Publications (20)
CI Aql: a Type Ia supernova progenitor?
Dave Sahman, Vik Dhillon, Tom Marsh +4
If recurrent novae are progenitors of Type Ia supernovae, their white dwarfs must have masses close to the Chandrasekhar limit. The most reliable means of determining white dwarf m…
Tempawral: A Time-Resolved Retrieval Framework for Variable Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets
Fei Wang, Ben Burningham, Stuart Littlefair +4
Brown dwarfs and exoplanets are thought to host complex atmospheric phenomena such as clouds, storms, and chemical heterogeneity, akin to weather patterns on Earth. These features…
Testing disc reprocessing models for AGN optical variability by comparison of X-ray and optical power spectra of NGC 4395
Max Beard, Ian McHardy, Keith Horne +11
It is generally thought that AGN optical variability is produced, at least in part, by reprocessing of central X-rays by a surrounding accretion disc, resulting in wavelength-depen…
Multi-periodic pulsations of a stripped red giant star in an eclipsing binary
Pierre F. L. Maxted, Aldo M. Serenelli, Andrea Miglio +8
Low mass white dwarfs are the remnants of disrupted red giant stars in binary millisecond pulsars and other exotic binary star systems. Some low mass white dwarfs cool rapidly, whi…
A modest change in magnetic braking at the fully convective boundary explains cataclysmic variable evolution
JoaquÃn A. Barraza-Jorquera, Matthias R. Schreiber, Stuart Littlefair +2
Context. For decades, reproducing the orbital period distribution of non-magnetic Cataclysmic Variables (CVs) seemed to require a drastic decrease, usually termed disruption, of an…
Machine Learning for Transient Recognition in Difference Imaging With Minimum Sampling Effort
Yik-Lun Mong, Kendall Ackley, Duncan Galloway +45
The amount of observational data produced by time-domain astronomy is exponentially in-creasing. Human inspection alone is not an effective way to identify genuine transients fromt…
A Stellar Flare during the Transit of the Extrasolar Planet OGLE-TR-10b
Samuel Bentley, Coel Hellier, Pierre Maxted +4
We report a stellar flare occurring during a transit of the exoplanet OGLE-TR-10b, an event not previously reported in the literature. This reduces the observed transit depth, part…
Developing the GOTO telescope control system
Martin J. Dyer, Vik S. Dhillon, Stuart Littlefair +7
The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) is a wide-field telescope project focused on detecting optical counterparts to gravitational-wave sources. The GOTO Telesco…
The ZZ Ceti Instability Strip for The Most Massive White Dwarf Pulsators
Gracyn Jewett, Mukremin Kilic, Adam Moss +10
We present time-series photometry of 31 massive DA white dwarfs with within the ZZ Ceti instability strip from the Montreal White Dwarf Database 100 pc sampl…
astroplan: An Open Source Observation Planning Package in Python
Brett M. Morris, Erik Tollerud, Brigitta Sipocz +9
We present astroplan - an open source, open development, Astropy affiliated package for ground-based observation planning and scheduling in Python. astroplan is designed to provide…
21 years of Astronomy at Warwick: celebrating the legacy of Prof. Tom Marsh
Ingrid Pelisoli, Boris Gänsicke, Keith Horne +7
Between the 4th and 6th of September 2024, the Astronomy & Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick held a meeting to celebrate 21 years of astronomy at Warwick and the scie…
Tidally Distorted Exoplanets: Density Corrections for Short-Period Hot-Jupiters based solely on Observable Parameters
John Burton, Christopher Watson, Alan Fitzsimmons +4
The close proximity of short period hot-Jupiters to their parent star means they are subject to extreme tidal forces. This has a profound effect on their structure and, as a result…
The forbidden high ionisation line region of the type 2 quasar Q1131+16: a clear view of the inner face of the torus?
Marvin Rose, Clive Tadhunter, Joanna Holt +2
We present spectroscopic observations of the type 2 quasar SDSS J11311.05+162739.5 (Q1131+16 hereafter; z=0.1732), which has the richest spectrum of forbidden high ionisation lines…
HiPERCAM and TESS observations of the rapidly rotating M7V star LP 89--187
Gavin Ramsay, J. G. Doyle, Stuart Littlefair +2
The discovery of a significant number of rapidly rotating low mass stars showing no or few flares in TESS observations was a surprise as rapid rotation has previously been taken as…
Heavy metals in a light white dwarf: Abundances of the metal-rich, extremely low-mass GALEX J1717+6757
J. J. Hermes, B. T. Gaensicke, D. Koester +9
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, we detail the first abundance analysis enabled by far-ultraviolet spectroscopy of a low-mass (~0.19 Msun) white dwarf (WD), GALEX J1717+6757, whic…
A catalogue of cataclysmic variables from 20 years of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with new classifications, periods, trends and oddities
Keith Inight, Boris Gänsicke, Elmé Breedt +7
We present a catalogue of 507 cataclysmic variables (CVs) observed in SDSS I to IV including 70 new classifications collated from multiple archival data sets. This represents the l…
The PDS 110 observing campaign - photometric and spectroscopic observations reveal eclipses are aperiodic
Hugh P. Osborn, Matthew Kenworthy, Joseph E. Rodriguez +71
PDS 110 is a young disk-hosting star in the Orion OB1A association. Two dimming events of similar depth and duration were seen in 2008 (WASP) and 2011 (KELT), consistent with an ob…
First light with HiPERCAM on the GTC
Vikram Dhillon, Simon Dixon, Trevor Gamble +20
HiPERCAM is a quintuple-beam imager that saw first light on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in October 2017 and on the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) in February 20…
A telescope control and scheduling system for the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)
Martin Dyer, Vik Dhillon, Stuart Littlefair +5
The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) is a wide-field telescope project aimed at detecting optical counterparts to gravitational wave sources. The prototype inst…
A search for rocky planets transiting brown dwarfs
Amaury H. M. J. Triaud, Michael Gillon, Franck Selsis +18
Exoplanetary science has reached a historic moment. The James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of probing the atmospheres of rocky planets, and perhaps even search for biologic…