skip to main content


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Calvet, N."

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Abstract

    We present 18 yr of OGLE photometry together with spectra obtained over 12 yr revealing that the early Oe star AzV 493 shows strong photometric (ΔI< 1.2 mag) and spectroscopic variability with a dominant, 14.6 yr pattern and ∼40 day oscillations. We estimate the stellar parametersTeff= 42,000 K,logL/L=5.83±0.15,M/M= 50 ± 9, andvsini= 370 ± 40 km s−1. Direct spectroscopic evidence shows episodes of both gas ejection and infall. There is no X-ray detection, and it is likely a runaway star. The star AzV 493 may have an unseen companion on a highly eccentric (e> 0.93) orbit. We propose that close interaction at periastron excites ejection of the decretion disk, whose variable emission-line spectrum suggests separate inner and outer components, with an optically thick outer component obscuring both the stellar photosphere and the emission-line spectrum of the inner disk at early phases in the photometric cycle. It is plausible that AzV 493’s mass and rotation have been enhanced by binary interaction followed by the core-collapse supernova explosion of the companion, which now could be either a black hole or a neutron star. This system in the Small Magellanic Cloud can potentially shed light on OBe decretion disk formation and evolution, massive binary evolution, and compact binary progenitors.

     
    more » « less
  2. Abstract Magnetospheric accretion models predict that matter from protoplanetary disks accretes onto stars via funnel flows, which follow stellar magnetic field lines and shock on the stellar surfaces 1–3 , leaving hot spots with density gradients 4–6 . Previous work has provided observational evidence of varying density in hot spots 7 , but these observations were not sensitive to the radial density distribution. Attempts have been made to measure this distribution using X-ray observations 8–10 ; however, X-ray emission traces only a fraction of the hot spot 11,12 and also coronal emission 13,14 . Here we report periodic ultraviolet and optical light curves of the accreting star GM Aurigae, which have a time lag of about one day between their peaks. The periodicity arises because the source of the ultraviolet and optical emission moves into and out of view as it rotates along with the star. The time lag indicates a difference in the spatial distribution of ultraviolet and optical brightness over the stellar surface. Within the framework of a magnetospheric accretion model, this finding indicates the presence of a radial density gradient in a hot spot on the stellar surface, because regions of the hot spot with different densities have different temperatures and therefore emit radiation at different wavelengths. 
    more » « less