Rotational modulation of stellar light curves due to dark spots encloses information on spot properties and, thus, on magnetic activity. In particular, the decay of the autocorrelation function (ACF) of light curves is presumed to be linked to spot/a
ctive-region lifetimes, given that some coherence of the signal is expected throughout their lifetime. In the literature, an exponential decay has been adopted to describe the ACF. Here, we investigate the relation between the ACF and the active-region lifetimes. For this purpose, we produce artificial light curves of rotating spotted stars with different observation, stellar, and spot properties. We find that a linear decay and respective timescale better represent the ACF than the exponential decay. We therefore adopt a linear decay. The spot/active-region timescale inferred from the ACF is strongly restricted by the observation length of the light curves. For 1-year light curves our results are consistent with no correlation between the inferred and the input timescales. The ACF decay is also significantly affected by differential rotation and spot evolution: strong differential rotation and fast spot evolution contribute to a more severe underestimation of the active-region lifetimes. Nevertheless, in both circumstances the observed timescale is still correlated with the input lifetimes. Therefore, our analysis suggests that the ACF decay can be used to obtain a lower limit of the active-region lifetimes for relatively long-term observations. However, strategies to avoid or flag targets with fast active-region evolution or displaying stable beating patterns associated with differential rotation should be employed.
Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) is one of the few classes of active galactic nuclei (AGN) harboring powerful relativistic jets and detected in $gamma$ rays. NLS1s are well-known X-ray sources. While in non-jetted sources the origin of this X-r
ay emission may be a hot corona surrounding the accretion disk, in jetted objects, especially beamed ones, the contribution of corona and relativistic jet is difficult to disentangle without a proper sampling of the hard X-ray emission. For this reason, we observed with textit{NuSTAR} the first four NLS1s detected at high energy $gamma$ rays. These data, along with textit{XMM-Newton} and textit{Swift/XRT} observations, confirmed that X rays originate both in the jet and in the accretion disk corona. Time variability in hard X rays furthermore suggests that, as observed in flat-spectrum radio quasars, the dissipation region during flares could change its position from source to source, and it can be located both inside and outside the broad-line region. We find that jetted NLS1s, and other blazars as well, seem not to follow the classical fundamental plane of black hole activity, which therefore should be used as a black hole mass estimator in blazars with extreme care only. Our results strengthen the idea according to which $gamma$-NLS1s are smaller and younger version of flat-spectrum radio quasars, in which both a Seyfert and a blazar component co-exist.
Brightness variations due to dark spots on the stellar surface encode information about stellar surface rotation and magnetic activity. In this work, we analyze the Kepler long-cadence data of 26,521 main-sequence stars of spectral types M and K in o
rder to measure their surface rotation and photometric activity level. Rotation-period estimates are obtained by the combination of a wavelet analysis and autocorrelation function of the light curves. Reliable rotation estimates are determined by comparing the results from the different rotation diagnostics and four data sets. We also measure the photometric activity proxy Sph using the amplitude of the flux variations on an appropriate timescale. We report rotation periods and photometric activity proxies for about 60 per cent of the sample, including 4,431 targets for which McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014) did not report a rotation period. For the common targets with rotation estimates in this study and in McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014), our rotation periods agree within 99 per cent. In this work, we also identify potential polluters, such as misclassified red giants and classical pulsator candidates. Within the parameter range we study, there is a mild tendency for hotter stars to have shorter rotation periods. The photometric activity proxy spans a wider range of values with increasing effective temperature. The rotation period and photometric activity proxy are also related, with Sph being larger for fast rotators. Similar to McQuillan et al. (2013a,2014), we find a bimodal distribution of rotation periods.
Over 2,000 stars were observed for one month with a high enough cadence in order to look for acoustic modes during the survey phase of the Kepler mission. Solar-like oscillations have been detected in about 540 stars. The question of why no oscillati
ons were detected in the remaining stars is still open. Previous works explained the non-detection of modes with the high level of magnetic activity. However, the studied stars contained some classical pulsators and red giants that could have biased the results. In this work, we revisit this analysis on a cleaner sample of 1,014 main-sequence solar-like stars. First we compute the predicted amplitude of the modes. We find that the stars with detected modes have an amplitude to noise ratio larger than 0.94. We measure reliable rotation periods and the associated photometric magnetic index for 684 stars and in particular for 323 stars where the mode amplitude is predicted to be high enough to be detected. We find that among these 323 stars 32% have a magnetic activity level larger than the Sun at maximum activity, explaining the non-detection of p modes. Interestingly, magnetic activity cannot be the primary reason responsible for the absence of detectable modes in the remaining 68% of the stars without p modes detected and with reliable rotation periods. Thus, we investigate metallicity, inclination angle, and binarity as possible causes of low mode amplitudes. Using spectroscopic observations for a subsample, we find that a low metallicity could be the reason for suppressed modes. No clear correlation with binarity nor inclination is found. We also derive the lower limit for our photometric activity index (of 20-30 ppm) below which rotation and magnetic activity are not detected. Finally with our analysis we conclude that stars with a photometric activity index larger than 2,000 ppm have 98.3% probability of not having oscillations detected.
The NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is about to provide full-frame images of almost the entire sky. The amount of stellar data to be analysed represents hundreds of millions stars, which is several orders of magnitude above the amo
unt of stars observed by CoRoT, Kepler, or K2 missions. We aim at automatically classifying the newly observed stars, with near real-time algorithms, to better guide their subsequent detailed studies. In this paper, we present a classification algorithm built to recognise solar-like pulsators among classical pulsators, which relies on the global amount of power contained in the PSD, also known as the FliPer (Flicker in spectral Power density). As each type of pulsating star has a characteristic background or pulsation pattern, the shape of the PSD at different frequencies can be used to characterise the type of pulsating star. The FliPer Classifier (FliPer$_{Class}$) uses different FliPer parameters along with the effective temperature as input parameters to feed a machine learning algorithm in order to automatically classify the pulsating stars observed by TESS. Using noisy TESS simulated data from the TESS Asteroseismic Science Consortium (TASC), we manage to classify pulsators with a 98% accuracy. Among them, solar-like pulsating stars are recognised with a 99% accuracy, which is of great interest for further seismic analysis of these stars like our Sun. Similar results are obtained when training our classifier and applying it to 27 days subsets of real Kepler data. FliPer$_{Class}$ is part of the large TASC classification pipeline developed by the TESS Data for Asteroseismology (TDA) classification working group.
Mrk 590 was originally classified as a Seyfert 1 galaxy, but then it underwent dramatic changes: the nuclear luminosity dropped by over two orders of magnitude and the broad emission lines all but disappeared from the optical spectrum. Here we presen
t followup observations to the original discovery and characterization of this changing look active galactic nucleus (AGN). The new Chandra and HST observations from 2014 show that Mrk 590 is awakening, changing its appearance again. While the source continues to be in a low state, its soft excess has re-emerged, though not to the previous level. The UV continuum is brighter by more than a factor of two and the broad MgII emission line is present, indicating that the ionizing continuum is also brightening. These observations suggest that the soft excess is not due to reprocessed hard X-ray emission. Instead, it is connected to the UV continuum through warm Comptonization. Variability of the Fe K-alpha emission lines suggests that the reprocessing region is within about 10 light years or 3 pc of the central source. The AGN type change is neither due to obscuration, nor due to one-way evolution from type-1 to type-2, as suggested in literature, but may be related to episodic accretion events.
We report the discovery and characterization of HD 89345b (K2-234b; EPIC 248777106b), a Saturn-sized planet orbiting a slightly evolved star. HD 89345 is a bright star ($V = 9.3$ mag) observed by the K2 mission with one-minute time sampling. It exhib
its solar-like oscillations. We conducted asteroseismology to determine the parameters of the star, finding the mass and radius to be $1.12^{+0.04}_{-0.01}~M_odot$ and $1.657^{+0.020}_{-0.004}~R_odot$, respectively. The star appears to have recently left the main sequence, based on the inferred age, $9.4^{+0.4}_{-1.3}~mathrm{Gyr}$, and the non-detection of mixed modes. The star hosts a warm Saturn ($P = 11.8$~days, $R_p = 6.86 pm 0.14~R_oplus$). Radial-velocity follow-up observations performed with the FIES, HARPS, and HARPS-N spectrographs show that the planet has a mass of $35.7 pm 3.3~M_oplus$. The data also show that the planets orbit is eccentric ($eapprox 0.2$). An investigation of the rotational splitting of the oscillation frequencies of the star yields no conclusive evidence on the stellar inclination angle. We further obtained Rossiter-McLaughlin observations, which result in a broad posterior of the stellar obliquity. The planet seems to conform to the same patterns that have been observed for other sub-Saturns regarding planet mass and multiplicity, orbital eccentricity, and stellar metallicity.
The effect of metallicity on the granulation activity in stars is still poorly understood. Available spectroscopic parameters from the updated APOGEE-textit{Kepler} catalog, coupled with high-precision photometric observations from NASAs textit{Keple
r} mission spanning more than four years of observation, make oscillating red giant stars in open clusters crucial testbeds. We determine the role of metallicity on the stellar granulation activity by discriminating its effect from that of different stellar properties such as surface gravity, mass, and temperature. We analyze 60 known red giant stars belonging to the open clusters NGC 6791, NGC 6819, and NGC 6811, spanning a metallicity range from [Fe/H] $simeq -0.09$ to $0.32$. The parameters describing the granulation activity of these stars and their $ u_mathrm{max}$, are studied by considering the different masses, metallicities, and stellar evolutionary stages. We derive new scaling relations for the granulation activity, re-calibrate existing ones, and identify the best scaling relations from the available set of observations. We adopted the Bayesian code DIAMONDS for the analysis of the background signal in the Fourier spectra of the stars. We performed a Bayesian parameter estimation and model comparison to test the different model hypotheses proposed in this work and in the literature. Metallicity causes a statistically significant change in the amplitude of the granulation activity, with a dependency stronger than that induced by both stellar mass and surface gravity. We also find that the metallicity has a significant impact on the corresponding time scales of the phenomenon. The effect of metallicity on the time scale is stronger than that of mass. A higher metallicity increases the amplitude of granulation and meso-granulation signals and slows down their characteristic time scales toward longer periods.
Kepler allows the measurement of starspot variability in a large sample of field red giants for the first time. With a new method that combines autocorrelation and wavelet decomposition, we measure 361 rotation periods from the full set of 17,377 osc
illating red giants in our sample. This represents 2.08% of the stars, consistent with the fraction of spectroscopically detected rapidly rotating giants in the field. The remaining stars do not show enough variability to allow us to measure a reliable surface rotation period. Because the stars with detected rotation periods have measured oscillations, we can infer their global properties, e.g. mass and radius, and quantitatively evaluate the predictions of standard stellar evolution models as a function of mass. Consistent with results for cluster giants when we consider only the 4881 intermediate-mass stars, M>2.0 M$_odot$ from our full red giant sample, we do not find the enhanced rates of rapid rotation expected from angular momentum conservation. We therefore suggest that either enhanced angular momentum loss or radial differential rotation must be occurring in these stars. Finally, when we examine the 575 low-mass (M<1.1 M$_odot$) red clump stars in our sample, which were expected to exhibit slow (non-detectable) rotation, 15% of them actually have detectable rotation. This suggests a high rate of interactions and stellar mergers on the red giant branch.
During the Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project (STORM) observations of NGC 5548, the continuum and emission-line variability became de-correlated during the second half of the 6-month long observing campaign. Here we present Swi
ft and Chandra X-ray spectra of NGC 5548 obtained as a part of the campaign. The Swift spectra show that excess flux (relative to a power-law continuum) in the soft X-ray band appears before the start of the anomalous emission-line behavior, peaks during the period of the anomaly, and then declines. This is a model-independent result suggesting that the soft excess is related to the anomaly. We divide the Swift data into on- and off-anomaly spectra to characterize the soft excess via spectral fitting. The cause of the spectral differences is likely due to a change in the intrinsic spectrum rather than being due to variable obscuration or partial covering. The Chandra spectra have lower signal-to-noise ratios, but are consistent with Swift data. Our preferred model of the soft excess is emission from an optically thick, warm Comptonizing corona, the effective optical depth of which increases during the anomaly. This model simultaneously explains all the three observations: the UV emission line flux decrease, the soft-excess increase, and the emission line anomaly.
