Astrophysics
We have detected longitudinal magnetic fields between 2 and 4 kG in three (WD 0446$-$790, WD 1105$-$048, WD 2359$-$434) out of a sample of 12 normal DA white dwarfs by using optical spectropolarimetry done with the VLT Antu 8 m telescope…
We present a natural mechanism which may induce an electric charge into an accretting black hole in the presence of a strong, high energy radiation field. We study this mechanism using Newtonian physics, and we also discuss the process…
A linear but global numerical model for the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in disk geometry is considered to estimate the instability parameters for galaxies. Similarity rules suggested by a local analysis are applied to reveal a…
We study an example of instability in presence of a multiplicative noise, namely the spontaneous generation of a magnetic field in a turbulent medium. This so-called turbulent dynamo problem remains challenging, experimentally and…
We present results of an analysis of the structural and kinematical properties of a sample of elliptical-like objects (ELOs) identified in four hydrodynamical, self-consistent simulations run with the DEVA code (Serna et al. 2003). Star…
We present deep unbiased spectroscopy of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) carried out using the slitless grism spectroscopy mode of the Advance Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The GRIsm ACS Program for Extragalactic…
We present new broad-band optical and near-infrared CCD imaging together with deep optical intermediate-resolution spectroscopy of the Hickson Compact Group 31. We analyze the morphology and colors of the stellar populations of the…
Stochastic acceleration of $^3$He and $^4$He from a thermal background by parallel propagating turbulent plasma waves with a single power-law spectrum of the wavenumber is studied. In the model, both ions interact with several resonant…
Broad and narrow band images and long slit spectroscopy of IC1182 are presented. The broad band images reveal a distorted morphology with a large, heavily obscured disk-like structure and several knots in the central region. Galactic…
We present the full spectroscopic white dwarf and hot subdwarf sample from the SDSS first data release, DR1. We find 2551 white dwarf stars of various types, 240 hot subdwarf stars, and an additional 144 objects we have identified as…
Stochastic acceleration of electrons and protons by waves propagating parallel to the large scale magnetic fields of magnetized plasmas is studied with emphasis on the feasibility of accelerating particles from a thermal background to…
We present a detailed spectroscopic analysis of nitrogen abundances in 91 solar-type stars, 66 with and 25 without known planetary mass companions. All comparison sample stars and 28 planet hosts were analysed by spectral synthesis of the…
About twenty years of radio observations in five bands (from 4.8 to 37 GHz) of the BL Lac object GC 0109+224 (S2 0109+22, RGB J0112+227), are presented and analysed together with the optical data. Over the past ten years this blazar has…
We present the results of a multiband survey for brown dwarfs in the Chamaeleon I dark cloud with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) camera at the ESO/MPG 2.2-m telescope on La Silla (Chile). The survey has revealed a substantial population of…
We have produced a catalog of 378 Galactic O stars with accurate spectral classifications which is complete for V<8 but includes many fainter stars. The catalog provides cross-identifications with other sources; coordinates (obtained in…
The COBE-DMR 4-year maps displayed a strong non-Gaussian signal in the ``inter-scale'' components of the bispectrum: their observed values did not display the scatter expected from Gaussian maps. We re-examine this and other suggested…
We searched for spectral signatures from the exosphere of HD209458 in the UV and the near-IR with UVES and ISAAC at the VLT. We looked in particular for the helium absorption feature at 10 830 \AA predicted to be among the strongest ones.…
\Archeops is a balloon--borne instrument dedicated to measuring cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies at high angular resolution ($\sim$ 12 arcmin.) over a large fraction (30%) of the sky in the (sub)millimetre domain…
Strong constraints on possible variations in fundamental constants can be derived from HI 21-cm and molecular rotational absorption lines observed towards quasars. With the aim of forming a statistical sample of constraints we have begun a…
We report $R_cI_c$ light curves of 2 novae in the M31 galaxy which were detected in the four year Nainital Microlensing Survey. One of these novae has been tracked from the initial increase in flux while other has been observed during its…