A near-infrared catalogue of the Galactic novae in the VVV survey area

Abstract

Context. Near-infrared data on classical novae contain useful information about the ejected gas mass and the thermal emission by dust formed during eruption, and provide independent methods to classify the objects according to the colour of their progenitors, and the fading rate and features seen after eruption. The VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea survey (VVV) is a near-IR ESO Public Survey mapping the Milky Way bulge and southern plane. Data taken during 2010-2011 covered the entire area in the JHK s bands plus some epochs in K s -band of the ongoing VVV variability campaign. Aims. We used the VVV data to create a near-IR catalogue of the known Galactic novae in the 562 sq. deg. area covered by VVV. We also compiled the information about novae from the variability tables of the VVV variability campaign. Methods. We used the novae list provided by VSX/AAVSO catalogue to search for all objects within the VVV area. From the 140 novae, we were able to retrieve the JHK s colours of 93 objects. We also checked in the ongoing VVV variability campaign for the light curves of novae that erupted in the last years. Results. The VVV near-IR catalogue of novae contains JHK s photometry of 93 objects completed as of December 2012. VVV allows to monitor objects within up to ΔK s ∼ 10 mag range. VVV images can also be used to discover and study novae by searching for the expanding shell. Since objects are seen at different distances and reddening levels, the colour-magnitude and colour-colour diagrams show the novae spread in magnitude as well as in colour. Dereddened colours and reddening-free indices were used with caution and cannot be a good approach in all cases since the distance and spectral features prevent more conclusive results for some extreme objects. Light curves for some recent novae are presented. Conclusions. Thanks to its high spatial resolution in the near IR and wide K s -range, the VVV survey can be a major contributor to the search for and study of novae in the most crowded and high-extinction regions of the Milky Way. The VVV survey area contains ∼35% of all known novae in the Galaxy.

Life after eruption – V. Spectroscopy of eight candidate old novae with Gemini-South★

“…Finally, the results from Ringwald et al (1996) and Saito et al (2013) raise the possibility that V999 Sgr shows large variability. However, the post-nova is located in a comparatively crowded field, and the previously published finding charts left ample room for ambiguity.…”

“…Subsequent studies, e.g. by Ringwald, Naylor, & Mukai (1996) (who remark that the colours are that of a reddened K star), Hoard et al (2002) and Saito et al (2013), can be assumed to refer to the object identified in Duerbeck (1987).…”

Life after eruption – IV. Spectroscopy of 13 old novae

“…The spectroscopic confirmation of this nova was already reported in Paper I and we refer the reader to that publication for a summary on the available data. In the meantime, the object has also been identified in the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea Survey (VVV), with Saito et al (2013) providing infrared magnitudes. The spectrum in Paper I suffered from very low S/N and thus revealed very little detail on the emission lines.…”

“…also in the system EX Hya (Vogt, Krzeminski, & Sterken 1980), while most other intermediate polars have Prot ∼ 0.1 P orb (Ritter & Kolb 2003, update 7.20, 2013. Saito et al (2013) give revised coordinates and JHK photometry values from the VVV survey.…”

Discovery of new companions to high proper motion stars from the VVV Survey

“…A&A 560, A21 (2013) The VVV is carried out with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA; Dalton et al 2006;Emerson et al 2006) at Paranal Observatory, and will obtain ZY JHK S coverage and multi-epoch (up to 100 for some pointings) K S observations of ∼562 deg 2 in the Milky Way bulge and inner disk at sub-arcsec seeing. After two years of operation, we have already demonstrated, that VVV is producing new, interesting results: the discovery of new star clusters , Borissova et al 2011Moni Bidin et al 2011), investigation of the structure and stellar populations content of the Milky Way (Minniti et al 2011b;Gonzalez et al 2011aGonzalez et al ,b, 2012Saito et al 2012c), the study of variable stars and transients (Catelan et al 2011;Saito et al 2012b), and others. One of the main goals is to obtain a three-dimensional tomographic map of the Milky Way bulge based on red clump giants, RR Lyr, and Cepheid variables.…”