Microlensing is sensitive to binary, brown dwarf (BD), and planetary companions to normal stars in the Galactic bulge with separations between about 1-10 AU. The accurate, densely-sampled photometry of microlensing events needed to detect planetary companions has been achieved by several follow-up collaborations. Detailed analysis of microlensing events toward the bulge demonstrates that less t...

Context. Direct imaging using various techniques for suppressing the stellar halo nowadays achieves the contrast levels required to detect and characterize light of substellar companions at orbital distances larger than a few astronomical units from their host stars. The method nicely complements the radial velocity surveys that provide evidence that giant extrasolar planets in close-in orbits ...

Aims. We present the results of a deep imaging survey of stars surrounded by planets detected with the radial velocity technique. The purpose is to search for and to characterize long-period stellar and substellar companions. The sample contains a total of 26 stars, among which 6 exhibit additional radial velocity drifts. Methods. We used NACO, at the ESO Very Large Telescope, and PUEO-KIR, at ...

Context. The Exozodi survey aims to determine the occurrence rate of bright exozodiacal discs around nearby main sequence stars using infrared interferometry. Although the Exozodi survey targets have been carefully selected to avoid the presence of binary stars, the results of this survey can still be biased by the presence of unidentified stellar companions. Aims. Using the PIONIER data set co...

With the goal of confirming the metallicity “excess” observed in stars with planetary mass companions, we have conducted a high-precision spectroscopic study of a “comparison” sample of dwarfs included in the CORALIE extra-solar planet survey (Santos, Israelian, & Mayor 2001). The targets were chosen following two basic criteria: they make part of a limited volume and they do not present the si...

We show that a common evolutionary history can produce the black hole binaries in the Galaxy in which the black holes have masses of ∼ 5− 10M⊙. In with low-mass, ∼ < 2.5M⊙, ZAMS (zero age main sequence) companions, the latter remain in main sequence during the active stage of soft X-ray transients (SXTs), most of them being of K or M classification. In two intermediate cases, IL Lupi and Nova S...

We study the percentage of active, HII and quiescent galaxies with companions in the Palomar survey. We find that when we separate the galaxies by their morphological types (ellipticals or spirals), to avoid morphology-density effects, there is no difference in the percentage of galaxies with companions among the different activity types.

In developing countries it is difficult to have full-time dedicated nurses in Epilepsy Monitoring Units (EMU). Our one-bed EMU is within the Neurology Service and is adequately staffed during daytime working hours only. So we created a new model where the patient's companion was asked to press a nurse call button, allowing the examination of the patient by the nurse. In this study we aimed to u...

This paper deals with the design and implementation of AMICO1 , a prototype to enhance mathematics learning by interactions between a student (or a dyad) and virtual agents (several co-learner companions and a mathematician). This work is part of a multidisciplinary project, the project LINGOT that aims to give math teachers tools to improve their teaching. We first present the foundations of t...

The Kepler mission provides a wealth of multiple transiting planet systems (MTPSs). The formation and evolution of multi-planet systems are likely to be influenced by companion stars given the abundance of multiple stellar systems. We study the influence of stellar companions by measuring the stellar multiplicity rate of MTPSs. We select 138 bright (KP < 13.5) Kepler MTPSs and search for stella...