Browsing by Author "Steeghs, D."

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    First results of an H alpha based search of classical Be stars in the Perseus Arm and beyond
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2013) Raddi, R.; Drew, J. E.; Fabregat, J.; Steeghs, D.; Wright, N. J.; Sale, S. E.; Farnhill, H. J.; Barlow, M. J.; Greimel, R.; Sabin, L.; Corradi, R. M. L.; Drake, J. J.
    We investigate a region of the Galactic plane, between 120 degrees <= l <= 140 degrees and -1 degrees <= b <= +4 degrees, and uncover a population of moderately reddened (E(B - V) similar to 1) classical Be stars within and beyond the Perseus and Outer Arms. 370 candidate emission-line stars (13 less than or similar to r less than or similar to 16) selected from the Isaac Newton Telescope Photometric H alpha Survey of the Northern Galactic plane have been followed up spectroscopically. A subset of these, 67 stars with properties consistent with those of classical Be stars, have been observed at sufficient spectral resolution (Delta lambda approximate to 2-4 angstrom) at blue wavelengths to narrow down their spectral types. We determine these to a precision estimated to be +/-1 subtype and then we measure reddenings via spectral energy distribution fitting with reference to appropriate model atmospheres. Corrections for contribution to colour excess from circumstellar discs are made using an established scaling to H alpha emission equivalent width. Spectroscopic parallaxes are obtained after luminosity class has been constrained via estimates of distances to neighbouring A/F stars with similar reddenings. Overwhelmingly, the stars in the sample are confirmed as luminous classical Be stars at heliocentric distances ranging from 2 kpc up to similar to 2 kpc. However, the errors are presently too large to enable the cumulative distribution function with respect to distance to distinguish between models placing the stars exclusively in spiral arms, or in a smooth exponentially declining distribution.
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    Observational constraints on the optical and near-infrared emission from the neutron star-black hole binary merger candidate S190814bv
    (2020) Ackley, K.; Amati, L.; Barbieri, C.; Bauer, F. E.; Benetti, S.; Bernardini, M. G.; Bhirombhakdi, K.; Botticella, M. T.; Branchesi, M.; Brocato, E.; Bruun, S. H.; Bulla, M.; Campana, S.; Cappellaro, E.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Chambers, K. C.; Chaty, S.; Chen, T-W; Ciolfi, R.; Coleiro, A.; Copperwheat, C. M.; Covino, S.; Cutter, R.; D'Ammando, F.; D'Avanzo, P.; De Cesare, G.; D'Elia, V; Della Valle, M.; Denneau, L.; De Pasquale, M.; Dhillon, V. S.; Dyer, M. J.; Elias-Rosa, N.; Evans, P. A.; Eyles-Ferris, R. A. J.; Fiore, A.; Fraser, M.; Fruchter, A. S.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Galbany, L.; Gall, C.; Galloway, D. K.; Getman, F., I; Ghirlanda, G.; Gillanders, J. H.; Gomboc, A.; Gompertz, B. P.; Gonzalez-Fernandez, C.; Gonzalez-Gaitan, S.; Grado, A.; Greco, G.; Gromadzki, M.; Groot, P. J.; Gutierrez, C. P.; Heikkila, T.; Heintz, K. E.; Hjorth, J.; Hu, Y-D; Huber, M. E.; Inserra, C.; Izzo, L.; Japelj, J.; Jerkstrand, A.; Jin, Z. P.; Jonker, P. G.; Kankare, E.; Kann, D. A.; Kennedy, M.; Kim, S.; Klose, S.; Kool, E. C.; Kotak, R.; Kuncarayakti, H.; Lamb, G. P.; Leloudas, G.; Levan, A. J.; Longo, F.; Lowe, T. B.; Lyman, J. D.; Magnier, E.; Maguire, K.; Maiorano, E.; Mandel, I; Mapelli, M.; Mattila, S.; McBrien, O. R.; Melandri, A.; Michalowski, M. J.; Milvang-Jensen, B.; Moran, S.; Nicastro, L.; Nicholl, M.; Guelbenzu, A. Nicuesa; Nuttal, L.; Oates, S. R.; O'Brien, P. T.; Onori, F.; Palazzi, E.; Patricelli, B.; Perego, A.; Torres, M. A. P.; Perley, D. A.; Pian, E.; Pignata, G.; Piranomonte, S.; Poshyachinda, S.; Possenti, A.; Pumo, M. L.; Quirola-Vasquez, J.; Ragosta, F.; Ramsay, G.; Rau, A.; Rest, A.; Reynolds, T. M.; Rosetti, S. S.; Rossi, A.; Rosswog, S.; Sabha, N. B.; Carracedo, A. Sagues; Salafia, O. S.; Salmon, L.; Salvaterra, R.; Savaglio, S.; Sbordone, L.; Schady, P.; Schipani, P.; Schultz, A. S. B.; Schweyer, T.; Smartt, S. J.; Smith, K. W.; Smith, M.; Sollerman, J.; Srivastav, S.; Stanway, E. R.; Starling, R. L. C.; Steeghs, D.; Stratta, G.; Stubbs, C. W.; Tanvir, N. R.; Testa, V; Thrane, E.; Tonry, J. L.; Turatto, M.; Ulaczyk, K.; van der Horst, A. J.; Vergani, S. D.; Walton, N. A.; Watson, D.; Wiersema, K.; Wiik, K.; Wyrzykowski, L.; Yang, S.; Yi, S-X; Young, D. R.
    Context. Gravitational wave (GW) astronomy has rapidly reached maturity, becoming a fundamental observing window for modern astrophysics. The coalescences of a few tens of black hole (BH) binaries have been detected, while the number of events possibly including a neutron star (NS) is still limited to a few. On 2019 August 14, the LIGO and Virgo interferometers detected a high-significance event labelled S190814bv. A preliminary analysis of the GW data suggests that the event was likely due to the merger of a compact binary system formed by a BH and a NS.Aims. In this paper, we present our extensive search campaign aimed at uncovering the potential optical and near infrared electromagnetic counterpart of S190814bv. We found no convincing electromagnetic counterpart in our data. We therefore use our non-detection to place limits on the properties of the putative outflows that could have been produced by the binary during and after the merger.Methods. Thanks to the three-detector observation of S190814bv, and given the characteristics of the signal, the LIGO and Virgo Collaborations delivered a relatively narrow localisation in low latency - a 50% (90%) credible area of 5 deg(2) (23 deg(2)) - despite the relatively large distance of 26752 Mpc. ElectromagNetic counterparts of GRAvitational wave sources at the VEry Large Telescope collaboration members carried out an intensive multi-epoch, multi-instrument observational campaign to identify the possible optical and near infrared counterpart of the event. In addition, the ATLAS, GOTO, GRAWITA-VST, Pan-STARRS, and VINROUGE projects also carried out a search on this event. In this paper, we describe the combined observational campaign of these groups.Results. Our observations allow us to place limits on the presence of any counterpart and discuss the implications for the kilonova (KN), which was possibly generated by this NS-BH merger, and for the strategy of future searches. The typical depth of our wide-field observations, which cover most of the projected sky localisation probability (up to 99.8%, depending on the night and filter considered), is r similar to 22 (resp. K similar to 21) in the optical (resp. near infrared). We reach deeper limits in a subset of our galaxy-targeted observations, which cover a total similar to 50% of the galaxy-mass-weighted localisation probability. Altogether, our observations allow us to exclude a KN with large ejecta mass M greater than or similar to 0.1 M-circle dot to a high (> 90%) confidence, and we can exclude much smaller masses in a sub-sample of our observations. This disfavours the tidal disruption of the neutron star during the merger.Conclusions. Despite the sensitive instruments involved in the campaign, given the distance of S190814bv, we could not reach sufficiently deep limits to constrain a KN comparable in luminosity to AT 2017gfo on a large fraction of the localisation probability. This suggests that future (likely common) events at a few hundred megaparsecs will be detected only by large facilities with both a high sensitivity and large field of view. Galaxy-targeted observations can reach the needed depth over a relevant portion of the localisation probability with a smaller investment of resources, but the number of galaxies to be targeted in order to get a fairly complete coverage is large, even in the case of a localisation as good as that of this event.
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    Panning for gold, but finding helium: Discovery of the ultra-stripped supernova SN 2019wxt from gravitational-wave follow-up observations
    (2023) Agudo, I.; Amati, L.; An, T.; Bauer, F. E.; Benetti, S.; Bernardini, M. G.; Beswick, R.; Bhirombhakdi, K.; de Boer, T.; Branchesi, M.; Brennan, S. J.; Brocato, E.; Caballero-Garcia, M. D.; Cappellaro, E.; Castro Rodriguez, N.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Chambers, K. C.; Chassande-Mottin, E.; Chaty, S.; Chen, T. -W.; Coleiro, A.; Covino, S.; D'Ammando, F.; D'Avanzo, P.; D'Elia, V.; Fiore, A.; Floers, A.; Fraser, M.; Frey, S.; Frohmaier, C.; Fulton, M.; Galbany, L.; Gall, C.; Gao, H.; Garcia-Rojas, J.; Ghirlanda, G.; Giarratana, S.; Gillanders, J. H.; Giroletti, M.; Gompertz, B. P.; Gromadzki, M.; Heintz, K. E.; Hjorth, J.; Hu, Y. -D.; Huber, M. E.; Inkenhaag, A.; Izzo, L.; Jin, Z. P.; Jonker, P. G.; Kann, D. A.; Kool, E. C.; Kotak, R.; Leloudas, G.; Levan, A. J.; Lin, C. -C.; Lyman, J. D.; Magnier, E. A.; Maguire, K.; Mandel, I.; Marcote, B.; Sanchez, D. Mata; Mattila, S.; Melandri, A.; Michalowski, M. J.; Moldon, J.; Nicholl, M.; Guelbenzu, A. Nicuesa; Oates, S. R.; Onori, F.; Orienti, M.; Paladino, R.; Paragi, Z.; Perez-Torres, M.; Pian, E.; Pignata, G.; Piranomonte, S.; Quirola-Vasquez, J.; Ragosta, F.; Rau, A.; Ronchini, S.; Rossi, A.; Sanchez-Ramirez, R.; Salafia, O. S.; Schulze, S.; Smartt, S. J.; Smith, K. W.; Sollerman, J.; Srivastav, S.; Starling, R. L. C.; Steeghs, D.; Stevance, H. F.; Tanvir, N. R.; Testa, V.; Torres, M. A. P.; Valeev, A.; Vergani, S. D.; Vescovi, D.; Wainscost, R.; Watson, D.; Wiersema, K.; Wyrzykowski, L.; Yang, J.; Yang, S.; Young, D. R.
    We present the results from multi-wavelength observations of a transient discovered during an intensive follow-up campaign of S191213g, a gravitational wave (GW) event reported by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration as a possible binary neutron star merger in a low latency search. This search yielded SN 2019wxt, a young transient in a galaxy whose sky position (in the 80% GW contour) and distance (similar to SIM;150 Mpc) were plausibly compatible with the localisation uncertainty of the GW event. Initially, the transient's tightly constrained age, its relatively faint peak magnitude (M-i similar to -16.7 mag), and the r-band decline rate of similar to 1 mag per 5 days appeared suggestive of a compact binary merger. However, SN 2019wxt spectroscopically resembled a type Ib supernova, and analysis of the optical-near-infrared evolution rapidly led to the conclusion that while it could not be associated with S191213g, it nevertheless represented an extreme outcome of stellar evolution. By modelling the light curve, we estimated an ejecta mass of only similar to 0.1 M circle dot, with Ni-56 comprising similar to 20% of this. We were broadly able to reproduce its spectral evolution with a composition dominated by helium and oxygen, with trace amounts of calcium. We considered various progenitor channels that could give rise to the observed properties of SN 2019wxt and concluded that an ultra-stripped origin in a binary system is the most likely explanation. Disentangling genuine electromagnetic counterparts to GW events from transients such as SN 2019wxt soon after discovery is challenging: in a bid to characterise this level of contamination, we estimated the rate of events with a volumetric rate density comparable to that of SN 2019wxt and found that around one such event per week can occur within the typical GW localisation area of O4 alerts out to a luminosity distance of 500 Mpc, beyond which it would become fainter than the typical depth of current electromagnetic follow-up campaigns.
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    The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea extended (VVVX) ESO public survey: Completion of the observations and legacy
    (2024) Saito, R. K.; Hempel, M.; Alonso-Garcia, J.; Lucas, P. W.; Minniti, D.; Alonso, S.; Baravalle, L.; Borissova, J.; Caceres, C.; Chene, A. N.; Cross, N. J. G.; Duplancic, F.; Garro, E. R.; Gomez, M.; Ivanov, V. D.; Kurtev, R.; Luna, A.; Majaess, D.; Navarro, M. G.; Pullen, J. B.; Rejkuba, M.; Sanders, J. L.; Smith, L. C.; Albino, P. H. C.; Alonso, M. V.; Amores, E. B.; Angeloni, R.; Arias, J. I.; Arnaboldi, M.; Barbuy, B.; Bayo, A.; Beamin, J. C.; Bedin, L. R.; Bellini, A.; Benjamin, R. A.; Bica, E.; Bonatto, C. J.; Botan, E.; Braga, V. F.; Brown, D. A.; Cabral, J. B.; Camargo, D.; Garatti, Caratti O. A.; Carballo-Bello, J. A.; Catelan, M.; Chavero, C.; Chijani, M. A.; Claria, J. J.; Coldwell, G. V.; Pena, C. Contreras; Contreras Ramos, R.; Corral-Santana, J. M.; Cortes, C. C.; Cortes-Contreras, M.; Cruz, P.; Daza-Perilla, I. V.; Debattista, V. P.; Dias, B.; Donoso, L.; D'Souza, R.; Emerson, J. P.; Federle, S.; Fermiano, V.; Fernandez, J.; Fernandez-Trincado, J. G.; Ferreira, T.; Ferreira Lopes, C. E.; Firpo, V.; Flores-Quintana, C.; Fraga, L.; Froebrich, D.; Galdeano, D.; Gavignaud, I.; Geisler, D.; Gerhard, O. E.; Gieren, W.; Gonzalez, O. A.; Gramajo, L. V.; Gran, F.; Granitto, P. M.; Griggio, M.; Guo, Z.; Gurovich, S.; Hilker, M.; Jones, H. R. A.; Kammers, R.; Kuhn, M. A.; Kumar, M. S. N.; Kundu, R.; Lares, M.; Libralato, M.; Lima, E.; Maccarone, T. J.; Marchant Cortes, P.; Martin, E. L.; Masetti, N.; Matsunaga, N.; Mauro, F.; McDonald, I.; Mejias, A.; Mesa, V.; Milla-Castro, F. P.; Minniti, J. H.; Moni Bidin, C.; Montenegro, K.; Morris, C.; Motta, V.; Navarete, F.; Navarro Molina, C.; Nikzat, F.; Nilo Castellon, J. L.; Obasi, C.; Ortigoza-Urdaneta, M.; Palma, T.; Parisi, C.; Pena Ramirez, K.; Pereyra, L.; Perez, N.; Petralia, I.; Pichel, A.; Pignata, G.; Ramirez Alegria, S.; Rojas, A. F.; Rojas, D.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Rovero, A. C.; Saroon, S.; Schmidt, E. O.; Schroeder, A. C.; Schultheis, M.; Sgro, M. A.; Solano, E.; Soto, M.; Stecklum, B.; Steeghs, D.; Tamura, M.; Tissera, P.; Valcarce, A. A. R.; Valotto, C. A.; Vasquez, S.; Villalon, C.; Villanova, S.; Vivanco Cadiz, F.; Zelada Bacigalupo, R.; Zijlstra, A.; Zoccali, M.
    Context. The ESO public survey VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) surveyed the inner Galactic bulge and the adjacent southern Galactic disk from 2009-2015. Upon its conclusion, the complementary VVV extended (VVVX) survey has expanded both the temporal as well as spatial coverage of the original VVV area, widening it from 562 to 1700 sq. deg., as well as providing additional epochs in JHKs filters from 2016-2023.