Related papers: Theoretical Limits of Star Sensor Accuracy
Matter at ultra-high densities finds a physical realization inside neutron stars. One key property is their maximum mass, which has far-reaching implications for astrophysics and the equation of state of ultra dense matter. In this work, we…
Redshift drift provides a direct kinematic measurement of cosmic acceleration but it occurs with a characteristic time scale of a Hubble time. Thus redshift observations with a challenging precision of $10^{-9}$ require a 10 year time span…
As a planet transits the face of a star, it accelerates along the line-of-sight. The changing delay in the propagation of photons produces an apparent deceleration of the planet across the sky throughout the transit. This persistent…
We calculate the sensitivity of future cosmic microwave background probes and large scale structure measurements from galaxy redshift surveys to the neutrino mass. We find that, for minimal models with few parameters, a measurement of the…
The Galactic Centre is a highly crowded stellar field and frequent unrecognized events of source confusion, which involve undetected faint stars, are expected to introduce astrometric noise on a sub-mas level. This confusion noise is the…
More than about twenty central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPN) have been observed spectropolarimetrically, yet no clear, unambiguous signal of the presence of a magnetic field in these objects has been found. We perform a statistical…
Mass determinations are difficult to obtain and still frequently characterised by deceptively large uncertainties. We review below the various mass estimators used for star clusters of all ages and luminosities. We highlight a few recent…
We address a recent claim that the stability of neutron stars implies a lower bound on the mass of the neutrino. We argue that the result obtained by some previous authors is due to an improper summation of an infrared-sensitive series and…
Cubesats and similarly scaled nano-satellites present significant opportunities for hosting both scientific and commercial payloads for Earth sensing and astronomical observations, in particular in the area of rapid-response observations to…
We present in this article an overview of the problem of neutron star masses. After a brief appraisal of the methods employed to determine the masses of neutron stars in binary systems, the existing sample of measured masses is presented,…
Correlations between planetary and stellar properties, particularly age, can provide insight on planetary formation and evolution processes. However, the underlying source of such trends can be unclear, and measurement uncertainties and…
We have built and tested a compact, low-cost, but very-high-performance astronomical polarimeter based on a continuously rotating half-wave plate and a high-speed imaging detector. The polarimeter is suitable for small telescopes up to ~1 m…
We review theoretical developments in studies of dense matter and its phase structure of relevance to compact stars. Observational data on compact stars, which can constrain the properties of dense matter, are presented critically and…
We measure the speed of light with current observations, such as Type Ia Supernova, galaxy ages, radial BAO mode, as well as simulations of forthcoming redshift surveys and gravitational waves as standard sirens. By means of a Gaussian…
Accelerations of both the solar system barycenter (SSB) and stars in the Milky Way cause a systematic observational effect on the stellar proper motions, which was first studied in the early 1990s and developed by J. Kovalevsky (aberration…
The radial velocity signature of stellar noise is small, around the meter-per-second, but already too much for the detection of Earth mass planets in habitable zones. In this paper, we address the important role played by observational…
Experience in exploring our own solar system has shown that direct investigation of planetary bodies using space probes invariably yields scientific knowledge not otherwise obtainable. In the case of exoplanets, such direct investigation…
Over the last decade, cosmological observations have attained a level of precision which allows for detailed comparison with theoretical predictions. In this paper, we briefly review some studies of the current and prospected constraints…
We estimate the effective area available for cosmic-ray detection with a network of smartphones under optimistic conditions. To measure cosmic-ray air showers with a minimally-adequate precision and a detection area similar to existing…
Technological advances in instrumentation have led to an exponential increase in exoplanet detection and scrutiny of stellar features such as spots and faculae. While the spots and faculae enable us to understand the stellar dynamics,…