We present infrared K-band photometry of complete samples of VLM candidates constructed from IIIaF and IVN plates in 10 fields taken as part of the POSSII and UKSRC surveys. Using the I-K colors constructed for these stars we estimate a bolometric luminosity function which extends to MBol=13.75. We find significant evidence for a luminosity function decreasing toward these luminosities.
Stellar age cannot be directly measured, yet age determinations are fundamental to understanding the evolution of stars, planets, and galaxies. The work presented here builds upon the idea of a stellar-activity age. We utilized far-ultraviolet (FUV) photometry acquired by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) space telescope as an indicator of chromospheric activity to infer ages of late-F, G, and K type dwarf stars. We derived a purely empirical correlation between FUV magnitudes and stellar age in conjunction with (B-V) color. Our attention is restricted to Sun-like stars with color range 0.55<=(B-V)<=0.71 and absolute magnitude range 4.3<=MV<=5.3. The correlation is defined in terms of a FUV-excess parameter Q(FUV-B,B-V). We related stellar age, {tau}, to Q through the relation log_e_({tau})=log_e_(a)+bQ, where a and b are fit parameters and functions of (B-V). This correlation is functional up to 6Gyr for FGK dwarfs. With such a correlation, one only needs Johnson (B-V) and FUV measurements to estimate the stellar age for Population i dwarf stars of solar-like temperature and metallicity. Such a calibration has utility in population studies of FGK dwarfs for further understanding of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way. As an illustration of one such application, we have constructed activity and FUV-age distributions for a sample of thin and thick disk stars, as distinguished by their chemical abundances. Considerable overlap is found between the activity distribution and age range of the two populations. We discuss the possibility that some high-[{alpha}/Fe] thick disk stars were formed as a result of the accretion of dwarf galaxies as recently as 4Gyr ago.
We present a sample of 8321 candidate Field Horizontal-Branch (FHB) stars selected by automatic spectral classification in the digital data base of the Hamburg/ESO objective-prism survey. The stars are distributed over 8225 square degrees of the southern sky, at |b|>~30{deg}. The average distance of the sample, assuming that they are all FHB stars, is 9.8kpc, and distances of up to ~30kpc are reached. Moderate-resolution spectroscopic follow-up observations and $UBV$ photometry of 125 test sample stars demonstrate that the contamination of the full candidate sample with main-sequence A-type stars is <16%, while it would be up to 50% in a flux-limited sample at high galactic latitudes. Hence more than ~6800 of our FHB candidates are expected to be genuine FHB stars. The candidates are being used as distance probes for high-velocity clouds and for studies of the structure and kinematics of the Galactic halo.
We present here the results of a Fourier photometric decomposition of a representative sample of ~100 isolated CIG galaxies (Catalog of Isolated Galaxies) in the morphological range Sb-Sc. This study is an integral part of the AMIGA (Analysis of the Interstellar Medium of Isolated Galaxies) project. It complements the photometric analysis presented in our previous paper for the same sample of disc galaxies by allowing a description of the spiral structure morphology. We also estimate dynamical measures like torque strength for bar and spiral, and also the total non-axisymmetric torque by assuming a constant mass-to-light ratio, and explore the interplay between the spiral and bar components of galaxies. Both the length (l_bar_) and the contrast (e.g. A_2b_) of the Fourier bars decrease along the morphological sequence Sb-Sbc-Sc, with bars in earlier types being longer and showing higher contrast. The bars of Sb galaxies are ~ three times longer than the bars in Sc types, consistent with our previous study. We find that the longer bars are not necessarily stronger (as quantified by the torque Q_b_measure), but longer bars show a higher contrast A_2b_, in very good agreement with theoretical predictions. Our data suggest that bar and spiral components are rather independent in the sense that the torque strengths of the two components are not correlated. The total strength Q_g_ is a very reliable tracer of the bar strength measure Q_b_, the two quantities showing a very tight linear correlation. Comparison with a similar sample of disc galaxies (same morphological range) extracted from the OSUBGS (Ohio State University Bright Galaxy Survey) indicates that the isolated CIG/AMIGA galaxies host significantly longer Fourier bars and possibly show a different distribution of spiral torque Q_s_. The Fourier analysis also revealed a potential case of counterwinding spiral structure (KIG652/NGC5768), which deserves further kinematic study. We find that m=2 (i.e. dominating two-armed pattern) is the most common spiral arm multiplicity among the sample of Sb-Sc CIG/AMIGA galaxies (~40 per cent), m=2 and 3 and m=1 and 2 are found in ~28 and ~13 per cent of isolated galaxies, respectively.
723 Gaia DR2 White dwarfs cand. in Local Galactic Halo
Short Name:
J/ApJ/899/83
Date:
14 Mar 2022 08:58:44
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We present a catalog of 531 white dwarf candidates that have large apparent transverse motions relative to the Sun (v_T_>200km/s), thus making them likely members of the local Galactic halo population. The candidates were selected from the Gaia Data Release 2 and are located in a great circle with 20{deg} width running across both Galactic poles and the Galactic center and anticenter, a zone that spans 17.3% of the sky. The selection used a combination of kinematic and photometric properties, derived primarily from Gaia proper motions, G magnitudes, and G_BP_-G_RP_ color, and including parallax whenever available. Additional validation of the white dwarf candidates is made using PanSTARRS photometric (gri) data. Our final catalog includes not only stars having full kinematic and luminosity estimates from reliable Gaia parallax, but also stars with presently unreliable or no available Gaia parallax measurements. We argue that our method of selecting local halo objects with and without reliable parallax data leads us to round up all possible halo white dwarfs in the Gaia catalog (in that particular section of the sky) with recorded proper motions >40mas/yr and that pass our v_T_>200km/s threshold requirement. We expect this catalog will be useful for the study of the white dwarf population of the local Galactic halo.
Tidally stripped galaxy nuclei and luminous globular clusters (GCs) are important tracers of the halos and assembly histories of nearby galaxies, but are difficult to reliably identify with typical ground-based imaging data. In this paper we present a new method to find these massive star clusters using Gaia DR2, focusing on the massive elliptical galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A). We show that stripped nuclei and GCs are partially resolved by Gaia at the distance of Cen A, showing characteristic astrometric and photometric signatures. We use this selection method to produce a list of 632 new candidate luminous clusters in the halo of Cen A out to a projected radius of 150kpc. Adding in broadband photometry and visual examination improves the accuracy of our classification. In a spectroscopic pilot program we have confirmed five new luminous clusters, which includes the 7th and 10th most luminous GC in Cen A. Three of the newly discovered GCs are further away from Cen A than all previously known GCs. Several of these are compelling candidates for stripped nuclei. We show that our novel Gaia selection method retains at least partial utility out to distances of ~25Mpc and hence is a powerful tool for finding and studying star clusters in the sparse outskirts of galaxies in the local universe.
New infrared spectra of 33 Galactic carbon stars from FORCAST on SOFIA reveal strong connections between stellar pulsations and the dust and molecular chemistry in their circumstellar shells. A sharp boundary in overall dust content, which predominantly measures the amount of amorphous carbon, separates the semiregular and Mira variables, with the semiregulars showing little dust in their spectra and the Miras showing more. In semiregulars, the contribution from SiC dust increases rapidly as the overall dust content grows, but in Miras, the SiC dust feature grows weaker as more dust is added. A similar dichotomy is found with the absorption band from CS at ~7.3{mu}m, which is generally limited to semiregular variables. Observationally, these differences make it straightforward to distinguish semiregular and Mira variables spectroscopically without the need for long-term photometric observations or knowledge of their distances. The rapid onset of strong SiC emission in Galactic carbon stars in semiregular variables points to a different dust-condensation process before strong pulsations take over. The break in the production of amorphous carbon between semiregulars and Miras seen in the Galactic sample is also evident in Magellanic carbon stars, linking strong pulsations in carbon stars to the strong mass-loss rates which will end their lives as stars across a wide range of metallicities.
We measure the mass functions for generically red and blue galaxies, using a z<0.12 sample of logM_*_>8.7 field galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Our motivation is that, as we show, the dominant uncertainty in existing measurements stems from how "red" and "blue" galaxies have been selected/defined. Accordingly, we model our data as two naturally overlapping populations, each with their own mass function and colour-mass relation, which enables us characterize the two populations without having to specify a priori which galaxies are "red" and "blue". Our results then provide the means to derive objective operational definitions for the terms "red" and "blue", which are based on the phenomenology of the colour-mass diagrams. Informed by this descriptive modelling, we show that (1) after accounting for dust, the stellar colours of "blue" galaxies do not depend strongly on mass; (2) the tight, flat "dead sequence" does not extend much below logM_*_~10.5; instead, (3) the stellar colours of "red" galaxies vary rather strongly with mass, such that lower mass "red" galaxies have bluer stellar populations; (4) below logM_*_~9.3, the "red" population dissolves into obscurity, and it becomes problematic to talk about two distinct populations; as a consequence, (5) it is hard to meaningfully constrain the shape, including the existence of an upturn, of the "red" galaxy mass function below logM_*_~9.3. Points 1-4 provide meaningful targets for models of galaxy formation and evolution to aim for.
We present neutral hydrogen (HI) observations using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) of 70 optically detected UDG candidates in the Coma region from the Systematically Measuring Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies survey (SMUDGes). We detect HI in 18 targets, confirming nine to be gas-rich UDGs and the remainder to be foreground dwarfs. None of our HI-detected UDGs are Coma Cluster members and all but one are in low-density environments. The HI-detected UDGs are bluer and have more irregular morphologies than the redder, smoother candidates not detected in HI, with the combination of optical color and morphology being a better predictor of gas richness than either parameter alone. There is little visual difference between the gas-rich UDGs and the foreground dwarfs in the SMUDGes imaging, and distances are needed to distinguish between them. We find that the gas richnesses of our HI-confirmed UDGs and those from other samples scale with their effective radii in two stellar mass bins, possibly providing clues to their formation. We attempt to place our UDGs on the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFR) using optical ellipticities and turbulence-corrected HI line widths to estimate rotation velocities, but the potential systematics associated with fitting smooth Sersic profiles to clumpy, low-inclination disks of low surface brightness precludes a meaningful analysis of potential BTFR offsets. These observations are a pilot for a large campaign now under way at the GBT to use the HI properties of gas-rich UDGs to quantitatively constrain how these galaxies form and evolve.
