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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/881/79
- Title:
- Flamingos-2 near-infrared photometry in NGC 2244
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/881/79
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- As part of the ongoing effort to characterize the low-mass (sub)stellar population in a sample of massive young clusters, we have targeted the ~2Myr old cluster NGC2244. The distance to NGC2244 from Gaia DR2 parallaxes is 1.59kpc, with errors of 1% (statistical) and 11% (systematic). We used the Flamingos-2 near-infrared camera at the Gemini-South telescope for deep multi- band imaging of the central portion of the cluster (~2.4pc^2^). We determined membership in a statistical manner, through a comparison of the cluster's color-magnitude diagram to that of a control field. Masses and extinctions of the candidate members are then calculated with the help of evolutionary models, leading to the first initial mass function (IMF) of the cluster extending into the substellar regime, with the 90% completeness limit around 0.02M{sun}. The IMF is well represented by a broken power law (dN/dM{prop}M-{alpha}) with a break at ~0.4M{sun}. The slope on the high- mass side (0.4-7M{sun}) is {alpha}=2.12{+/-}0.08, close to the standard Salpeter slope. In the low-mass range (0.02-0.4M{sun}), we find a slope {alpha}=1.03{+/-}0.02, which is at the high end of the typical values obtained in nearby star-forming regions ({alpha}=0.5-1.0), but still in agreement within the uncertainties. Our results reveal no clear evidence for variations in the formation efficiency of brown dwarfs (BDs) and very low-mass stars due to the presence of OB stars, or for a change in stellar densities. Our finding rules out photoevaporation and fragmentation of infalling filaments as substantial pathways for BD formation.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/814/35
- Title:
- Flare events in M dwarf of M37
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/814/35
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Based on one-month long MMT time-series observations of the open cluster M37, we monitored light variations of nearly 2500 red dwarfs and successfully identified 420 flare events from 312 cluster M dwarf stars. For each flare light curve, we derived observational and physical parameters, such as flare shape, peak amplitude, duration, energy, and peak luminosity. We show that cool stars produce serendipitous flares energetic enough to be observed in the r-band, and their temporal and peak characteristics are almost the same as those in traditional U-band observations. We also found many large-amplitude flares with inferred {Delta}u>6mag in the cluster sample which had been rarely reported in previous ground-based observations. Following the ergodic hypothesis, we investigate in detail statistical properties of flare parameters over a range of energy (E_r_~=10^31^-10^34^erg). As expected, there are no statistical differences in the distributions of flare timescales, energies, and frequencies among stars of the same age and mass group. We note that our sample tend to have longer rise and decay timescales compared to those seen in field flare stars of the same spectral type and be more energetic. Flare frequency distributions follow power-law distributions with slopes {beta}~0.62-1.21 for all flare stars and {beta}~0.52-0.97 for stars with membership information (P_mem_>=0.2). These are in general agreement with previous works on flare statistics of young open clusters and nearby field stars. Our results give further support to the classical age-activity relations.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/645/A42
- Title:
- Flares in 5 open clusters
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/645/A42
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Magnetic fields are a key component in the main sequence evolution of low mass stars. Flares, energetic eruptions on the surfaces of stars, are an unmistakable manifestation of magnetically driven emission. The occurrence rates and energy distributions of flares trace stellar characteristics such as mass and age. But before flares can be used to constrain stellar properties, the flaring-age-mass relation requires proper calibration. This work sets out to quantify flaring activity of independently age-dated main sequence stars for a broad range of spectral types using optical light curves obtained by the Kepler satellite. Drawing from the complete K2 archive, we searched 3435 80 day long light curves of 2111 open cluster members for flares using the open-source software packages K2SC to remove instrumental and astrophysical variability from K2 light curves, and AltaiPony to search and characterize the flare candidates. We confirmed a total of 3844 flares on high probability open cluster members with ages from zero age main sequence (Pleiades) to 3.6Gyr (M67). We extended the mass range probed in the first study of this series to span from Sun-like stars to mid-M dwarfs. We added the Hyades (690Myr) to the sample as a comparison cluster to Praesepe (750Myr), the 2.6Gyr old Ruprecht 147, and several hundred light curves from the late K2 Campaigns in the remaining clusters. We found that the flare energy distribution was similar in the entire parameter space, following a power law relation with an exponent between 1.84 and 2.39. We confirmed that flaring rates declined with age, and declined faster for higher mass stars. Our results are in good agreement with most previous statistical flare studies. We found evidence that a rapid decline in flaring activity occurred in M1-M2 dwarfs around Hyades/Praesepe age, when these stars spun down to rotation periods of about 10 d, while higher mass stars had already transitioned to lower flaring rates, and lower mass stars still resided in the saturated activity regime. We conclude that some discrepancies between our results and flare studies that used rotation periods for their age estimates could be explained by sample selection bias toward more active stars, but others may hint at limitations of using rotation as an age indicator without additional constraints from stellar activity.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/other/CoSka/51.78
- Title:
- Flare stars in nearby Galactic open clusters
- Short Name:
- J/other/CoSka/51
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The study is devoted to search for flare stars among confirmed members of Galactic open clusters using high-cadence photometry from TESS mission. We analyzed 957 high-cadence light curves of members from 136 open clusters. As a result, 56 flare stars were found, among them 8 hot B-A type objects. Of all flares, 63 % were detected in sample of cool stars (Teff<5000K), and 2 % - in stars of spectral type G, while 23% in K-type stars and approximately 34% of all detected flares are in M-type stars. Using the FLATW'RM (FLAre deTection With Ransac Method) flare finding algorithm, we estimated parameters of flares and rotation period of detected flare stars. The flare with the largest amplitude appears on the M3 type EQ Cha star. Statistical analysis did not reveal any direct correlation between ages, rotation periods and flaring activity.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/708/1760
- Title:
- Flux estimations of faint X-ray sources
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/708/1760
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- X-ray sources with very few counts can be identified with low-noise X-ray detectors such as the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer on board the Chandra X-ray Observatory. These sources are often too faint for parametric spectral modeling using well-established methods such as fitting with XSPEC. We discuss the estimation of apparent and intrinsic broadband X-ray fluxes and soft X-ray absorption from gas along the line of sight to these sources, using nonparametric methods. Apparent flux is estimated from the ratio of the source count rate to the instrumental effective area averaged over the chosen band. Absorption, intrinsic flux, and errors on these quantities are estimated from comparison of source photometric quantities with those of high signal-to-noise spectra that were simulated using spectral models characteristic of the class of astrophysical sources under study. The concept of this method is similar to the long-standing use of color-magnitude diagrams in optical and infrared astronomy, with X-ray median energy replacing color index and X-ray source counts replacing magnitude. Our nonparametric method is tested against the apparent spectra of ~2000 faint sources in the Chandra observation of the rich young stellar cluster in the M 17 HII region. We show that the intrinsic X-ray properties can be determined with little bias and reasonable accuracy using these observable photometric quantities without employing often uncertain and time-consuming methods of nonlinear parametric spectral modeling. Our method is calibrated for thermal spectra characteristic of stars in young stellar clusters, but recalibration should be possible for some other classes of faint X-ray sources such as extragalactic active galactic nuclei.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/490/2521
- Title:
- Fractal Statistics in Young Star Clusters
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/490/2521
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We used fractal statistics to quantify the degree of observed substructures in a sample of 50 embedded clusters and more evolved open clusters (<100Myr) found in different galactic regions. The observed fractal parameters were compared with N-body simulations from the literature, which reproduce star-forming regions under different initial conditions and geometries that are related to the cluster' dynamical evolution. Parallax and proper motion from Gaia-DR2 were used to accurately determine cluster membership by using the Bayesian model and cross-entropy technique. The statistical parameters Q, <m> and <s> were used to compare observed cluster structure with simulations. A low level of substructures (Q<0.8) is found for most of the sample that coincides with simulations of regions showing fractal dimension D~2-3. Few clusters (<20 per cent) have uniform distribution with a radial density profile ({alpha}<2). A comparison of Q with mass segregation ({LAMBDA}MSR) and local density as a function of mass ({SIGMA}LDR) shows the clusters coinciding with models that adopt supervirial initial conditions. The age-crossing time plot indicates that our objects are dynamically young, similar to the unbound associations found in the Milky Way. We conclude that this sample may be expanding very slowly. The flat distribution in the Q-age plot and the absence of trends in the distributions of {LAMBDA}MSR and {SIGMA}LDR against age show that in the first 10 Myr the clusters did not change structurally and seem not to have expanded from a much denser region.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/476/217
- Title:
- Fundamental parameters of five old open clusters
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/476/217
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The outer parts of the Milky Way disk are believed to be one of the main arenas where the accretion of external material in the form of dwarf galaxies and subsequent formation of streams is taking place. The Monoceros stream and the Canis Major and Argo over-densities are notorious examples. Understanding whether what we detect is the signature of accretion or, more conservatively, simply the intrinsic nature of the disk, represents one of the major goals of modern Galactic astronomy. We try to shed more light on the properties of the outer disk by exploring the properties of distant anti-center old open clusters. We want to verify whether distant clusters follow the chemical and dynamical behavior of the solar vicinity disk, or whether their properties can be better explained in terms of an extra-galactic population.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/555/A131
- Title:
- Fundamental parameters of star clusters in the LMC
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/555/A131
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- To enlarge our growing sample of well-studied star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), we present CCD Washington CT1 photometry to T1~23 in the fields of twenty-three mostly unstudied clusters located in the inner disc and outer regions of the LMC. We estimated cluster radii from star counts. Using the cluster Washington (T1,C-T1) colour-magnitude diagrams, statistically cleaned from field star contamination, we derived cluster ages and metallicities from a comparison with theoretical isochrones of the Padova group. Whenever possible, we also derived ages using delta T1 - the magnitude difference between the red giant clump and the main sequence turn off - and estimated metallicities from the standard giant branch procedure. We enlarged our sample by adding clusters with published ages and metallicities determined on a similar scale by applying the same methods. We examined relationships between their positions in the LMC, ages and metallicities. We find that the two methods for age and metallicity determination agree well with each other. Fourteen clusters are found to be intermediate-age clusters (1-2Gyr), with [Fe/H] values ranging from -0.4 to -0.7. The remaining nine clusters turn out to be younger than 1Gyr, with metallicities between 0.0 and -0.4. Our 23 clusters represent an increase of ~30% in the current total amount number of well-studied LMC clusters using Washington photometry. In agreement with previous studies, we find no evidence for a metallicity gradient. We also find that the younger clusters were formed closer to the LMC centre than the older ones.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/889/99
- Title:
- Gaia DR2 Blanco 1 member candidates
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/889/99
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the stellar population, using Gaia DR2 parallax, kinematics, and photometry, of the young (~100Myr), nearby (~230pc) open cluster, Blanco 1. A total of 644 member candidates are identified via the unsupervised machine learning method StarGO to find the clustering in the 5-dimensional position and proper motion parameter (X, Y, Z, {mu}{alpha}*cos{delta}, {mu}{delta}) space. Within the tidal radius of 10.0+/-0.3pc, there are 488 member candidates, 3 times more than those outside. A leading tail and a trailing tail, each of 50-60pc in the Galactic plane, are found for the first time for this cluster, with stars further from the cluster center streaming away faster, manifest stellar stripping. Blanco 1 has a total detected mass of 285+/-32M_{sun}_ with a mass function consistent with a slope of alpha=1.35+/-0.2 in the sense of dN/dm{prop.to}m^-alpha^, in the mass range of 0.25-2.51M_{sun}_, where N is the number of members and $m$ is stellar mass. A Minimum Spanning Tree ({LAMBDA}_MSR_) analysis shows the cluster to be moderately mass segregated among the most massive members (>~1.4M_{sun}_), suggesting an early stage of dynamical disintegration.