118032689
The Variable Star One-shot Project, and its little child: Wikimbad
The Variable Star One-shot Project (VSOP) aimed at providing to the world-wide stellar community the necessary one-shot spectrum of unstudied variable stars, too often classified as such by an analysis of photometric data only. The VSOP has established an new kind of observational model, where all steps from observations to spectral analysis, are automatized (or are underway to be fully automatized). The project is centralized on a collaborative wiki website. The VSOP operational model is very successful, data is continously flowing and being analyszed, and VSOP is now a worldwide open collaboration of people with very different and complementary skills and expertise. The idea of a central wiki website has been extended by one of us to propose a new service to the whole astronomical community, called Wikimbad. Wikimbad is an open wiki website aimed at collecting, organizing and making publicly available all kind of reduced and published astronomical data. Its strengths and a comparison with the Virtual Observatory are discussed. See: this http URL and this http URL
118040393
A Search for Wide (Sub)Stellar Companions Around Extrasolar Planet Host Stars
We present an overview of our ongoing systematic search for wide (sub)stellar companions around the stars known to host rad‐vel planets. By using a relatively large field of view and going very deep, our survey can find all directly detectable stellar and massive brown dwarf companions (m>40 MJup) within a 1000 AU orbit.
3235867
On the possibility of ground-based direct imaging detection of extra-solar planets: the case of TWA-7 ?
We show that ground-baseddirect imaging detection of extra-solar planets is possible with current technology. As an example, we present evidence for a possible planetary compan- ion to the young T Tauri star 1RXSJ104230.3 334014 (=TWA- 7), discovered by ROSAT as a member of the nearby TW Hya association. In an HST NICMOS F160W image, an object is detected that is more than 9 mag fainter than TWA-7, located 2:4450:035 00 south-east at a position angle of 142:241:34. One year later using the ESO-NTT with the SHARP speckle camera, we obtained H- and K-band detections of this faint ob- ject at a separation of 2:536 0:077 00 and a position angle of 139:3 2:1. Given the known proper motion of TWA-7, the pair may form a proper motion pair. If the faint object orbits TWA-7, then its apparent magnitudes of H=16:42 0:11 and K=16:340:15 mag yield absolute magnitudes consistent with a 10 6:5 yr old 3 Mjup mass object according to the non- gray theory by Burrows et al. (1997). At 55 pc, the angular separation of 2:5 00 corresponds to 138 AU, clearly within typical disk sizes. However, position angles and separations are slightly more consistent with a background object than with a companion.
118556816
The stellar content of the young open cluster Trumpler 37
With an apparent cluster diameter of 1.5° and an age of 4 Myr, Trumpler 37 is an ideal target for photometric monitoring of young stars as well as for the search of planetary transits, eclipsing binaries and other sources of variability. The YETI consortium has monitored Trumpler 37 throughout 2010 and 2011 to obtain a comprehensive view of variable phenomena in this region. In this first paper we present the cluster properties and membership determination as derived from an extensive investigation of the literature. We also compared the coordinate list to some YETI images. For 1872 stars we found literature data. Among them 774 have high probability of being member and 125 a medium probability. Based on infrared data we re-calculate a cluster extinction of 0.9–1.2 mag. We can confirm the age and distance to be 3–5 Myr and870 pc. Stellar masses are determined from theoretical models and the mass function is fitted with a power-law index of α = 1.90 (0.1–0.4 M⊙) and α = 1.12 (1–10 M⊙). (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
118472064
Coordinated Multiwavelength Observations of V410Tau
In November 2001 we undertook a coordinated observing campaign to study the connection between X-ray and optical variability in the weak-line T Tauri star V410Tau. The observing plan included three 15 ksec observations with Chandra using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer for Spectroscopy scheduled for different phases of the known 1.87 d starspot cycle. Photometric and spectroscopic monitoring of V410Tau involving telescopes on three different continents was scheduled simultaneously with the Chandra exposures.
17464041
The T Tauri star RX J1608.6-3922 -not an eclipsing binary but a spotted single star
High-resolution spectroscopy and photometric monitoring of the pre-main sequence star RX J1608.6-3922 shows that it is not an eclipsing binary, as previously claimed. Radial velocity measurements covering suitable time spans in order to detect a spectroscopic binary with the claimed period of about 7 days have been performed. The scatter of the radial velocity does not exceed 2.4 km s -1 , defining an upper mass limit of 24 $M_{{\tiny Jupiter}}$ for any eclipsing companion orbiting this star with the claimed period. Photometric observations of RX J1608.6-3922 in 7 consecutive nights (i.e. as long as the claimed orbital period) reveal brightness variations of the order of 0.2 mag with a period of 3.6 days. The shape of the detected light curve differs from a light curve of the star recorded in 1996. The small variations of the radial velocity, the variable shape of the light curve, as well as ($B-V$) color variations suggest that the flux of RX J1608.6-3922 is modulated by spots on the stellar surface with a rotational period of 3.6 days. The stellar activity of this star seems to be highly variable, taking into account the variable shape of the light curve, with an amplitude varying from 0.5 to 0.2 mag in a few years, as well as hints for a variable H α equivalent width.
123257317
PERFORMANCE TEST OF THE CMS LINK ALIGNMENT SYSTEM
Abstract A first global test of the CMS Alignment System was performed at the I4 hall of the CERN ISR tunnel. Positions of the network, reproducing a set of points in the CMS detector monitored by the Link System, were reconstructed and compared to survey measurements. Spatial and angular reconstruction precisions reached in the present experimental set-up are already close to the CMS requirements.
122590032
First test of tiltmeters for the alignment system of CMS
Abstract In this note we present first tests done with the tiltmeters proposed as the key elements of the Laser Level systems to be used in the CMS alignment system. The response of the sensors under moderated longitudinal and transverse tilts is studied and intrinsic performance is extracted.
15555548
Alignment of Silicon tracking systems R&D on Semitransparent Microstrip Sensors
We summarize the R&D activities on a novel semitransparent microstrip sensor to be used on laser-based alignment systems for silicon trackers. The new sensor is used both for particle tracking and laser detection. The aim of this research line is to increase the optical transmittance (T) of Silicon microstrips detectors to infrared light, introducing minor modifications to the sensor design still suitable for its industrial production. The optical simulations used in the sensor design have been experimentally validated against several patterned material samples. This activities have been carried out in the context of SiLC collaboration for the next International Linear Collider.
26141595
First investigation of a novel 2D position-sensitive semiconductor detector concept
This paper presents a first study of the performance of a novel 2D position-sensitive microstrip detector, where the resistive charge division method was implemented by replacing the metallic electrodes with resistive electrodes made of polycrystalline silicon. A characterization of two proof-of-concept prototypes with different values of the electrode resistivity was carried out using a pulsed Near Infra-Red laser. The experimental data were compared with the electrical simulation of the sensor equivalent circuit coupled to simple electronics readout circuits. The good agreement between experimental and simulation results establishes the soundness of resistive charge division method in silicon microstrip sensors and validates the developed simulation as a tool for the optimization of future sensor prototypes. Spatial resolution in the strip length direction depends on the ionizing event position. The average value obtained from the protype analysis is close to 1.2% of the strip length for a 6 MIP signal.
115154823
Balanced Hermitian metrics from SU(2)-structures
We study the intrinsic geometrical structure of hypersurfaces in six-manifolds carrying a balanced Hermitian SU(3)-structure, which we call balanced SU(2)-structure. We provide sufficient conditions, in terms of suitable evolution equations, which imply that a five-manifold with such structure can be isometrically embedded as a hypersurface in a balanced Hermitian SU(3)-manifold. Any five-dimensional compact nilmanifold has an invariant balanced SU(2)-structure, and we show how some of them can be evolved to give new explicit examples of balanced Hermitian SU(3)-structures. Moreover, for n=3,4, we present examples of compact solvmanifolds endowed with a balanced SU(n)-structure such that the corresponding Bismut connection has holonomy equal to SU(n).