15434364
An Inexpensive Field-Widened Monolithic Michelson Interferometer for Precision Radial Velocity Measurements
ABSTRACT. We have constructed a thermally compensated field-widened monolithic Michelson interferometer that can be used with a medium-resolution spectrograph to measure precise Doppler radial velocities of stars. Our prototype monolithic fixed-delay interferometer is constructed with off-the-shelf components and assembled using a hydrolysis bonding technique. We installed and tested this interferometer in the Exoplanet Tracker (ET) instrument at the Kitt Peak 2.1 m telescope, an instrument built to demonstrate the principles of dispersed fixed-delay interferometry. An iodine cell allows the interferometer drift to be accurately calibrated, relaxing the stability requirements on the interferometer itself. When using our monolithic interferometer, the ET instrument has no moving parts (except the iodine cell), greatly simplifying its operation. We demonstrate differential radial velocity precision of a few m s-1 m s - 1 on well known radial velocity standards and planet bearing stars when using this inte...
8100425
A TRANSITING PLANET OF A SUN-LIKE STAR
A planet transits an 11th magnitude, G1 V star in the constellation Corona Borealis. We designate the planet XO-1b and the star XO-1, also known as GSC 02041-01657. XO-1 lacks a trigonometric distance; we estimate it to be 200 ± 20 pc. Of the 10 stars currently known to host extrasolar transiting planets, the star XO-1 is the most similar to the Sun in its physical characteristics: its radius is 1.0 ± 0.08 R☉, its mass is 1.0 ± 0.03 M☉, its V sin i < 3 km s-1, and its metallicity [Fe/H] is 0.015 ± 0.04. The orbital period of the planet XO-1b is 3.941534 ± 0.000027 days, one of the longer ones known. The planetary mass is 0.90 ± 0.07MJ, which is marginally larger than that of other transiting planets with periods between 3 and 4 days. Both the planetary radius and the inclination are functions of the spectroscopically determined stellar radius. If the stellar radius is 1.0 ± 0.08 R☉, then the planetary radius is 1.30 ± 0.11RJ and the inclination of the orbit is 877 ± 12. We have demonstrated a productive international collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers that was important to distinguishing this planet from many other similar candidates.
118446053
The Metallicity of the CM Draconis System
The CM Draconis system comprises two eclipsing mid-M dwarfs of nearly equal mass in a 1.27?day orbit. This well-studied eclipsing binary has often been used for benchmark tests of stellar models, since its components are among the lowest mass stars with well-measured masses and radii ( 1% relative precision). However, as with many other low-mass stars, non-magnetic models have been unable to match the observed radii and effective temperatures for CM Dra at the 5%-10% level. To date, the uncertain metallicity of the system has complicated comparison of theoretical isochrones with observations. In this Letter, we use data from the SpeX instrument on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility to measure the metallicity of the system during primary and secondary eclipses, as well as out of eclipse, based on an empirical metallicity calibration in the H and K near-infrared (NIR) bands. We derive an [Fe/H] = -0.30 ? 0.12 that is consistent across all orbital phases. The determination of [Fe/H] for this system constrains a key dimension of parameter space when attempting to reconcile model isochrone predictions and observations.
14122353
Ground-Based Multisite Observations of Two Transits of HD 80606b
We present ground-based optical observations of the 2009 September and 2010 January transits of HD 80606b. Based on three partial light curves of the 2009 September event, we derive a midtransit time of T_c [HJD] = 2455099.196 ± 0.026, which is about 1σ away from the previously predicted time. We observed the 2010 January event from nine different locations, with most phases of the transit being observed by at least three different teams. We determine a midtransit time of Tc [HJD] = 2455210.6502 ± 0.0064, which is within 1.3σ of the time derived from a Spitzer observation of the same event.
17485541
MEASURING STELLAR RADIAL VELOCITIES WITH A DISPERSED FIXED-DELAY INTERFEROMETER
We demonstrate the ability to measure precise stellar barycentric radial velocities with the dispersed fixed-delay interferometer technique using the Exoplanet Tracker (ET), an instrument primarily designed for precision differential Doppler velocity measurements using this technique. Our barycentric radial velocities, derived from observations taken at the KPNO 2.1 m telescope, differ from those of Nidever et al. by 0.047 km s−1 (rms) when simultaneous iodine calibration is used, and by 0.120 km s−1 (rms) without simultaneous iodine calibration. Our results effectively show that a Michelson interferometer coupled to a spectrograph allows precise measurements of barycentric radial velocities even at a modest spectral resolution of R ~ 5100. A multiobject version of the ET instrument capable of observing ~500 stars per night is being used at the Sloan 2.5 m telescope at Apache Point Observatory for the Multiobject APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS), a wide-field radial velocity survey for extrasolar planets around TYCHO-2 stars in the magnitude range 7.6 < V < 12. In addition to precise differential velocities, this survey will also yield precise barycentric radial velocities for many thousands of stars using the data analysis techniques reported here. Such a large kinematic survey at high velocity precision will be useful in identifying the signature of accretion events in the Milky Way and understanding local stellar kinematics, in addition to discovering exoplanets, brown dwarfs, and spectroscopic binaries.
51201355
Discovery of a Low-mass Companion to a Metal-rich F Star with the MARVELS Pilot Project
We report the discovery of a low-mass companion orbiting the metal-rich, main sequence F star TYC 2949-00557-1 during the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS) pilot project. The host star has an effective temperature T_(eff) = 6135 ± 40 K, logg = 4.4 ± 0.1, and [Fe/H] = 0.32 ± 0.01, indicating a mass of M_⊙ = 1.25 ± 0.09 M_⊙ and R = 1.15 ± 0.15 R_⊙. The companion has an orbital period of 5.69449 ± 0.00023 days and straddles the hydrogen burning limit with a minimum mass of 64 M_J , and thus may be an example of the rare class of brown dwarfs orbiting at distances comparable to those of "Hot Jupiters." We present relative photometry that demonstrates that the host star is photometrically stable at the few millimagnitude level on time scales of hours to years, and rules out transits for a companion of radius ≳ 0.8 R_J at the 95% confidence level. Tidal analysis of the system suggests that the star and companion are likely in a double synchronous state where both rotational and orbital synchronization have been achieved. This is the first low-mass companion detected with a multi-object, dispersed, fixed-delay interferometer.
15305191
Factorization Approach for Top Mass Reconstruction at High Energies
Using effective theories for jets and heavy quarks it is possible to prove that the double differential top-antitop invariant mass distribution for the process $e^+e^-\to t\bar t$ in the resonance region for c.m. energies $Q$ much larger than the top mass can factorized into perturbatively computable hard coefficients and jet functions and a non-perturbative soft function. For invariant mass prescriptions based on hemispheres defined with respect to the thrust axis the soft function can be extracted from massless jet event shape distributions. This approach allows in principle for top mass determinations without uncertainties from hadronization using the reconstruction method and to quantify the top mass scheme dependence of the measured top quark mass value.
14771068
Soft Collinear Effective Theory: An Overview
In this talk I give an overview of soft collinear effective theory (SCET), including a discussion of some recent advances. First, I briefly cover the foundation upon which SCET is built, namely QCD factorization, and review the theoretical framework of SCET. Next, I cover some recent calculations involving SCET. Since there are more interesting results than I can cover, I have picked four that that I find particularly exciting. The first two topics are dynamical threshold enhancements in Drell-Yan and resummation of higgs production at the LHC. Both topics center on the resummation of large Sudakov logarithms, however, for each there is a twist. In the case of threshold enhancements in Drell-Yan, it is partonic, not hadronic logarithms that are summed. In the case of higgs production at the LHC, the twist is that the logarithms are of a time-like scale. The third topic highlighted is electroweak corrections at high energy. In particular the electroweak Sudakov form factor. Finally, I end by discussing generalized event shapes in e+e− annihilation.
15677547
The Large Energy Expansion for B Decays: Soft Collinear Effective Theory
I this talk I give an introduction to the soft collinear effective theory by considering in detail the decay rate for $B \to X_s \gamma$ near the endpoint.
124982976
Charmonium production via fragmentation at $p \bar{p}$ colliders
117895382
Exclusive Radiative Decays of Upsilon in SCET
We study exclusive radiative decays of the $\Upsilon$ using soft-collinear effective theory and non-relativistic QCD. In contrast to inclusive radiative decays at the endpoint we find that color-octet contributions are power suppressed in exclusive decays, and can safely be neglected, greatly simplifying the analysis. We determine the complete set of Lorentz structures that can appear in the SCET Wilson coefficients and match onto them using results from a previous calculation. We run these coefficients from the scale $\mups$ to the scale $\Lambda \sim 1 \textrm{GeV}$, thereby summing large logarithms. Finally we use our results to predict the ratio of branching fractions $B(\Upsilon \to \gamma f_2)/B(J/\psi \to \gamma f_2)$, $B(J/\psi \to \gamma f_2)/B(\psi' \to \gamma f_2)$, and the partial rate for $\Upsilon \to \gamma \pi \pi$.