The Galaxy is composed of four distinct structures, i.e., halo, bulge, and thick and thin disks, that are formed and evolved on different timescales; thus accordingly the speeds of chemical enrichment are different from one another, which is imprinted in individual stellar abundances. To decipher them, precise knowledge of the timing of the release of nucleosynthesis materials from various production sites is critical. The delay time distribution (DTD) of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), recently revealed by the SNe Ia surveys of external galaxies, is incorporated into the models of chemical evolution for each structure. Here we report that the observed chemical properties for the thin and thick disks are compatible with a new SNe Ia DTD, and suggests a close chemical connection between the two in the way that the thin disk is formed from gas left after thick disk formation. This nicely explains the lack of thin disk stars with [Fe/H] ≲ −0.8. In this new context, a top-heavy IMF for the bulge is firmly confirmed. Finally we discuss the possibility of some modification of the DTD that might be considered for the halo case.

The common envelope interaction between a giant star and a stellar or substellar companion is at the origin of several compact binary classes, including the progenitors of Type Ia SN. A common envelope is also what will happen when the Sun expands and swallows its planets as far out as Jupiter. The basic idea and physics of the common envelope interaction has been known since the 1970s. However, the outcome of a common envelope interaction - what systems survive and what their parameters are - depends sensitively on the details of the engagement. To advance our knowledge of the common envelope interaction between stars and their stellar and substellar companions, we have carried out a series of simulations with Eulerian, grid-based and Lagrangian, smoothed particle hydrodynamics codes between a 0.88-M⊙, 85-R⊙, red giant branch star and companions in the mass range 0.1-0.9 M⊙. In this contribution, we will discuss the reliability of the techniques, the physics that is not included in the codes but is likely important, the state of the ejected common envelope, and the final binary separation. We also carry out a comparison with the observations. Finally, we discuss the common envelope efficiency parameter, α and the survival of planets.

We obtained a high-resolution CO map of IRAS 22272+5435 in the CO J = 2–1 line using CARMA. The target exhibits a second biggest angular size of the circumstellar molecular envelope among known 21 μm sources. In the preliminary results, we found that the CO properties of IRAS 22272+5435 is clearly different from those of IRAS 07134+1005, which is another well-investigated 21 μm source. For example, elongations seen in the mid-infrared and CO images are extended in mutually perpendicular directions, although in case of IRAS 07134+1005 the CO feature coincides well with the mid-infrared structure.

We have selected a group of 85 evolved planetary nebulae to study their kinematic characteristic based on spatially resolved, long-slit echelle spectroscopy. The data have been drawn from the San Pedro Mártir Kinematic Catalogue of PNe. The aim is to characterize in detail the global kinematics of PNe at advanced stages of evolution with the largest sample of homogenous data used to date for this purpose. The results reveal groups that share kinematic and photo-ionization characteristics of the nebular shell at the different late stages under study. The expansion velocities are typically larger than seen in earlier evolutionary stages, with the largest velocities occurring in objects with very weak or absent [N II]λλ6548, 6584 emission line. These results shall serve to be compared to predictions of hydrodynamical models.

Here, we summarise the conditions that might lead to the formation of a bow shock surrounding a planet's magnetosphere. Such shocks are formed as a result of the interaction of a planet with its host star wind. In the case of close-in planets, the shock develops ahead of the planetary orbit. If this shocked material is able to absorb stellar radiation, the shock signature can be revealed in (asymmetric) transit light curves. We propose that this is the case of the gas giant planet WASP-12b, whose near-UV transit observations have detected the presence of an extended material ahead of the planetary orbit. We show that shock detection through transit observations can be a useful tool to constrain planetary magnetic fields.

Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) are explosions of white dwarfs whose distances can be measured to a precision of ~5% using luminosity information that is encoded in the light curve shape. This property has been very successfully exploited to measure the history of cosmic expansion and to infer the presence of dark energy. But to learn the properties of dark energy and determine whether it is different from the cosmological constant demands higher precision and better accuracy than optical light curves alone can provide. The largest systematic uncertainties come from light curve fitters, photometric calibration errors, and from poor knowledge of the scattering properties of dust along the line of sight. Efforts to use SN Ia spectra as luminosity indicators have had some success, but have not produced a big step forward. Fortunately, observations of SN Ia in the near infrared (NIR), from 1 to 2 microns, offer a very promising path to better knowledge of the Hubble constant, improved constraints on dark energy, and, possibly, a route to discriminating the progenitor paths for SN Ia explosions.

We improved the method of light curve analysis for large numbers of eclipsing binaries. Current methods require a week to analyze the light curves of an eclipsing binary for its physical and orbital parameters. Therefore, we developed a new method to treat large numbers of light curves of eclipsing binaries. We tested the new method by analyzing more than 14 hundred light curves and 9 hundred light curves discovered by OGLE in the Small Magellanic Cloud and Galactic center, respectively.

Fullerenes, the carbon molecules with 60 and 70 atoms, were recently detected in a series of planetary nebulae, in protoplanetary nebulae and in other astrophysical objects. The detection and the quantitative determination of these molecules was made possible by the measurement of their reference infrared spectra and the relative molar extinction coefficients and integrated molar absorptivity on laboratory scale. It is expected that also fulleranes the hydrogenated derivatives of C60 and C70 may be present in the same objects where fullerenes were detected. This prompted us to synthesize the hydrogenated fullerenes, to record their infrared spectra and the measure the molar extinction coefficients and integrated molar absorptivity on laboratory scale to have a reference in the search of these fullerene derivatives in space

Since its discovery, the feature at 21 μm has been detected in all C-rich proto-PNe of intermediate spectral type (A–G) and – weakly – in a few PNe and AGB stars, but the nature of its carriers remains unknown. In this paper, we show the detection of this feature in the spectra of three new stars obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope. In the attempt to relate the unidentified feature to other dust features, we retrieved mid-IR spectra of all the 21 μm sources currently known from ISO and Spitzer archives and noticed a correlation between the flux emitted in the 21 μm feature and that emitted at 7 and 11 μm (PAH bands and HAC broad emission). Such a correlation may point to a common nature of the carriers.

We investigate the infrared emission bands from Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe). PAHs in PNe are assumed to be in transition from circumstellar to interstellar PAHs. We select 15 evolved PNe taking account of effective stellar temperatures and obtain infrared spectra of PNe from AKARI (2.5–5 μm) and Spitzer (5–14 μm) observations. Their evolutionary phase is estimated using [SIV]10.51/[NeII]12.81. We find that the near-infrared PAH bands are significantly enhanced along with stellar evolution sequence. We also find that the ratio of 3.4 to 3.3 μm bands is enhanced. The enhancement might indicate some chemical processing, such as hydrogenation, on small PAHs.

We present a circumstellar dust model around the symbiotic Mira RR Tel obtained by modeling the near-infrared JHKL magnitudes and ISO spectra. In order to follow the evolution of infrared colours in time, the published JHKL magnitudes were corrected by removing the Mira pulsations. The RR Tel light curves show three obscuration events in the near-IR. Using the simultaneously available JHKL magnitudes and ISO spectra in three different epochs, we obtained SEDs in the near- and mid-IR spectral region (1-20 μm) in epochs with and without obscuration.

The DUSTY numerical code was used to solve the radiative transfer and to determine the circumstellar dust properties of the inner dust regions around the Mira, assuming a spherical dust temperature distribution in its close neighbourhood. The physical properties of the dust, mass loss and optical depth during intervals with and without obscuration have been obtained. Both JHKL and ISO observations during the obscuration period can be reproduced with a spherical dust envelope, while ISO spectra outside obscuration show a different behaviour. The dynamical behaviour of the circumstellar dust was obtained by modeling the JHKL magnitudes observed during the span of more than 30 years.

The DUSTY code was also successfully applied in the modeling of circumstellar dust envelopes of young stellar objects, such as Herbig Ae/Be stars.

With the precision of space-borne photometers better than 100 ppm (i.e. MOST, CoRoT and Kepler), the derived stellar properties often suffer from systematic offsets due to the values used for solar mass, radius and luminosity, and to fundamental astrophysical constants. Stellar parameters are often expressed in terms of L⊙, M⊙ and R⊙, but the actual values used vary from study to study. Here, we propose to adopt a nominal set of fundamental solar parameters that will impose consistency across published works and eliminate systematics that stem from inconsistent values. We further implore the community to rigorously use the official values of fundamental astrophysical constants set forth by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA).

The techniques of disentangling were originally developed to separate spectra of individual components from time series of spectra of binaries and, simultaneously, to determine either the corresponding radial velocities or directly to solve for orbital parameters.

Generalizations of the disentangling method enable us to include also intrinsic line-profile variability of the component spectra into the underlying model, and thus to solve for additional physical parameters of the stars (either single or components of multiple systems). Depending on the problem in question, it may also be helpful to constrain the space of separated spectra by templates or to bound the solution in the parameter space by photometry, interferometry or other observational data.

Dynamical models of strongly irradiated gas-giant atmospheres exhibit a range of behavior, the nature of which depends on both the adopted parameters and the adopted numerical model. Discerning the correct choice of physical parameters and modeling philosophy can be difficult. Here, I present a series of wavelength-dependent transmission spectra for the giant planet HD209458b based on 3D radiative hydrodynamical models for a range of kinematic viscosities. While flow patterns and temperature distributions can vary significantly, disk-averaged phase curves mask much of this information. Transmission spectra, on the other hand, probe the day-night transition where advective contributions dominate and differences are often most pronounced. Transmission spectra illustrate noticeable changes, especially when comparing the differences between transmission spectra of eastern and western hemispheres, as might be seen during ingress and egress.

In this study, we present the preliminary light curve analysis of the contact binary SW Lac, using B, V light curves of the system spanning 2 years (2009 - 2010). During the spot modeling process, we used the information coming from the Doppler maps of the system, which was performed using the high resolution and phase dependent spectra obtained at the 2.1m Otto Struve Telescope of the McDonald Observatory, in 2009. The results showed that the spot modeling from the light curve analysis are in accordance with the Doppler maps, while the non-circular spot modeling technique is needed in order to obtain much better and reliable spot models.

Gaia, the forthcoming astrometric ESA survey, is expected to substantially improve our knowledge about the distances to galactic planetary nebulae (PNe). We present an overview of Gaia mission and focus in some aspects which are relevant for the study of PNe. In particular, we present our simulations on Gaia spectrophotometric observations obtained by means of GOG (Gaia Object Generator) for a catalogue of proto-PNe and PNe (Suárez et al. 2006) which can be used as templates to classify and study the suitability of Gaia spectrophotometry to infer physical properties of the sources.

In this work, we present the first catalogue of optically variable sources observed by the Optical Monitoring Camera (OMC), with information about the variability of more than 5000 objects and periodicity of ~ 1000 sources.

The rapid response capability of Swift, together with the daily planning of its observing schedule, make it an ideal mission for following novae in the X-ray and UV bands. A number of both classical and recurrent novae have been extensively monitored throughout their supersoft phase. We report findings from these observations, including the high-amplitude flux variation often seen at the start of the supersoft emission, the optical plateau sometimes seen for recurrent novae, the differing relationships between the X-ray and UV variability, and the turn-on and turn-off times of the supersoft emission for the Swift sample of novae.

I provide a synthetic overview of the present status of stellar models for the asymptotic giant branch phase, one of the most complex and still uncertain stages of stellar evolution. In particular I will focus on two aspects that are most relevant in the context of the planetary nebulæ progeny, namely: the chemical composition of the AGB ejecta, and the mass of the bare CO core left after the ejection of the stellar mantle at the AGB tip. Recent progress, present uncertainties, and future perspectives to constrain AGB models are briefly discussed.