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While optical and quantum efficiency are on the rise, and spectrographs becoming massively multiplexed, measuring spectral energy distributions of astronomical sources with accuracy remains a challenge. In addition to atmospheric…
The main objective of the Penn State/Torun Centre for Astronomy Search for Planets around Evolved Stars is the detection of planetary systems around massive, evolved stars. We are also interested in the evolution of these systems on stellar…
Many chemically peculiar (CP) stars, especially the magnetic CP2 stars, show a flux depression at 5200A. The "Delta a" photometric System takes advantage of this characteristic to detect these objects in an efficient way. In addition, it is…
Particle sedimentation in the vicinity of a fixed horizontal vortex with time-dependent intensity can be chaotic, provided gravity is sufficient to displace the particle cloud while the vortex is off or weak. This "stretch, sediment and…
A recent analysis of high precision photometry obtained using the Kepler spacecraft has revealed two surprising discoveries: (1) over 860 main sequence A-type stars -- approximately 40% of those identified in the Kepler field -- exhibit…
Convection is ubiquitous in stars and occurs under many different conditions. Here we explore convection in main-sequence stars through two lenses: dimensionless parameters arising from stellar structure and parameters which emerge from the…
The helium-peculiar star a Cen exhibits line profile variations of elements such as iron, nitrogen and oxygen in addition to its well-known extreme helium variability. New high S/N, high-resolution spectra are used to perform a quantitative…
Although globular clusters are generally chemically homogeneous, substantial abundance variations are sometimes seen even among unevolved main sequence stars, especially for the CNO group of elements. Multi-object intermediate-dispersion…
We have obtained ultra-high quality spectra (R=180,000; S/N>300) with unprecedented wavelength coverage (4400 to 7400 A) for a number of stars covering most of the HR diagram in order to test the predictions of models of stellar surface…
Context. There are more than 3000 known Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe), but only 492 central stars of Galactic planetary nebulae (CSPN) have known spectral types. It is vital to increase this number in order to have reliable statistics,…
Much of modern astrophysics is grounded on the observed chemical compositions of stars and the diffuse plasma that pervades the space between stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies. X-ray and EUV spectra of the hot plasma in the outer…
The VLT-FLAMES Survey of Massive Stars was an ESO Large Programme to understand rotational mixing and stellar mass-loss in different metallicity environments, in order to better constrain massive star evolution. We gathered high-quality…
We analyze the X-ray spectra of 19 main sequence stars observed by Chandra using its LETGS configuration. Emission measure (EM) distributions are computed based on emission line measurements, an analysis that also yields evaluations of…
Over the last half-century quantitative stellar spectroscopy has made great progress. However, most stellar abundance analyses today still employ rather simplified models, which can introduce severe systematic errors swamping the…
The detection of magnetic chemically peculiar (CP2) stars in open clusters of the Milky Way can be used to study the influence of different galactic environments on the (non-)presence of peculiarities, which has to be taken into account in…
The magnetic chemically peculiar (mCP) stars of the upper main sequence exhibit strong, globally-organised magnetic fields which are inclined to the rotational axis and facilitate the development of surface abundance inhomogeneities…
We have studied the chemical enrichment history of the interstellar medium through an analysis of the n-dimensional stellar abundances space. This work is a non-parametric analysis of the stellar chemical abundance space. The main goal is…
The structural stratification of a solar-type main sequence star primarily depends on its mass and chemical composition. The surface heavy element abundances of the solar-type stars are reasonably well determined using conventional…
Stars exhibit a bewildering variety of rapidly variable behaviors ranging from explosive magnetic flares to stochastically changing accretion to periodic pulsations or rotation. The principal Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and…
We report the determination from high-resolution spectra of the atmospheric parameters and abundances of 13 chemical species (among which lithium) in 8 single-lined active binaries. These data are combined with our previous results for 6…