Browsing by Author "Catelan, Marcio"
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- ItemA Superwind from Early Post-Red Giant Stars?(2001) Soker, Noam; Catelan, Marcio; Rood, Robert T.; Harpaz, AmosWe suggest that the gap observed at ~20,000 K in the horizontal branches of several Galactic globular clusters is caused by a small amount of extra mass loss that occurs when stars start to ``peel off'' the red giant branch (RGB), i.e., when their effective temperature starts to increase, even though they may still be on the RGB. We show that the envelope structure of RGB stars that start to peel off is similar to that of late asymptotic giant branch stars known to have a superwind phase. An analogous superwind in the RGB peel-off stars could easily lead to the observed gap in the distribution of the hottest horizontal-branch stars....
- ItemAlert Classification for the ALeRCE Broker System: The Anomaly Detector(IOP Publishing Ltd, 2023) Pérez-Carrasco, Manuel; Cabrera-Vives, Guillermo; Hernández-García, Lorena; Forster, F.; Sanchez-Saez, Paula; Muñoz Arancibia, Alejandra M.; Arredondo, Javier; Astorga, Nicolas; Bauer, Franz Erik; Bayo, Amelia; Catelan, Marcio; Dastidar, Raya; Estevez, P. A.; Lira, Paulina; Pignata, GiulianoAstronomical broker systems, such as Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events (ALeRCE), are currently analyzing hundreds of thousands of alerts per night, opening up an opportunity to automatically detect anomalous unknown sources. In this work, we present the ALeRCE anomaly detector, composed of three outlier detection algorithms that aim to find transient, periodic, and stochastic anomalous sources within the Zwicky Transient Facility data stream. Our experimental framework consists of cross-validating six anomaly detection algorithms for each of these three classes using the ALeRCE light-curve features. Following the ALeRCE taxonomy, we consider four transient subclasses, five stochastic subclasses, and six periodic subclasses. We evaluate each algorithm by considering each subclass as the anomaly class. For transient and periodic sources the best performance is obtained by a modified version of the deep support vector data description neural network, while for stochastic sources the best results are obtained by calculating the reconstruction error of an autoencoder neural network. Including a visual inspection step for the 10 most promising candidates for each of the 15 ALeRCE subclasses, we detect 31 bogus candidates (i.e., those with photometry or processing issues) and seven potential astrophysical outliers that require follow-up observations for further analysis.
- ItemInformative regularization for a multi-layer perceptron RR Lyrae classifier under data shift(2023) Perez-Galarce, Francisco; Pichara, Karim; Huijse, Pablo; Catelan, Marcio; Mery Quiroz, Domingo Arturo
- ItemProperties of RR Lyrae variables in binary systems: towards a first-time mass measurement(2022) Hajdu, Gergely; Pietrzyński, Grzegorz; Catelan, Marcio; Jurcsik, Johanna; Karczmarek, Paulina; Pilecki, Bogumił; Thompson, IanDespite their general usefulness as distance indicators and tracers of old stellar populations, several properties of RR Lyrae variable stars remain poorly understood. Crucially, the most basic stellar parameter, the stellar mass, has never been measured for any member of this class. We performed a new search for RR Lyrae variables in binary systems, looking for the light travel-time effect in the long-term light curves obtained by the OGLE project toward the Galactic bulge, finding 87 high-confidence candidates. The distributions of the inferred properties of these binary systems are quite peculiar: no system has a binary period below 1000d, and their frequency peaks between 3000 and 4000d; their eccentricities are strongly concentrated around 0.27; and their mass functions are apparently trimodal. Supposing an isotropic inclination distribution, and a mass of 0.65 times solar for a typical RR Lyrae, these three modes point to typical companion masses of ~0.6, ~0.2 and ~0.067 solar masses. These can be attributed to a combination of main sequence and white dwarf, red dwarf, and brown dwarf companions, respectively. As RR Lyrae variables are evolved from (close to) solar mass, Population II main sequence stars, their binary parameters provide a unique glimpse into the binary properties of the old stellar population. These properties seem to be wildly different from those of Population I binaries. The difference in the distribution of binary periods can be explained tentatively by binary stellar evolution and selection effects. However, the distribution of eccentricities, and especially the trimodal companion mass distribution is in stark contrast to Population I binary parameters of solar-type stars, requiring further observations to confirm, and theoretical efforts to explain them. Finally, the observed binary properties inform us on the prospects of both finding and RR Lyrae variable in an eclipsing binary system, as well as on the possibility of obtaining an astrometric mass measurement using observations of the Gaia satellite....
- ItemPulsating Stars(2015) Catelan, Marcio; Smith, H. A.This book surveys our understanding of stars which change in brightness because they pulsate. Pulsating variable stars are keys to distance scales inside and beyond the Milky Way galaxy. They test our understanding not only of stellar pulsation theory but also of stellar structure and evolution theory. Moreover, pulsating stars are important probes of the formation and evolution of our own and neighboring galaxies. Our understanding of pulsating stars has greatly increased in recent years as large-scale surveys of pulsating stars in the Milky Way and other Local Group galaxies have provided a wealth of new observations and as space-based instruments have studied particular pulsating stars in unprecedented detail....
- ItemPulsating stars in ω Centauri. Near-IR properties and period-luminosity relations(2017) Navarrete, Camila; Catelan, Marcio; Contreras Ramos, Rodrigo; Alonso-García, Javier; Gran, Felipe; Dékány, István; Minniti, Danteω Centauri (NGC 5139) contains many variable stars of different types, including the pulsating type II Cepheids, RR Lyrae and SX Phoenicis stars. We carried out a deep, wide-field, near-infrared (IR) variability survey of ω Cen, using the VISTA telescope. We assembled an unprecedented homogeneous and complete J and KS near-IR catalog of variable stars in the field of ω Cen. In this paper we compare optical and near-IR light curves of RR Lyrae stars, emphasizing the main differences. Moreover, we discuss the ability of near-IR observations to detect SX Phoenicis stars given the fact that the amplitudes are much smaller in these bands compared to the optical. Finally, we consider the case in which all the pulsating stars in the three different variability types follow a single period-luminosity relation in the near-IR bands....
- ItemRelative ratios and radial distributions of the multiple populations in the Galactic globular clusters(2015) Alonso-Garcia, Javier; Catelan, Marcio; Amigo, Pía; Contreras Ramos, Rodrigo; Cortés, Cristián; Kuehn, Charles; Grundahl, Frank; López, Graciela; Salinas, Ricardo; Smith, Horace; Stetson, Peter; Sweigart, Allen; Valcarce, Aldo A. R.; Zoccali, ManuelaRecently, the long-standing paradigm that globular clusters are close approximations to simple stellar populations, with all stars formed at precisely the same time from populations having precisely the same chemical composition, has been shattered by a series of photometric and spectroscopic observations that reveal that these objects are more complex than we once thought . In this poster, we present the first results of a survey we are conducting among the Galactic globular clusters using the Strömgren photometric system. We show that the bluest Strömgren filters reveal broadenings or splits in the stellar sequences in the color-magnitude diagrams of the sampled clusters. These features allow us to disentangle successfully the different stellar populations in a given globular cluster, which let us measure their relative ratios, and explore their radial trends and gradients from the cluster center out to its tidal radius....
- ItemResults from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey(2009) Drake, Andrew J.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Mahabal, A. A.; Graham, M.; Williams, R.; Catelan, Marcio; Beshore, E.; Larson, S.; Christensen, E.The Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) is a collaborative effort between Caltech and LPL that uses data from Catalina Sky Survey's 0.7m Schmidt telescope to search for optical transients. This survey currently covers a total of 26,000 square degrees on the sky between declinations -30 and 70. Observations covering 1200 square degrees are taken 21 nights per lunation and reach magnitudes of 19 to 20. CRTS is sensitive to transients with timescales from minutes to years since images are taken in sequences separated by 10 minutes and past observations date back over four years. Transient classification is performed using follow up imaging and spectroscopy in combination with VO-enabled archival analysis of CSS and Palomar Quest synoptic datasets and DSS, 2MASS, SDSS, GALEX and UKIDSS surveys. To date more than 600 unique transients have been identified by CRTS. These include more than 200 newly discovered Supernovae, Cataclysmic Variables and Blazars. Initial results of note include in the discovery of hyper-luminous supernovae, as well as a high rate of supernovae associated with intrinsically faint galaxies. In the near future we expect to expand the survey area and depth by utilizing data from two additional operational Catalina Sky Survey telescopes. All CRTS transients are discovered and distributed openly within minutes of observation using VOEvent technology as well as html tables, RSS feeds and GoogleSky (from VOEventNet.org). Astronomers will soon be able to automatically select transients of particular interest by using the personalized event selection available via the SkyAlert system....
- ItemResults From The First Year Of The Catalina Real-time Transient Survey(2009) Drake, Andrew J.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Mahabal, A.; Graham, M. J.; Williams, R.; Catelan, Marcio; Beshore, E.; Larson, S.; Christensen, E.The Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) is a collaborative effort between Caltech and LPL that uses data from Catalina Sky Survey's 0.76m Schmidt telescope to search for optical transients (OTs) varying by more than two magnitudes between past and current data. The survey covers 26,000 square degrees on the sky between declination -30 and 70 at Galactic latitudes |b| > 10 deg. Sequences of four observations are taken separated by 10 minutes and cover 1200 square degrees each night for 21 nights per lunation. Observations reach transients at unfiltered magnitudes of 19 to 20. To date more than 400 unique OTs have been identified by CRTS. These transients include more than 150 supernovae and dwarf novae, as well as UV Ceti flares, high proper motion stars, comets, Miras and currently unidentified transients. Classification is carried out using follow up imaging and spectroscopy in combination with VO-enabled archival analysis of CSS and Palomar Quest synoptic datasets and DSS, 2MASS, SDSS, GALEX and UKIDSS surveys. All candidate OTs are published within 5 mins of observation and are openly accessible as VOEvents, html tables and RSS feeds (from VOEventNet.org). As part of our public outreach program, the CRTS event stream is also published in the event layer of Google Sky....
- ItemRR Lyrae binary systems in the Galactic bulge(2017) Hajdu, Gergely; Catelan, MarcioThe possibility of a direct mass measurement of RR Lyrae variable stars in binary systems has remained elusive for many years, due to the apparent paucity of such systems. Motivated by our recent success of finding a population of high confidence candidates, we have been continuing the search for RR Lyrae variables in binary systems towards the Galactic bulge. We describe the preliminary results of our project in these proceedings....
- ItemRR Lyrae in LMC Globular Clusters(2009) Kuehn, Charles A., III; Smith, H. A.; Taylor, L.; McClellan, R. E.; Catelan, Marcio; Looper, K.; Pritzl, B. J.; De Lee, N.We present preliminary results from a study of five globular clusters located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The goal of this project is to carry out a large, systematic study of the behavior of RR Lyrae stars in Oosterhoff-intermediate globular clusters. The LMC is an ideal target for a study of this sort as it contains Oosterhoff-intermediate clusters as well as Oo-I/II clusters. We seek to answer three main questions. 1.) Are there double-mode RR Lyrae stars (RRd) in Oo-intermediate clusters and if so how do their properties compare to RRd stars in Oo-I/II clusters? 2.) How do the positions of RR Lyrae stars on the Bailey diagram differ between stars in Oo-intermediate clusters compared to those in Oo-I/II clusters? 3.) How do the Fourier decomposition parameters of RR Lyrae stars change when going from Oo-I/II clusters to Oo-intermediate ones? We present Oosterhoff classifications and sample light curves for some of the clusters in our study and discuss their Fourier parameters and resulting physical properties. We also discuss the implications of our findings on the nature of the Oosterhoff dichotomy and what that implies about Milky Way formation....
- ItemRR Lyrae in LMC Globular Clusters: Insights into the Oosterhoff Phenomenon and Milky Way Formation(2011) Kuehn, Charles A., III; Smith, H. A.; Catelan, Marcio; Taylor, L.; McClellan, R. E.; Looper, K.; DeLee, N.; Pritzl, B. J.We present results from a study of RR Lyrae stars in five globular clusters located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The goal of this study was to look at the behavior and properties of RR Lyrae stars in Oosterhoff-intermediate globular clusters and compare them to RR Lyrae in Oosterhoff I and II clusters. New BVI photometric observations of these clusters were obtained with the SMARTS consortium telescopes and with the SOAR 4-meter telescope. We present light curves and Fourier properties for the RR Lyrae stars in our study as well as physical properties for these stars derived from their Fourier parameters. We compare these physical properties to those of RR Lyrae in Milky Way halo globular clusters and discuss implications for Milky Way halo formation....
- ItemRR Lyrae in the Large Magellanic Cloud: New Insights Into Oosterhoff Intermediate Globular Clusters(2013) Kuehn, Charles A.; Smith, H. A.; Catelan, Marcio; Pritzl, B. J.; De Lee, N. M.; Borissova, J.Current models suggest that the Milky Way halo was formed through the accretion of objects similar to the present day nearby dwarf galaxies. The ancient nature of RR Lyrae stars make them ideal tracers of stellar populations that can be used to determine how similar the present day dwarf galaxies are to the objects that were accreted to form the Milky Way halo. Globular clusters in the halo can be divided into two groups based on the properties of their RR Lyrae stars, called Oosterhoff groups, with a zone of avoidance between these groups. Nearby dwarf galaxies and their globular clusters fall not only in the Oosterhoff I and II groups, like in the Milky Way, but also in the zone of avoidance between these groups. These Oosterhoff intermediate objects, as the objects that fall in the zone of avoidance are called, present a challenge to the current theories of Milky Way halo formation. We present results of a recent study of globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud which focused on the behavior of individual RR Lyrae stars in Oosterhoff intermediate objects and how this behavior compares to RR Lyrae stars in the other Oosterhoff groups. We discuss how these results demonstrate that Oosterhoff intermediate objects should not be thought of as one homogenous group. We also discuss how these results suggest that the traditional dividing lines between the Oosterhoff groups may need to be revised....
- ItemRR Lyrae in the LMC: Insights Into the Oosterhoff Phenomenon(2013) Kuehn, Charles A; Smith, Horace A.; Catelan, Marcio; Jeon, Young-Beom; Nemec, James M.; Walker, Alistair R.; Kunder, Andrea; Dame, Kyra; Pritzl, Barton J.; De Lee, Nathan; Borissova, JuraAlthough more than eight decades have passed since P. Th. Oosterhoff drew attention to differences in the properties of RR Lyrae variables in globular clusters, the origin and significance of the Oosterhoff groups remain unclear. Nonetheless, the accumulation of extensive new observations of RR Lyrae stars in globular clusters of the Milky Way and Local Group galaxies allows a fresh look at the phenomenon. Insights come not only from surveys of variables within the original Oosterhoff groups I and II but also from recent observations of the Oosterhoff-intermediate systems found especially in smaller Local Group galaxies. We will compare properties of RR Lyrae in several systems to investigate what they reveal about system-to-system differences of transition temperature between fundamental-mode and first overtone pulsators and of horizontal branch luminosity. Both transition temperature and horizontal branch luminosity have at various times been credited as playing roles in the creation of the Oosterhoff dichotomy....
- ItemRR Lyrae Period-Amplitude Diagrams: From Bailey to Today(2011) Smith, Horace A.; Catelan, Marcio; Kuehn, CharlesMore than a century ago, Solon Bailey's pioneering investigations of the variable stars in globular clusters allowed the first period-amplitude diagrams to be constructed for their RR Lyrae stars. These diagrams differ from cluster to cluster, and there has been debate as to whether these differences are correlated mainly with [Fe/H] or with Oosterhoff type. It is clear now that a cluster's Oosterhoff type plays an important role in determining its period-amplitude relation, although the Oosterhoff dichotomy itself is correlated with metallicity. Not all clusters follow the usual patterns, however. The globular clusters NGC 6388 and NGC 6441 have period-amplitude diagrams similar to those of metal-poor Oosterhoff type II globular clusters, but they themselves are comparatively metal-rich. The period-amplitude diagrams of Oosterhoff-intermediate systems are discussed....
- ItemRR Lyrae stars as tracers of halo substructures(2017) Duffau, Sonia; Vivas, A. Katherina; Navarrete, Camila; Carballo-Bello, Julio; Hajdu, Gergel; Catelan, MarcioThree RR Lyrae overdensity candidates in the southern sky have been studied using low resolution spectra obtained with the Goodman spectrograph at SOAR. We search for unidentified velocity peaks indicative of the possible presence of streams within the overdensities. Our results suggest that all three overdensities present an excess of radial velocity signal at high mean radial velocities which cannot be explained as a contribution from any known Galactic component....
- ItemRR Lyrae Stars: Period-Luminosity Relations and Oosterhoff Groups(2003) Smith, H. A.; Pritzl, B. J.; Catelan, Marcio; Sweigart, A. V.; De Lee, N.; Contreras, R.We use new observations and data from the literature to construct I band period-luminosity relations for RR Lyrae stars in globular clusters. We present synthetic horizontal branches made from theoretical evolutionary models to understand better the effect which horizontal branch morphology has upon the period-luminosity relations in I and several other passbands. We also use the observed relations to address the question of the prevalence of second overtone pulsators among the RR Lyrae stars. We will review an ongoing observational program designed to obtain photometry for variable stars in globular clusters that show the second parameter effect and that cannot be easily placed within the two usual Oosterhoff groups. We thank the National Science Foundation for partial support of this work....
- ItemRR Lyrae variables in globular clusters and nearby galaxies(2004) Catelan, MarcioI point out that the Oosterhoff dichotomy for globular cluster and field RR Lyrae stars may place the strongest constraints so far on the number of dwarf spheroidal-like protogalactic fragments that may have contributed to the formation of the Galactic halo. The first calibration of the RR Lyrae period-luminosity relation in I, J, H, K taking evolutionary effects into account is provided. Problems in the interpretation of RR Lyrae light curves and evolutionary properties are briefly reviewed....
- ItemRR Lyrae Variables in NGC 2808(2011) Kunder, Andrea; Stetson, Peter B.; Catelan, Marcio; Amigo, Pía; de Propris, RobertoNGC 2808 is a unique globular cluster with not only a bimodal-horizontal branch (HB) but also with gaps on the blue horizontal branch. Adequate interpretation of the nature of the detected peculiarities in "bimodal" and "gap" clusters is of paramount importance for understanding the nature of the second parameter phenomenon and scenarios for the formation of the Galaxy. Although RR Lyrae variables are HB stars that can provide powerful constraints to models on the origin of bimodal HBs, unfortunately, until recently, only one RR Lyrae variable was known in this cluster. Here we present the first calibrated time-series CCD photometry for newly discovered fundamental mode RR Lyrae variables in NGC 2808, with observations over a range of twenty years. Investigations of RR Lyrae variable stars in this peculiar, bimodal-horizontal branch globular cluster are carried out to account for its formation, and the effects of helium enrichment and differential reddening. The Oosterhoff classification of NGC 2808, which has recently been associated with a previously unknown dwarf galaxy in Canis Major, is also discussed....
- ItemRR Lyrae Variables in Stellar Systems(2009) Smith, Horace A.; Catelan, Marcio; Clementini, GisellaThe pioneering studies of RR Lyrae stars in globular clusters by Oosterhoff and by Sawyer Hogg in the 1930s and 1940s called attention to interesting systematic differences among RR Lyrae populations in different systems. When such studies were extended to the dwarf spheroidal companions of the Milky Way in the 1960s, it was found that the average properties of their RR Lyrae stars were often different from those that had previously been observed in globular clusters. Observations of RR Lyrae stars have now extended to the Andromeda Galaxy and other Local Group systems, with still greater variety being apparent. Our understanding of the reasons for these differences among the RR Lyrae populations in different systems is by no means complete, but properties of RR Lyrae stars within these different systems are tied to differing horizontal branch morphologies and also shed light upon scenarios for the formation of the Galaxy....