Table of contents

Astrometric detection and mass determination of Earth-mass exoplanets require sub-μas accuracy, which is theoretically possible with an imaging space telescope using field stars as an astrometric reference. The measurement must, however, overcome astrometric distortions, which are much larger than the photon noise limit. To address this issue, we propose to generate faint stellar diffraction spikes using a two-dimensional grid of regularly spaced small dark spots added to the surface of the primary mirror (PM). Accurate astrometric motion of the host star is obtained by comparing the position of the spikes to the background field stars. The spikes do not contribute to scattered light in the central part of the field and therefore allow unperturbed coronagraphic observation of the star's immediate surroundings. Because the diffraction spikes are created on the PM and imaged on the same focal plane detector as the background stars, astrometric distortions affect equally the diffraction spikes and the background stars and are therefore calibrated. We describe the technique, detail how the data collected by the wide-field camera are used to derive astrometric motion, and identify the main sources of astrometric error using numerical simulations and analytical derivations. We find that the 1.4 m diameter telescope, 0.3 deg² field we adopt as a baseline design achieves 0.2 μas single measurement astrometric accuracy. The diffractive pupil concept thus enables sub-μas astrometry without relying on the accurate pointing, external metrology, or high-stability hardware required with previously proposed high-precision astrometry concepts.

We present multi-band optical photometry of 94 spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in the redshift range 0.0055–0.073, obtained between 2006 and 2011. There are a total of 5522 light-curve points. We show that our natural-system SN photometry has a precision of ≲ 0.03 mag in BVr'i', ≲ 0.06 mag in u', and ≲ 0.07 mag in U for points brighter than 17.5 mag and estimate that it has a systematic uncertainty of 0.014, 0.010, 0.012, 0.014, 0.046, and 0.073 mag in BVr'i'u'U, respectively. Comparisons of our standard-system photometry with published SN Ia light curves and comparison stars reveal mean agreement across samples in the range of ∼0.00–0.03 mag. We discuss the recent measurements of our telescope-plus-detector throughput by direct monochromatic illumination by Cramer et al. This technique measures the whole optical path through the telescope, auxiliary optics, filters, and detector under the same conditions used to make SN measurements. Extremely well characterized natural-system passbands (both in wavelength and over time) are crucial for the next generation of SN Ia photometry to reach the 0.01 mag accuracy level. The current sample of low-z SNe Ia is now sufficiently large to remove most of the statistical sampling error from the dark-energy error budget. But pursuing the dark-energy systematic errors by determining highly accurate detector passbands, combining optical and near-infrared (NIR) photometry and spectra, using the nearby sample to illuminate the population properties of SNe Ia, and measuring the local departures from the Hubble flow will benefit from larger, carefully measured nearby samples.

We present 3D-HST, a near-infrared spectroscopic Treasury program with the Hubble Space Telescope for studying the physical processes that shape galaxies in the distant universe. 3D-HST provides rest-frame optical spectra for a sample of ∼7000 galaxies at 1 < z < 3.5, the epoch when ∼60% of all star formation took place, the number density of quasars peaked, the first galaxies stopped forming stars, and the structural regularity that we see in galaxies today must have emerged. 3D-HST will cover three quarters (625 arcmin²) of the CANDELS Treasury survey area with two orbits of primary WFC3/G141 grism coverage and two to four orbits with the ACS/G800L grism in parallel. In the IR, these exposure times yield a continuum signal-to-noise ratio of ∼5 per resolution element at H₁₄₀ ∼ 23.1 and a 5σ emission-line sensitivity of ∼5 × 10⁻¹⁷ erg s⁻¹ cm⁻² for typical objects, improving by a factor of ∼2 for compact sources in images with low sky background levels. The WFC3/G141 spectra provide continuous wavelength coverage from 1.1 to 1.6 μm at a spatial resolution of ∼013, which, combined with their depth, makes them a unique resource for studying galaxy evolution. We present an overview of the preliminary reduction and analysis of the grism observations, including emission-line and redshift measurements from combined fits to the extracted grism spectra and photometry from ancillary multi-wavelength catalogs. The present analysis yields redshift estimates with a precision of σ(z) = 0.0034(1 + z), or σ(v) ≈ 1000 km s⁻¹. We illustrate how the generalized nature of the survey yields near-infrared spectra of remarkable quality for many different types of objects, including a quasar at z = 4.7, quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 2, and the most distant T-type brown dwarf star known. The combination of the CANDELS and 3D-HST surveys will provide the definitive imaging and spectroscopic data set for studies of the 1 < z < 3.5 universe until the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.

The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) is a medium-resolution (R ∼ 7500) spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way that has already obtained over half a million stellar spectra. They present a randomly selected magnitude-limited sample, so it is important to use a reliable and automated classification scheme that identifies normal single stars and discovers different types of peculiar stars. To this end, we present a morphological classification of ∼350, 000 RAVE survey stellar spectra using locally linear embedding, a dimensionality reduction method that enables representing the complex spectral morphology in a low-dimensional projected space while still preserving the properties of the local neighborhoods of spectra. We find that the majority of all spectra in the database (∼ 90%–95%) belong to normal single stars, but there is also a significant population of several types of peculiars. Among them, the most populated groups are those of various types of spectroscopic binary and chromospherically active stars. Both of them include several thousands of spectra. Particularly the latter group offers significant further investigation opportunities since activity of stars is a known proxy of stellar ages. Applying the same classification procedure to the sample of normal single stars alone shows that the shape of the projected manifold in two-dimensional space correlates with stellar temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity.

Doppler spectroscopy has uncovered or confirmed all the known planets orbiting nearby stars. Two main techniques are used to obtain precision Doppler measurements at optical wavelengths. The first approach is the gas cell method, which consists of least-squares matching of the spectrum of iodine imprinted on the spectrum of the star. The second method relies on the construction of a stabilized spectrograph externally calibrated in wavelength. The most precise stabilized spectrometer in operation is the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), operated by the European Southern Observatory in La Silla Observatory, Chile. The Doppler measurements obtained with HARPS are typically obtained using the cross-correlation function (CCF) technique. This technique consists of multiplying the stellar spectrum by a weighted binary mask and finding the minimum of the product as a function of the Doppler shift. It is known that CCF is suboptimal in exploiting the Doppler information in the stellar spectrum. Here we describe an algorithm to obtain precision radial velocity measurements using least-squares matching of each observed spectrum to a high signal-to-noise ratio template derived from the same observations. This algorithm is implemented in our software HARPS-TERRA (Template-Enhanced Radial velocity Re-analysis Application). New radial velocity measurements on a representative sample of stars observed by HARPS are used to illustrate the benefits of the proposed method. We show that, compared with CCF, template matching provides a significant improvement in accuracy, especially when applied to M dwarfs.

We investigate the nature of the inner accretion disk in the neutron star source GX 5-1 by making a detailed study of time lags between X-rays of different energies. Using the cross-correlation analysis, we found anti-correlated hard and soft time lags of the order of a few tens to a few hundred seconds and the corresponding intensity states were mostly the horizontal branch (HB) and upper normal branch. The model independent and dependent spectral analysis showed that during these time lags the structure of the accretion disk significantly varied. Both eastern and western approaches were used to unfold the X-ray continuum and systematic changes were observed in soft and hard spectral components. These changes along with a systematic shift in the frequency of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) made it substantially evident that the geometry of the accretion disk is truncated. Simultaneous energy spectral and power density spectral study shows that the production of the horizontal branch oscillations (HBOs) is closely related to the Comptonizing region rather than the disk component in the accretion disk. We found that as the HBO frequency decreases from the hard apex to upper HB, the disk temperature increases along with an increase in the coronal temperature, which is in sharp contrast with the changes found in black hole binaries where the decrease in the QPO frequency is accompanied by a decrease in the disk temperature and a simultaneous increase in the coronal temperature. We discuss the results in the context of re-condensation of coronal material in the inner region of the disk.

From optical spectroscopy of X-ray sources observed as part of the Chandra Multi-wavelength Project (ChaMP), we present redshifts and classifications for a total of 1569 Chandra sources from our targeted spectroscopic follow-up using the FLWO/1.5 m, SAAO/1.9 m, WIYN 3.5 m, CTIO/4 m, KPNO/4 m, Magellan/6.5 m, MMT/6.5 m, and Gemini/8 m telescopes, and from archival Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopy. We classify the optical counterparts as 50% broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs), 16% emission line galaxies, 14% absorption line galaxies, and 20% stars. We detect QSOs out to z ∼ 5.5 and galaxies out to z ∼ 3. We have compiled extensive photometry, including X-ray (ChaMP), ultraviolet (GALEX), optical (SDSS and ChaMP-NOAO/MOSAIC follow-up), near-infrared (UKIDSS, Two Micron All Sky Survey, and ChaMP-CTIO/ISPI follow-up), mid-infrared (WISE), and radio (FIRST and NVSS) bands. Together with our spectroscopic information, this enables us to derive detailed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for our extragalactic sources. We fit a variety of template SEDs to determine bolometric luminosities, and to constrain AGNs and starburst components where both are present. While ∼58% of X-ray Seyferts (10⁴² erg s⁻¹ < L_{2 − 10 keV} <10⁴⁴ erg s⁻¹) require a starburst event (>5% starburst contribution to bolometric luminosity) to fit observed photometry only 26% of the X-ray QSO (L_{2 − 10 keV} >10⁴⁴ erg s⁻¹) population appear to have some kind of star formation contribution. This is significantly lower than for the Seyferts, especially if we take into account torus contamination at z > 1 where the majority of our X-ray QSOs lie. In addition, we observe a rapid drop of the percentage of starburst contribution as X-ray luminosity increases. This is consistent with the quenching of star formation by powerful QSOs, as predicted by the merger model, or with a time lag between the peak of star formation and QSO activity. We have tested the hypothesis that there should be a strong connection between X-ray obscuration and star formation but we do not find any association between X-ray column density and star formation rate both in the general population or the star-forming X-ray Seyferts. Our large compilation also allows us to report here the identification of 81 X-ray Bright Optically inactive Galaxies, 78 z > 3 X-ray sources, and eight Type-2 QSO candidates. Also, we have identified the highest redshift (z = 5.4135) X-ray-selected QSO with optical spectroscopy.

The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury is an ongoing Hubble Space Telescope Multi-Cycle Treasury program to image ∼1/3 of M31's star-forming disk in six filters, spanning from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near-infrared (NIR). We use the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to resolve the galaxy into millions of individual stars with projected radii from 0 to 20 kpc. The full survey will cover a contiguous 0.5 deg²area in 828 orbits. Imaging is being obtained in the F275W and F336W filters on the WFC3/UVIS camera, F475W and F814W on ACS/WFC, and F110W and F160W on WFC3/IR. The resulting wavelength coverage gives excellent constraints on stellar temperature, bolometric luminosity, and extinction for most spectral types. The data produce photometry with a signal-to-noise ratio of 4 at m_F275W = 25.1, m_F336W = 24.9, m_F475W = 27.9, m_F814W = 27.1, m_F110W = 25.5, and m_F160W = 24.6 for single pointings in the uncrowded outer disk; in the inner disk, however, the optical and NIR data are crowding limited, and the deepest reliable magnitudes are up to 5 mag brighter. Observations are carried out in two orbits per pointing, split between WFC3/UVIS and WFC3/IR cameras in primary mode, with ACS/WFC run in parallel. All pointings are dithered to produce Nyquist-sampled images in F475W, F814W, and F160W. We describe the observing strategy, photometry, astrometry, and data products available for the survey, along with extensive testing of photometric stability, crowding errors, spatially dependent photometric biases, and telescope pointing control. We also report on initial fits to the structure of M31's disk, derived from the density of red giant branch stars, in a way that is independent of assumed mass-to-light ratios and is robust to variations in dust extinction. These fits also show that the 10 kpc ring is not just a region of enhanced recent star formation, but is instead a dynamical structure containing a significant overdensity of stars with ages >1 Gyr.

The scientific motivation, data collection strategy, data reduction, and analysis methods are presented for the Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS). The chief goal for the Survey was to reveal the nature of the magnetic field threading the Galactic disk, in particular through regions of low to moderate extinction (1–20 mag of A_V) and star formation in the cool interstellar medium. The Survey region spans 76 deg² of the northern Milky Way disk, from ℓ = 18° to 56° and b =−1° to +1°. Linear polarimetric imaging observations began in 2006 in the near-infrared H band (1.6 μm) using the Mimir instrument on the 1.8 m Perkins telescope, located outside Flagstaff, AZ. Mimir used a cold, fixed wire grid and a rotateable cold, compound half-wave plate to obtain "step-and-integrate" polarimetry over its full 10 × 10 arcmin field of view. The GPIPS bright and faint polarimetric limits are approximately 7th and 15th mag, respectively, set by saturation and photon noise. Polarimetric uncertainties track with stellar magnitude, from about 0.1% to 25%, on average, from the brightest to faintest stars. Across the 3237 field GPIPS region, approximately 0.5 million stars are estimated to show detectable linear polarization (P/σ_P > 3); most of these have m_H < 12. This represents many orders of magnitude improvement in the number of polarization measurements across this region. GPIPS observations are more than 90% complete and should finish in 2012.

Methods and observations are described for the full field of view (FOV) polarimetric calibration of the Mimir near-infrared imaging polarimeter in support of the Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey and other applications. Polarimetric calibration consisted of three steps: (1) flat fielding using in-dome images obtained with the compound zero-order half-wave-plate (HWP) in the 16 position angles employed in polarimetric observations, (2) mapping and removing the remaining instrumental polarization via observations of globular cluster stars, and (3) using polarization standard stars to convert instrument-based polarization position angles to equatorial and to determine the linear polarimetric efficiency. For Mimir, the polarization flat fielding reduced systematic variations of the polarization efficiency across the FOV by a factor of 20. The 151 observations of eight globular clusters yielded 40,000 stars for measuring the remaining 0.05%–0.45% instrumental polarization to uncertainties of 0.02%–0.04%. After these corrections, the 444 observations of 23 polarized stars enabled equatorial polarization position angles to be determined to typical uncertainties of 05, and the on-axis (corrected to full FOV) polarization efficiency of 91.1% ± 0.4% to be determined. Fully corrected standard star observations showed excellent agreement with published values of polarization percentage and position angle. Additionally, the observations of four sky fields containing Whittet et al. "primary" polarization standard stars were analyzed to yield 30 new "secondary" standards. These are fainter than the primaries, allowing use with larger telescope apertures. The secondary standards have polarization position angle uncertainties under 5° and range in degree of polarization from 0.4% to 8.5%.

The Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS) covers 76 deg² of the first Galactic quadrant midplane, 18° ⩽ ℓ ⩽ 56° and −1° ⩽ b ⩽ +1°, in H-band (1.6 μm) linear polarimetry to reveal the plane-of-the-sky orientation of the magnetic field in diffuse and denser atomic and molecular clouds. The Survey consists of 3237 overlapping 10 × 10 arcmin fields observed using the Mimir instrument on the 1.8 m Perkins telescope. Here, the first community release of GPIPS data for 559 fields (17% of the Survey) is announced and basic characteristics are described. Data products consist of H-band stellar photometry and polarimetry as well as combined images. The formats and contents of the products are described and quality cuts are explored to provide insight into opportunities and limitations of the data. The Survey probes to distances as far as the Galactic bulge, revealing magnetic field properties that correlate with spiral arms and also show significant small-scale structure. The polarizations are classified into three "usage" samples, based on stellar brightness and polarimetric uncertainty. The brightest, lowest uncertainty polarizations are suitable for individual use and direct magnetic field mapping. The next two fainter samples are useful, once averaged, for probing magnetic fields to greater distances, albeit with lower resolution. Based on this release, the full GPIPS data set will number about 5.6 million stars, with more than 1 million in the high-quality sample. This increases, by many orders of magnitude, the number of polarimetric probes of the Milky Way's magnetic field.