We present precision radial velocities and stellar population parameters for 77 star clusters in the Local Group galaxy M33. Our Gran Telescopio de Canarias and William Herschel Telescope observations sample both young, massive clusters and known/candidate globular clusters (GCs), spanning ages ~10^6-10^10yr, and metallicities, [M/H]~-1.7 to solar. The cluster system exhibits an age-metallicity relation; the youngest clusters are the most metal rich. When compared to HI data, clusters with [M/H]~-1.0 and younger than ~4Gyr are clearly identified as a disc population. The clusters show evidence for strong time evolution in the disc radial metallicity gradient (d[M/H]dt/dR=0.03dex/kpc/Gyr). The oldest clusters have stronger, more negative gradients than the youngest clusters in M33. The clusters also show a clear age-velocity dispersion relation. The line-of-sight velocity dispersions of the clusters increases with age similar to Milky Way open clusters and stars. The general shape of the relation is reproduced by disc heating simulations, and the similarity between the relations in M33 and the Milky Way suggests that heating by substructure and cooling of the interstellar medium both play a role in shaping this relation. We identify 12 'classical' GCs, six of which are newly identified GC candidates. The GCs are more metal rich than Milky Way halo clusters, and show weak rotation. The inner (R<4.5kpc) GCs exhibit a steep radial metallicity gradient (d[M/H]/dR=-0.29+/-0.11dex/kpc) and an exponential-like surface density profile. We argue that these inner GCs are thick disc rather than halo objects.
We carry out a joint spatial-kinematical-metallicity analysis of globular clusters (GCs) around the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), using a homogeneous, high-quality spectroscopic data set. In particular, we remove the contaminating young clusters that have plagued many previous analyses. We find that the clusters can be divided into three major metallicity groups based on their radial distributions: (1) an inner metal-rich group ([Fe/H]>-0.4); (2) a group with intermediate metallicity (with median [Fe/H]=-1); and (3) a metal-poor group, with [Fe/H]. The metal-rich group has kinematics and spatial properties like those of the disk of M31, while the two more metal-poor groups show mild prograde rotation overall, with larger dispersions --in contrast to previous claims of stronger rotation. The metal-poor GCs are the least concentrated group; such clusters occur five times less frequently in the central bulge than do clusters of higher metallicity. Despite some well-known differences between the M31 and Milky Way GC systems, our revised analysis points to remarkable similarities in their chemodynamical properties, which could help elucidate the different formation stages of galaxies and their GCs. In particular, the M31 results motivate further exploration of a metal-rich GC formation mode in situ, within high-redshift, clumpy galactic disks.
To produce an homogeneous catalog of astrophysical parameters of 239 resolved star clusters located in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, observed in the Washington photometric system. The cluster sample was processed with the recently introduced Automated Stellar Cluster Analysis (ASteCA) package, which ensures both an automatized and a fully reproducible treatment, together with a statistically based analysis of their fundamental parameters and associated uncertainties. The fundamental parameters determined with this tool for each cluster, via a color-magnitude diagram (CMD) analysis, are: metallicity, age, reddening, distance modulus, and total mass. We generated an homogeneous catalog of structural and fundamental parameters for the studied cluster sample, and performed a detailed internal error analysis along with a thorough comparison with values taken from twenty-six published articles. We studied the distribution of cluster fundamental parameters in both Clouds, and obtained their age-metallicity relationships. The ASteCA package can be applied to an unsupervised determination of fundamental cluster parameters; a task of increasing relevance as more data becomes available through upcoming surveys.
We present a database of structural and dynamical properties for 153 spatially resolved star clusters in the Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and the Fornax dwarf spheroidal. This database complements and extends others in the literature, such as those of Harris (Cat. <VII/202>) and Mackey & Gilmore (2003MNRAS.338...85M, 2003MNRAS.338..120M, 2003MNRAS.340..175M). Our cluster sample comprises 50 "young massive clusters" in the LMC and SMC, and 103 old globular clusters between the four galaxies. The parameters we list include central and half-light-averaged surface brightnesses and mass densities; core and effective radii; central potentials, concentration parameters, and tidal radii; predicted central velocity dispersions and escape velocities; total luminosities, masses, and binding energies; central phase-space densities; half-mass relaxation times; and "{kappa}-space" parameters.
We present a comprehensive analysis of the spatial, kinematic and chemical properties of stars and globular clusters (GCs) in the 'ordinary' elliptical galaxy NGC 4494 using data from the Keck and Subaru telescopes. We derive galaxy surface brightness and colour profiles out to large galactocentric radii. We compare the latter to metallicities derived using the near-infrared Calcium Triplet. We obtain stellar kinematics out to ~3.5 effective radii.
We study the dense core of the globular cluster Messier 13 (NGC 6205) using pre-refurbishment Planetary Camera-I images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. Short exposures (60s) through the F555W and F785LP filters (similar to Johnson V and I, respectively) have been used to obtain V and I photometry of 2877 stars brighter than V~20 in a 1.25arcmin^2^ region of the cluster including its core and extending out to r~66arcsec (2.3pc) from its center. The sample is complete to V~=18.3 (the main sequence turnoff) and the 1{sigma} photometric error is about 0.1mag. We find 15 blue straggler star candidates and 10 other possible blue stragglers in this region of M13. Their specific frequency is in the range F_(BSS)=0.04-0.07, comparable to what is observed near the centers of other dense clusters. A comparison between M13's observed V band stellar luminosity function and a theoretical model (Bergbusch & Vandenberg, 1992ApJS...81..163B) for the luminosity function of an old, metal-poor cluster shows that the model predicts too few of the brightest red giants (V~12.5-15) by a factor of two relative to subgiants/turnoff stars (>6{sigma} effect). The radial distributions of red giants, blue stragglers, and subgiants are consistent with one another, and are well fit by a King profile of core radius r_(core)_=38+/-6arcsec (90% confidence limits) or 1.3pc. Stars in the blue horizontal branch of M13, however, appear to be centrally depleted relative to other stellar types. We combine data from three dense ``King model clusters,'' M13, M3, and 47 Tuc, and two post core collapse clusters, M30 and M15, and compare the distributions of various stellar types as a function of (r/r_(half light)_) and (r/r_(core)_). The horizontal branch stars in the combined sample appear to be centrally depleted relative to the giants (97% significance), this depletion is only a 1-2{sigma} effect in each of the clusters taken individually. The blue stragglers in the combined sample are centrally concentrated relative to the giants. (Copyright) 1997 American Astronomical Society.
We have used HST imaging of the central regions of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae (=NGC 104), taken with the WFPC2 and ACS instruments between 1995 and 2002, to derive proper motions and U- and V-band magnitudes for 14366 stars within 100 (about 5 core radii) of the cluster center. This represents the largest set of member velocities collected for any globular cluster. The stars involved range in brightness from just fainter than the horizontal branch of the cluster to more than 2.5mag below the main-sequence turnoff. In the course of obtaining these kinematic data, we also use a recent set of ACS images to define a list of astrometrically calibrated positions (and F475W magnitudes) for nearly 130000 stars in a larger, 3x3 central area. We describe our data reduction procedures in some detail and provide the full position, photometric, and velocity data.
The high stellar densities in the cores of globular clusters cause significant stellar interactions. These stellar interactions can produce close binary mass-transferring systems involving compact objects and their progeny, such as X-ray binaries and radio millisecond pulsars. Comparing the numbers of these systems and interaction rates in different clusters drives our understanding of how cluster parameters affect the production of close binaries. In this paper we estimate stellar encounter rates ({Gamma}) for 124 Galactic globular clusters based on observational data as opposed to the methods previously employed, which assumed "King-model" profiles for all clusters. By deprojecting cluster surface brightness profiles to estimate luminosity density profiles, we treat "King-model" and "core-collapsed" clusters in the same way. In addition, we use Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the effects of uncertainties in various observational parameters (distance, reddening, surface brightness) on {Gamma}, producing the first catalog of globular cluster stellar encounter rates with estimated errors. Comparing our results with published observations of likely products of stellar interactions (numbers of X-ray binaries, numbers of radio millisecond pulsars, and {gamma}-ray luminosity) we find both clear correlations and some differences with published results.
We present a new method to estimate the fraction of stars with chemical composition of first and second(s) generation(s) currently hosted in Galactic globular clusters (GCs). We compare cluster and field stars of similar metallicity in the [Fe/H]-[Na/H] plane. Since the phenomenon of multiple populations is only restricted to the cluster environment, the number of GC stars whose location coincides with that of field stars provides the fraction of first generation stars in that cluster. By exclusion, the fraction of second generation stars is derived. We assembled a dataset of 1891 field stars of the thin disk, thick disk, and halo of the Milky Way in the metallicity range -3.15<=[Fe/H]<=+0.48dex and with Na abundance from high resolution spectra. They are mostly dwarfs, but include also giants. Considering only the range in metallicity spanned by most GCs extensively studied for the Na-O anticorrelation (-2.36<=[Fe/H]<=-0.33dex), we have 804 stars. The total sample is homogeneized by offsets in [Fe/H] and [Na/H] with respect to a reference sample using the same line list and NLTE correction for Na adopted in a recent extensive survey of GC stars. This fully accounts for offsets among analyses due to different temperature scales, line lists, adopted (or neglected) corrections for departures from LTE. We illustrate our method estimating the fraction of first and second generation stars in the well studied GC NGC 6752. As a by-product, the comparison of [Na/H] values in GC and field stars suggests that at least two classes of old stellar systems probably contributed to the halo assembly: one group with characteristics similar to the currently existing GCs, and the other more similar to the present-day dwarf satellite galaxies.
The prediction of the PLANCK-constrained primordial lithium abundance in the Universe is in discordance with the observed Li abundances in warm Population II dwarf and subgiant stars. Among the physically best motivated ideas, it has been suggested that this discrepancy can be alleviated if the stars observed today had undergone photospheric depletion of lithium. The cause of this depletion is investigated by accurately tracing the behaviour of the lithium abundances as a function of effective temperature. Globular clusters are ideal laboratories for such an abundance analysis as the relative stellar parameters of their stars can be precisely determined. We performed a homogeneous chemical abundance analysis of 144 stars in the metal-poor globular cluster M30, ranging from the cluster turnoff point to the tip of the red giant branch. Non-local thermal equilibrium (NLTE) abundances for Li, Ca, and Fe were derived where possible by fitting spectra obtained with VLT/FLAMES-GIRAFFE using the quantitative-spectroscopy package SME. Stellar parameters were derived by matching isochrones to the observed V vs V-I colour-magnitude diagram. Independent effective temperatures were obtained from automated profile fitting of the Balmer lines and by applying colour-Teff calibrations to the broadband photometry.
