galaxies ($\sim30\%$).

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arXiv2017

Sky Subtraction for LAMOST

Sky subtraction is the key technique in data reduction of multi-fiber spectra. Knowledge of the related instrument character is necessary to determine the method adopted in sky subtraction. In this study, we described the sky subtraction method designed for LAMOST(Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) survey. The method has been intergrated into LAMOST 2D Pipeline v2.6 and applied to data of LAMOST DR3 and later. For LAMOST, sky emission line calibration is used to alleviate the position-dependent (thus time-dependent) ~4% fiber throughput uncertainty and the small wavelength instability (0.1\AA ) during observation. PCA (Principal Component Analysis) sky subtraction further reduces 25% of the sky line residual of the OH lines in the red part of the LAMOST spectra after the mater sky spectrum, which is derived from a B-spline fit of 20 sky fibers in each spectrograph, is adjusted by sky emission line and subtracted from each fiber. Further analysis shows that our wavelength calibration accuracy is about 4.5km/s, and the average sky subtraction residuals are about 3% for sky emission lines and 3% for continuum region. The relative sky subtraction residuals vary with the moon light background brightness, could reach as low as 1.5% for the sky emission line regions in the dark night. Tests on the F stars of both similar sky emission line strength and similar object continuum intensity show that the sky emission line residual of LAMOST is smaller than those of SDSS survey.

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arXiv2016

LAMOST Spectrograph Response Curves: Stability and Application to flux calibration

The task of flux calibration for LAMOST (Large sky Area Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope) spectra is difficult due to many factors. For example, the lack of standard stars, flat fielding for large field of view, and variation of reddening between different stars especially at low galactic latitudes etc. Poor selection, bad spectral quality, or extinction uncertainty of standard stars not only might induce errors to the calculated spectral response curve (SRC), but also might lead to failures in producing final 1D spectra. In this paper, we inspected spectra with Galactic latitude |b|>=60 degree and reliable stellar parameters, determined through the LAMOST Stellar Parameter Pipeline (LASP), to study the stability of the spectrograph. To guarantee the selected stars had been observed by each fiber, we selected 37,931 high quality exposures of 29,000 stars from LAMOST DR2, and more than 7 exposures for each fiber. We calculated the SRCs for each fiber for each exposure, and calculated the statistics of SRCs for spectrographs with both the fiber variations and time variations. The result shows that the average response curve of each spectrograph (henceforth ASPSRC) is relatively stable with statistical errors <= 10%. From the comparison between each ASPSRC and the SRCs for the same spectrograph obtained by 2D pipeline, we find that the ASPSRCs are good enough to use for the calibration. The ASPSRCs have been applied to spectra which were abandoned by LAMOST 2D pipeline due to the lack of standard stars, increasing the number of LAMOST spectra by 52,181 in DR2. Comparing those same targets with SDSS, the relative flux differences between SDSS spectra and that of LAMOST spectra with the ASPSRC method are less than 10%, which underlines that the ASPSRC method is feasible for LAMOST flux calibration.

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arXiv2014

Measure fiber position errors from spectra data

Precise fiber positioning is crucial to a wide field, multi-fiber spectroscopic survey like LAMOST. Nowadays, most position error measurements are based on CCD photographic and imaging processing techniques. Those methods only work for measuring errors orthogonal to the telescope optical axis, while there also lies errors parallel to the telescope optical axis, like defocusing, and error caused by the existing deviation angle between optical axes of a fiber and the telescope. Directly measuring two latter types of position errors is difficult for individual fiber, especially during observation. Possible sources of fiber position errors are discussed in brief for LAMOST. By constructing a model of magnitude loss due to the fiber position error for a point source, we propose an indirect method to calculate the total and systematic position errors for each individual fiber from spectra data. Restrictions and applications of this method are also discussed.

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arXiv2013

DA white dwarfs observed in LAMOST pilot survey

A total of $\sim640,000$ objects from LAMOST pilot survey have been publicly released. In this work, we present a catalog of DA white dwarfs from the entire pilot survey. We outline a new algorithm for the selection of white dwarfs by fitting S\'ersic profiles to the Balmer H$\beta$, H$\gamma$ and H$\delta$ lines of the spectra, and calculating the equivalent width of the CaII K line. 2964 candidates are selected by constraining the fitting parameters and the equivalent width of CaII K line. All the spectra of candidates are visually inspected. We identify 230 (59 of them are already in Villanova and SDSS WD catalog) DA white dwarfs, 20 of which are DA white dwarfs with non-degenerate companions. In addition, 128 candidates are classified as DA white dwarf/subdwarfs, which means the classifications are ambiguous. The result is consistent with the expected DA white dwarf number estimated based on the LEGUE target selection algorithm.

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arXiv2013

Moon night sky brightness simulation for Xinglong station

With a sky brightness monitor in Xinglong station of National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), we collected data from 22 dark clear nights and 90 lunar nights. We first measured the sky brightness variation with time in dark nights, found a clear correlation between the sky brightness and human activity. Then with a modified sky brightness model of moon night and data from moon night, we derived the typical value for several important parameters in the model. With these results, we calculated the sky brightness distribution under a given moon condition for Xinglong station. Furthermore, we simulated the moon night sky brightness distribution in a 5 degree field of view telescope (such as LAMOST). These simulations will be helpful to determine the magnitude limit, exposure time as well as the survey design for LAMOST at lunar night.

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