Haotong Zhang

THE SEGUE STELLAR PARAMETER PIPELINE. I. DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISON OF INDIVIDUAL METHODS

We describe the development and implementation of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Exploration and Understanding (SEGUE) Stellar Parameter Pipeline (SSPP). The SSPP is derived, using multiple techniques, radial velocities, and the fundamental stellar atmospheric parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity) for AFGK-type stars, based on medium-resolution spectroscopy and ugriz photometry obtained during the course of the original Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I) and its Galactic extension (SDSS-II/SEGUE). The SSPP also provides spectral classification for a much wider range of stars, including stars with temperatures outside the window where atmospheric parameters can be estimated with the current approaches. This is Paper I in a series of papers on the SSPP; it provides an overview of the SSPP, and tests of its performance using several external data sets. Random and systematic errors are critically examined for the current version of the SSPP, which has been used for the sixth public data release of the SDSS (DR-6).

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST)

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, also called the Guo Shou Jing Telescope) is a special reflecting Schmidt telescope. LAMOST’s special design allows both a large aperture (effective aperture of 3.6 m–4.9 m) and a wide field of view (FOV) (5 ° ). It has an innovative active reflecting Schmidt configuration which continuously changes the mirror’s surface that adjusts during the observation process and combines thin deformable mirror active optics with segmented active optics. Its primary mirror (6.67 m×6.05 m) and active Schmidt mirror (5.74 m×4.40 m) are both segmented, and composed of 37 and 24 hexagonal sub-mirrors respectively. By using a parallel controllable fiber positioning technique, the focal surface of 1.75 m in diameter can accommodate 4000 optical fibers. Also, LAMOST has 16 spectrographs with 32 CCD cameras. LAMOST will be the telescope with the highest rate of spectral acquisition. As a national large scientific project, the LAMOST project was formally proposed in 1996, and approved by the Chinese government in 1997. The construction started in 2001, was completed in 2008 and passed the official acceptance in June 2009. The LAMOST pilot survey was started in October 2011 and the spectroscopic survey will launch in September 2012. Up to now, LAMOST has released more than 480 000 spectra of objects. LAMOST will make an important contribution to the study of the large-scale structure of the Universe, structure and evolution of the Galaxy, and cross-identification of multiwaveband properties in celestial objects.

A SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF Fe II EMISSION IN QUASARS: EVIDENCE FOR INFLOW TO THE CENTRAL BLACK HOLE

Broad Fe II emission is a prominent feature of the optical and ultraviolet spectra of quasars. We report on a systematical investigation of optical Fe II emission in a large sample of 4037 z < 0.8 quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We have developed and tested a detailed line-fitting technique, taking into account the complex continuum and narrow and broad emission-line spectra. Our primary goal is to quantify the velocity broadening and velocity shift of the Fe II spectrum in order to constrain the location of the Fe II-emitting region and its relation to the broad-line region. We find that the majority of quasars show Fe II emission that is redshifted, typically by similar to 400 km s(-1), but up to 2000 kms (-1), with respect to the systemic velocity of the narrow-line region or of the conventional broad-line region as traced by the H beta line. Moreover, the line width of Fe II is significantly narrower than that of the broad component of H beta. We show that the magnitude of the Fe II redshift correlates inversely with the Eddington ratio, and that there is a tendency for sources with redshifted Fe II emission to show red asymmetry in the H beta line. These characteristics strongly suggest that Fe II originates from a location different from, and most likely exterior to, the region that produces most of H beta. The Fe II-emitting zone traces a portion of the broad-line region of intermediate velocities whose dynamics may be dominated by infall.

An Orbit Fit for the Grillmair Dionatos Cold Stellar Stream

We use velocity and metallicity information from Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration stellar spectroscopy to fit an orbit to the narrow 63{sup o} stellar stream of Grillmair and Dionatos. The stars in the stream have a retrograde orbit with eccentricity e = 0.33 (perigalacticon of 14.4 kpc and apogalacticon of 28.7 kpc) and inclination approximately i {approx} 35{sup o}. In the region of the orbit which is detected, it has a distance of about 7-11 kpc from the Sun. Assuming a standard disk plus bulge and logarithmic halo potential for the Milky Way stars plus dark matter, the stream stars are moving with a large space velocity of approximately 276 km s{sup -1} at perigalacticon. Using this stream alone, we are unable to determine if the dark matter halo is oblate or prolate. The metallicity of the stream is [Fe/H] = -2.1 {+-} 0.1. Observed proper motions for individual stream members above the main sequence turnoff are consistent with the derived orbit. None of the known globular clusters in the Milky Way have positions, radial velocities, and metallicities that are consistent with being the progenitor of the GD-1 stream.

A Northern Sky Survey for Steady Tera-Electron Volt Gamma-Ray Point Sources Using the Tibet Air Shower Array

Results of a steady TeV γ-ray point-source search using data taken from the Tibet HD (1997 February-1999 September) and Tibet III (1999 November-2001 October) arrays are presented. From 0° to 60° in declination, significant excesses from the well-known steady source Crab Nebula and the high state of the flare-type source Markarian 421 are observed. Because the levels of significance from other positions are not sufficiently high, 90% confidence level upper limits on the flux are set assuming different power-law spectra. To allow cross-checking, two independently developed analyses are used in this work.

Multi-TeV Gamma-Ray Flares from Markarian 421 in 2000 and 2001 Observed with the Tibet Air Shower Array

Several strong TeV γ-ray flares were detected from Mrk 421 in the years 2000 and 2001 by the Tibet III air shower array at a level of statistical significance of 5.1 σ. Mrk 421 was unprecedentedly active at X-ray and TeV γ-ray energies during this period, and a positive correlation was found between the change of the all-sky monitor Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer X-ray flux and the Tibet TeV γ-ray flux. When a power-law energy spectrum for γ-rays from this source is assumed, the spectral index is calculated to be -3.24 ± 0.69 at the most active phase in 2001. The spectral index observed by the Tibet air shower array is consistent with those obtained via imaging air Cerenkov telescopes.

Automatic determination of stellar atmospheric parameters and construction of stellar spectral templates of the Guoshoujing telescope (LAMOST)

A number of spectroscopic surveys have been carried out or are planned to study the origin of the Milky Way. Their exploitation requires reliable automated methods and softwares to measure the fundamental parameters of the stars. Adopting the ULySS package, we have tested the effect of different resolutions and signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) on the measurement of the stellar atmospheric parameters (effective temperature Teff, surface gravity log g, and metallicity [Fe/H]). We show that ULySS is reliable for determining these parameters with medium-resolution spectra (R ~ 2000). Then, we applied the method to measure the parameters of 771 stars selected in the commissioning database of the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST). The results were compared with the SDSS/SEGUE Stellar Parameter Pipeline (SSPP), and we derived precisions of 167 K, 0.34 dex, and 0.16 dex for Teff, log g and [Fe/H] respectively. Furthermore, 120 of these stars are selected to construct the primary stellar spectral template library (Version 1.0) of LAMOST, and will be deployed as basic ingredients for the LAMOST automated parametrization pipeline.

ON THE METALLICITIES OF KEPLER STARS

We use 12,000 stars from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) spectroscopic survey data to show that the metallicities of Kepler field stars as given in the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) systematically underestimate both the true metallicity and the dynamic range of the Kepler sample. Specifically, to the first order approximation, we find [Fe/H]{sub KIC} = –0.20 + 0.43[Fe/H]{sub LAMOST}, with a scatter of ∼0.25 dex, due almost entirely to errors in KIC. This relation is most secure for –0.3 200 comparison stars per 0.1 dex bin and good consistency is shown between metallicities determined by LAMOST and high-resolution spectra. It remains approximately valid in a slightly broader range. When the relation is inverted, the error in true metallicity as derived from KIC is (0.25 dex)/0.43-0.6 dex. We thereby quantitatively confirm the cautionary note by Brown et al. that KIC estimates of [Fe/H] should not be used by {sup a}nyone with a particular interest in stellar metallicities{sup .} Fortunately, many more LAMOST spectroscopic metallicities will be available in the near future.

LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anticentre (LSS-GAC): the second release of value-added catalogues

We present the second release of value-added catalogues of the LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anticentre (LSS-GAC DR2). The catalogues present values of radial velocity

Exoplanet Orbital Eccentricities Derived From LAMOST-Kepler Analysis

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