- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/649/A93
- Title:
- Stellar populations of NGC 3311
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/649/A93
- Date:
- 22 Feb 2022
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Massive early-type galaxies are believed to be the end result of an extended mass accretion history. The stars formed in situ, very early during the initial phase of the assembly, might have originated from an extremely intense and rapid burst of star formation. These stars may still be found within the cores of such galaxies at z=0, depending on their accretion and merger histories. We wish to investigate the presence of a surviving high-z compact progenitor component in the brightest galaxy of the Hydra~I cluster, NGC~3311, by mapping its 2D kinematics and stellar population out to 2 effective radii. Our goal is to understand the formation of its several structural components and trace their mass assembly back in time. We combine MUSE observations, a customized and extended version of the state-of-the-art EMILES single stellar population models, and a newly developed parametric fully Bayesian framework to model the observed spectra using full-spectrum fitting. We present 2D maps, as well as radial profiles, of the stellar velocity dispersion, age, total metallicity, {alpha}-element, sodium abundance ([Na/Fe]), and the initial mass function slope. All properties have significant gradients, confirming the existence of multiple structural components, also including a "blue spot" characterized by younger and metal-richer stars. We find that the component dominating the light budget of NGC 3311 within R<2.0kpc, is the surviving z=0 analogue of a high-z compact core, according to the definition of Pulsoni et al. (2021). This concentrated structure has a relatively small velocity dispersion (sigma~180km/s), is very old (ages~11Gyr), metal-rich ([Z/H]~0.2 and [Na/Fe]~0.4), and has a bottom-heavy IMF (with slope Gamma_b_~2.4). In the outer region, instead, the line-of-sight velocity distribution becomes increasingly broader, and the stars have younger age. They are also metal and sodium poorer but {alpha}-element richer. The low-mass end of the IMF slope becomes Chabrier-like with increasing galactocentric distances. The existence of multiple structural components in NGC 3311 from photometry, kinematics, and stellar populations confirms the predictions from the two-phase formation scenario for NGC 3311, according to which a first very short, high-z star formation episode formed a compact stellar structure in its core, which then grew in size by the extended mass assembly of relatively massive satellites. Interestingly, the outer stellar population has an overabundant [alpha/Fe], most likely because NGC 3311, located at the center of the galaxy cluster, accreted stars from rapidly quenched satellites.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/589/A139
- Title:
- Stellar populations of NGC 3311
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/589/A139
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The history of the mass assembly of brightest cluster galaxies may be studied by mapping the stellar populations at large radial distances from the galaxy centre, where the dynamical times are long and preserve the chemodynamical signatures of the accretion events. To provide extended and robust measurements of the stellar population parameters in NGC 3311, the cD galaxy at the centre of the Hydra I cluster, and out to three effective radius. We wish to characterise the processes that drove the build up of the stellar light at all these radii. We obtained the spectra from several regions in NGC 3311 covering an area of ~3arcmin^2^ in the wavelength range 4800<lambda({AA})<5800, using the FORS2 spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope in the MXU mode. We measured the equivalent width of seven absorption-features defined in the Lick/IDS system, which were modelled by single stellar populations, to provide luminosity-weighted ages, metallicities, and alpha element abundances. The trends in the Lick indices and the distribution of the stellar population parameters indicate that the stars of NGC3311 may be divided in two radial regimes, one within and the another beyond one effective radius, R_e_=8.4kpc, similar to the distinction between the inner galaxy and the external halo derived from the NGC3311 velocity dispersion profile. The inner galaxy (R<R_e_) is old (age ~14Gyr), has negative metallicity gradients and positive alpha element gradients. The external halo is also very old, but has a negative age gradient. The metal and element abundances of the external halo both have a large scatter, indicating that stars from a variety of satellites with different masses have been accreted. The region in the extended halo associated with the off-centred envelope at 0<P.A.({deg})<90 (Arnaboldi et al., 2012A&A...545A..37A) has higher metallicity with respect to the symmetric external halo. The different stellar populations in the inner galaxy and extended halo reflect the dominance of in situ stars in the former and the accreted origin for the large majority of the stars in the latter. The low value of the velocity dispersion in the inner galaxy indicates that its stars are bound to the galaxy's gravitational potential, and the abundances and gradients suggest that the inner galaxy is formed in an outside-in scenario of merging gas-rich lumps, reminiscent of the first phase of galaxy formation. The external halo has a higher velocity dispersion, it is dynamically hotter than the galaxy and its stars are gravitationally driven by the cluster's gravitational potential. The stars in the external halo were removed from their parent galaxies, either disks with truncated star formation, or the outer regions of early-type galaxies. Late mass accretion at large radii is now coming from the tidal stripping of stars from dwarfs and S0 galaxies. These results provide supporting evidence for the recent theoretical models of formation of massive ellipticals as a two-phase process.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/631/A156
- Title:
- Stellar populations of quiescent galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/631/A156
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Our aim is to determine the distribution of stellar population parameters (extinction, age, metallicity, and star formation rates) of quiescent galaxies within the rest-frame stellar mass-colour diagrams and UVJ colour-colour diagrams corrected for extinction up to z~1. These novel diagrams reduce the contamination in samples of quiescent galaxies owing to dust-reddened galaxies, and they provide useful constraints on stellar population parameters only using rest-frame colours and stellar mass. We set constraints on the stellar population parameters of quiescent galaxies combining the ALHAMBRA multi-filter photo-spectra with our fitting code for spectral energy distribution, MUlti-Filter FITting (MUFFIT), making use of composite stellar population models based on two independent sets of simple stellar population (SSP) models. The extinction obtained by MUFFIT allowed us to remove dusty star-forming (DSF) galaxies from the sample of red UVJ galaxies. The distributions of stellar population parameters across these rest-frame diagrams are revealed after the dust correction and are fitted by LOESS, a bi-dimensional and locally weighted regression method, to reduce uncertainty effects. Quiescent galaxy samples defined via classical UVJ diagrams are typically contaminated by a 20% fraction of DSF galaxies. A significant part of the galaxies in the green valley are actually obscured star-forming galaxies (30-65%). Consequently, the transition of galaxies from the blue cloud to the red sequence, and hence the related mechanisms for quenching, seems to be much more efficient and faster than previously reported. The rest-frame stellar mass-colour and UVJ colour-colour diagrams are useful for constraining the age, metallicity, extinction, and star formation rate of quiescent galaxies by only their redshift, rest-frame colours, and/or stellar mass. Dust correction plays an important role in understanding how quiescent galaxies are distributed in these diagrams and is key to performing a pure selection of quiescent galaxies via intrinsic colours.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/618/A156
- Title:
- Stellar populations of the central region of M31
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/618/A156
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We continue the analysis of the data set of our spectroscopic observation campaign of M31, whose ultimate goal is to provide an understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the bulge, its formation history, and composition in terms of a classical bulge, boxy-peanut bulge, and bar contributions. We derive simple stellar population (SSP) properties, such as age metallicity and alpha-element overabundance, from the measurement of Lick/IDS absorption line indices. We describe their two-dimensional maps taking into account the dust distribution in M31. We found 80% of the values of our age measurements are larger than 10Gyr. The central 100-arcsec of M31 are dominated by the stars of the classical bulge of M31. These stars are old (11-13Gyr), metal-rich (as high as [Z/H]~0.35dex) at the center with a negative gradient outward and enhanced in alpha-elements ([alpha/Fe]~0.28+/-0.01dex). The bar stands out in the metallicity map, where an almost solar value of [Z/H] (~0.02+/-0.01dex) with no gradient is observed along the bar position angle (55.7{deg}) out to 600 arcsec from the center. In contrast, no signature of the bar is seen in the age and [alpha/Fe] maps, which are approximately axisymmetric, delivering a mean age and overabundance for the bar and boxy-peanut bulge of 10-13Gyr and 0.25-0.27dex, respectively. The boxy-peanut bulge has almost solar metallicity (-0.04+/-0.01dex). The mass-to-light ratio of the three components is approximately constant at M/LV~4.4-4.7M_{sun}_/L_{sun}_. The disk component at larger distances is made of a mixture of stars, as young as 3-4Gyr, with solar metallicity and smaller M/LV (~3+/-0.1M_{sun}_/L_{sun}_). We propose a two-phase formation scenario for the inner region of M31, where most of the stars of the classical bulge come into place together with a proto-disk, where a bar develops and quickly transforms it into a boxy-peanut bulge. Star formation continues in the bulge region, producing stars younger than 10Gyr, in particular along the bar, thereby enhancing its metallicity. The disk component appears to build up on longer timescales.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/608/A148
- Title:
- Stellar populations towards Orion with Gaia DR1
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/608/A148
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In this work we use the first data release of the Gaia mission to explore the three-dimensional arrangement and age ordering of the many stellar groups toward the Orion OB association, aiming at a new classification and characterization of the stellar population not embedded in the Orion A and B molecular clouds. We make use of the parallaxes and proper motions provided in the Tycho Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) subset of the Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) catalog and of the combination of Gaia DR1 and 2MASS photometry. In TGAS, we find evidence for the presence of a young population at a parallax {varpi}~2.65mas, which is loosely distributed around the following known clusters: 25 Ori, {epsilon} Ori, and {sigma} Ori, and NGC 1980 ({iota} Ori) and the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). The low mass counterpart of this population is visible in the color magnitude diagrams constructed by combining Gaia DR1 G-band photometry and 2MASS. We study the density distribution of the young sources in the sky using a kernel density estimation (KDE). We find the same groups as in TGAS and also some other density enhancements that might be related to the recently discovered Orion X group, Orion dust ring, and {lambda} Ori complex. The maps also suggest that the 25 Ori group presents a northern elongation.We estimated the ages of this population using a Bayesian isochronal fitting procedure assuming a unique parallax value for all the sources, and we inferred the presence of an age gradient going from 25 Ori (13-15Myr) to the ONC (1-2Myr). We confirmed this age ordering by repeating the Bayesian fit using the Pan-STARRS1 data. Intriguingly, the estimated ages toward the NGC 1980 cluster span a broad range of values. This can either be due to the presence of two populations coming from two different episodes of star formation or to a large spread along the line of sight of the same population. Some confusion might arise from the presence of unresolved binaries, which are not modeled in the fit, and usually mimic a younger population. Finally, we provisionally relate the stellar groups to the gas and dust features in Orion. Our results form the first step toward using Gaia data to unravel the complex star formation history of the Orion region in terms of the various star formation episodes, their duration, and their effects on the surrounding interstellar medium.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/234/35
- Title:
- Stellar population synthesis of clumps
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/234/35
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have identified 1027 star-forming complexes in a sample of 46 galaxies from the Spirals, Bridges, and Tails (SB&T) sample of interacting galaxies, and 693 star-forming complexes in a sample of 38 non-interacting spiral (NIS) galaxies in 8{mu}m observations from the Spitzer Infrared Array Camera. We have used archival multi-wavelength UV-to IR observations to fit the observed spectral energy distribution of our clumps with the Code Investigating GALaxy Emission using a double exponentially declined star formation history. We derive the star formation rates (SFRs), stellar masses, ages and fractions of the most recent burst, dust attenuation, and fractional emission due to an active galactic nucleus for these clumps. The resolved star formation main sequence holds on 2.5kpc scales, although it does not hold on 1kpc scales. We analyzed the relation between SFR, stellar mass, and age of the recent burst in the SB&T and NIS samples, and we found that the SFR per stellar mass is higher in the SB&T galaxies, and the clumps are younger in the galaxy pairs. We analyzed the SFR radial profile and found that the SFR is enhanced through the disk and in the tidal features relative to normal spirals.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/412/423
- Title:
- Stellar population trends in S0 galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/412/423
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present stellar population age and metallicity trends for a sample of 59 S0 galaxies based on optical Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and near-infrared (NIR) J and H photometry. When combined with optical g and r passband imaging data from the SDSS archive and stellar population models, we obtain radial age and metallicity trends out to at least five effective radii for most of the galaxies in our sample. The sample covers a range in stellar mass and light concentration.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/157/109
- Title:
- Stellar proper motions in the Orion Nebula Cluster
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/157/109
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) is the nearest site of ongoing massive star formation, which allows us to study the kinematics and dynamics of the region in detail and constrain star formation theories. Using HST ACS/WFPC2/WFC3IR and Keck II NIRC2 data, we have measured the proper motions of 701 stars within an ~6'x6' field of view around the center of the ONC. We have found more than 10 escaping star candidates, concentrated predominantly at the core of the cluster. The proper motions of the bound stars are consistent with a normal distribution, albeit elongated north-south along the Orion filament, with proper-motion dispersions of ({sigma}_{mu},{alpha}_*, {sigma}_{mu},{delta}_)=(0.83+/-0.02, 1.12+/-0.03) mas/yr or intrinsic velocity dispersions of ({sigma}_v,{alpha}_*, {sigma}_v,{delta}_)=(1.57+/-0.04, 2.12+/-0.06) km/s assuming a distance of 400 pc to the ONC. The cluster shows no evidence for tangential-to-radial anisotropy. Our velocity dispersion profile agrees with the prediction from the observed stellar + gas density profile from Da Rio et al. (2014ApJ...795...55D, 2017ApJ...845..105D), indicating that the ONC is in virial equilibrium. This finding suggests that the cluster was formed with a low star formation efficiency per dynamical timescale based on comparisons with current star formation theories. Our survey also recovered high-velocity IR sources BN, x and n in the BN/KL region. The estimated location of the first two sources ~500 yr ago agrees with that of the radio source I, consistent with their proposed common origin from a multistellar disintegration. However, source n appears to have a small proper motion and is unlikely to have been involved in the event.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/156/217
- Title:
- Stellar properties for M dwarfs in MEarth-South
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/156/217
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Stellar rotation periods are valuable both for constraining models of angular momentum loss and for understanding how magnetic features impact inferences of exoplanet parameters. Building on our previous work in the northern hemisphere, we have used long-term, ground-based photometric monitoring from the MEarth Observatory to measure 234 rotation periods for nearby, southern hemisphere M dwarfs. Notable examples include the exoplanet hosts GJ 1132, LHS 1140, and Proxima Centauri. We find excellent agreement between our data and K2 photometry for the overlapping subset. Among the sample of stars with the highest quality data sets, we recover periods in 66%; as the length of the data set increases, our recovery rate approaches 100%. The longest rotation periods we detect are around 140 days, which we suggest represent the periods that are reached when M dwarfs are as old as the local thick disk (about 9 Gyr).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/475/5487
- Title:
- Stellar properties of KIC stars
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/475/5487
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Investigations of the origin and evolution of the Milky Way disc have long relied on chemical and kinematic identifications of its components to reconstruct our Galactic past. Difficulties in determining precise stellar ages have restricted most studies to small samples, normally confined to the solar neighbourhood. Here, we break this impasse with the help of asteroseismic inference and perform a chronology of the evolution of the disc throughout the age of the Galaxy. We chemically dissect the Milky Way disc population using a sample of red giant stars spanning out to 2 kpc in the solar annulus observed by the Kepler satellite, with the added dimension of asteroseismic ages. Our results reveal a clear difference in age between the low- and high-{alpha} populations, which also show distinct velocity dispersions in the V and W components. We find no tight correlation between age and metallicity nor [{alpha}/Fe] for the high-{alpha} disc stars. Our results indicate that this component formed over a period of more than 2 Gyr with a wide range of [M/H] and [{alpha}/Fe] independent of time. Our findings show that the kinematic properties of young {alpha}-rich stars are consistent with the rest of the high-{alpha} population and different from the low-{alpha} stars of similar age, rendering support to their origin being old stars that went through a mass transfer or stellar merger event, making them appear younger, instead of migration of truly young stars formed close to the Galactic bar.