High resolution deep imaging of a bright radio quiet QSO at z～3

We have obtained deep J and Ks-band images centered on a bright radio quiet QSO UM 402 （Zem = 2.856） using the IRCS camera and adaptive optics systems that are part of the Subaru Telescope, as well as retrieved WFC3/F140W archive images of this object. A faint galaxy （ink = 23.32 ±0.05 in the Vega magnitude system） that lies ～2.4″north of the QSO sightline has been clearly resolved in all three deep high resolution datasets, and appears as an irregular galaxy with two close components in the Ks-band images （separation ～ 0.31″）. Given the small impact parameter （b = 19.6 kpc, at Zlls = 2.531）, as well as the red color of （J - Ks）vega ～1.6, it might be a candidate galaxy giving rise to the Lyman Limit system absorption at Zabs = 2.531 seen in the QSO spectrum. After carefully subtracting the point spread function from the QSO images, the host galaxy of this bright radio quiet QSO at z ～ 3 was marginally revealed. We placed a lower limit on the host component of mk～ 23.3 according to our analyses.

Double-lined M dwarf eclipsing binaries from Catalina Sky Survey and LAMOST

Eclipsing binaries provide a unique opportunity to determine fundamental stellar properties. In the era of wide-field cameras and all-sky imaging surveys, thousands of eclipsing binaries have been reported through light curve classification, yet their basic properties remain unexplored due to the ex- tensive efforts needed to follow them up spectroscopically. In this paper we investigate three M2-M3 type double-lined eclipsing binaries discovered by cross-matching eclipsing binaries from the Catalina Sky Survey with spectroscopically classified M dwarfs from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope survey data release one and two. Because these three M dwarf binaries are faint, we further acquire radial velocity measurements using GMOS on the Gemini North telescope with R ~4000, enabling us to determine the mass and radius of individual stellar components. By jointly fitting the light and radial velocity curves of these systems, we derive the mass and radius of the primary and secondary components of these three systems, in the range between 0.28-0.42 MQ and 0.29-0.67 R, respectively. Future observations with a high resolution spectrograph will help us pin down the uncertainties in their stellar parameters, and render these systems benchmarks to study M dwarfs, providing inputs to improving stellar models in the low mass regime, or establishing an empirical mass-radius relation for M dwarf stars.

Near-infrared imaging survey of faint companions around young dwarfs in the Pleiades cluster

We conducted a near-infrared imaging survey of 11 young dwarfs in the Pleiades cluster using the Subaru Telescope and the near-infrared coronagraph imager. We found ten faint point sources,with magnitudes as faint as 20 mag in the K-band,with around seven dwarfs.Comparison with the Spitzer archive images revealed that a pair of the faint sources around V 1171 Tau is very red in infrared wavelengths,which indicates very low-mass young stellar objects.However,the results of our follow-up proper motion measurements implied that the central star and the faint sources do not share common proper motions,suggesting that they are not physically associated.

Near-infrared polarimetry of the GG Tauri A binary system

A high angular resolution near-infrared image that shows the intensity of polarization for the GG Tau A binary system was obtained with the Subaru Telescope. The image shows a circumbinary disk scattering the light from the central binary. The azimuthal profile of the intensity of polarization for the circumbinary disk is roughly reproduced by a simple disk model with the Henyey-Greenstein phase function and the Rayleigh function, indicating there are small dust grains at the surface of the disk. Combined with a previous observation of the circumbinary disk, our image indicates that the gap structure in the circumbinary disk orbits counterclockwise, but material in the disk orbits clockwise. We propose that there is a shadow caused by material located between the central binary and the circumbinary disk. The separations and position angles of the stellar components of the binary in the past 20 yr are consistent with the binary orbit with a = 33.4 AU and e = 0.34.