We demonstrate a novel technique for calibrating the energy scale of the EPIC-pn detector on XMM-Newton, which allows us to measure bulk flows in the intracluster medium (ICM) of the Perseus and Coma galaxy clusters. The procedure uses the fluorescent instrumental background lines present in all observations, in particular, Cu-Kalpha. By studying their spatial and temporal variations, in addition to incorporating calibration observations, we refined the absolute energy scale of the detector to better than 150km/s at the Fe-K line, a large improvement over the nominal calibration accuracy of 550km/s. With our calibration, we mapped the bulk motions over much of the central 1200 and 800kpc of Perseus and Coma, respectively, in spatial regions down to 65 and 140kpc size. We cross-checked our procedure by comparing our measurements with those found in Perseus by Hitomi for an overlapping 65 kpc square region, finding consistent results. For Perseus, there is a relative line-of-sight velocity increase of 480+/-210km/s (1sigma) at a radius of 250kpc east of the nucleus. This region is associated with a cold front, providing direct evidence of the ICM sloshing in the cluster potential well. Assuming the intrinsic distribution of bulk motions is Gaussian, its width is 214+/-85km/s, excluding systematic uncertainties. Removing the sloshing region, this is reduced to 20-150km/s, which is similar in magnitude to the Hitomi line width measurements in undisturbed regions. In Coma, the line-of-sight velocity of the ICM varies between the velocities of the two central galaxies. Maps of the gas velocity and metallicity provide clues about the merger history of the Coma, with material to the north and east of the cluster core having a velocity similar to NGC 4874, while that to the south and west has velocities close to NGC 4889. Our results highlight the difference between a merging system, such as Coma, where we observe a ~1000 km/s range in velocity, and a relatively relaxed system, such as Perseus, with much weaker bulk motions.
The universality of the Cepheid period-luminosity (PL) relations has been under discussion since metallicity effects were assumed to play a role in the value of the intercept and, more recently, of the slope of these relations. The goal of the present study is to calibrate the Galactic PL relations in various photometric bands (from B to K) and to compare the results to the well-established PL relations in the LMC. We use a set of 59 calibrating stars, the distances of which are measured using five different distance indicators: Hubble Space Telescope and revised Hipparcos parallaxes, infrared surface brightness and interferometric Baade-Wesselink parallaxes, and classical Zero-Age-Main-Sequence-fitting parallaxes for Cepheids belonging to open clusters or OB stars associations. A detailed discussion of absorption corrections and projection factor to be used is given.
On September 2016 the first data from Gaia were released (DR1). The first release included photometry for over 109 sources in the very broad G system. To test the correspondence between G magnitudes in DR1 and the synthetic equivalents derived using spectral energy distributions from observed and model spectrophotometry. To correct the G passband curve and to measure the zero point in the Vega system. Methods. I have computed the synthetic G and Tycho-2 BTVT photometry for a sample of stars using the Next Generation Spectral Library (NGSL) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) CALSPEC spectroscopic standards. I have found that the nominal G passband curve is too blue for the DR1 photometry, as shown by the presence of a color with an exponent of 0.783 eliminates the color term. The corrected passband has a Vega zero point of 0.070+/-0.004 magnitudes.
The AAO/UKST SuperCOSMOS H{alpha} Survey (SHS) was, when completed in 2003, a powerful addition to extant wide-field surveys. The combination of areal coverage, spatial resolution and sensitivity in a narrow imaging band, still marks it out today as an excellent resource for the astronomical community. The 233 separate fields are available online in digital form, with each field covering 25deg^2^. The SHS has been the motivation for equivalent surveys in the north, and new digital H{alpha} surveys now beginning in the south such as VPHAS+. It has been the foundation of many important discovery projects with the Macquarie/AAO/Strasbourg H{alpha} planetary nebula project being a particularly successful example. However, the full potential of the SHS has been hampered by lack of a clear route to acceptable flux calibration from the base photographic data. We have determined the calibration factors for 170 individual SHS fields, and present a direct pathway to the measurement of integrated H{alpha} fluxes and surface brightnesses for resolved nebulae detected in the SHS. We also include a catalogue of integrated H{alpha} fluxes for >100 planetary and other nebulae measured from the SHS, and use these data to show that fluxes, accurate to +/-0.10-0.14dex (~25-35%), can be obtained from these fields. For the remaining 63 fields, a mean calibration factor of 12.0 counts/pixel/R can be used, allowing the determination of reasonable integrated fluxes accurate to better than +/-0.2dex (~50%). We outline the procedures involved and the caveats that need to be appreciated in achieving such flux measurements. This paper forms a handy reference source that will significantly increase the scientific utility of the SHS.
A magnitude limited population of 18808 Hipparcos stars is used to calibrate distances for 52794 RAVE stars, including dwarfs, giants, and pre-main sequence stars. I give treatments for a number of types of bias affecting calculation, including bias from the non-linear relationship between the quantity of interest (e.g., distance or distance modulus) and the measured quantity (parallax or visual magnitude), the Lutz-Kelker bias, and bias due to variation in density of the stellar population. The use of a magnitude bound minimises the Malmquist and the Lutz-Kelker bias, and avoids a measurement bias because Hipparcos parallaxes are more accurate for brighter stars. The calibration is applicable to stars in 2MASS when there is some way to determine stellar class with reasonable confidence. For RAVE this is possible for hot dwarfs and using log g. The accuracy of the calibration is tested against Hipparcos stars with better than 2% parallax errors, and by comparison of the RAVE velocity distribution with that of Hipparcos, and is found to improve upon previous estimates of luminosity distance. An estimate of the LSR from RAVE data, (U0, V0, W0) = (14.9-1.7, 15.3-0.4, 6.9-0.1)km/s shows excellent agreement with the current best estimate from XHIP. The RAVE velocity distribution confirms the alignment of stellar motions with spiral structure.
We present a method for distance calibration without using standard fitting procedures. Instead, we use random resampling to reconstruct the probability density function (PDF) of calibration data points in the fitting plane. The resulting PDF is then used to estimate distance-related properties. The method is applied to samples of radio surface brightness to diameter ({Sigma}-D}) data for the Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) and planetary nebulae (PNe), and period-luminosity (PL) data for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) fundamental mode classical Cepheids. We argue that resulting density maps can provide more accurate and more reliable calibrations than those obtained by standard linear fitting procedures. For the selected sample of the Galactic SNRs, the presented PDF method of distance calibration results in a smaller average distance fractional error of up to ~16 percentage points. Similarly, the fractional error is smaller for up to ~8 and ~0.5 percentage points, for the samples of Galactic PNe and LMC Cepheids, respectively. In addition, we provide a PDF-based calibration data for each of the samples.
The results of calibration of the surface brightness, bolometric flux and effective temperature scales are presented for 537 dwarfs and giants selected as standards for the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). Individual temperatures with small model-dependent corrections are derived at the target accuracy of 1%. The comparison with semiempirical values achieved by the Infrared Flux Method (IRFM) shows consistent results within the 1% level for F, G and K stars, but not for A-type stars.
Calibration of Stromgren phot. for late-type stars
Short Name:
J/A+A/498/527
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
The use of model atmospheres for deriving stellar fundamental parameters, such as Teff, log(g), and [Fe/H], will increase as we find and explore extreme stellar populations where empirical calibrations are not yet available. Moreover, calibrations for upcoming large satellite missions of new spectrophotometric indices, similar to the uvby-Hbeta system, will be needed. We aim to test the power of theoretical calibrations based on a new generation of MARCS models by comparisons with observational photometric data. We calculated synthetic uvby-Hbeta colour indices from synthetic spectra. A sample of 367 field stars, as well as stars in globular clusters, is used for a direct comparison of the synthetic indices versus empirical data and for scrutizing the possibilities of theoretical calibrations for temperature, metallicity, and gravity. We show that the temperature sensitivity of the synthetic (b-y) colour is very close to its empirical counterpart, whereas the temperature scale based upon Hbeta shows a slight offset. The theoretical metallicity sensitivity of the m1 index (and for G-type stars its combination with c1) is somewhat higher than the empirical one, based upon spectroscopic determinations. The gravity sensitivity of the synthetic c1 index shows satisfactory behaviour when compared to observations of F stars. For stars cooler than the sun, a deviation is significant in the c1-(b-y) diagram. The theoretical calibrations of (b-y), (v-y), and c1 seem to work well for Pop II stars and lead to effective temperatures for globular cluster stars supporting recent claims that atomic diffusion occurs in stars near the turnoff point of NGC 6397. Synthetic colours of stellar atmospheres can indeed be used, in many cases, to derive reliable fundamental stellar parameters. The deviations seen when compared to observational data could be due to incomplete linelists but are possibly also due to the effects of assuming plane-parallel or spherical geometry and LTE.
We present a new calibration of optical (UBV, Stroemgren uvby{beta}, and Geneva) and near-IR (Johnson RIJHK and Two Micron All Sky Survey) photometry for B and early A stars derived from Kurucz ATLAS9 model atmospheres. These models are then used to calibrate the synthetic photometry.
Distance measures on a coherent scale around the sky are required to address the outstanding cosmological problems of the Hubble constant and of departures from the mean cosmic flow. The correlation between galaxy luminosities and rotation rates can be used to determine the distances to many thousands of galaxies in a wide range of environments potentially out to 200Mpc. Mid-infrared (3.6{mu}m) photometry with the Spitzer Space Telescope is particularly valuable as a source of luminosities because it provides products of uniform quality across the sky. From a perch above the atmosphere, essentially the total magnitude of targets can be registered in exposures of a few minutes. Extinction is minimal and the flux is dominated by the light from old stars, which is expected to correlate with the mass of the targets. In spite of the superior photometry, the correlation between mid-infrared luminosities and rotation rates extracted from neutral hydrogen profiles is slightly degraded from the correlation found with I-band luminosities. A color correction recovers a correlation that provides comparable accuracy to that available at the I band (~20% 1{sigma} in an individual distance) while retaining the advantages identified above. Without color correction, the relation between linewidth and [3.6] magnitudes is M^b,i,k,a^_[3.6]_=-20.34-9.74(logW^i^_mx_-2.5). This description is found with a sample of 213 galaxies in 13 clusters that define the slope and 26 galaxies with Cepheid or tip of the red giant branch distances that define the zero point. A color-corrected parameter M_c[3.6]_ is constructed that has reduced scatter: M_c[3.6]_=-20.34-9.13(logW_mx_^i^-2.5). Consideration of the seven calibration clusters beyond 50Mpc, outside the domain of obvious peculiar velocities, provides a preliminary Hubble constant estimate of H_0_=74+/-4km/s.M/pc.
