Radial velocity studies have provided the majority of all exoplanet
discoveries. Using the radial velocity techniques on young stars suffers
from problems with magnetic activity jitter, which has been studied for
years, and the effects of circumstellar disks, which has remained
unstudied. Here we study the disk-embedded star BP Psc using high
resolution, high accuracy HARPS spectra. We derive radial velocities,
activity indices, and line profile information. We find that the
presence of a disk severely limits information about the star. We find
that even the line profiles are...
We present time-resolved V photometry of the old nova RRPictoris
(RRPic). Apart from the hump-like variability, the light curves show the
strong flickering and random variation typical for RRPic. We do not find
any convincing evidence for the previously reported eclipse. The
extrapolated eclipse phase coincides with a broad minimum, but comparing
the overall shape of the light curve suggests that the eclipse should
actually be located around phase 0.2. The orbital period which we derive
from these data agrees well with the old one, any uncertainty is too
small to account for the...
A high-resolution spectroscopic survey of post-outburst novae reveals
short-lived heavy element absorption systems in a majority of novae near
maximum light, having expansion velocities of 400-1000 km s<SUP>-1</SUP>
and velocity dispersions between 35 and 350 km s<SUP>-1</SUP>. A
majority of systems are accelerated outward, and they all progressively
weaken and disappear over timescales of weeks. A few of the systems
having narrow, deeper absorption reveal a rich spectrum of singly
ionized Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Sr, Y, Zr, and Ba lines. Analysis of the
richest such system, in LMC 2005,...
