- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/748/29
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of M87 globular clusters
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/748/29
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The halos of galaxies preserve unique records of their formation histories. We carry out the first combined observational and theoretical study of phase-space halo substructure in an early-type galaxy: M87, the central galaxy in the Virgo cluster. We analyze an unprecedented wide-field, high-precision photometric and spectroscopic data set for 488 globular clusters (GCs), which includes new, large-radius Subaru/Suprime-Cam and Keck/DEIMOS observations. We find signatures of two substructures in position-velocity phase space. One is a small, cold stream associated with a known stellar filament in the outer halo; the other is a large shell-like pattern in the inner halo that implies a massive, hitherto unrecognized accretion event. We perform extensive statistical tests and independent metallicity analyses to verify the presence and characterize the properties of these features, and to provide more general methodologies for future extragalactic studies of phase-space substructure. The cold outer stream is consistent with a dwarf galaxy accretion event, while for the inner shell there is tension between a low progenitor mass implied by the cold velocity dispersion, and a high mass from the large number of GCs, which might be resolved by a ~0.5 L* E/S0 progenitor.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/769/10
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of M31 globular clusters
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/769/10
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We report the results of an [OIII]{lambda}5007 spectroscopic survey for planetary nebulae (PNe) located within the star clusters of M31. By examining R~5000 spectra taken with the WIYN+Hydra spectrograph, we identify 3 PN candidates in a sample of 274 likely globular clusters, 2 candidates in objects which may be globular clusters, and 5 candidates in a set of 85 younger systems. The possible PNe are all faint, between ~2.5 and ~6.8mag down the PN luminosity function, and, partly as a consequence of our selection criteria, have high excitation, with [OIII]{lambda}5007 to H{beta} ratios ranging from 2 to >~12. We discuss the individual candidates, their likelihood of cluster membership, and the possibility that they were formed via binary interactions within the clusters. Our data are consistent with the suggestion that PN formation within globular clusters correlates with binary encounter frequency, though, due to the small numbers and large uncertainties in the candidate list, this study does not provide sufficient evidence to confirm the hypothesis.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/393/272
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of red giants in 12 open clusters
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/393/272
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Near-infrared spectra of 133 red giant stars from 10 Galactic open clusters and two Galactic globular clusters spanning 2.2dex in metallicity and 11Gyr in age are presented. We combine this sample with 10 clusters from Cole and collaborators (2004MNRAS.347..367C) to investigate the CaII triplet line strengths and their relation to cluster metallicity and position along the red giant branch. We show that characterizing the stellar surface gravity using K_s_-band photometry (relative to the horizontal branch) taken from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey allows for metallicity measurements at least as precise as those derived using V- or I-band data. This has the great advantage that uniform photometry and reliable astrometry are available for a large number of clusters. Using K_s_-band photometry also reduces the effect of differential reddening within a given cluster. We find no significant evidence for age or metallicity effects to the linear CaII triplet-metallicity relationship over the small range in magnitudes studied when homogeneous reference metallicities are used. We derive the first spectroscopic metallicity and new radial velocity estimates for five open clusters: Berkeley 81, Berkeley 99, IC 1311, King 2 and NGC7044. King2 has an anomalous radial velocity compared with the local disc population. We discuss the possibility that it is part of the Monoceros tidal stream.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/731/64
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of 300 RGBs in {omega} Cen
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/731/64
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Omega Centauri is no longer the only globular cluster known to contain multiple stellar populations, yet it remains the most puzzling. Due to the extreme way in which the multiple stellar population phenomenon manifests in this cluster, it has been suggested that it may be the remnant of a larger stellar system. In this work, we present a spectroscopic investigation of the stellar populations hosted in the globular cluster {omega} Centauri to shed light on its still puzzling chemical enrichment history. With this aim, we used FLAMES+GIRAFFE@VLT to observe 300 stars distributed along the multimodal red giant branch of this cluster, sampling with good statistics the stellar populations of different metallicities. We determined chemical abundances for Fe, Na, O, and n-capture elements Ba and La. We confirm that {omega} Centauri exhibits large star-to-star variations in iron with [Fe/H] ranging from ~-2.0 to ~-0.7dex. Barium and lanthanum abundances of metal-poor stars are correlated with iron, up to [Fe/H]~-1.5, while they are almost constant (or at least have only a moderate increase) in the more metal-rich populations. There is an extended Na-O anticorrelation for stars with [Fe/H]<~-1.3 while more metal-rich stars are almost all Na-rich. Sodium was found to mildly increase with iron over the entire metallicity range.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/533/A69
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of 124 RGB stars in NGC 1851
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/533/A69
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a detailed chemical tagging of individual stellar populations in the Galactic globular cluster (GC) NGC 1851. Abundances are derived from FLAMES spectra for the largest sample of giants (124) and the widest number of elements ever analysed in this peculiar GC. The chemistry is characterised using homogeneous abundances of proton-capture (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si), {alpha}-capture (Ca, Ti), Fe-peak (Sc, V, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu), and neutron-capture elements (Y, Zr, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Eu, Dy). We confirm the presence of an [Fe/H] spread larger than the observational errors in this cluster, but too small to clearly separate different sub-populations. We instead propose a classification scheme using a combination of Fe and Ba (which is much more abundant in the more metal-rich group) by means of a cluster analysis. With this approach, we separated stars into two components of a metal-rich (MR) and a metal-poor (MP) population. Each component displays a Na-O anticorrelation, which is a signature of a genuine GC, but has different ratios of primordial (FG) to polluted (SG) stars. Moreover, clear (anti)correlations of Mg and Si with Na and O are found for each component. The level of [{alpha}/H] tracks iron and is higher in the MR population, which might therefore have received an additional contribution from core-collapse supernovae. When considering all s-process elements, the MR population shows a larger enrichment than the MP one. This is probably due to the contribution of intermediate-low mass stars, because we find that the level of heavy s-process elements is higher than that of light s-process nuclei in the MR stars; however, a large contribution from low mass stars is unlikely, because it would likely cancel the O-Na anticorrelation. Finally, we confirm the presence of correlations between the amount of proton-capture elements and the level of s-process elements previously found by other investigations, at least for the MR population. This finding apparently requires a quite long delay for the second generation of the MR component. Scenarios for the formation of NGC 1851 appear complex, and are not yet well understood. A merger of two distinct GCs in a parent dwarf galaxy, each cluster with a different Ba level and an age difference of ~1Gyr, might explain (i) the double subgiant branch, (ii) a possible difference in C content between the two original GCs, and (iii) the Stromgren photometry of this peculiar cluster. However, the correlation existing between p-capture and n-capture elements within the MR population requires the additional assumption of a long delay for its second generation. More observations are required to fully understand the formation of this GC.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/154/150
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of RGB stars in {omega} Centauri
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/154/150
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present [Fe/H] and [Ca/Fe] of ~600 red giant branch (RGB) members of the globular cluster Omega Centauri ({omega} Cen). We collect medium-resolution (R~2000) spectra using the Blanco 4 m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory equipped with Hydra, the fiber-fed multi-object spectrograph. We demonstrate that blending of stellar light in optical fibers severely limits the accuracy of spectroscopic parameters in the crowded central region of the cluster. When photometric temperatures are taken in the spectroscopic analysis, our kinematically selected cluster members, excluding those that are strongly affected by flux from neighboring stars, include relatively fewer stars at intermediate metallicity ([Fe/H]~-1.5) than seen in the previous high-resolution survey for brighter giants in Johnson & Pilachowski (2010, J/ApJ/722/1373). As opposed to the trend of increasing [Ca/Fe] with [Fe/H] found by those authors, our [Ca/Fe] estimates, based on Ca II H & K measurements, show essentially the same mean [Ca/Fe] for most of the metal-poor and metal-intermediate populations in this cluster, suggesting that mass- or metallicity-dependent SN II yields may not be necessary in their proposed chemical evolution scenario. Metal-rich cluster members in our sample show a large spread in [Ca/Fe], and do not exhibit a clear bimodal distribution in [Ca/Fe]. We also do not find convincing evidence for a radial metallicity gradient among RGB stars in {omega} Cen.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/705/1481
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of stars in 6 globular clusters
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/705/1481
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Intermediate resolution spectra at the CaII triplet have been obtained for 55 candidate red giants in the field of the globular cluster M22 with the VLT/FORS2 instrument. Spectra were also obtained for a number of red giants in standard globular clusters to provide a calibration of the observed line strengths with overall abundance [Fe/H]. For the 41 M22 member stars that lie within the V-V_HB_ bounds of the calibration, we find an abundance distribution that is substantially broader than that expected from the observed errors alone. We argue that this broad distribution cannot be the result of differential reddening. Instead, we conclude that, as has long been suspected, M22 is similar to {omega} Cen in having an intrinsic dispersion in heavy element abundance. The observed M22 abundance distribution rises sharply to a peak at [Fe/H]~-1.9 with a broad tail to higher abundances: the highest abundance star in our sample has [Fe/H] ~-1.45dex. If the unusual properties of {omega} Cen have their origin in a scenario in which the cluster is the remnant nucleus of a disrupted dwarf galaxy, then such a scenario likely also applies to M22.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/149/204
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of 25 stars in M68
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/149/204
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In this paper, we present a detailed high-resolution spectroscopic study of post main sequence stars in the globular cluster (GC) M68. Our sample, which covers a range of 4000K in T_eff_, and 3.5dex in log(g), is comprised of members from the red giant, red horizontal, and blue horizontal branch, making this the first high-resolution GC study covering such a large evolutionary and parameter space. Initially, atmospheric parameters were determined using photometric as well as spectroscopic methods, both of which resulted in unphysical and unexpected T_eff_, log(g), {xi}_t_, and [Fe/H] combinations. We therefore developed a hybrid approach that addresses most of these problems, and yields atmospheric parameters that agree well with other measurements in the literature. Furthermore, our derived stellar metallicities are consistent across all evolutionary stages, with <[Fe/H]>=-2.42 ({sigma}=0.14) from 25 stars. Chemical abundances obtained using our methodology also agree with previous studies and bear all the hallmarks of GCs, such as a Na-O anti-correlation, constant Ca abundances, and mild r-process enrichment.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/726/L20
- Title:
- Spectroscopy of Terzan 5
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/726/L20
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the chemical abundance analysis of 33 red giant stars belonging to the complex stellar system Terzan 5. We confirm the discovery of two stellar populations with distinct iron abundances: a relatively metal-poor component with [Fe/H]=-0.25+/-0.07rms and another component with [Fe/H]=+0.27+/-0.04rms, exceeding in metallicity any known Galactic globular cluster (GC). The two populations also show different [{alpha}/Fe] abundance ratios. The metal-poor component has an average [{alpha}/Fe]=+0.34+/-0.06rms, consistent with the canonical scenario for rapid enrichment by core collapse supernovae (SNe). The metal-rich component has [{alpha}/Fe]=+0.03+/-0.04rms, suggesting that the gas from which it formed was polluted by both type II and type Ia SNe on a longer timescale. Neither of the two populations shows evidence of the [Al/Fe] over [O/Fe] anti-correlation that is typically observed in Galactic GCs. Because these chemical abundance patterns are unique, we propose that Terzan 5 is not a true GC, but a stellar system with a much more complex history of star formation and chemical enrichment.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/749/124
- Title:
- Spectroscopy on LMC clusters
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/749/124
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- As part of an ongoing program to measure detailed chemical abundances in nearby galaxies, we use a sample of young- to intermediate-age clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud with ages of 10Myr-2Gyr to evaluate the effect of isochrone parameters, specifically core convective overshooting, on Fe abundance results from high-resolution, integrated light spectroscopy. In this work we also obtain fiducial Fe abundances from high-resolution spectroscopy of the cluster individual member stars. We compare the Fe abundance results for the individual stars to the results from isochrones and integrated light spectroscopy to determine whether isochrones with convective overshooting should be used in our integrated light analysis of young- to intermediate-age (10Myr-3Gyr) star clusters. We find that when using the isochrones from the Teramo group, we obtain more accurate results for young- and intermediate-age clusters over the entire age range when using isochrones without convective overshooting. While convective overshooting is not the only uncertain aspect of stellar evolution, it is one of the most readily parameterized ingredients in stellar evolution models, and thus important to evaluate for the specific models used in our integrated light analysis. This work demonstrates that our method for integrated light spectroscopy of star clusters can provide unique tests for future constraints on stellar evolution models of young- and intermediate-age clusters.
