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At least 1,279 records · Page 71

Micro-tidal disruption events by stellar compact objects and the production of ultra-long GRBs

We explore full/partial tidal disruption events (TDEs) of stars/planets by stellar compact objects (black holes (BHs) or neutron stars (NSs)), which we term micro-TDEs. Disruption of a star/planet with mass M {sub ⋆} may lead to the formation of a debris disk around the BH/NS. Efficient accretion of a fraction (f{sub acc}=0.1 of the debris may then give rise to bright, energetic, long (10{sup 3}–10{sup 4} s), X-ray/gamma-ray flares, with total energies of up to (f{sub acc}/0.1)×10{sup 52} (M{sub ⋆}/0.6 M{sub ⊙}) erg, possibly resembling ultra-long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)/X-ray flashes (XRFs). The energy of such flares depends on the poorly constrained accretion processes. Significantly fainter flares might be produced if most of the disk mass is blown away through strong outflows. We suggest three dynamical origins for such disruptions. In the first, a star/planet is tidally disrupted following a close random encounter with a BH/NS in a dense cluster. We estimate the BH (NS) micro-TDE rates from this scenario to be a few ×10{sup −6} (a few ×10{sup −7}) yr{sup −1} per Milky Way galaxy. Another scenario involves the interaction of wide companions due to perturbations by stars in the field, likely producing comparable but lower rates. Finally, a third scenario involves a BH/NS that gains a natal velocity kick at birth, leading to a close encounter with a binary companion and the tidal disruption of that companion. Such events could be associated with a supernova, or even with a preceding GRB/XRF event, and would likely occur hours to days after the prompt explosion; the rates of such events could be larger than those obtained from the other scenarios, depending on the preceding complex binary stellar evolution.

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ASTEROSEISMIC SIGNATURES OF EVOLVING INTERNAL STELLAR MAGNETIC FIELDS

Recent asteroseismic analyses indicate the presence of strong ( B ≳ 10{sup 5} G) magnetic fields in the cores of many red giant stars. Here, we examine the implications of these results for the evolution of stellar magnetic fields, and we make predictions for future observations. Those stars with suppressed dipole modes indicative of strong core fields should exhibit moderate but detectable quadrupole mode suppression. The long magnetic diffusion times within stellar cores ensure that dynamo-generated fields are confined to mass coordinates within the main-sequence (MS) convective core, and the observed sharp increase in dipole mode suppression rates above 1.5 M {sub ⊙} is likely explained by the larger convective core masses and faster rotation of these more massive stars. In clump stars, core fields of ∼10{sup 5} G can suppress dipole modes, whose visibility should be equal to or less than the visibility of suppressed modes in ascending red giants. High dipole mode suppression rates in low-mass ( M ≲ 2 M {sub ⊙}) clump stars would indicate that magnetic fields generated during the MS can withstand subsequent convective phases and survive into the compact remnant phase. Finally, we discuss implications for observed magnetic fields in white dwarfs and neutron stars, as well as the effects of magnetic fields in various types of pulsating stars.

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RESOLVE AND ECO: THE HALO MASS-DEPENDENT SHAPE OF GALAXY STELLAR AND BARYONIC MASS FUNCTIONS

In this work, we present galaxy stellar and baryonic (stars plus cold gas) mass functions (SMF and BMF) and their halo mass dependence for two volume-limited data sets. The first, RESOLVE-B, coincides with the Stripe 82 footprint and is extremely complete down to baryonic mass M {sub bary} ∼ 10{sup 9.1} M {sub ⊙}, probing the gas-rich dwarf regime below M {sub bary} ∼ 10{sup 10} M {sub ⊙}. The second, ECO, covers a ∼40× larger volume (containing RESOLVE-A) and is complete to M {sub bary} ∼ 10{sup 9.4} M {sub ⊙}. To construct the SMF and BMF we implement a new “cross-bin sampling” technique with Monte Carlo sampling from the full likelihood distributions of stellar or baryonic mass. Our SMFs exhibit the “plateau” feature starting below M {sub star} ∼ 10{sup 10} M {sub ⊙} that has been described in prior work. However, the BMF fills in this feature and rises as a straight power law below ∼10{sup 10} M {sub ⊙}, as gas-dominated galaxies become the majority of the population. Nonetheless, the low-mass slope of the BMF is not as steep as that of the theoretical dark matter halo MF. Moreover, we assign group halo masses by abundance matching, finding that the SMF and BMF, separated into four physically motivated halo mass regimes, reveal complex structure underlying the simple shape of the overall MFs. In particular, the satellite MFs are depressed below the central galaxy MF “humps” in groups with mass <10{sup 13.5} M {sub ⊙} yet rise steeply in clusters. Our results suggest that satellite destruction and stripping are active from the point of nascent group formation. We show that the key role of groups in shaping MFs enables reconstruction of a given survey’s SMF or BMF based on its group halo mass distribution.

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Stellar and black hole mass densities as empirical tracers of co-evolution show lock-step growth since z ∼ 3

At redshifts beyond z∼1, measuring the black hole (BH) galaxy relations proves to be a difficult task. The bright light of the active galactic nuclei aggravates the deconvolution of BH and galaxy properties. However, high-redshift data on these relations are vital to understand the ways in which galaxies and BHs co-evolve and the ways in which they do not. In this work we use BH and stellar mass densities (BHMDs and SMDs) to constrain the possible co-evolution of BHs with their host galaxies since z∼5. The BHMDs are calculated from quasar luminosity functions using the Soltan argument, while we use integrals over stellar mass functions or the star-formation rate density to obtain values for the SMD. We find that both quantities grow in lock-step below redshifts of z∼3 with a non-evolving BHMD to SMD ratio. A fit to the data assuming a power-law relation between the BHMD and the SMD yields exponents around unity (1.0–1.5). Up to z∼5 the BHMD to SMD ratio does not show a strong evolution given the larger uncertainty in the completeness of high-redshift data sets. Our results, always applying the same analysis technique, seem to be consistent across all adopted data sets.

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The stellar density profile of the distant galactic halo

We use extensive gravity-sensitive DDO 51 photometry over 5100 square degrees, combined with Sloan Digital Sky Survey broadband photometry, to select a catalog of ∼4000 giant stars covering a large fraction of the high Galactic latitude sky and reaching out to ∼80 kpc in the Galactic halo. This sample of bright and unbiased tracers enables us to measure the radial profile and 3D structure of the stellar halo to large distances, which had previously only been measured with sparse tracers or small samples. Using population synthesis models to reproduce the observed giant star luminosity function, we find that the halo maintains a r{sup −3.5} profile from 30 to 80 kpc with no signs of a truncation or sharp break over this range. The radial profile measurement is largely insensitive to individual halo substructure components, but we find that attempting to measure the shape of the halo is overwhelmed by the Sagittarius stream such that no elliposidal shape is a satisfactory description in this region. These measurements allow us to begin placing the Milky Way in context with the growing sample of external galaxies where similar halo profile measurements are available, with the goal of further linking the properties of stellar halos to the accretion histories that formed them.

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Lamost observations in the Kepler field. Analysis of the stellar parameters measured with LASP based on low-resolution spectra

All 14 subfields of the Kepler field were observed at least once with the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (lamost, Xinglong Observatory, China) during the 2012–2014 observation seasons. There are 88,628 reduced spectra with a signal-to-noise ratio in the g band (S/N{sub g}) ≥ 6 after the first round (2012–2014) of observations of the lamost– Kepler project (LK-project). By adopting the upgraded version of the lamost Stellar Parameter pipeline (lasp), we have determined the atmospheric parameters (T{sub eff}, logg, and [Fe/H]) and heliocentric radial velocity v {sub rad} for 51,406 stars with 61,226 spectra. Compared with the atmospheric parameters derived from both high-resolution spectroscopy and asteroseismology for common stars in Huber et al., an external calibration of lasp atmospheric parameters was made, leading to the determination of the external errors for giants and dwarfs. Multiple spectroscopic observations of the same objects in the LK-project were used to estimate the internal uncertainties of the atmospheric parameters as a function of S/N{sub g} with the unbiased estimation method. The lasp atmospheric parameters were calibrated based on both the external and internal uncertainties for the giants and dwarfs. A general statistical analysis of the stellar parameters leads to the discovery of 106 candidate metal-poor stars, 9 candidate very metal-poor stars, and 18 candidate high-velocity stars. Fitting formulae were obtained segmentally for both the calibrated atmospheric parameters of the LK-project and the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) parameters with common stars. The calibrated atmospheric parameters and radial velocities of the LK-project will be useful for studying stars in the Kepler field.

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Extra-galactic Distances with Massive Stars: The Role of Stellar Variability in the Case of M33

In modern cosmology, determining the Hubble constant (H{sub 0}) using a distance ladder to percent level and comparing with the results from the Planck satellite can shed light on the nature of dark energy, physics of the neutrino, and curvature of the universe. Thanks to the endeavor of the SH0ES team, the uncertainty of the H{sub 0} has be dramatically reduced, from 10% to 2.4%, and with the promise of even reaching 1% in the near future. In this regard, it is fundamentally important to investigate the systematics. This is best done using other good independent distance indicators. One promising method is the flux-weighted gravity luminosity relation (FGLR) of the blue supergiants (BSGs). As BSGs are the brightest objects in galaxies, they can probe distances up to 10 Mpc with negligible blending effects. While the FGLR method delivered distance is in good agreement with other distance indicators, it has been shown that this method delivers greater distances in the cases of M33 and NGC 55. Here, we investigate whether the M33 distance estimate of FGLR suffers systematics from stellar variability. Using CFHT M33 monitoring data, we found that 9 out of 22 BSGs showed variability during the course of 500 days, although with amplitudes as small as 0.05 mag. This suggests that stellar variability plays a negligible role in the FGLR distance determination.

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Magnetic Inflation and Stellar Mass. I. Revised Parameters for the Component Stars of the Kepler Low-mass Eclipsing Binary T-Cyg1-12664

Several low-mass eclipsing binary stars show larger than expected radii for their measured mass, metallicity, and age. One proposed mechanism for this radius inflation involves inhibited internal convection and starspots caused by strong magnetic fields. One particular eclipsing binary, T-Cyg1-12664, has proven confounding to this scenario. Çakırlı et al. measured a radius for the secondary component that is twice as large as model predictions for stars with the same mass and age, but a primary mass that is consistent with predictions. Iglesias-Marzoa et al. independently measured the radii and masses of the component stars and found that the radius of the secondary is not in fact inflated with respect to models, but that the primary is, which is consistent with the inhibited convection scenario. However, in their mass determinations, Iglesias-Marzoa et al. lacked independent radial velocity measurements for the secondary component due to the star’s faintness at optical wavelengths. The secondary component is especially interesting, as its purported mass is near the transition from partially convective to a fully convective interior. In this article, we independently determined the masses and radii of the component stars of T-Cyg1-12664 using archival Kepler data and radial velocity measurements of both component stars obtained with IGRINS on the Discovery Channel Telescope and NIRSPEC and HIRES on the Keck Telescopes. We show that neither of the component stars is inflated with respect to models. Our results are broadly consistent with modern stellar evolutionary models for main-sequence M dwarf stars and do not require inhibited convection by magnetic fields to account for the stellar radii.

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LAMOST DR1: Stellar Parameters and Chemical Abundances with SP-Ace

We present a new analysis of the LAMOST DR1 survey spectral database performed with the code SP-Ace, which provides the derived stellar parameters T{sub eff}, logg, [Fe/H], and [α/H] for 1,097,231 stellar objects. We tested the reliability of our results by comparing them to reference results from high spectral resolution surveys. The expected errors can be summarized as ∼120 K in T{sub eff}, ∼0.2 in logg, ∼0.15 dex in [Fe/H], and ∼0.1 dex in [α/Fe] for spectra with S/N > 40, with some differences between dwarf and giant stars. SP-Ace provides error estimations consistent with the discrepancies observed between derived and reference parameters. Some systematic errors are identified and discussed. The resulting catalog is publicly available at the LAMOST and CDS websites.

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Magnetic Inflation and Stellar Mass. II. On the Radii of Single, Rapidly Rotating, Fully Convective M-Dwarf Stars

Main-sequence, fully convective M dwarfs in eclipsing binaries are observed to be larger than stellar evolutionary models predict by as much as 10%–15%. A proposed explanation for this discrepancy involves effects from strong magnetic fields, induced by rapid rotation via the dynamo process. Although, a handful of single, slowly rotating M dwarfs with radius measurements from interferometry also appear to be larger than models predict, suggesting that rotation or binarity specifically may not be the sole cause of the discrepancy. We test whether single, rapidly rotating, fully convective stars are also larger than expected by measuring their Rsin i distribution. We combine photometric rotation periods from the literature with rotational broadening (vsin i) measurements reported in this work for a sample of 88 rapidly rotating M dwarf stars. Using a Bayesian framework, we find that stellar evolutionary models underestimate the radii by 10%--15%{sub −2.5}{sup +3}, but that at higher masses (0.18 < M < 0.4 M {sub Sun}), the discrepancy is only about 6% and comparable to results from interferometry and eclipsing binaries. At the lowest masses (0.08 < M < 0.18 M {sub Sun}), we find that the discrepancy between observations and theory is 13%–18%, and we argue that the discrepancy is unlikely to be due to effects from age. Furthermore, we find no statistically significant radius discrepancy between our sample and the handful of M dwarfs with interferometric radii. We conclude that neither rotation nor binarity are responsible for the inflated radii of fully convective M dwarfs, and that all fully convective M dwarfs are larger than models predict.

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On the Ubiquity and Stellar Luminosity Dependence of Exocometary CO Gas: Detection around M Dwarf TWA 7

Millimeter observations of CO gas in planetesimal belts show a high detection rate around A stars, but few detections for later type stars. We present the first CO detection in a planetesimal belt around an M star, TWA 7. The optically thin CO (J = 3–2) emission is colocated with previously identified dust emission from the belt, and the emission velocity structure is consistent with Keplerian rotation around the central star. The detected CO is not well shielded against photodissociation, and must thus be continuously replenished by gas release from exocomets within the belt. We analyze in detail the process of exocometary gas release and destruction around young M dwarfs and how this process compares to earlier type stars. Taking these differences into account, we find that CO generation through exocometary gas release naturally explains the increasing CO detection rates with stellar luminosity, mostly because the CO production rate from the collisional cascade is directly proportional to stellar luminosity. More luminous stars will therefore on average host more massive (and hence more easily detectable) exocometary CO disks, leading to the higher detection rates observed. The current CO detection rates are consistent with a ubiquitous release of exocometary gas in planetesimal belts, independent of spectral type.

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Asteroseismic Determination of the Stellar Rotation Period of the Kepler Transiting Planetary Systems and its Implications for the Spin–Orbit Architecture

We measure the rotation periods of 19 stars in the Kepler transiting planetary systems, P {sub rot,astero} from asteroseismology and P {sub rot,phot} from the photometric variation of their light curves. Two stars exhibit two clear peaks in the Lomb–Scargle periodogram, neither of which agrees with the seismic rotation period. Other four systems do not show any clear peak, whose stellar rotation period is impossible to estimate reliably from the photometric variation; their stellar equators may be significantly inclined with respect to the planetary orbital plane. For the remaining 13 systems, P {sub rot,astero} and P{sub rot,phot} agree within 30%. Interestingly, 3 out of the 13 systems are in the spin–orbit resonant state in which P{sub orb,b}/P{sub rot,astero}≈1 with P {sub orb,b} being the orbital period of the innermost planet of each system. The corresponding chance probability is (0.2–4.7)% based on the photometric rotation period data for 464 Kepler transiting planetary systems. While further analysis of stars with reliable rotation periods is required to examine the statistical significance, the spin–orbit resonance between the star and planets, if confirmed, has important implications for the star–planet tidal interaction, in addition to the origin of the spin–orbit (mis-)alignment of transiting planetary systems.

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Stellar Occultation by Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko Observed with Rosetta's Alice Far-ultraviolet Spectrograph

Following our previous detection of ubiquitous H{sub 2}O and O{sub 2} absorption against the far-ultraviolet continuum of stars located near the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, we present a serendipitously observed stellar occultation that occurred on 2015 September 13, approximately one month after the comet’s perihelion passage. The occultation appears in two consecutive 10-minute spectral images obtained by Alice, Rosetta’s ultraviolet (700–2100 Å) spectrograph, both of which show H{sub 2}O absorption with column density >10{sup 17.5} cm{sup −2} and significant O{sub 2} absorption (O{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O ≈ 5%–10%). Because the projected distance from the star to the nucleus changes between exposures, our ability to study the H{sub 2}O column density profile near the nucleus (impact parameters <1 km) is unmatched by our previous observations. We find that the H{sub 2}O and O{sub 2} column densities decrease with increasing impact parameter, in accordance with expectations, but the O{sub 2} column decreases ∼3 times more quickly than H{sub 2}O. When combined with previously published results from stellar appulses, we conclude that the O{sub 2} and H{sub 2}O column densities are highly correlated, and O{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O decreases with the increasing H{sub 2}O column.

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The Discovery of Quasi-stellar Objects behind M31 and M33

We report the discovery of 11 newly found quasars behind the stellar disks of the spiral galaxies M31 and M33 in the fields covered by the Local Group Galaxy Survey. Their redshifts range from 0.37 to 2.15. Most are X-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared sources. We also report the discovery of five normal background galaxies. Most of these objects were observed owing to their anomalous colors, as part of a program (reported elsewhere) to confirm spectroscopically candidate red supergiant plus B-star binaries; others were discovered as part of our identification of early-type massive stars based upon their optical colors. There are 15 previously known quasars in the same fields, for a grand total of 26, 15 behind M31 and 11 behind M33. Of these, only eight were discovered as part of surveys for quasars; the rest were found accidentally. The quasars are well distributed in the M31 and M33 fields, except for the inner regions, and have the potential for being good probes of the interstellar medium in these stellar disks, as well as serving as zero-point calibrators for Gaia parallaxes.

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SOAR TESS Survey. I. Sculpting of TESS Planetary Systems by Stellar Companions

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is finding transiting planet candidates around bright, nearby stars across the entire sky. The large field of view, however, results in low spatial resolution; therefore, multiple stars contribute to almost every TESS light curve. High angular resolution imaging can detect the previously unknown companions to planetary candidate hosts that dilute the transit depths, lead to host star ambiguity, and, in some cases, are the source of false-positive transit signals. We use speckle imaging on the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope to search for companions to 542 TESS planet candidate hosts in the southern sky. We provide correction factors for the 117 systems with resolved companions due to photometric contamination. The contamination in TESS due to close binaries is similar to that found in surveys of Kepler planet candidates. For the solar-type population, we find a deep deficit of close binary systems with projected stellar separations less than 100 au among planet candidate hosts (44 observed binaries compared to 124 expected based on field binary statistics). The close binary suppression among TESS planet candidate hosts is similar to that seen for the more distant Kepler population. We also find a large surplus of TESS planet candidates in wide binary systems detected in both SOAR and Gaia DR2 (119 observed binaries compared to 77 expected). These wide binaries almost exclusively host giant planets, however, suggesting that orbital migration caused by perturbations from the stellar companion may lead to planet–planet scattering and suppress the population of small planets in wide binaries. Both trends are also apparent in the M dwarf planet candidate hosts.

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Self-consistent Color–Stellar Mass-to-light Ratio Relations for Low Surface Brightness Galaxies

The color–stellar mass-to-light ratio relation (CMLR) is a widely accepted tool for estimating the stellar mass (M {sub *}) of a galaxy. However, an individual CMLR tends to give distinct M {sub *} for a same galaxy when it is applied in different bands. Examining five representative CMLRs from the literature, we find that the difference in M {sub *} predicted in different bands from optical to near-infrared by a CMLR is 0.1 ∼ 0.3 dex. Based on a sample of low surface brightness galaxies that covers a wide range of color and luminosity, we therefore recalibrated each original CMLR in r, i, z, J, H, and K bands to give internally self-consistent M {sub *} for a same galaxy. The g–r is the primary color indicator in the recalibrated relations, which show little dependence on red (r–z) or near-infrared (J–K) colors. Additionally, the external discrepancies in the originally predicted γ {sub *} by the five independent CMLRs have been greatly reduced after recalibration, especially in the near-infrared bands, implying that the near-infrared luminosities are more robust in predicting γ {sub *}. For each CMLR, the recalibrated relations provided in this work could produce internally self-consistent M {sub *} from divergent photometric bands, and are extensions of the recalibrations from the Johnson–Cousin filter system by the pioneering work of McGaugh & Schombert to the filter system of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

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The Second Data Release of the Survey of the MAgellanic Stellar History (SMASH)

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) are the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and close enough to allow for a detailed exploration of their structure and formation history. The Survey of the MAgellanic Stellar History (SMASH) is a community Dark Energy Camera (DECam) survey of the Magellanic Clouds using ∼50 nights to sample over ∼2400 deg{sup 2} centered on the Clouds at ∼20% filling factor (but with contiguous coverage in the central regions) and to depths of ∼24th mag in ugriz. The primary goals of SMASH are to map out the extended stellar peripheries of the Clouds and uncover their complicated interaction and accretion history as well as to derive spatially resolved star formation histories of the central regions and create a “movie” of their past star formation. Here we announce the second SMASH public data release (DR2), which contains all 197 fully calibrated DECam fields including the main body fields in the central regions. The DR2 data are available through the Astro Data Lab hosted by the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. We highlight three science cases that make use of the SMASH DR2 data and will be published in the future: (1) preliminary star formation histories of the LMC, (2) the search for Magellanic star clusters using citizen scientists, and, (3) photometric metallicities of Magellanic Cloud stars using the DECam u-band.

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Three New Late-type Stellar Companions to Very Dusty WISE Debris Disks Identified with SPHERE Imaging

Debris disk stars are good targets for high-contrast imaging searches for planetary systems, since debris disks have been shown to have a tentative correlation with giant planets. We selected 20 stars identified as debris disk hosts by the WISE mission, with particularly high levels of warm dust. We observed these with the VLT/SPHERE high-contrast imaging instrument with the goal of finding planets and imaging the disks in scattered light. Our survey reaches a median 5σ sensitivity of 10.4 M {sub J} at 25 au and 5.9 M {sub J} at 100 au. We identified three new stellar companions (HD 18378B, HD 19257B, and HD 133778B): two are mid-M-type stars and one is a late-K or early-M star. Three additional stars have very widely separated stellar companions (all at >2000 au) identified in the Gaia catalog. The stars hosting the three SPHERE-identified companions are all older (≳700 Myr), with one having recently left the main sequence and one a giant star. We infer that the high volumes of dust observed around these stars has been caused by a recent collision between the planets and planetesimal belts in the system, although for the most evolved star, mass loss could also be responsible for the infrared excess. Future mid-infrared spectroscopy or polarimetric imaging may allow the positions and spatial extent of these dust belts to be constrained, thereby providing evidence as to the true cause of the elevated levels of dust around these old systems. None of the disks in this survey is resolved in scattered light.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗