VERY LOW-MASS STELLAR AND SUBSTELLAR COMPANIONS TO SOLAR-LIKE STARS FROM MARVELS I: A LOW MASS RATIO STELLAR COMPANION TO TYC 4110-01037-1 IN A 79-DAY ORBIT
TYC 4110-01037-1 has a low-mass stellar companion, whose small mass ratio and short orbital period are atypical among binary systems with solar-like (T_eff ≲ 6000 K) primary stars. Our analysis of TYC 4110-01037-1 reveals it to be a moderately aged (≲ 5 Gyr) solar-like star having a mass of 1.07 ± 0.08 M_☉ and radius of 0.99 ± 0.18 R_☉. We analyze 32 radial velocity (RV) measurements from the SDSS-III MARVELS survey as well as 6 supporting RV measurements from the SARG spectrograph on the 3.6 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo telescope obtained over a period of ~2 years. The best Keplerian orbital fit parameters were found to have a period of 78.994 ± 0.012 days, an eccentricity of 0.1095 ± 0.0023, and a semi-amplitude of 4199 ± 11 m s^(–1). We determine the minimum companion mass (if sin i = 1) to be 97.7 ± 5.8 M_Jup. The system's companion to host star mass ratio, ≥0.087 ± 0.003, places it at the lowest end of observed values for short period stellar companions to solar-like (T_eff ≲ 6000 K) stars. One possible way to create such a system would be if a triple-component stellar multiple broke up into a short period, low q binary during the cluster dispersal phase of its lifetime. A candidate tertiary body has been identified in the system via single-epoch, high contrast imagery. If this object is confirmed to be comoving, we estimate it would be a dM4 star. We present these results in the context of our larger-scale effort to constrain the statistics of low-mass stellar and brown dwarf companions to FGK-type stars via the MARVELS survey.

title: SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems
abstract: Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS DR8 (which occurred in Jan 2011). This paper presents an overview of the four SDSS-III surveys. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Lya forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the BAO feature of large scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z 100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51-1.70 micron) spectra of 10^5 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for ~15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. MARVELS will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 m/s, ~24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems.

title: PLANET HUNTERS. V. A CONFIRMED JUPITER-SIZE PLANET IN THE HABITABLE ZONE AND 42 PLANET CANDIDATES FROM THE KEPLER ARCHIVE DATA*
abstract: We report the latest Planet Hunter results, including PH2 b, a Jupiter-size (R PL = 10.12 ? 0.56 R ?) planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a solar-type star. PH2 b was elevated from candidate status when a series of false-positive tests yielded a 99.9% confidence level that transit events detected around the star KIC?12735740 had a planetary origin. Planet Hunter volunteers have also discovered 42 new planet candidates in the Kepler public archive data, of which 33 have at least 3 transits recorded. Most of these transit candidates have orbital periods longer than 100?days and 20 are potentially located in the habitable zones of their host stars. Nine candidates were detected with only two transit events and the prospective periods are longer than 400?days. The photometric models suggest that these objects have radii that range between those of Neptune and Jupiter. These detections nearly double the number of gas-giant planet candidates orbiting at habitable-zone distances. We conducted spectroscopic observations for nine of the brighter targets to improve the stellar parameters and we obtained adaptive optics imaging for four of the stars to search for blended background or foreground stars that could confuse our photometric modeling. We present an iterative analysis method to derive the stellar and planet properties and uncertainties by combining the available spectroscopic parameters, stellar evolution models, and transiting light curve parameters, weighted by the measurement errors. Planet Hunters is a citizen science project that crowd sources the assessment of NASA Kepler light curves. The discovery of these 43 planet candidates demonstrates the success of citizen scientists at identifying planet candidates, even in longer period orbits with only two or three transit events.

title: MARVELS-1: A FACE-ON DOUBLE-LINED BINARY STAR MASQUERADING AS A RESONANT PLANETARY SYSTEM AND CONSIDERATION OF RARE FALSE POSITIVES IN RADIAL VELOCITY PLANET SEARCHES
abstract: We have analyzed new and previously published radial velocity (RV) observations of MARVELS-1, known to have an ostensibly substellar companion in a ~6 day orbit. We find significant (~100 m s–1) residuals to the best-fit model for the companion, and these residuals are naively consistent with an interior giant planet with a P = 1.965 days in a nearly perfect 3:1 period commensurability (|Pb /Pc – 3| < 10–4). We have performed several tests for the reality of such a companion, including a dynamical analysis, a search for photometric variability, and a hunt for contaminating stellar spectra. We find many reasons to be critical of a planetary interpretation, including the fact that most of the three-body dynamical solutions are unstable. We find no evidence for transits, and no evidence of stellar photometric variability. We have discovered two apparent companions to MARVELS-1 with adaptive optics imaging at Keck; both are M dwarfs, one is likely bound, and the other is likely a foreground object. We explore false-alarm scenarios inspired by various curiosities in the data. Ultimately, a line profile and bisector analysis lead us to conclude that the ~100 m s–1 residuals are an artifact of spectral contamination from a stellar companion contributing ~15%-30% of the optical light in the system. We conclude that origin of this contamination is the previously detected RV companion to MARVELS-1, which is not, as previously reported, a brown dwarf, but in fact a G dwarf in a face-on orbit.

title: A Third Planet Orbiting HIP 14810
abstract: We present new precision radial velocities and a three-planet Keplerian orbit fit for the V = 8.5, G5 V star HIP 14810. We began observing this star at Keck Observatory as part of the N2K Planet Search Project. Wright et al. (2007) announced the inner two planets to this system, and subsequent observations have revealed the outer planet planet and the proper orbital solution for the middle planet. The planets have minimum masses of 3.9, 1.3, and 0.6 M_Jup and orbital periods of 6.67, 147.7, and 952 d, respectively. We have numerically integrated the family of orbital solutions consistent with the data and find that they are stable for at least 10^6 yr. Our photometric search shows that the inner planet does not transit.

title: FUNDAMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF A DISPERSED FIXED DELAY INTERFEROMETER IN SEARCHING FOR PLANETS AROUND M DWARFS
abstract: We present a new method to calculate fundamental Doppler measurement limits with a dispersed fixed delay interferometer (DFDI) in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength region for searching for exoplanets around M dwarfs in the coming decade. It is based on calculating the Q factor, a measure of flux-normalized Doppler sensitivity in the fringing spectra created with DFDI. We calculate the Q factor as a function of spectral resolution R, stellar-projected rotational velocity Vsin i, stellar effective temperature T eff, and optical path difference (OPD) of the interferometer. We also compare the DFDI Q factor to that for the popular cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph method (the direct echelle (DE) method). We find that (1) Q DFDI is a factor of 1.5-3 higher than Q DE at R ranging from 5000 to 20,000; (2) Q DFDI and Q DE converge at a very high R (R ≥ 100,000); (3) Q DFDI increases as R increases and Vsin i deceases; (4) for a given R, Q DFDI increases as T eff drops from 3100 K to 2400 K (M4V to M9V). We also investigate how Q DFDI is affected by OPD and find that a 5 mm deviation from the optimal OPD does not significantly affect Q DFDI (10% or less) for a wide range of R. Given that the NIR Doppler measurement is likely to be detector-limited for a while, we introduce new merit functions, which is directly related to photon-limited radial velocity (RV) uncertainty, to evaluate Doppler performance with the DFDI and DE methods. We find that DFDI has strength in wavelength coverage and multi-object capability over the DE for a limited detector resource. We simulate the performance of the InfraRed Exoplanet Tracker (IRET) based on the DFDI design, being considered for the next generation IR Doppler measurements. The predicted photon-limited RV uncertainty suggests that IRET is capable of detecting Earth-like exoplanets in habitable zone around nearby bright M dwarfs if they exist. A new method is developed to quantitatively estimate the influence of telluric lines on RV uncertainty. Our study shows that photon-limited RV uncertainty can be reached if 99% of the strength of telluric lines can be removed from the measured stellar spectra. At low to moderate levels of telluric line strength removal (50%-90%), the optimal RV uncertainty is typically a factor of two to three times larger than photon-limited RV uncertainty.

title: Constraining extragalactic background light from TeV blazars
abstract: Our goal is to research the upper limits to the extragalactic background light (EBL).  The upper limits to the extragalactic background light (EBL) are presented, using the Fermi and very high energy (VHE) spectra recently observed in TeV blazars. We use an assumption that the VHE intrinsic photon index cannot be harder than the Fermi index measured by the Fermi-LAT.  These upper limits are compatible with ones given by most EBL models; however, the models of high EBL density are contradicted by TeV blazars.

title: Gravity in a box
abstract: We consider a brane-world construction which incorporates a finite region of flat space, ``the box'', surrounded by a region of anti-de Sitter space. This hybrid construction provides a framework which interpolates between the scenario proposed by Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos and Dvali, and that proposed by Randall and Sundrum. Within this composite framework, we investigate the effects of resonant modes on four-dimensional gravity. We also show that, on a probe brane in the anti-de Sitter region, there is enhanced production of on-shell nonresonant modes. We compare our model to some recent attempts to incorporate the Randall-Sundrum scenario into superstring theory.

title: PROTOPLANETARY DISK EVOLUTION AROUND THE TRIGGERED STAR-FORMING REGION CEPHEUS B
abstract: The Cepheus B (Cep B) molecular cloud and a portion of the nearby Cep OB3b OB association, one of the most active regions of star formation within 1 kpc, have been observed with the Infrared Array Camera detector on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. The goals are to study protoplanetary disk evolution and processes of sequential triggered star formation in the region. Out of ~400 pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars selected with an earlier Chandra X-ray Observatory observation, ~95% are identified with mid-infrared sources and most of these are classified as diskless or disk-bearing stars. The discovery of the additional >200 IR-excess low-mass members gives a combined Chandra+Spitzer PMS sample that is almost complete down to 0.5 M ? outside of the cloud, and somewhat above 1 M ? in the cloud. Analyses of the nearly disk-unbiased combined Chandra and Spitzer-selected stellar sample give several results. Our major finding is a spatio-temporal gradient of young stars from the hot molecular core toward the primary ionizing O star HD 217086. This strongly supports the radiation-driven implosion (RDI) model of triggered star formation in the region. The empirical estimate for the shock velocity of ~1 km s?1 is very similar to theoretical models of RDI in shocked molecular clouds. The initial mass function (IMF) of the lightly obscured triggered population exhibits a standard Galactic field IMF shape. The unusually high apparent value of 70% star formation efficiency inferred from the ratio of star mass to current molecular gas mass indicates that most of the Cep B molecular cloud has been already ablated or transformed to stars. Contrary to the current RDI simulations, our findings indicate that star formation triggering by H II region shocks is not restricted to a single episode but can continue for millions of years. Other results include: (1) agreement of the disk fractions, their mass dependency, and fractions of transition disks with other clusters; (2) confirmation of the youthfulness of the embedded Cep B cluster; (3) confirmation of the effect of suppression of time-integrated X-ray emission in disk-bearing versus diskless systems.

title: Search for narrow resonances and quantum black holes in inclusive and b-tagged dijet mass spectra from pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV
abstract: A bstractA search for narrow resonances and quantum black holes is performed in inclusive and b-tagged dijet mass spectra measured with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data set corresponds to 5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity collected in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=7 $ TeV. No narrow resonances or quantum black holes are observed. Model-independent upper limits at the 95% confidence level are obtained on the product of the cross section, branching fraction into dijets, and acceptance for three scenarios: decay into quark-quark, quark-gluon, and gluon-gluon pairs. Specific lower limits are set on the mass of string resonances (4.31 TeV), excited quarks (3.32 TeV), axigluons and colorons (3.36 TeV), scalar color-octet resonances (2.07 TeV), E6 diquarks (3.75 TeV), and on the masses of W′ (1.92 TeV) and Z′ (1.47 TeV) bosons. The limits on the minimum mass of quantum black holes range from 4 to 5.3 TeV. In addition, b-quark tagging is applied to the two leading jets and upper limits are set on the production of narrow dijet resonances in a model-independent fashion as a function of the branching fraction to b-jet pairs.

title: Constraints on the star formation histories of galaxies from z∼ 1 to 0
abstract: We present a new method to estimate the average star formation rate per unit stellar mass (SSFR) of a stacked population of galaxies. We combine the spectra of 600-1000 galaxies with similar stellar masses and parametrize the star formation history of this stacked population using a set of exponentially declining functions. The strength of the hydrogen Balmer absorption-line series in the rest-frame wavelength range 3750-4150 A is used to constrain the SSFR by comparing with a library of models generated using the BC03 stellar population code. Our method, based on a principal component analysis, can be applied in a consistent way to spectra drawn from local galaxy surveys and from surveys at z ∼ 1, and is only weakly influenced by attenuation due to dust. We apply our method to galaxy samples drawn from Sloan Digital Sky Survey and DEEP2 to study the mass-dependent growth of galaxies from z ∼ 1 to 0. We find that (i) high-mass galaxies have lower SSFRs than low-mass galaxies and (ii) the average SSFR has decreased from z = 1 to 0 by a factor of ∼3-4, independent of galaxy mass. Additionally, at z ∼ 1, our average SSFRs are a factor of 2-2.5 lower than those derived from multiwavelength photometry using similar data sets. We then compute the average time [in units of the Hubble time, t H (z)] needed by galaxies of a given mass to form their stars at their current rate. At both z = 0 and 1, this time-scale decreases strongly with stellar mass from values close to unity for galaxies with masses ∼10 10 M ⊙ , to more than 10 for galaxies more massive than 10 11 M ⊙ . Our results are in good agreement with models in which active galactic nuclei feedback is more efficient at preventing gas from cooling and forming stars in high-mass galaxies.