Standard Evolution Models Research Articles

An analysis of the CoRoT-2 system: a young spotted star and its inflated giant planet

Context: CoRoT-2b is one of the most anomalously large exoplanet known. Given its large mass, its large radius cannot be explained by standard evolution models. Interestingly, the planet's parent star is an active, rapidly rotating solar-like star with a large fraction (7 to 20%) of spots. Aims: We want to provide constraints on the properties of the star-planet system and understand whether the planet's inferred large size may be due to a systematic error on the inferred parameters, and if not, how it may be explained. Methods: We combine stellar and planetary evolution codes based on all available spectroscopic and photometric data to obtain self-consistent constraints on the system parameters. Results: We find no systematic error in the stellar modeling (including spots and stellar activity) that would yield the required ~10% reduction in size for the star and thus the planet. Two classes of solutions are found: the usual main sequence solution for the star yields for the planet a mass of 3.67+/-0.13 Mjup, a radius of 1.55+/-0.03 Rjup for an age that is at least 130Ma, and should be less than 500Ma given the star's fast rotation and significant activity. We identify another class of solutions on the pre-main sequence, in which case the planet's mass is 3.45\pm 0.27 Mjup, its radius is 1.50+/-0.06 Rjup for an age between 30 and 40 Ma. These extremely young solutions provide the simplest explanation for the planet's size which can then be matched by a simple contraction from an initially hot, expanded state, provided the atmospheric opacities are increased by a factor ~3 compared to usual assumptions for solar compositions atmospheres. Other solutions imply in any case that the present inflated radius of CoRoT-2b is transient and the result of an event that occurred less than 20 Ma ago: a giant impact with another Jupiter-mass planet, or interactions with another object in the system which caused a significant rise of the eccentricity followed by the rapid circularization of its orbit. Conclusions: Additional observations of CoRoT-2 that could help understanding this system include searches for infrared excess and the presence of a debris disk and searches for additional companions. The determination of a complete infrared lightcurve including both the primary and secondary transits would also be extremely valuable to constrain the planet's atmospheric properties and to determine the planet-to-star radius ratio in a manner less vulnerable to systematic errors due to stellar activity.

Transiting exoplanets from theCoRoTspace mission

We report the discovery by the CoRoT space mission of a transiting brown dwarf orbiting a F7V star with an orbital period of 3.06 days. CoRoT-15b has a radius of 1.12 RJup and a mass of 63.3 ± 4.1 MJup, and is thus the second transiting companion lying in the theoretical mass domain of brown dwarfs. CoRoT-15b is either very young or inflated compared to standard evolution models, a situation similar to that of M-dwarf stars orbiting close to solar-typestars. Spectroscopic constraints and an analysis of the lightcurve imply a spin period in the range 2.9–3.1 days for the central star, which is compatible with a double-synchronisation of the system.

Double and single recycled pulsars: an evolutionary puzzle?

We investigate the statistics of isolated recycled pulsars and double neutron star binaries in the Galactic disk. Since recycled pulsars are believed to form through accretion and spinup in close binaries, the isolated objects presumably originate from disrupted progenitors of double neutron stars. There are a comparable number of double neutron star systems compared to isolated recycled pulsars. We find that standard evolutionary models cannot explain this fact, predicting several times the number of isolated recycled pulsars than those in double neutron star systems. We demonstrate, through population synthesis calculations, that the velocity distribution of isolated recycled pulsars is broader than for binary systems. When this is accounted for in a model for radio pulsar survey selection effects, which include the effects of Doppler smearing for the double neutron star binaries, we find that there is a small (25%) bias towards the detection of double neutron star systems. This bias, however, is not significant enough to explain the observational discrepancy if standard (sigma = 265 km/s) neutron star natal kick velocities are invoked in binary population syntheses. Population syntheses in which the 1D Maxwellian velocity dispersion of the natal kick is sigma=170 km/s are consistent with the observations. These conclusions further support earlier findings the neutron stars formed in close interacting binaries receive significantly smaller natal kicks than the velocities of Galactic single pulsars would seem to indicate.

A transiting giant planet with a temperature between 250 K and 430 K

Of the over 400 known exoplanets, there are about 70 planets that transit their central star, a situation that permits the derivation of their basic parameters and facilitates investigations of their atmospheres. Some short-period planets, including the first terrestrial exoplanet (CoRoT-7b), have been discovered using a space mission designed to find smaller and more distant planets than can be seen from the ground. Here we report transit observations of CoRoT-9b, which orbits with a period of 95.274 days on a low eccentricity of 0.11 +/- 0.04 around a solar-like star. Its periastron distance of 0.36 astronomical units is by far the largest of all transiting planets, yielding a 'temperate' photospheric temperature estimated to be between 250 and 430 K. Unlike previously known transiting planets, the present size of CoRoT-9b should not have been affected by tidal heat dissipation processes. Indeed, the planet is found to be well described by standard evolution models with an inferred interior composition consistent with that of Jupiter and Saturn.

CONSTRAINTS ON PULSAR EVOLUTION: THE JOINT PERIOD-SPIN-DOWN DISTRIBUTION OF MILLISECOND PULSARS

We calculate the joint period-spin-down (P-) distributions of millisecond radio pulsars (MSRPs) for the standard evolutionary model in order to test whether the observed MSRPs are the unequivocal descendants of millisecond X-ray pulsars (MSXPs). The P- densities implied by the standard evolutionary model compared with observations suggest that there is a statistically significant overabundance of young/high magnetic field MSRPs. Taking biases due to observational selection effects into account, it is unlikely that MSRPs have evolved from a single coherent progenitor population that loses energy via magnetic dipole radiation after the onset of radio emission. By producing the P- probability map, we show with more than 95% confidence that the fastest spinning millisecond pulsars with high magnetic fields, e.g., PSR B1937+21, cannot be produced by the observed MSXPs within the framework of the standard model.

Fully Bayesian tests of neutrality using genealogical summary statistics

BackgroundMany data summary statistics have been developed to detect departures from neutral expectations of evolutionary models. However questions about the neutrality of the evolution of genetic loci within natural populations remain difficult to assess. One critical cause of this difficulty is that most methods for testing neutrality make simplifying assumptions simultaneously about the mutational model and the population size model. Consequentially, rejecting the null hypothesis of neutrality under these methods could result from violations of either or both assumptions, making interpretation troublesome.ResultsHere we harness posterior predictive simulation to exploit summary statistics of both the data and model parameters to test the goodness-of-fit of standard models of evolution. We apply the method to test the selective neutrality of molecular evolution in non-recombining gene genealogies and we demonstrate the utility of our method on four real data sets, identifying significant departures of neutrality in human influenza A virus, even after controlling for variation in population size.ConclusionImportantly, by employing a full model-based Bayesian analysis, our method separates the effects of demography from the effects of selection. The method also allows multiple summary statistics to be used in concert, thus potentially increasing sensitivity. Furthermore, our method remains useful in situations where analytical expectations and variances of summary statistics are not available. This aspect has great potential for the analysis of temporally spaced data, an expanding area previously ignored for limited availability of theory and methods.

A Model-Based Approach to Study Nearest-Neighbor Influences Reveals Complex Substitution Patterns in Non-coding Sequences

In this article, we present a likelihood-based framework for modeling site dependencies. Our approach builds upon standard evolutionary models but incorporates site dependencies across the entire tree by letting the evolutionary parameters in these models depend upon the ancestral states at the neighboring sites. It thus avoids the need for introducing new and high-dimensional evolutionary models for site-dependent evolution. We propose a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach with data augmentation to infer the evolutionary parameters under our model. Although our approach allows for wide-ranging site dependencies, we illustrate its use, in two non-coding datasets, in the case of nearest-neighbor dependencies (i.e., evolution directly depending only upon the immediate flanking sites). The results reveal that the general time-reversible model with nearest-neighbor dependencies substantially improves the fit to the data as compared to the corresponding model with site independence. Using the parameter estimates from our model, we elaborate on the importance of the 5-methylcytosine deamination process (i.e., the CpG effect) and show that this process also depends upon the 5' neighboring base identity. We hint at the possibility of a so-called TpA effect and show that the observed substitution behavior is very complex in the light of dinucleotide estimates. We also discuss the presence of CpG effects in a nuclear small subunit dataset and find significant evidence that evolutionary models incorporating context-dependent effects perform substantially better than independent-site models and in some cases even outperform models that incorporate varying rates across sites.

The Unusual Binary Pulsar PSR J1744−3922: Radio Flux Variability, Near‐Infrared Observation, and Evolution

PSR J1744-3922 is a binary pulsar exhibiting highly variable pulsed radio emission. We report on a statistical multifrequency study of the pulsed radio flux variability which suggests that this phenomenon is extrinsic to the pulsar and possibly tied to the companion, although not strongly correlated with orbital phase. The pulsar has an unusual combination of characteristics compared to typical recycled pulsars: a long spin period (172 ms); a relatively high magnetic field strength (1.7 × 1010 G); a very circular, compact orbit of 4.6 hr; and a low-mass companion (0.08 M☉). These spin and orbital properties are likely inconsistent with standard evolutionary models. We find similarities between the properties of the PSR J1744-3922 system and those of several other known binary pulsar systems, motivating the identification of a new class of binary pulsars. We suggest that this new class could result from: a standard accretion scenario of a magnetar or a high magnetic field pulsar; common envelope evolution with a low-mass star and a neutron star, similar to what is expected for ultracompact X-ray binaries; or accretion induced collapse of a white dwarf. We also report the detection of a possible K' = 19.30(15) infrared counterpart at the position of the pulsar, which is relatively bright if the companion is a helium white dwarf at the nominal distance, and discuss its implications for the pulsar's companion and evolutionary history.

Tiny travel companions

Since the first modern humans left their birthplace in Eastern Africa and slowly spread to populate every inhabitable place on the planet, Homo sapiens has been a migratory animal. Over thousands of years, these travellers unknowingly carried excess baggage on their journeys: countless microbes in and on their bodies, which evolved along with their host. By applying the tools of modern genomics to reconstruct the phylogenetic trees of these viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa, scientists hope to provide new insights into how our ancestors ventured throughout the world. Answering the questions of when and how humans started moving out of Africa or when the first settlers populated the Americas has so far relied on genetic markers from mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) or the Y chromosome. As mitochondria are inherited from the mother, analysis of mtDNA identifies ancestors through the maternal line, whereas Y‐DNA can trace origins using the paternal line. These studies, together with archaeological, anthropological and linguistic evidence, have generated a now widely accepted “standard model for evolution of modern humans” (Cavalli‐Sforza & Feldman, 2003). According to this model, our species moved from its original homeland in Africa to the Near East approximately 60,000–70,000 years ago, later spreading to southern Asia and Australasia, then to Europe and Central Asia, and finally entered the Americas through the Bering Strait about 14,000–20,000 years ago (Fig 1). Figure 1. Map of early human migration patterns. Credit: National Geographic Maps, Washington, DC, USA. mtDNA, mitochondrial DNA. In addition to these human markers, scientists have begun to study the evolution of viruses along with their human hosts to refine the migration patterns of H. sapiens . “The geographical distribution of viruses can reveal patterns of ancient human migrations, especially in the cases in which they are transmitted vertically and move in narrow, ethnically restricted streams of …

Limitations of Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms for Bayesian inference of phylogeny

Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms play a key role in the Bayesian approach to phylogenetic inference. In this paper, we present the first theoretical work analyzing the rate of convergence of several Markov chains widely used in phylogenetic inference. We analyze simple, realistic examples where these Markov chains fail to converge quickly. In particular, the data studied are generated from a pair of trees, under a standard evolutionary model. We prove that many of the popular Markov chains take exponentially long to reach their stationary distribution. Our construction is pertinent since it is well known that phylogenetic trees for genes may differ within a single organism. Our results shed a cautionary light on phylogenetic analysis using Bayesian inference and highlight future directions for potential theoretical work.

Solar‐like Oscillations in the Metal‐poor Subgiant ν Indi: Constraining the Mass and Age Using Asteroseismology

Asteroseismology is a powerful method for determining fundamental properties of stars. We report the first application to a metal-poor object, namely the subgiant star ν Ind. We measured precise velocities from two sites, allowing us to detect oscillations and infer a large frequency separation of Δν = 24.25 ± 0.25 μHz. Combining this value with the location of the star in the H-R diagram and comparing with standard evolutionary models, we were able to place constraints on the stellar parameters. In particular, our results indicate that ν Ind has a low mass (0.85 ± 0.04 M☉) and is at least 9 Gyr old.

The Impact of Pollution on Stellar Evolution Models

An approach is introduced for incorporating the concept of stellar pollution into stellar evolution models. The approach involves enhancing the metal content of the surface layers of stellar models. In addition, the surface layers of stars in the mass range of 0.5-2.0 M☉ are mixed to an artificial depth motivated by observations of lithium abundance. The behavior of polluted stellar evolution models is explored assuming the pollution occurs after the star has left the fully convective pre-main-sequence phase. Stellar models polluted with a few Earth masses (M⊕) of iron are significantly hotter than stars of the same mass with an equivalent bulk metallicity. Polluted stellar evolution models can successfully reproduce the metal-rich, parent star τ Bootis and suggest a slightly lower mass than standard evolution models. Finally, the possibility that stars in the Hyades open cluster have accreted an average of 0.5 M⊕ of iron is explored. The results indicate that it is not possible to rule out stellar pollution on this scale from the scatter of Hyades stars on a color-magnitude diagram. The small amount of scatter in the observational data set does rule out pollution on the order of ~1.5 M⊕ of iron. Pollution effects at the low level of 0.5 M⊕ of iron do not produce substantial changes in a star's evolution.

The application of molecular genetic approaches to the study of human evolution

The past decade of advances in molecular genetic technology has heralded a new era for all evolutionary studies, but especially the science of human evolution. Data on various kinds of DNA variation in human populations have rapidly accumulated. There is increasing recognition of the importance of this variation for medicine and developmental biology and for understanding the history of our species. Haploid markers from mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome have proven invaluable for generating a standard model for evolution of modern humans. Conclusions from earlier research on protein polymorphisms have been generally supported by more sophisticated DNA analysis. Co-evolution of genes with language and some slowly evolving cultural traits, together with the genetic evolution of commensals and parasites that have accompanied modern humans in their expansion from Africa to the other continents, supports and supplements the standard model of genetic evolution. The advances in our understanding of the evolutionary history of humans attests to the advantages of multidisciplinary research.

The systemic velocities of four long-period cataclysmic variable stars

Although a large number of orbital periods of cataclysmic variable stars (CVs) have been measured, comparison of period and luminosity distributions with evolutionary theory is affected by strong selection effects. A test has been discovered which is independent of these selection effects and is based upon the kinematics of CVs (Kolb & Stehle, 1996). If the standard models of evolution are correct then long-period (P_orb > 5 hrs) CVs should be typically less than 1.5 Gyr old, and their line-of-sight velocity dispersion ($\sigma_\gamma$) should be small. We present results from a pilot study which indicate that this postulate is indeed true. Four long-period dwarf novae (EM Cyg, V426 Oph, SS Cyg and AH Her) were observed over a complete orbit, in order that accurate radial velocities be obtained. We find values of -1.7, 5.4, 15.4 and 1.8 km/s with uncertainties of order 3 km/s, referred to the dynamical Local Standard of Rest (LSR), leading to a dispersion of ~ 8 km/s. Calculation of a 95 per cent confidence interval gives the result 4 < \sigma_\gamma < 28 km/s compared to a prediction of 15 km/s. We also have an improved determination of mass donor spectral type, K_2 and q for the four systems.

Estimation of evolutionary parameters with phylogenetic trees.

An important issue in the phylogenetic analysis of nucleotide sequence data using the maximum likelihood (ML) method is the underlying evolutionary model employed. We consider the problem of simultaneously estimating the tree topology and the parameters in the underlying substitution model and of obtaining estimates of the standard errors of these parameter estimates. Given a fixed tree topology and corresponding set of branch lengths, the ML estimates of standard evolutionary model parameters are asymptotically efficient, in the sense that their joint distribution is asymptotically normal with the variance-covariance matrix given by the inverse of the Fisher information matrix. We propose a new estimate of this conditional variance based on estimation of the expected information using a Monte Carlo sampling (MCS) method. Simulations are used to compare this conditional variance estimate to the standard technique of using the observed information under a variety of experimental conditions. In the case in which one wishes to estimate simultaneously the tree and parameters, we provide a bootstrapping approach that can be used in conjunction with the MCS method to estimate the unconditional standard error. The methods developed are applied to a real data set consisting of 30 papillomavirus sequences. This overall method is easily incorporated into standard bootstrapping procedures to allow for proper variance estimation.

The X-ray surface brightness profiles of hot galaxy clusters up to $\vec z$ ~ 0.8: Evidence for self-similarity and constraints on $\Omega_\mathsf{0}$

We study the surface brightness profiles of a sample of 25 distant hot clusters, observed with ROSAT, with published temperatures from ASCA. For both open and flat cosmological models, the derived emission measure profiles are scaled according to the self-similar model of cluster formation. We use the standard scaling relations of cluster properties with redshift and temperature, with the empirical slope of the relation derived by Neumann & Arnaud ([CITE]). Using a test, we perform a quantitative comparison of the scaled emission measure profiles of distant clusters with a local reference profile derived from the sample of 15 hot nearby clusters compiled by Neumann & Arnaud (1999), which were found to obey self-similarity. This comparison allows us to both check the validity of the self-similar model across the redshift range , and to constrain the cosmological parameters. For a low-density flat universe, the scaled distant cluster data were found to be consistent, both in shape and normalisation, with the local reference profile. It indicates that hot clusters constitute a homologous family up to high redshifts, and gives support to the standard picture of structure formation for the dark matter component. Because of the intrinsic regularity in the hot cluster population, the scaled profiles can be used as distance indicators, the correct cosmology being the one for which the various profiles at different redshifts coincide. The intrinsic limitations of the method, in particular possible systematic errors and biases related to the model uncertainties, are discussed. Using the standard evolution model, the present data allow us to put a tight constraint on for a flat Universe: at 90% confidence level (statistical errors only). The critical model () was excluded at the 98% confidence level. Consistently, the observed evolution of the normalisation of the relation was found to comply with the self-similar model for , . The constraint derived on is in remarkable agreement with the constraint obtained from luminosity distances to SNI or from combined analysis of the power spectrum of the 2dF galaxy redshift Survey and the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies.

The Shape of the Red Giant Branch Bump as a Diagnostic of Partial Mixing Processes in Low‐Mass Stars

We suggest the use of the shape of the red giant branch (RGB) bump in metal-rich globular clusters as a diagnostic of partial mixing processes between the base of the convective envelope and the H-burning shell. The bump located along the differential luminosity function of cluster RGB stars is a key observable to constrain the H-profile inside these structures. In fact, standard evolutionary models that account for complete mixing in the convective unstable layers and radiative equilibrium in the innermost regions do predict that the first dredge-up produces a very sharp H-discontinuity at the bottom of the convective region. Interestingly enough, we found that both atomic diffusion and a moderate convective overshooting at the base of the convective region marginally affects the shape of the RGB bump in the differential luminosity function (LF). As a consequence, we performed several numerical experiments to estimate whether plausible assumptions concerning the smoothing of the H-discontinuity due to the possible occurrence of extra mixing below the convective boundary affect the shape of the RGB bump. We found that the difference between the shape of RGB bump predicted by standard and by smoothed models can be detected if the H-discontinuity is smoothed over an envelope region whose thickness is equal or larger than 0.5 pressure scale heights. Finally, we briefly discuss the comparison between theoretical predictions and empirical data in metal-rich, reddening-free galactic globular clusters (GGCs) to constrain the sharpness of the H-profile inside RGB stars.

Diffusion and the occurrence of hydrogen-shell flashes in helium white dwarf stars

In this paper we investigate the effects of element diffusion on the structure and evolution of low-mass helium white dwarfs. Attention is focused mainly on the occurrence of hydrogen-shell flashes induced by diffusion processes during cooling phases. Physically sound initial models with stellar masses of 0.406, 0.360, 0.327, 0.292, 0.242, 0.196, 0.169 and 0.161 M⊙ are constructed by applying mass-loss rates at different stages of the red giant branch evolution of a solar model up to the moment the model begins to evolve to the blue part of the HR diagram. The multicomponent flow equations describing gravitational settling, and chemical and thermal diffusion are solved and the diffusion calculations are coupled to an evolutionary code. In addition, the same sequences are computed but neglecting diffusion. Results without diffusion are similar to recent results of Driebe, Schonberner, Blocker and Herwig. We find that element diffusion strongly affects the structure and cooling history of helium white dwarfs. In particular, diffusion induces the occurrence of hydrogen-shell flashes in models with masses ranging from 0.18 to 0.41 M⊙, which is in sharp contrast with the situation when diffusion is neglected. In connection with further evolution, these diffusion-induced flashes lead to much thinner hydrogen envelopes, preventing stable nuclear burning from being a sizeable energy source at advanced stages of evolution. This implies much shorter cooling ages than in the case when diffusion is neglected. These new evolutionary models are discussed in light of recent observational data on some millisecond pulsar systems with white dwarf companions. In this context, we find that discrepancies between spin-down ages and the predictions of standard evolutionary models appear to be the result of ignoring element diffusion in such evolutionary models. Indeed, such discrepancies vanish when account is taken of diffusion.

Lithium in the Coma Berenices open cluster

Lithium abundances, radial velocities, and rotational velocities are reported for 20 candidate F, G and K stars of the sparse Coma Berenices open cluster. All the stars are proper-motion selected, and our radial velocities support the membership credentials of at least 12 of the candidates. Combining our data with that in the literature, we have a close-to-complete census of Li abundances for late-type stars with MV < 5:8. These data show that the Li-depletion pattern in Coma Ber is similar, but not identical, to that in the Hyades cluster, which has a similar age but higher metallicity. Several Coma Ber F stars have suered signicantly more Li depletion than their counterparts in the Hyades. The G and early-K stars of Coma Ber have undergone less Li depletion than those of the Hyades, but much more than that predicted by standard evolutionary models featuring only convective mixing. This provides strong evidence for additional mixing and Li depletion operating in these stars during their rst 400 Myr on the main sequence, amounting to 0.3 dex at 6000 K and rising to 0.8{1.2 dex at 5400 K. We nd that 4 of the radial-velocity non-members are among a small number of low-mass stars which were previously reported as part of an extra-tidal moving group associated with the Coma Ber cluster. As a result, we now nd that the luminosity function of this moving group is indistinguishable from that of the central cluster. It is uncertain whether there may be a signicant number of stars with even lower masses among the moving group.

The Chemical Composition of Carbon Stars. II. The J‐Type Stars

Abundances of lithium, heavy elements, and carbon isotope ratios have been measured in 12 J-type Galactic carbon stars. The abundance analysis shows that in these stars the abundances of s-process elements with respect to the metallicity are nearly normal. Tc is not present in most of them, although upper limits have been derived for WZ Cas and WX Cyg, perhaps two SC-type rather than J-type carbon stars. The Rb abundances, obtained from the resonance λ7800 Rb I line, are surprisingly low, probably owing to strong non-LTE effects in the formation of this line in cool carbon-rich stars. Lithium and 13C are found to be enhanced in all the stars. These results together with the nitrogen abundances and oxygen isotope ratios measured by Lambert et al. and Harris et al. are used to discuss the origin of J stars. The luminosity and variability class of the stars studied would indicate that they are low-mass (M ≲ 2-3 M☉), less evolved objects than the normal carbon stars, although the presence of some luminous (Mbol < -5.5) J stars in our Galaxy (WZ Cas may be an example) and in other galaxies, suggests the existence of at least two types of J stars, with different formation scenarios depending upon the initial mass of the parent star. Standard evolutionary AGB models are difficult to reconcile with all the observed chemical characteristics. In fact, they suggest the existence of an extra mixing mechanism that transports material from the convective envelope down to hotter regions where some nuclear burning occurs. This mechanism would act preferably on the early-AGB phase in low-mass stars. Mixing at the He-core flash and the binary system hypothesis are also discussed as alternatives to the above scenario.