No Arabic abstract
Context: Only two planetary systems around old ms-pulsars are currently known. Young radio pulsars and radio-quiet neutron stars cannot be covered by the usually-applied radio pulse timing technique. However, finding substellar companions around these neutron stars would be of great interest -- not only because of the companions possible exotic formation but also due to the potential access to neutron star physics. Aims: We investigate the closest young neutron stars to search for substellar companions around them. Methods: Young, thus warm substellar companions are visible in the Near Infrared while the neutron star itself is much fainter. Four young neutron stars are moving fast enough to enable a common proper motion search for substellar companions within few years. Results. For Geminga, RX J0720.4-3125, RX J1856.6-3754, and PSR J1932+1059 we did not find any co-moving companion down to 12, 15, 11, 42 Jupiter masses for assumed ages of 1, 1, 1, 3.1 Myrs and distances of 250, 361, 167, 361 pc, respectively. Near Infrared limits are presented for these four as well as five other neutron stars for which we currently have only observations at one epoch. Conclusions: We conclude that young isolated neutron stars rarely have brown dwarf companions.
The origin of the local population of young, cooling neutron stars is investigated with a population synthesis model taking into account the contribution of neutron stars born in the Gould Belt, in addition to those originating in the Galactic disk. We estimate their emission in the soft X-ray band as a function of distance and age and construct the Log N -- Log S distribution. It is shown that the inclusion of neutron stars from the Gould Belt provides a good fit to the observed Log N -- Log S distribution. As the Sun is situated inside the Gould Belt, one can naturally explain the comparative local overabundance of massive progenitors and can remove the difficulty of the deficit of relatively bright ($ga 0.1$ ROSAT PSPC cts s$^{-1}$) cooling neutron stars previously reported from models where only neutron stars from the Galactic disk were accounted for.
We report the detections of substellar companions orbiting around seven evolved intermediate-mass stars from precise Doppler measurements at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory. o UMa (G4 II-III) is a giant with a mass of 3.1 M_sun and hosts a planet with minimum mass of m_2sini=4.1 M_J in an orbit with a period P=1630 d and an eccentricity e=0.13. This is the first planet candidate (< 13 M_J) ever discovered around stars more massive than 3 M_sun. o CrB (K0 III) is a 2.1 M_sun giant and has a planet of m_2sini=1.5 M_J in a 187.8 d orbit with e=0.19. This is one of the least massive planets ever discovered around ~2 M_sun stars. HD 5608 (K0 IV) is an 1.6 M_sun subgiant hosting a planet of m_2sini=1.4 M_J in a 793 d orbit with e=0.19. The star also exhibits a linear velocity trend suggesting the existence of an outer, more massive companion. 75 Cet (G3 III:) is a 2.5 M_sun giant hosting a planet of m_2sini=3.0 M_J in a 692 d orbit with e=0.12. The star also shows possible additional periodicity of about 200 d and 1880 d with velocity amplitude of ~7--10 m/s, although these are not significant at this stage. nu Oph (K0 III) is a 3.0 M_sun giant and has two brown-dwarf companions of m_2sini= 24 M_J and 27 M_J, in orbits with P=530.3 d and 3190 d, and e=0.126 and 0.17, respectively, which were independently announced by Quirrenbach et al. (2011). The ratio of the periods is close to 1:6, suggesting that the companions are in mean motion resonance. We also independently confirmed planets around k CrB (K0 III-IV) and HD 210702 (K1 IV), which had been announced by Johnson et al. (2008) and Johnson et al. (2007a), respectively. All of the orbital parameters we obtained are consistent with the previous results.
We give a brief review over the observational evidence for close substellar companions to hot subdwarf stars. The formation of these core helium-burning objects requires huge mass loss of their red giant progenitors. It has been suggested that besides stellar companions substellar objects in close orbits may be able to trigger this mass loss. Such objects can be easily detected around hot subdwarf stars by medium or high resolution spectroscopy with an RV accuracy at the km/s-level. Eclipsing systems of HW Vir type stick out of transit surveys because of their characteristic light curves. The best evidence that substellar objects in close orbits around sdBs exist and that they are able to trigger the required mass loss is provided by the eclipsing system SDSS J0820+0008, which was found in the course of the MUCHFUSS project. Furthermore, several candidate systems have been discovered.
Multiplicity is a fundamental property that is set early during stellar lifetimes, and it is a stringent probe of the physics of star formation. The distribution of close companions around young stars is still poorly constrained by observations. We present an analysis of stellar multiplicity derived from APOGEE-2 spectra obtained in targeted observations of nearby star-forming regions. This is the largest homogeneously observed sample of high-resolution spectra of young stars. We developed an autonomous method to identify double lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s). Out of 5007 sources spanning the mass range of $sim$0.05--1.5 msun, we find 399 binaries, including both RV variables and SB2s. The mass ratio distribution of SB2s is consistent with a uniform for $q<0.95$ with an excess of twins with $q>0.95$. The period distribution is consistent with what has been observed in close binaries ($<10$ AU) in the evolved populations. Three systems are found to have $qsim$0.1, with a companion located within the brown dwarf desert. There are not any strong trends in the multiplicity fraction (MF) as a function of cluster age from 1 to 100 Myr. There is a weak dependence on stellar density, with companions being most numerous at $Sigma_*sim30$ stars/pc$^{-2}$, and decreasing in more diffuse regions. Finally, disk-bearing sources are deficient in SB2s (but not RV variables) by a factor of $sim$2; this deficit is recovered by the systems without disks. This may indicate a quick dispersal of disk material in short-period equal mass systems that is less effective in binaries with lower $q$.
Recent observations of strikingly well-defined spirals in the circumstellar envelopes of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars point to the existence of binary companions in these objects. In the case of planet or brown dwarf mass companions, we investigate the observational properties of the spiral-onion shell wakes due to the gravitational interaction of these companions with the outflowing circumstellar matter. Three dimensional hydrodynamical simulations at high resolution show that the substellar mass objects produce detectable signatures at 100 AU distance, for the wake induced by a Jupiter to brown dwarf mass object orbiting a solar mass AGB star. In particular, the arm pattern propagates with a speed depending on the local wind and sound speeds, implying possible variations in the arm separation in the wind acceleration region and/or in a slow wind with significant temperature variation. The pattern propagation speeds of the inner and outer boundaries differ by twice the sound speed, leading to the overlap of high density boundaries in slow winds and producing a subpattern of the spiral arm feature. Vertically, the wake forms concentric arcs with angular sizes anticorrelated to the wind Mach number. We provide an empirical formula for the peak density enhancement as a function of the mass, orbital distance, and velocity of the object as well as the wind and local sound speeds. In typical condition of AGB envelopes, the arm-interarm density contrast can be greater than 30 % of the background density within a distance of ~10(M_p/M_J) AU for the object mass M_p in units of Jupiter mass M_J. These results suggest that such features may probe unseen substellar mass objects embedded in the winds of AGB stars and may be useful in planning future high sensitivity/resolution observations with ALMA.