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Local kinematics of K and M giants from CORAVEL/Hipparcos/Tycho-2 data. Revisiting the concept of superclusters
The availability of the Hipparcos Catalogue has triggered many kinematicand dynamical studies of the solar neighbourhood. Nevertheless, thosestudies generally lacked the third component of the space velocities,i.e., the radial velocities. This work presents the kinematic analysisof 5952 K and 739 M giants in the solar neighbourhood which includes forthe first time radial velocity data from a large survey performed withthe CORAVEL spectrovelocimeter. It also uses proper motions from theTycho-2 catalogue, which are expected to be more accurate than theHipparcos ones. An important by-product of this study is the observedfraction of only 5.7% of spectroscopic binaries among M giants ascompared to 13.7% for K giants. After excluding the binaries for whichno center-of-mass velocity could be estimated, 5311 K and 719 M giantsremain in the final sample. The UV-plane constructed from these datafor the stars with precise parallaxes (σπ/π≤20%) reveals a rich small-scale structure, with several clumpscorresponding to the Hercules stream, the Sirius moving group, and theHyades and Pleiades superclusters. A maximum-likelihood method, based ona Bayesian approach, has been applied to the data, in order to make fulluse of all the available stars (not only those with precise parallaxes)and to derive the kinematic properties of these subgroups. Isochrones inthe Hertzsprung-Russell diagram reveal a very wide range of ages forstars belonging to these groups. These groups are most probably relatedto the dynamical perturbation by transient spiral waves (as recentlymodelled by De Simone et al. \cite{Simone2004}) rather than to clusterremnants. A possible explanation for the presence of younggroup/clusters in the same area of the UV-plane is that they have beenput there by the spiral wave associated with their formation, while thekinematics of the older stars of our sample has also been disturbed bythe same wave. The emerging picture is thus one of dynamical streamspervading the solar neighbourhood and travelling in the Galaxy withsimilar space velocities. The term dynamical stream is more appropriatethan the traditional term supercluster since it involves stars ofdifferent ages, not born at the same place nor at the same time. Theposition of those streams in the UV-plane is responsible for the vertexdeviation of 16.2o ± 5.6o for the wholesample. Our study suggests that the vertex deviation for youngerpopulations could have the same dynamical origin. The underlyingvelocity ellipsoid, extracted by the maximum-likelihood method afterremoval of the streams, is not centered on the value commonly acceptedfor the radial antisolar motion: it is centered on < U > =-2.78±1.07 km s-1. However, the full data set(including the various streams) does yield the usual value for theradial solar motion, when properly accounting for the biases inherent tothis kind of analysis (namely, < U > = -10.25±0.15 kms-1). This discrepancy clearly raises the essential questionof how to derive the solar motion in the presence of dynamicalperturbations altering the kinematics of the solar neighbourhood: doesthere exist in the solar neighbourhood a subset of stars having no netradial motion which can be used as a reference against which to measurethe solar motion?Based on observations performed at the Swiss 1m-telescope at OHP,France, and on data from the ESA Hipparcos astrometry satellite.Full Table \ref{taba1} is only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/430/165}
| A magnitude limited stellar X-ray survey and the F star X-ray luminosity function
An X-ray survey has been conducted of stars brighter than visualmagnitude 8.5 that have serendipitously fallen into the fields of viewof the Imaging Proportional Counter of the Einstein Observatory. Thesurvey includes 227 separate 1 x 1 deg fields, containing 274 stars witha visual magnitude of no more than 8.5 and covering a wide range ofspectral types and luminosity classes. X-ray emission was detected from33 stars, and upper limits have been determined for the remainder of thesample. F type stars dominate the detected sample, and most of these areshown to be dwarfs. An X-ray luminosity function for dF stars has beendeduced, and reveals that the average 0.2-4.0 keV luminosity of thesestars is around 10 to the 29th erg/sec. Constraints have been placed onthe high luminosity tails and medians of the X-ray luminosity functionsfor other types of stars.
| Results from an extensive Einstein stellar survey
The preliminary results of the Einstein Observatory stellar X-ray surveyare presented. To date, 143 soft X-ray sources have been identified withstellar counterparts, leaving no doubt that stars in general constitutea pervasive class of low-luminosity galactic X-ray sources. Stars alongthe entire main sequence, of all luminosity classes, pre-main sequencestars as well as very evolved stars have been detected. Early type OBstars have X-ray luminosities in the range 10 to the 31st to 10 to the34th ergs/s; late type stars show a somewhat lower range of X-rayemission levels, from 10 to the 26th to 10 to the 31st ergs/s. Late typemain-sequence stars show little dependence of X-ray emission levels uponstellar effective temperature; similarly, the observations suggest weak,if any, dependence of X-ray luminosity upon effective gravity. Instead,the data show a broad range of emission levels (about three orders ofmagnitude) throughout the main sequence later than F0.
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