Red clump stars from the LAMOST dataⅠ: identification and distance

We present a sample of about 120 000 red clump candidates selected from the LAMOST DR2 catalog based on the empirical distribution model in the effective temperature vs. surface gravity plane. Although, in general, red clump stars are considered as standard candles, they do not exactly stay in a narrow range of absolute magnitude, but may have a range of more than one magnitude depending on their initial mass. Consequently, conventional oversimplified distance estimations with the assumption of a fixed luminosity may lead to systematic bias related to the initial mass or age, which can potentially affect the study of the evolution of the Galaxy with red clump stars. We therefore employ an isochrone-based method to estimate the absolute magnitude of red clump stars from their observed surface gravities, effective temperatures and metallicities. We verify that the estimation removes the systematics well and provides initial mass/age estimates that are independent of distance with accuracy better than 10%.

19 low mass hypervelocity star candidates from the first data release of the LAMOST survey

Hypervelocity stars are believed to be ejected out from the Galactic center through dynamical interactions between（binary） stars and the central supermassive black hole（s）. In this paper, we report 19 low mass F/G/K type hypervelocity star candidates from over one million stars found in the first data release of the LAMOST regular survey. We determine the unbound probability for each candidate using a MonteCarlo simulation by assuming a non-Gaussian proper-motion error distribution, and Gaussian heliocentric distance and radial velocity error distributions. The simulation results show that all the candidates have unbound possibilities over 50% as expected,and one of them may even exceed escape velocity with over 90% probability. In addition, we compare the metallicities of our candidates with the metallicity distribution functions of the Galactic bulge, disk, halo and globular clusters, and conclude that the Galactic bulge or disk is likely the birth place for our candidates.

A New Statistical Distance Scale for Planetary Nebulae,Based on Gaia EDR3

The present work aims to build a new statistical distance scale for planetary nebulae(PNe)based on a rigorous calibration sample.The distances of the calibration sample are derived from the trigonometric parallax method using the recent measurements of Gaia Early Data Release 3(Gaia EDR3).The new distance scale is created by applying the well-known linear relationship between the radio surface brightness temperature and the nebular radius.The calibration sample is made up of 96 PNe of accurately computed distances with uncertainties less than20%.Earlier ground-and space-based trigonometric parallaxes of PNe display inconsistency with those of Gaia,particularly the Hipparcos results.In addition,these measurements have appreciably lower precision than those of Gaia.When compared to the trigonometric technique,the expansion and kinematic methods exhibited more consistency than the spectroscopic,extinction,gravity,and photoionization methods.Furthermore,contrary to earlier results in the literature,the extinction and gravity methods,on average,underestimate and slightly overestimate the PN distances respectively.As a byproduct of extracting the Gaia parallaxes,we detect the radial velocity and variability for 14 and 3 PN central stars(CSs),respectively.To our knowledge,the variability of Hen 2-447 CS has been determined for the first time.

The revised distance of supernova remnant G15.4+0.1

We measure the distance to the supernova remnant G15.4±0.1 which is likely associated with TeV source HESS J1818-154. We build the neutral hydrogen （HI） absorption and 13CO spectra for supernova remnant G 15.4±0.1 by employing data from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey （SGPS） and the HI/OH/Recombination line survey （THOR）. The maximum absorption velocity of about 140 km s-1 constrains the lower limit of its distance to about 8.0 kpc. Further, the fact that the HI emission feature at about 95 km s-1 seems to have no corresponding absorption suggests that G 15.4±0.1 likely has an upper limit for distance of about 10.5 kpc. The 13CO spectrum for the remnant supports our measurement. The new distance provides revised parameters on its associated pulsar wind nebula and TeV source.

Measuring the Distance of VX Sagittarii with SiO Maser Proper Motions

We report on 43 GHz v=1, J=1-0 SiO maser proper motions in the circumstellar envelope of the M-type semi-regular variable star VX Sgr, observed by Very Long Baseline Array （VLBA） at 3 epochs during 1999 April-May. Applying the statistical parallax analysis to these proper motions, we estimated a distance of VX Sgr of 1.57±0.27kpc, which is consistent with that based on the proper motions of H20 masers, or on the assumption that VX Sgr belongs to the Sgr OB1 association. At this distance, VX Sgr can be classified as a red supergiant. Comparing the statistical parallax method with those of model fitting and annual parallax, we think that the statistical parallax method may be a good way of estimating SiO maser distances at present.

3D cluster members and near-infrared distance of open cluster NGC 6819

In order to obtain clean members of the open cluster NGC 6819, the proper motions and radial velocities of 1691 stars are used to construct a three-dimensional （3D） velocity space. Based on the DBSCAN clustering algorithm, 537 3D cluster members are obtained. From the 537 3D cluster members, the average radial velocity and absolute proper motion of the cluster are Vr = ＋2.30 ±0.04 km s-1 and （PMRA, PMDec） = （-2.5 ±0.5, -4.3 ± 0.5） mas yr-1, respectively. The proper motions, radial velocities, spatial positions and color-magnitude diagram of the 537 3D members indicate that our membership determination is effective. Among the 537 3D cluster members, 15 red clump giants can be easily identified by eye and are used as reliable standard candles for the distance estimate of the cluster. The distance modulus of the cluster is determined to be （m - M）0 -- 11.86 ± 0.05 mag （2355 ±54 pc）, which is quite consistent with published values. The uncertainty of our distance mod- ulus is dominated by the intrinsic dispersion in the luminosities of red clump giants （--0.04 mag）.

Constraining the Spatial Curvature of the Local Universe with Deep Learning

We use the distance sum rule method to constrain the spatial curvature of the Universe with a large sample of 161strong gravitational lensing systems,whose distances are calibrated from the Pantheon compilation of typeⅠa supernovae using deep learning.To investigate the possible influence of mass model of the lens galaxy on constraining the curvature parameterΩ_(k),we consider three different lens models.Results show that a flat Universe is supported in the singular isothermal sphere(SIS)model with the parameterΩ_(k)=0.049_(-0.125)^(+0.147).While in the power-law(PL)model,a closed Universe is preferred at the~3σconfidence level,with the parameterΩ_(k)=-0.245_(-0.071)^(+0.075).In the extended PL model,the 95%confidence level upper limit ofΩ_(k)is<0.011.As for the parameters of the lens models,constraints on the three models indicate that the mass profile of the lens galaxy could not be simply described by the standard SIS model.

A Photometric Study of Two Contact Binaries: CRTS J025408.1+265957 and CRTS J012111.1+272933

We performed new photometric observations for two contact binaries(i.e., CRTS J025408.1+265957 and CRTS J012111.1+272933), which were observed by the 1.0 m telescope at Xingjiang Astronomical Observatory. From our light curves and several survey data, we derived several sets of photometric solutions. We found that CRTS J025408.1+265957 and CRTS J012111.1+272933 were A-and W-type W UMa, respectively. The results imply that the spot migrates or disappears in the two contact binaries, which were identified by chromospheric activity emissions(e.g., Hαemission) from LAMOST spectra. From the O-C curves, the orbital periods of the two contact binaries may be increasing, which is interpreted by the mass transfer from the less massive component to the more massive one. With mass transferring, the two contact binaries may evolve from the contact configurations to semi-detached ones as predicted by the theory of thermal relaxation oscillation.

Clustering Property of Wolf-Rayet Galaxies in the SDSS

We have analysed, for the first time, the clustering properties of Wolf-Rayet （W-R） galaxies, using a large sample of 846 W-R galaxies selected from the Data Release 4 （DR4） of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey （SDSS）. We compute the cross-correlation function between W- R galaxies and a reference sample of galaxies drawn from the DR4. We compare the function to the results for control samples of non-W-R star-forming galaxies that are matched closely in redshift, luminosity, concentration, 4000-A break strength and specific star formation rate （SSFR）. On scales larger than a few Mpc, W-R galaxies have almost the same clustering amplitude as the control samples, indicating that W-R galaxies and non-W-R control galaxies populate dark matter haloes of similar masses. On scales between 0.1-1 h^-1 Mpc, W-R galaxies are less clustered than the control samples, and the size of the difference depends on the SSFR. Based on both observational and theoretical considerations, we speculate that this negative bias can be interpreted by W-R galaxies residing preferentially at the centers of their dark matter haloes. We examine the distribution of W-R galaxies more closely using the SDSS galaxy group catalogue of Yang et al., and find that -82% of our W-R galaxies are the central galaxies of groups, compared to -74% for the corresponding control galaxies. We find that W-R galaxies are hosted, on average, by dark matter haloes of masses of 10^12.3M⊙, compared to 10^12.1M⊙ for centrally-located W-R galaxies and 10^12.7M⊙ for satellite ones. We would like to point out that this finding, which provides a direct observational support to our conjecture, is really very crude due to the small number of W-R galaxies and the incompleteness of the group catalogue, and needs more work in future with larger samples.