Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jun 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009phdt.........7z&link_type=abstract
Proquest Dissertations And Theses 2009. Section 0127, Part 0606 235 pages; [Ph.D. dissertation].United States -- Michigan: Univ
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
1
Hot Jupiters, Rapid Rotators, Binary Stars
Scientific paper
Long baseline optical inerferometers now have the power to resolve objects as small as 0.5 milliarcseconds in the near-IR and possess the capability of conducting real aperture synthesis imaging, allowing us to study stars and their environments in unprecedented detail. As a fundamental property of stars, rotation affects stars' luminosities, effective temperatures, and their evolution. Since most of hot stars are rapid rotators, understanding the effects of rotation will shed light on critical areas of stellar evolution and basic astrophysics. Using the CHARA array and the MIRC combiner, we resolved the surfaces of three rapid rotators, a Cep, a Oph and Altair. We reconstructed an image for a Cep, and modeled the surface brightness distribution for all three stars, allowing us to confirm the "gravity darkening" phenomenon and investigate the impact of rapid rotation on their locations in the H-R diagram. Our modeling of rapid rotators also allowed us to propose a new way of measuring masses of stars.
We also studied binary stars with IR interferometers. We conducted combined interferometric and spectroscopic study of the metallic-lined A star l Vir, permitting us to determine its orbital and physical properties to high accuracy. The determination of masses of the system also allowed us to compare observations with stellar evolution models, in which reasonable matches were found. In addition, using CHARA-MIRC we also made the first resolved images of the well-known interacting and eclipsing binary system b Lyrae, which also allowed us to obtain its full orbital parameters and estimate the masses of its components.
Lastly, we present our efforts toward direct detection of nearby hot Jupiters using precision closure phases obtained with long baseline interferometer. We present closure phase simulations, preliminary observations on the hot Jupiter system u And, as well as calibration studies and test observations of a high contrast binary e Per. We conclude that with all the ongoing improvements, it is feasible to achieve the goal of detecting hot Jupiters with CHARA-MIRC.
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