TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hosseinzadeh, Griffin
A1  - Cowperthwaite, Philip S.
A1  - Gomez, Sebastian
A1  - Villar, Victoria Ashley
A1  - Nicholl, Matt
A1  - Margutti, Raffaella
A1  - Berger, Edo
A1  - Chornock, Ryan
A1  - Paterson, Kerry
A1  - Fong, Wen-fai
A1  - Savchenko, Volodymyr
A1  - Short, Phil
A1  - Alexander, Kate D.
A1  - Blanchard, Peter K.
A1  - Braga, Joao
A1  - Calkins, Michael L.
A1  - Cartier, Regis
A1  - Coppejans, Deanne L.
A1  - Eftekhari, Tarraneh
A1  - Laskar, Tanmoy
A1  - Ly, Chun
A1  - Patton, Locke
A1  - Pelisoli, Ingrid Domingos
A1  - Reichart, Daniel E.
A1  - Terreran, Giacomo
A1  - Williams, Peter K. G.
T1  - Follow-up of the Neutron Star Bearing Gravitational-wave Candidate Events S190425z and S190426c with MMT and SOAR
JF  - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters
N2  - On 2019 April 25.346 and 26.640 UT the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo gravitational-wave (GW) observatory announced the detection of the first candidate events in Observing Run 3 that contained at least one neutron star (NS). S190425z is a likely binary neutron star (BNS) merger at d(L) = 156 +/- 41 Mpc, while S190426c is possibly the first NS-black hole (BH) merger ever detected, at d(L) = 377 +/- 100 Mpc, although with marginal statistical significance. Here we report our optical follow-up observations for both events using the MMT 6.5 m telescope, as well as our spectroscopic follow-up of candidate counterparts (which turned out to be unrelated) with the 4.1 m SOAR telescope. We compare to publicly reported searches, explore the overall areal coverage and depth, and evaluate those in relation to the optical/near-infrared (NIR) kilonova emission from the BNS merger GW170817, to theoretical kilonova models, and to short gamma-ray burst (SGRB) afterglows. We find that for a GW170817-like kilonova, the partial volume covered spans up to about 40% for S190425z and 60% for S190426c. For an on-axis jet typical of SGRBs, the search effective volume is larger, but such a configuration is expected in at most a few percent of mergers. We further find that wide-field gamma-ray and X-ray limits rule out luminous on-axis SGRBs, for a large fraction of the localization regions, although these searches are not sufficiently deep in the context of the gamma-ray emission from GW170817 or off-axis SGRB afterglows. The results indicate that some optical follow-up searches are sufficiently deep for counterpart identification to about 300 Mpc, but that localizations better than 1000 deg(2) are likely essential.
KW  - binaries: close
KW  - gravitational waves
KW  - methods: observational
KW  - stars: black holes
KW  - stars: neutron
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab271c
SN  - 2041-8205
SN  - 2041-8213
VL  - 880
IS  - 1
PB  - IOP Publ. Ltd.
CY  - Bristol
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - El Mellah, Ileyk
A1  - Sander, Andreas Alexander Christoph
A1  - Sundqvist, Jon Olof
A1  - Keppens, Rony
T1  - Formation of wind-captured disks in supergiant X-ray binaries Consequences for Vela X-1 and Cygnus X-1
JF  - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal
N2  - Context. In supergiant X-ray binaries (SgXB), a compact object captures a fraction of the wind of an O/B supergiant on a close orbit. Proxies exist to evaluate the efficiency of mass and angular momentum accretion, but they depend so dramatically on the wind speed that given the current uncertainties, they only set loose constraints. Furthermore, these proxies often bypass the impact of orbital and shock effects on the flow structure. Aims. We study the wind dynamics and angular momentum gained as the flow is accreted. We identify the conditions for the formation of a disk-like structure around the accretor and the observational consequences for SgXB. Methods. We used recent results on the wind launching mechanism to compute 3D streamlines, accounting for the gravitational and X-ray ionizing influence of the compact companion on the wind. Once the flow enters the Roche lobe of the accretor, we solved the hydrodynamics equations with cooling. Results. A shocked region forms around the accretor as the flow is beamed. For wind speeds on the order of the orbital speed, the shock is highly asymmetric compared to the axisymmetric bow shock obtained for a purely planar homogeneous flow. With net radiative cooling, the flow always circularizes for sufficiently low wind speeds. Conclusions. Although the donor star does not fill its Roche lobe, the wind can be significantly beamed and bent by the orbital effects. The net angular momentum of the accreted flow is then sufficient to form a persistent disk-like structure. This mechanism could explain the proposed limited outer extension of the accretion disk in Cygnus X-1 and suggests the presence of a disk at the outer rim of the neutron star magnetosphere in Vela X-1 and has dramatic consequences on the spinning up of the accretor.
KW  - accretion, accretion disks
KW  - X-rays: binaries
KW  - stars: black holes
KW  - stars: neutron
KW  - supergiants
KW  - stars: winds, outflows
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834498
SN  - 1432-0746
VL  - 622
PB  - EDP Sciences
CY  - Les Ulis
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Archer, A.
A1  - Benbow, Wystan
A1  - Bird, Ralph
A1  - Brose, Robert
A1  - Buchovecky, M.
A1  - Buckley, J. H.
A1  - Chromey, A. J.
A1  - Cui, Wei
A1  - Falcone, A.
A1  - Feng, Qi
A1  - Finley, J. P.
A1  - Fortson, Lucy
A1  - Furniss, Amy
A1  - Gent, A.
A1  - Gueta, O.
A1  - Hanna, David
A1  - Hassan, T.
A1  - Hervet, Olivier
A1  - Holder, J.
A1  - Hughes, G.
A1  - Humensky, T. B.
A1  - Johnson, Caitlin A.
A1  - Kaaret, Philip
A1  - Kar, P.
A1  - Kelley-Hoskins, N.
A1  - Kertzman, M.
A1  - Kieda, David
A1  - Krennrich, F.
A1  - Kumar, S.
A1  - Lang, M. J.
A1  - Lin, T. T. Y.
A1  - McCann, A.
A1  - Moriarty, P.
A1  - Mukherjee, Reshmi
A1  - Ong, R. A.
A1  - Otte, Adam Nepomuk
A1  - Pandel, D.
A1  - Park, N.
A1  - Petrashyk, A.
A1  - Pohl, Martin
A1  - Pueschel, Elisa
A1  - Quinn, J.
A1  - Ragan, K.
A1  - Richards, Gregory T.
A1  - Roache, E.
A1  - Sadeh, I
A1  - Santander, Marcos
A1  - Scott, S. S.
A1  - Sembroski, G. H.
A1  - Shahinyan, Karlen
A1  - Sushch, Iurii
A1  - Tyler, J.
A1  - Wakely, S. P.
A1  - Weinstein, A.
A1  - Wells, R. M.
A1  - Wilcox, P.
A1  - Wilhelm, Alina
A1  - Williams, D. A.
A1  - Williamson, T. J.
A1  - Zitzer, B.
T1  - A Search for Pulsed Very High-energy Gamma-Rays from 13 Young Pulsars in Archival VERITAS Data
JF  - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics
N2  - We conduct a search for periodic emission in the very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray band (E > 100 GeV) from a total of 13 pulsars in an archival VERITAS data set with a total exposure of over 450 hr. The set of pulsars includes many of the brightest young gamma-ray pulsars visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The data analysis resulted in nondetections of pulsed VHE gamma-rays from each pulsar. Upper limits on a potential VHE gamma-ray flux are derived at the 95% confidence level above three energy thresholds using two methods. These are the first such searches for pulsed VHE emission from each of the pulsars, and the obtained limits constrain a possible flux component manifesting at VHEs as is seen for the Crab pulsar.
KW  - gamma rays: general
KW  - pulsars: general
KW  - stars: neutron
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab14f4
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
VL  - 876
IS  - 2
PB  - IOP Publ. Ltd.
CY  - Bristol
ER  -