WD0137-349 is a white dwarf-brown dwarf binary system in a 116 minute orbit. We present radial velocity observations and multiwaveband photometry from V , R and I in the optical, to J, H and K s in the near-IR and [3.6], [4.5], [5.8] and [8.0] µm in the mid-IR. The photometry and lightcurves show variability in all wavebands, with the amplitude peaking at [4.5] microns, where the system is also brightest. Fluxes and brightness temperatures were computed for the heated and unheated atmosphere of the brown dwarf (WD0137-349B) using synthetic spectra of the white dwarf using model atmosphere simulations. We show that the flux from the brown dwarf dayside is brighter than expected in the K s and [4.5] µm bands when compared to models of irradiated brown dwarfs with full energy circulation and suggest this over-luminosity may be attributed to H 2 fluorescence or H + 3 being generated in the atmosphere by the UV irradiation.

We present time-series photometry of 30 isolated magnetic white dwarfs, surveyed with the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope between 2002 August and 2003 May. We find that 9 were untestable due to varying comparison stars, but of the remaining 21, 5 (24%) are variable with reliably derived periods, while a further 9 (43%) are seen to vary during our study, but we were unable to derive the period. We interpret the variability to be the result of rotation of the objects. We find no correlation between rotation period and mass, temperature, magnetic field, or age. We have found variability in 9 targets with low magnetic field strengths and temperatures low enough for partially convective atmospheres, which we highlight as candidates for polarimetry to search for starspots. Most interestingly, we have found variability in one target, PG1658+441, which has a fully radiative atmosphere in which conventional starspots cannot form, but a magnetic field strength that is too low to cause magnetic dichroism. The source of variability in this target remains a mystery.

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Abstract. The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a new ground-based sky survey designed to find transiting Neptunes and super-Earths. By covering at least sixteen times the sky area of Kepler, we will find small planets around stars that are sufficiently bright for radial velocity confirmation, mass determination and atmospheric characterisation. The NGTS instrument will consist of an array of twelve independently pointed 20 cm telescopes fitted with red-sensitive CCD cameras. It will be constructed at the ESO Paranal Observatory, thereby benefiting from the very best photometric conditions as well as follow up synergy with the VLT and E-ELT. Our design has been verified through the operation of two prototype instruments, demonstrating white noise characteristics to sub-mmag photometric precision. Detailed simulations show that about thirty bright super-Earths and up to two hundred Neptunes could be discovered. Our science operations are due to begin in 2014.

The preparation and characterisation of a novel, water-proof, irreversible, reusable, UV-activated, O(2) sensitive, smart plastic film is described. A pigment, consisting of a redox dye, methylene blue (MB), and a sacrificial electron donor, DL-threitol, coated onto an inorganic support with semiconductor functionality, TiO(2), has been extruded in low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The blue-coloured indicator is readily photobleached in <90 s using UVA light (4 mW cm(-2)), whereby MB is converted to its colourless, leuco form, leuco-methylene blue (LMB). This form persists in the absence of oxygen, but is re-oxidised to MB in ~2.5 days in air under ambient conditions (∼21 °C, ~65% RH) within the O(2) smart plastic film. The rate of recovery is linearly dependent upon the ambient level of O(2). At the lower temperature of 5 °C, the kinetics of the photobleaching activation step is largely unchanged, whereas that of recovery is markedly reduced to t(1/2) = 36 h at 5 °C (cf. 9 h at 21 °C); the activation energy for the recovery step was calculated as 28 kJ mol(-1). The O(2)-sensitive recovery step was found to be moderately dependent upon humidity at 21 °C, but not significantly dependent upon humidity at 5 °C. The possible application of this type of indicator in food packaging is illustrated and discussed briefly.

There is a striking and unexplained dearth of brown dwarf companions in close orbits (< 3AU) around stars more massive than the Sun, in stark contrast to the frequency of stellar and planetary companions. Although rare and relatively short-lived, these systems leave detectable evolutionary end points in the form of white dwarf -brown dwarf binaries and these remnants can offer unique insights into the births and deaths of their parent systems. We present the discovery of a close (orbital separation ∼ 0.006 AU) substellar companion to a massive white dwarf member of the Praesepe star cluster. Using the cluster age and the mass of the white dwarf we constrain the mass of the white dwarf progenitor star to lie in the range 3.5 -3.7 M ⊙ (B9). The high mass of the white dwarf means the substellar companion must have been engulfed by the B star's envelope while it was on the late asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Hence, the initial separation of the system was ∼ 2 AU, with common envelope evolution reducing the separation to its current value. The initial and final orbital separations allow us to constrain the combination of the common envelope efficiency (α) and binding energy parameters (λ) for the AGB star to αλ ∼ 3. We examine the various formation scenarios and conclude that the substellar object was most likely to have been captured by the white dwarf progenitor early in the life of the cluster, rather than forming in situ.

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We present a spectroscopic component analysis of 18 candidate young, wide, non-magnetic, double-degenerate binaries identified from a search of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (DR7). All but two pairings are likely to be physical systems. We show SDSS J084952.47+471247.7 + SDSS J084952.87+471249.4 to be a wide DA + DB binary, only the second identified to date. Combining our measurements for the components of 16 new binaries with results for three similar, previously known systems within the DR7, we have constructed a mass distribution for the largest sample to date (38) of white dwarfs in young, wide, non-magnetic, double-degenerate pairings. This is broadly similar in form to that of the isolated field population with a substantial peak around M ∼ 0.6 M . We identify an excess of ultramassive white dwarfs and attribute this to the primordial separation distribution of their progenitor systems peaking at relatively larger values and the greater expansion of their binary orbits during the final stages of stellar evolution. We exploit this mass distribution to probe the origins of unusual types of degenerates, confirming a mild preference for the progenitor systems of high-field-magnetic white dwarfs, at least within these binaries, to be associated with early-type stars. Additionally, we consider the 19 systems in the context of the stellar initial mass-final mass relation. None appear to be strongly discordant with current understanding of this relationship.