- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/635/A187
- Title:
- Massive binaries in Westerlund 1. VII.
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/635/A187
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Context. The formation, properties, and evolution of massive stars remain subject to considerable theoretical and observational uncertainty. This impacts on fields as diverse as galactic feedback, the production of cosmic rays, and the nature of the progenitors of both electromagnetic and gravitational wave transients. Aims. The young massive clusters many such stars reside within provide a unique laboratory for addressing these issues. In this work we provide a comprehensive stellar census of Westerlund 1 in order to to underpin such efforts. Methods. We employed optical spectroscopy of a large sample of early-type stars to determine cluster membership for photometrically-identified candidates, characterise their spectral type, and identify new candidate spectroscopic binaries. Results. Sixty nine new members of Westerlund 1 are identified via I-band spectroscopy. Together with previous observations, they illustrate a smooth and continuous morphological sequence from late-O giant through to OB supergiant. Subsequently, the progression bifurcates, with one branch yielding mid-B to late-F hypergiants, and cool supergiants, and the other massive blue stragglers prior to a diverse population of H-depleted WRs. We identify a substantial population of O-type stars with very broad Paschen series lines, a morphology that is directly comparable to known binaries in the cluster. In a few cases additional low-resolution R-band spectroscopy is available, revealing double-lined He I profiles and confirming binarity for these objects; suggesting a correspondingly high binary fraction amongst relatively unevolved cluster members.Conclusions. Our current census remains incomplete, but indicates that Westerlund 1 contains at least 166 stars with initial masses estimated to lie between ~25M_{sun}_ and ~50M_{sun}_, with more massive stars already lost to supernova. Our data is consistent with the cluster being co-eval, although binary interaction is clearly required to yield the observed stellar population, which is characterised by a uniquely rich cohort of hypergiants ranging from spectral type O to F, with both mass-stripped primaries and rejuvenated secondaries or merger products present. Future observations of Wd1 and similar stellar aggregates hold out the prospect of characterising both single- and binary- evolutionary channels for massive stars and determining their relative contributions. This in turn will permit the physical properties of such objects at the point of core-collapse to be predicted, which is of direct relevance for understanding the formation of relativistic remnants such as the magnetars associated with Wd1 and other young massive clusters.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/763/101
- Title:
- Massive field OB stars in the SMC
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/763/101
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Some theories of star formation suggest massive stars may only form in clustered environments, which would create a deficit of massive stars in low-density environments. Observationally, Massey (2002, Cat. II/236) finds such a deficit in samples of the field population in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, with an initial mass function (IMF) slope of {Gamma}_IMF_~4. These IMF measurements represent some of the largest known deviations from the standard Salpeter IMF slope of {Gamma}_IMF_=1.35. Here, we carry out a comprehensive investigation of the mass function above 20M_{sun}_ for the entire field population of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), based on data from the Runaways and Isolated O Type Star Spectroscopic Survey of the SMC (RIOTS4). This is a spatially complete census of the entire field OB star population of the SMC obtained with the IMACS multi-object spectrograph and MIKE echelle spectrograph on the Magellan telescopes. Based on Monte Carlo simulations of the evolved present-day mass function, we find the slope of the field IMF above 20M_{sun}_ is {Gamma}_IMF_=2.3+/-0.4. We extend our IMF measurement to lower masses using BV photometry from the OGLE II survey. We use a statistical approach to generate a probability distribution for the mass of each star from the OGLE photometry, and we again find {Gamma}_IMF_=2.3+/-0.6 for stellar masses from 7M_{sun}_ to 20M_{sun}_. The discovery and removal of ten runaways in our RIOTS4 sample steepens the field IMF slope to {Gamma}_IMF_=2.8+/-0.5. We discuss the possible effects of binarity and star formation history on our results, and conclude that the steep field massive star IMF is most likely a real effect.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/247/17
- Title:
- Massive stars in APOGEE2 Survey. III.
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/247/17
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have applied the semi-empirical spectral analysis, developed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-IV/Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE2) Massive Star Team, to a large sample of new O- and B-type stars identified along the Sagittarius spiral arm, in the direction of the southern star clusters NGC3603 and NGC3576. We obtained H-band spectra for 265 point sources, using the APOGEE2-S spectrograph at the du Pont Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory. We analyzed the associated spectral features deriving spectral types, as well as the massive star distribution along the line of sight. From a total of 265 science targets, 95 are classified as mid- to late-O-type stars (for which only 10 O-type stars are previously known in the literature), 38 are found to be early- to mid-B-type stars, and 32 are classified as either yellow or blue supergiants, completing a total of 165 massive stars.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/873/66
- Title:
- Massive stars in SDSS/APOGEE-2. II. W3-W4-W5
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/873/66
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In this work, we have applied a semi-empirical spectral classification method for OB-stars using the APOGEE spectrograph to a sample of candidates in the W3-W4-W5 (W345) complexes. These massive star-forming regions span over 200pc across the Perseus arm and have a notorious population of massive stars, from which a large fraction are members of various embedded and young open clusters. From 288 APOGEE spectra showing H-band spectral features typical of O- and B-type sources, 46 probably correspond to previously unknown O-type stars. Therefore, we confirm that Br11-Br13 together with HeII {lambda}16923 (7-12) and HeII {lambda}15723 (7-13) lines contained in the APOGEE spectral bands are useful in providing spectral classification down to one spectral sub-class for massive stars in regions as distant as d~2kpc. The large number of newly found O-type stars as well as the numerous intermediate-mass population confirm that W345 is a very efficient massive star factory, with an integral stellar population probably amounting several thousand solar masses.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/855/68
- Title:
- Massive stars in the SDSS-IV/APOGEE SURVEY. I.
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/855/68
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In this work, we make use of DR14 APOGEE spectroscopic data to study a sample of 92 known OB stars. We developed a near-infrared semi-empirical spectral classification method that was successfully used in case of four new exemplars, previously classified as later B-type stars. Our results agree well with those determined independently from ECHELLE optical spectra, being in line with the spectral types derived from the "canonical" MK blue optical system. This confirms that the APOGEE spectrograph can also be used as a powerful tool in surveys aiming to unveil and study a large number of moderately and highly obscured OB stars still hidden in the Galaxy.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/893/11
- Title:
- Massive star variability in M31 from iPTF
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/893/11
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Using data from the (intermediate) Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF), we characterize the time variability of ~500 massive stars in M31. Our sample is those stars that are spectrally typed by Massey and collaborators, including Luminous Blue Variables, Wolf-Rayets, and warm and cool supergiants. We use the high-cadence, long-baseline (~5yr) data from the iPTF survey, coupled with data-processing tools that model complex features in the light curves. We find widespread photometric (R-band) variability in the upper Hertzsprung Russell diagram (or CMD) with an increasing prevalence of variability with later spectral types. Red stars (V-I>1.5) exhibit larger amplitude fluctuations than their bluer counterparts. We extract a characteristic variability timescale, t_ch_, via wavelet transformations that are sensitive to both continuous and localized fluctuations. Cool supergiants are characterized by longer timescales (>100 days) than the hotter stars. The latter have typical timescales of tens of days but cover a wider range, from our resolution limit of a few days to longer than 100 days. Using a 60 night block of data straddling two nights with a cadence of around 2 minutes, we extracted t_ch_ in the range 0.1-10 days with amplitudes of a few percent for 13 stars. Though there is broad agreement between the observed variability characteristics in the different parts of the upper CMD with theoretical predictions, detailed comparison requires models with a more comprehensive treatment of the various physical processes operating in these stars, such as pulsation, subsurface convection, and the effect of binary companions.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/800/17
- Title:
- Mass-transfer sequences in 16 Galactic LMXBs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/800/17
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Galactic field black hole (BH) low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) are believed to form in situ via the evolution of isolated binaries. In the standard formation channel, these systems survived a common envelope phase, after which the remaining helium core of the primary star and the subsequently formed BH are not expected to be highly spinning. However, the measured spins of BHs in LMXBs cover the whole range of spin parameters. We propose here that the BH spin in LMXBs is acquired through accretion onto the BH after its formation. In order to test this hypothesis, we calculated extensive grids of detailed binary mass-transfer sequences. For each sequence, we examined whether, at any point in time, the calculated binary properties are in agreement with their observationally inferred counterparts of 16 Galactic LMXBs. The "successful" sequences give estimates of the mass that the BH has accreted since the onset of Roche-Lobe overflow. We find that in all Galactic LMXBs with measured BH spin, the origin of the spin can be accounted for by the accreted matter, and we make predictions about the maximum BH spin in LMXBs where no measurement is yet available. Furthermore, we derive limits on the maximum spin that any BH can have depending on current properties of the binary it resides in. Finally we discuss the implication that our findings have on the BH birth-mass distribution, which is shifted by ~1.5M_{sun}_ toward lower masses, compared to the currently observed one.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/640/A40
- Title:
- 1002 mCP stars from LAMOST DR4
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/640/A40
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The present work is aimed at identifying new mCP stars using spectra collected by the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST). Suitable candidates were selected by searching LAMOST DR4 spectra for the presence of the characteristic 5200{AA} flux depression. Spectral classification was carried out with a modified version of the MKCLASS code and the accuracy of the classifications was estimated by comparison with results from manual classification and the literature. Using parallax data and photometry from Gaia DR2, we investigated the space distribution of our sample stars and their properties in the colour-magnitude diagram. Our final sample consists of 1002 mCP stars, most of which are new discoveries (only 59 common entries with the Catalogue of Ap, HgMn and Am stars). Traditional mCP star peculiarities have been identified in all but 36 stars, highlighting the efficiency of the code's peculiarity identification capabilities. The derived temperature and peculiarity types are in agreement with manually derived classifications and the literature. Our sample stars are between 100Myr and 1Gyr old, with the majority having masses between 2M_{sun}_ and 3M_{sun}_. Our results could be considered as strong evidence for an inhomogeneous age distribution among low-mass (M<3M_{sun}_) mCP stars; however, we caution that our sample has not been selected on the basis of an unbiased, direct detection of a magnetic field. We identified several astrophysically interesting objects: the mCP stars LAMOST J122746.05+113635.3 and LAMOST J150331.87+093125.4 have distances and kinematical properties in agreement with halo stars; LAMOST J034306.74+495240.7 is an eclipsing binary system (Porb=5.1435+/-0.0012d) hosting an mCP star component; and LAMOST J050146.85+383500.8 was found to be an SB2 system likely comprising of an mCP star and a supergiant component. With our work, we significantly increase the sample size of known Galactic mCP stars, paving the way for future in-depth statistical studies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/159/52
- Title:
- M dwarfs at high spectral-resolution in Y band
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/159/52
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In young Sun-like stars and field M-dwarf stars, chromospheric and coronal magnetic activity indicators such as H{alpha}, X-ray, and radio emission are known to saturate with low Rossby number (Ro<~0.1), defined as the ratio of rotation period to convective turnover time. The mechanism for the saturation is unclear. In this paper, we use photospheric TiI and CaI absorption lines in the Y band to investigate magnetic field strength in M dwarfs for Rossby numbers between 0.01 and 1.0. The equivalent widths of the lines are magnetically enhanced by photospheric spots, a global field, or a combination of the two. The equivalent widths behave qualitatively similar to the chromospheric and coronal indicators: we see increasing equivalent widths (increasing absorption) with decreasing Ro and saturation of the equivalent widths for Ro<~0.1. The majority of M dwarfs in this study are fully convective. The results add to mounting evidence that the magnetic saturation mechanism occurs at or beneath the stellar photosphere.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/649/A53
- Title:
- Mean galaxy spectra of the 86 classes
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/649/A53
- Date:
- 22 Feb 2022
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Defining templates of galaxy spectra is useful to quickly characterise new obervations and organise data bases from surveys. These templates are usually built from a pre-defined classification based on other criteria. We present an unsupervised classification of 702248 spectra of galaxies and quasars with redshifts smaller than 0.25 that were retrieved from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database, release 7. The spectra were first corrected for the redshift, then wavelet-filtered to reduce the noise, and finally binned to obtain about 1437 wavelengths per spectrum. Fisher-EM, an unsupervised clustering discriminative latent mixture model algorithm, was applied on these corrected spectra, considering the full set as well as several subsets of 100000 and 300000 spectra. The optimum number of classes given by a penalised likelihood criterion is 86 classes, the 37 most populated ones gathering 99% of the sample. These classes are established from a subset of 302214 spectra. Using several cross-validation techniques we find that this classification is in agreement with the results obtained on the other subsets with an average misclassification error of about 15\%. The large number of very small classes tends to increase this error rate. In this paper, we make a first quick comparison of our classes with the templates of Kennicutt (1992), Dobos et al (2012), Wang et al (2018). This is the first time that an automatic, objective and robust unsupervised classification is established on such a large amount of spectra of galaxies. The mean spectra of the classes can be used as templates for a large majority of galaxies in our Universe.
