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Context. The direct detection of exoplanets with high-contrast imaging requires advanced data processing methods to disentangle potential planetary signals from bright quasi-static speckles. Among them, angular differential imaging (ADI)…
We present a near-infrared spectrum of the hot ($T_{\rm eff}$ $\approx$ 55,000 K) DA white dwarf PG 1234+482. We confirm that a very low mass companion is responsible for the previously recognised infrared photometric excess. We compare…
Brown dwarfs and giant planets orbiting close to a host star are subjected to significant irradiation that can modify the properties of their atmospheres. In order to test the atmospheric models that are used to describe these systems, it…
We recently reported on the detection of a possible planetary-mass companion to Beta Pictoris at a projected separation of 8 AU from the star, using data taken in November 2003 with NaCo, the adaptive-optics system installed on the Very…
Because many classical Be stars may owe their nature to mass and angular-momentum transfer in a close binary, the present masses, temperatures, and radii of their components are of high interest for comparison to stellar evolution models.…
We have undertaken a detailed near-IR spectroscopic analysis of eight notable white dwarfs, predominantly of southern declination. In each case the spectrum failed to reveal compelling evidence for the presence of a spatially unresolved,…
Dwarf galaxy satellite systems are essential probes to test models of structure formation, making it necessary to establish a census of dwarf galaxies outside of our own Local Group. We present deep FORS2 VI band images from the ESO Very…
The masses of compact objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes are fundamental to astrophysics, but very difficult to measure. We present the results of an analysis of subluminous B (sdB) stars in close binary systems with…
We present an overview of our ongoing systematic search for wide (sub)stellar companions around the stars known to host rad-vel planets. By using a relatively large field of view and going very deep, our survey can find all directly…
Lithium-rich red giants have been a long-standing mystery in stellar astrophysics. A leading theory to explain these chemically peculiar and rare objects is interactions with a close companion. To investigate their companion fraction, we…
Context: The nearby pair of solar-type stars Alpha Centauri is a favorable target for an imaging search for extrasolar planets. Indications exist that the gravitational mass of Alpha Cen B could be higher than its modeled mass, the…
We summarize results of a search for X-ray-emitting binary stars in the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) using Chandra and HST. ACIS-I imaging reveals 180 X-ray sources, of which we estimate that 45-70 are associated with…
The discovery of planets orbiting at less than 1 au from their host star and less massive than Saturn in various exoplanetary systems revolutionized our theories of planetary formation. The fundamental question is whether these close-in…
We use three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations to study the rapid infall phase of the common envelope interaction of a red giant branch star of mass equal to 0.88 \msun and a companion star of mass ranging from 0.9 down to 0.1 \msun.…
Asteroseismology is a powerful tool to measure the fundamental properties of stars and probe their interiors. This is particularly efficient for red giants because their modes are well detectable and give information on their deep layers.…
We present the first linear polarimetric survey of white dwarfs (WDs). Our sample consists of WDs of DA and DC spectral types in the SDSS r magnitude range from 13 to 17. We performed polarimetric observations with the RoboPol polarimeter…
We have observed a large sample of spectroscopic binary stars in the Hyades Cluster, using high resolution infrared spectroscopy to detect low mass companions. We combine our double-lined infrared measurements with well constrained orbital…
We report observational techniques, results, and Monte Carlo population analyses from a Spitzer Infrared Array Camera imaging survey for substellar companions to 117 nearby M, L, and T dwarf systems (median distance of 10 pc, mass range of…
The paper develops a method for detecting optical binary stars based on the use of astrometric catalogs in combination with machine learning (ML) methods. A computational experiment was carried out on the example of the HIPPARCOS mission…
We have identified 2XMM J125556.57+565846.4, at a distance of 600 pc, as a binary system consisting of a normal star and a probable dormant neutron star. Optical spectra exhibit a slightly evolved F-type single star, displaying periodic…