[en] Under the unified model for active galactic nuclei (AGNs), narrow-line (Type 2) AGNs are, in fact, broad-line (Type 1) AGNs but each with a heavily obscured accretion disk. We would therefore expect the optical continuum emission from Type 2 AGNs to be composed mainly of stellar light and nonvariable on the timescales of months to years. In this work we probe the spectroscopic variability of galaxies and narrow-line AGNs using the multiepoch data in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6. The sample contains 18,435 sources for which there exist pairs of spectroscopic observations (with a maximum separation in time of ∼700 days) covering a wavelength range of 3900-8900 A. To obtain a reliable repeatability measurement between each spectral pair, we consider a number of techniques for spectrophotometric calibration resulting in an improved spectrophotometric calibration of a factor of 2. From these data we find no obvious continuum and emission-line variability in the narrow-line AGNs on average-the spectroscopic variability of the continuum is 0.07 ± 0.26 mag in the g band and, for the emission-line ratios log₁₀([N II]/Hα) and log₁₀([O III]/Hβ), the variability is 0.02 ± 0.03 dex and 0.06 ± 0.08 dex, respectively. From the continuum variability measurement we set an upper limit on the ratio between the flux of the varying spectral component, presumably related to AGN activities, and that of the host galaxy to be ∼30%. We provide the corresponding upper limits for other spectral classes, including those from the BPT diagram, eClass galaxy classification, stars, and quasars.

[en] The structure of the Sagittarius stream in the southern Galactic hemisphere is analyzed with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8. Parallel to the Sagittarius tidal track, but ∼10° away, there is another fainter and more metal-poor stream. We provide evidence that the two streams follow similar distance gradients but have distinct morphological properties and stellar populations. The brighter stream is broader, contains more metal-rich stars, and has a richer color-magnitude diagram with multiple turnoffs and a prominent red clump as compared to the fainter stream. Based on the structural properties and the stellar population mix, the stream configuration is similar to the Northern 'bifurcation'. In the region of the South Galactic Cap, there is overlapping tidal debris from the Cetus stream, which crosses the Sagittarius stream. Using both photometric and spectroscopic data, we show that the blue straggler population belongs mainly to Sagittarius and the blue horizontal branch stars belong mainly to the Cetus stream in this confused location in the halo.

[en] We develop, implement, and characterize an enhanced data reduction approach which delivers precise, accurate, radial velocities from moderate resolution spectroscopy with the fiber-fed VLT/FLAMES+GIRAFFE facility. This facility, with appropriate care, delivers radial velocities adequate to resolve the intrinsic velocity dispersions of the very faint dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies. Importantly, repeated measurements let us reliably calibrate our individual velocity errors (0.2 kms^-1 ≤ δ_V ≤ 5 km s^-1) and directly detect stars with variable radial velocities. We show, by application to the Booetes I dSph, that the intrinsic velocity dispersion of this system is significantly below 6.5 km s^-1 reported by previous studies. Our data favor a two-population model of Booetes I, consisting of a majority 'cold' stellar component, with velocity dispersion 2.4^+0.9_-0.5 km s^-1, and a minority 'hot' stellar component, with velocity dispersion ∼9 km s^-1, although we cannot completely rule out a single component distribution with velocity dispersion 4.6^0.8_-0.6 km s^-1. We speculate that this complex velocity distribution actually reflects the distribution of velocity anisotropy in Booetes I, which is a measure of its formation processes.

[en] We present the third data release of the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) which is the first milestone of the RAVE project, releasing the full pilot survey. The catalog contains 83,072 radial velocity measurements for 77,461 stars in the southern celestial hemisphere, as well as stellar parameters for 39,833 stars. This paper describes the content of the new release, the new processing pipeline, as well as an updated calibration for the metallicity based upon the observation of additional standard stars. Spectra will be made available in a future release. The data release can be accessed via the RAVE Web site.

[en] Repeated spectroscopic observations of stars in the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) database are used to identify and examine single-lined binary (SB1) candidates. The RAVE latest internal database (VDR3) includes radial velocities, atmospheric parameters, and other parameters for approximately a quarter of a million different stars with slightly less than 300,000 observations. In the sample of ∼20,000 stars observed more than once, 1333 stars with variable radial velocities were identified. Most of them are believed to be SB1 candidates. The fraction of SB1 candidates among stars with several observations is between 10% and 15% which is the lower limit for binarity among RAVE stars. Due to the distribution of time spans between the re-observation that is biased toward relatively short timescales (days to weeks), the periods of the identified SB1 candidates are most likely in the same range. Because of the RAVE's narrow magnitude range most of the dwarf candidates belong to the thin Galactic disk while the giants are part of the thick disk with distances extending to up to a few kpc. The comparison of the list of SB1 candidates to the VSX catalog of variable stars yielded several pulsating variables among the giant population with radial velocity variations of up to few tens of km s^-1. There are 26 matches between the catalog of spectroscopic binary orbits (S_B⁹) and the whole RAVE sample for which the given periastron time and the time of RAVE observation were close enough to yield a reliable comparison. RAVE measurements of radial velocities of known spectroscopic binaries are consistent with their published radial velocity curves.

[en] RAVE, the unbiased magnitude limited survey of southern sky stars, contained 456,676 medium-resolution spectra at the time of our analysis. Spectra cover the Ca II infrared triplet (IRT) range, which is a known indicator of chromospheric activity. Our previous work classified all spectra using locally linear embedding. It identified 53,347 cases with a suggested emission component in calcium lines. Here, we use a spectral subtraction technique to measure the properties of this emission. Synthetic templates are replaced by the observed spectra of non-active stars to bypass the difficult computations of non-local thermal equilibrium profiles of the line cores and stellar parameter dependence. We derive both the equivalent width of the excess emission for each calcium line on a 5 Å wide interval and their sum EW_IRT for ∼44,000 candidate active dwarf stars with signal-to-noise ratio >20, with no cuts on the basis of the source of their emission flux. From these, ∼14,000 show a detectable chromospheric flux with at least a 2σ confidence level. Our set of active stars vastly enlarges previously known samples. Atmospheric parameters and, in some cases, radial velocities of active stars derived from automatic pipelines suffer from systematic shifts due to their shallower calcium lines. We re-estimate the effective temperature, metallicity, and radial velocities for candidate active stars. The overall distribution of activity levels shows a bimodal shape, with the first peak coinciding with non-active stars and the second with the pre-main-sequence cases. The catalog will be made publicly available with the next RAVE public data releases

[en] We present the stellar atmospheric parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, overall metallicity), radial velocities, individual abundances, and distances determined for 425,561 stars, which constitute the fourth public data release of the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE). The stellar atmospheric parameters are computed using a new pipeline, based on the algorithms of MATISSE and DEGAS. The spectral degeneracies and the Two Micron All Sky Survey photometric information are now better taken into consideration, improving the parameter determination compared to the previous RAVE data releases. The individual abundances for six elements (magnesium, aluminum, silicon, titanium, iron, and nickel) are also given, based on a special-purpose pipeline that is also improved compared to that available for the RAVE DR3 and Chemical DR1 data releases. Together with photometric information and proper motions, these data can be retrieved from the RAVE collaboration Web site and the Vizier database

[en] The velocity dispersions of stars near the Sun are known to increase with stellar age, but age can be difficult to determine, so a proxy like the abundance of α elements (e.g., Mg) with respect to iron, [α/Fe], is used. Here we report an unexpected behavior found in the velocity dispersion of a sample of giant stars from the Radial Velocity Experiment survey with high-quality chemical and kinematic information, in that it decreases strongly for stars with [Mg/Fe] > 0.4 dex (i.e., those that formed in the first gigayear of the Galaxy's life). These findings can be explained by perturbations from massive mergers in the early universe, which have affected the outer parts of the disk more strongly, and the subsequent radial migration of stars with cooler kinematics from the inner disk. Similar reversed trends in velocity dispersion are also found for different metallicity subpopulations. Our results suggest that the Milky Way disk merger history can be recovered by relating the observed chemo-kinematic relations to the properties of past merger events

[en] Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are usually observed in spectra of hot stars, where interstellar lines are rarely blended with stellar ones. The need for hot stars is a strong limitation in the number of sightlines we can observe and their distribution in the Galaxy, as hot stars are rare and concentrated in the Galactic plane. We are introducing a new method, where interstellar lines can be observed in spectra of cool stars in large spectroscopic surveys. The method is completely automated and does not require prior knowledge of the stellar parameters. The main step is a construction of the stellar spectrum, which is done by finding other observed spectra that lack interstellar features and are otherwise very similar to the spectrum in question. Such spectra are then combined into a single stellar spectrum template, matching the stellar component of the observed spectrum. We demonstrate the performance of this new method on a sample of 482,430 Radial Velocity Experiment survey spectra. However, many spectra have to be combined (48 on average) in order to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio high enough to measure the profile of the DIB at 8620 Å, hence limiting the spatial information about the interstellar medium. We compare its equivalent width with extinction maps and with Bayesian reddening, calculated for individual stars, and provide a linear relation between the equivalent width and reddening. Separately from the introduced method, we calculate equivalent widths of the DIB in spectra of hot stars with known extinction and compare all three linear relations.

[en] Theories of thick-disk formation can be differentiated by measurements of stellar elemental abundances. We have undertaken a study of metal-poor stars selected from the RAVE spectroscopic survey of bright stars to establish whether or not there is a significant population of metal-poor thick-disk stars ([Fe/H] ∼< -1.0) and to measure their elemental abundances. In this Letter, we present abundances of four α-elements (Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti) and iron for a subsample of 212 red giant branch and 31 red clump/horizontal branch stars from this study. We find that the [α/Fe] ratios are enhanced, implying that enrichment proceeded by purely core-collapse supernovae. This requires that star formation in each star-forming region had a short duration. The relative lack of scatter in the [α/Fe] ratios implies good mixing in the interstellar medium prior to star formation. In addition, the ratios resemble that of the halo, indicating that the halo and thick disk share a similar massive star initial mass function. We conclude that the α-enhancement of the metal-poor thick disk implies that direct accretion of stars from dwarf galaxies similar to surviving dwarf galaxies today did not play a major role in the formation of the thick disk.