A majority of massive stars are part of binary systems, a large fraction of which will inevitably interact during their lives. Binary-interaction products (BiPs), i.e. stars affected by such interaction, are expected to be commonly present in stellar populations. BiPs are thus a crucial ingredient in the understanding of stellar evolution. We aim to identify and characterize a statistically significant sample of BiPs by studying clusters of 10-40Myr, an age at which binary population models predict the abundance of BiPs to be highest. One example of such a cluster is NGC 330 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Using MUSE WFM-AO observations of NGC 330, we resolve the dense cluster core for the first time and are able to extract spectra of its entire massive star population. We develop an automated spectral classification scheme based on the equivalent widths of spectral lines in the red part of the spectrum. We characterize the massive star content of the core of NGC 330 which contains more than 200 B stars, 2 O stars, 6 A-type supergiants and 11 red supergiants. We find a lower limit on the Be star fraction of 32+/-3% in the whole sample. It increases to at least 46+/-10% when only considering stars brighter than V=17mag. We estimate an age of the cluster core between 35 and 40Myr and a total cluster mass of 88^+17^_-18_*10^3M_{sun}_. We find that the population in the cluster core is different than the population in the outskirts: while the stellar content in the core appears to be older than the stars in the outskirts, the Be star fraction and the observed binary fraction are significantly higher. Furthermore, we detect several BiP candidates that will be subject of future studies.
The coeval stars of young open clusters provide insights into the formation of the rotation-activity relationship that elude studies of multi-age field populations. We measure the chromospheric activity of cool stars in the 300 Myr old open cluster NGC 3532 in concert with their rotation periods to study the mass-dependent morphology of activity for this transitional coeval population. Using multi-object spectra of the Ca II infrared triplet region obtained with the AAOmega spectrograph at the 4m Anglo- Australian Telescope, we measure the chromospheric emission ratios R'_IRT_ for 454 FGKM cluster members of NGC3532. The morphology of activity against colour appears to be a near-mirror image of the cluster's rotational behaviour. In particular, we identify a group of 'desaturated transitional rotators' that branches off from the main group of unsaturated FGK slow rotators, and from which it is separated by an 'activity gap'. The few desaturated gap stars are identical to the ones in the rotational gap. Nevertheless, the rotation-activity diagram is completely normal. In fact, the relationship is so tight that it allows us to predict rotation periods for many additional stars. We then precisely determine these periods from our photometric light curves, allowing us to construct an enhanced colour-period diagram that represents 66% of the members in our sample. Our activity measurements show that all fast rotators of near-solar mass (F-G type) have evolved to become slow rotators, demonstrating that the absence of fast rotators in a colour-period diagram is not a detection issue but an astrophysical fact. We also identify a new population of low-activity stars among the early Mdwarfs, enabling us to populate the extended slow rotator sequence in the colour-period diagram. The joint analysis of chromospheric activity and photometric time series data thus enables comprehensive insights into the evolution of the rotation and activity of stars during the transitional phase between the Pleiades and Hyades ages.
High-dispersion spectra of 89 potential members of the old, super-metal-rich open cluster, NGC 6253, have been obtained with the HYDRA multi-object spectrograph. Based upon radial-velocity measurements alone, 47 stars at the turnoff of the cluster color-magnitude diagram (CMD) and 18 giants are identified as potential members.
We present the results of a spectroscopic monitoring campaign of nine presumably single Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, eight of type WC 9 and one WC 8d. We characterize their variability and search for clues to the mechanism responsible for the formation of dust in their wind. For seven out of eight WC 9s, we find a large-scale line-flux variability level of {sigma}>5-8 per cent. The only WC 8d star is variable at a level more comparable with those associated with wind clumping, {sigma}=2.2 per cent. The changes take place on a time-scale of days but in many cases, observing over longer time spans resulted in higher line-flux variability levels. The width of the substructures ranges from ~150 to 300km/s, with the widest structures corresponding to stars with the highest variability amplitude. We searched for periodicities in integrated line quantities for CIII {lambda}5696. Radial velocity changes are typically ~20km/s but never exceed 40km/s and are anticorrelated with the skewness of the line, strongly suggesting that they do not correspond to a real movement of the star. No periodicity was found in these integrated quantities, except for WR 103. Therefore, a wind-wind collision in a close binary does not seem to be responsible for the short-term variability. We cannot, however, exclude that these stars are intermediate- to long-period binaries. We estimate that for periods up to a few years, the shock-cone resulting from wind collisions would be non-adiabatic and thus unstable. We suggest that this represents a viable mechanism to explain the spectroscopic variability.
Paschen {beta} and/or Bracket {gamma} emission line profiles were obtained for a sample of 50 T Tauri stars mostly from the Taurus-Auriga complex. The tables presented here contain the computed line parameters of the observed line profiles.
We present new near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the outer edges of the young stellar cluster around the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. The observations show a break in the surface density profile of young stars at ~13" (0.52pc). These observations spectroscopically confirm previous suggestions of a break based on photometry. Using Gemini North's Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer, we are able to detect and separate early- and late-type stars with a 75% completeness at K_s_=15.5. We sample a region with radii between 7" and 23" (0.28-0.92pc) from Sgr A* and present new spectral classifications of 144 stars brighter than K_s_=15.5, where 140 stars are late-type (>1Gyr) and only four stars are early-type (young, 4-6Myr). A broken power-law fit of the early-type surface density matches well with our data and previously published values. The projected surface density of late-type stars is also measured and found to be consistent with previous results. We find that the observed early-type surface-density profile is inconsistent with the theory of young stars originating from a tightly bound infalling cluster, as no significant trail of young stars is found at radii above 13". We also note that either a simple disk instability criterion or a cloud-cloud collision could explain the location of the outer edge, though we lack information to make conclusive remarks on either alternative. If this break in surface density represents an edge to the young stellar cluster, it would set an important scale for the most recent episode of star formation at the Galactic center.
NIR spectroscopy of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars. II.
Short Name:
J/AJ/143/149
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We are continuing a J, K and narrowband imaging survey of 300{deg}^2^ of the plane of the Galaxy, searching for new Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars. Our survey spans 150{deg} in Galactic longitude and reaches 1{deg} above and below the Galactic plane. The survey has a useful limiting magnitude of K=15 over most of the observed Galactic plane, and K=14 (due to severe crowding) within a few degrees of the Galactic center. Thousands of emission-line candidates have been detected. In spectrographic follow-ups of 146 relatively bright W-R star candidates, we have re-examined 11 previously known WC and WN stars and discovered 71 new W-R stars, 17 of type WN and 54 of type WC. Our latest image analysis pipeline now picks out W-R stars with a 57% success rate. Star subtype assignments have been confirmed with the K-band spectra and distances approximated using the method of spectroscopic parallax. Some of the new W-R stars are among the most distant known in our Galaxy. The distribution of these new W-R stars is beginning to trace the locations of massive stars along the distant spiral arms of the Milky Way.
A new method of image subtraction is applied to images from a J, K, and narrow-band imaging survey of 300 deg2 of the plane of the Galaxy, searching for new Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. Our survey spans 150{deg} in Galactic longitude and reaches b=+/-1{deg} with respect to the Galactic plane. The survey has a useful limiting magnitude of K=15 over most of the observed Galactic plane, and K=14 (due to severe crowding) within a few degrees of the Galactic Centre. The new image subtraction method described here (better than aperture or even point-spread-function photometry in very crowded fields) detected several thousand emission-line candidates. In 2011 and 2012 June and July, we spectroscopically followed up on 333 candidates with MDM-TIFKAM and Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF)-SpeX, discovering 89 emission-line sources. These include 49 WR stars, 43 of them previously unidentified, including the most distant known Galactic WR stars, more than doubling the number on the far side of the Milky Way. We also demonstrate our survey's ability to detect very faint planetary nebulae and other NIR emission objects.
We report on near-infrared medium-resolution spectroscopy of a sample of luminous and ultra luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs-ULIRGs), carried out with SOFI at the ESO 3.5m New Technology Telescope.
Effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity are basic spectroscopic stellar parameters necessary to characterize a star or a planetary system. Reliable atmospheric parameters for FGK stars have been obtained mostly from methods that rely on high resolution and high signal-to-noise optical spectroscopy. The advent of a new generation of high resolution near-infrared (NIR) spectrographs opens the possibility of using classic spectroscopic methods with high resolution and high signal-to-noise in the NIR spectral window. We compile a new iron line list in the NIR from a solar spectrum to derive precise stellar atmospheric parameters, comparable to the ones already obtained from high resolution optical spectra. The spectral range covers 10000{AA} to 25000{AA}, which is equivalent to the Y,J,H, and K-bands. Our spectroscopic analysis is based on the iron excitation and ionization balance done in local thermodynamic equilibrium. We use a high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio spectrum of the Sun from the Kitt Peak telescope as a starting point to compile the iron line list. The oscillator strengths (loggf) of the iron lines were calibrated for the Sun. The abundance analysis was done using the MOOG code after measuring equivalent widths of 357 solar iron lines.
