No Arabic abstract
We present the orbital solution of a peculiar double-lined spectroscopic and eclipsing binary system, 2M17091769+3127589. This solution was obtained by a simultaneous fit of both APOGEE radial velocities and TESS and ASAS-SN light curves to determine masses and radii. This system consists of an $M=0.256^{+0.010}_{-0.006}$ $M_odot$, $R=3.961^{+0.049}_{-0.032}$ $R_{odot}$ red giant and a hotter $M=1.518 ^{+0.057}_{-0.031}$ $M_odot$, $R=2.608^{+0.034}_{-0.321}$ $R_{odot}$ subgiant. Modelling with the MESA evolutionary codes indicates that the system likely formed 5.26 Gyrs ago, with a $M=1.2$ $M_odot$ primary that is now the systems red giant and a $M=1.11$ $M_odot$ secondary that is now a more massive subgiant. Due to Roche-lobe overflow as the primary ascends the red giant branch, the more evolved primary (i.e., originally the more massive star of the pair) is now only one-sixth as massive as the secondary. Such a difference between the initial and the current mass ratio is one of the most extreme detected so far. Evolutionary modelling suggests the system is still engaged in mass transfer, at a rate of $dot{M} sim 10^{-9}$ $M_odot$ yr$^{-1}$, and it provides an example of a less evolved precursor to some of the systems that consist of white dwarfs and blue stragglers.
Binary stars play a vital role in astrophysical research, as a good fraction of stars are in binaries. Binary fraction (BF) is known to change with stellar mass in the Galactic field, but such studies in clusters require binary identification and membership information. Here, we estimate the total and spectral-type-wise high mass-ratio (HMR) BF ($f^{0.6}$) in 23 open clusters using unresolved binaries in color-magnitude diagrams using textit{Gaia} DR2 data. We introduce the segregation index (SI) parameter to trace mass segregation of HMR (total and mass-wise) binaries and the reference population. This study finds that in open clusters, (1) HMR BF for the mass range 0.4--3.6 Msun (early M to late B type) has a range of 0.12 to 0.38 with a peak at 0.12--0.20, (2) older clusters have a relatively higher HMR BF, (3) the mass-ratio distribution is unlikely to be a flat distribution and BF(total) $sim$ (1.5 to 2.5) $times f^{0.6}$, (4) a decreasing BF(total) from late B-type to K-type, in agreement with the Galactic field stars, (5) older clusters show radial segregation of HMR binaries, (6) B and A/F type HMR binaries show radial segregation in some young clusters suggesting a primordial origin. This study will constrain the initial conditions and identify the major mechanisms that regulate binary formation in clusters. Primordial segregation of HMR binaries could result from massive clumps spatially segregated in the collapse phase of the molecular cloud.
Radio timing observations of a millisecond pulsar in orbit around the Galactic centre black hole (BH) or a BH at the centre of globular clusters could answer foundational questions in astrophysics and fundamental physics. Pulsar radio astronomy typically employs the post-Keplerian approximation to determine the system parameters. However, in the strong gravitational field around the central BH, higher order relativistic effects may become important. We compare the pulsar timing delays given by the post-Keplerian approximation with those given by a relativistic timing model. We find significant discrepancies between the solutions derived for the Einstein delay and the propagation delay (i.e. Roemer and Sharpiro delay) compared to the fully relativistic solutions. Correcting for these higher order relativistic effects is essential in order to construct accurate radio timing models for pulsar systems at the Galactic centre and the centre of globular clusters and informing issues related to their detection.
There is a striking and unexplained dearth of brown dwarf companions in close orbits (< 3AU) around stars more massive than the Sun, in stark contrast to the frequency of stellar and planetary companions. Although rare and relatively short-lived, these systems leave detectable evolutionary end points in the form of white dwarf - brown dwarf binaries and these remnants can offer unique insights into the births and deaths of their parent systems. We present the discovery of a close (orbital separation ~ 0.006 AU) substellar companion to a massive white dwarf member of the Praesepe star cluster. Using the cluster age and the mass of the white dwarf we constrain the mass of the white dwarf progenitor star to lie in the range 3.5 - 3.7 Msun (B9). The high mass of the white dwarf means the substellar companion must have been engulfed by the B stars envelope while it was on the late asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Hence, the initial separation of the system was ~2 AU, with common envelope evolution reducing the separation to its current value. The initial and final orbital separations allow us to constrain the combination of the common envelope efficiency (alpha) and binding energy parameters (lambda) for the AGB star to alpha lambda ~3. We examine the various formation scenarios and conclude that the substellar object was most likely to have been captured by the white dwarf progenitor early in the life of the cluster, rather than forming in situ.
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will open the mHz frequency window of the gravitational wave (GW) landscape. Among all the new GW sources expected to emit in this frequency band, extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) constitute a unique laboratory for astrophysics and fundamental physics. Here we show that EMRIs can also be used to extract relevant cosmological information, complementary to both electromagnetic (EM) and other GW observations. By using the loudest EMRIs (SNR$>$100) detected by LISA as dark standard sirens, statistically matching their sky localisation region with mock galaxy catalogs, we find that constraints on $H_0$ can reach $sim$1.1% ($sim$3.6%) accuracy, at the 90% credible level, in our best (worst) case scenario. By considering a dynamical dark energy (DE) cosmological model, with $Lambda$CDM parameters fixed by other observations, we further show that in our best (worst) case scenario $sim$5.9% ($sim$12.3%) relative uncertainties at the 90% credible level can be obtained on $w_0$, the DE equation of state parameter. Besides being relevant in their own right, EMRI measurements will be affected by different systematics compared to both EM and ground-based GW observations. Cross validation with complementary cosmological measurements will therefore be of paramount importance, especially if convincing evidence of physics beyond $Lambda$CDM emerges from future observations.
We show that the loudest extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) detected by the future space-based gravitational wave detector LISA can be used as dark standard sirens, statistically matching their sky localisation region with mock galaxy catalogs. In these Proceedings we focus on a realistic EMRI population scenario and report accuracy predictions for the measure of cosmological parameters, anticipating the potential of EMRIs to simultaneously constrain the Hubble constant, the dark matter, and the dark energy density parameters.