Related papers: Measuring the mass distribution in stellar systems
The distribution of visible matter in the universe, such as galaxies and galaxy clusters, has its origin in the week fluctuations of density that existed at the epoch of recombination. The hierarchical distribution of the universe, with its…
We establish a controlled comparison between the properties of galactic stellar halos obtained with hydrodynamical simulations and with `particle tagging'. Tagging is a fast way to obtain stellar population dynamics: instead of tracking gas…
This letter matches the shape of the star formation intensity distribution function to empirical laws such as the Schmidt law. The shape of the distribution at a redshift of one is reproduced from the empirical Schmidt law with a critical…
Weak gravitational lensing surveys are rapidly becoming important tools to probe directly the mass density fluctuations in the universe and its background dynamics. Earlier studies have shown that it is possible to model the statistics of…
We show that for a transiting exoplanet accompanied by a moon which also transits, the absolute masses and radii of the star, planet and moon are determinable. For a planet-star system, it is well known that the density of the star is…
The standard method of modelling axisymmetric stellar systems begins from the assumption that mass follows light. The gravitational potential is then derived from the luminosity distribution, and a unique two-integral distribution function…
We present a new algorithm for estimating the Point Spread Function (PSF) in wide-field astronomical images with extreme source crowding. Robust and accurate PSF estimation in crowded astronomical images dramatically improves the fidelity…
To better understand the observed distributions of rotation rate and magnetic activity of sun-like and low-mass stars, we derive a physically motivated scaling for the dependence of the stellar-wind torque on Rossby number. The torque also…
We present the results of a comprehensive analysis of the structure and kinematics of six Galactic globular clusters. By comparing the results of the most extensive photometric and kinematical surveys available to date with suited dynamical…
Stars play a decisive role in our Universe, from its beginning throughout its complete evolution. For a thorough understanding of their properties, evolution, and physics of their outer envelopes, stellar spectra need to be analyzed by…
We build a stellar-dynamical model of the Milky Way barred bulge and disk, using a newly implemented adaptive particle method. The underlying mass model has been previously shown to match the Galactic near-infrared surface brightness as…
A comprehensive new approach is presented for deriving probability densities of physical properties characterizing lens or source that constitute an observed galactic microlensing event. While previously encountered problems are overcome,…
We present a new analytical solution to the steady-state distribution of stars close to a central supermassive black hole of mass $M_{\bullet}$ in the center of a galaxy. Assuming a continuous mass function of the form $dN/dm \propto…
Applying photometric catalogs to the study of the population of the Galaxy is obscured by the impossibility to map directly photometric colors into astrophysical parameters. Most of all-sky catalogs like ASCC or 2MASS are based upon…
We use comparisons between the shapes of gravitational lens galaxies and models for their mass distributions to derive statistical constraints on the alignment of the mass distribution relative to the observed lens galaxy and on the…
Rotational speed is an important physical parameter of stars and knowing the distribution of stellar rotational velocities is essential for the understanding stellar evolution. However, it cannot be measured directly but the convolution of…
We estimate the mass of the central black hole in our Galaxy from stellar kinematical data published by Ghez et al. (1998) and Genzel et al. (2000). For this we develop a method, related to Merritt (1993), for non-parametrically…
More than 340 non-eclipsing binaries of A-F stars as primaries at intermediate periods (100-1000 d) were newly found by uninterrupted photometry with ultra high-precision taken over 4 yr by Kepler space mission via the phase modulation of…
Accurate and precise values of radii and masses of stars are needed to correctly estimate properties of extrasolar planets. We examine the effect of uncertainties in stellar model parameters on estimates of the masses, radii and average…
The only way to map the Galaxy's gravitational potential $\Phi({\bf x})$ and the distribution of matter that produces it is by modelling the dynamics of stars and gas. Observations of the kinematics of gas provide key information about…