- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/871/193
- Title:
- A combined Chandra & LAMOST study of stellar activity
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/871/193
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We probed stellar X-ray activity over a wide range of stellar parameters, using Chandra and Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) data. We measured the X-ray-to-bolometric luminosity ratio (R_X_=L_X_/L_bol_) for 484 main-sequence stars and found a bimodal distribution for G and K types. We interpret this bimodality as evidence of two subpopulations with different coronal temperatures, which are caused by different coronal heating rates. Using the metallicity and velocity information, we find that both of the subpopulations are mostly located in the thin disk. We find no trend of R_X_ with stellar age for stars older than ~4Gyr; there is a trough in the R_X_ versus age distribution, with the lowest range of R_X_ appearing at ages around 2Gyr. We then examined the correlation between R_X_ and R_H{alpha}_ (proxy of chromospheric activity): we find that the two quantities are well correlated, as found in many earlier studies. Finally, we selected a sample of 12 stars with X-ray flares and studied the light-curve morphology of the flares. The variety of flare profiles and timescales observed in our sample suggests the contribution of different processes of energy release.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/475/257
- Title:
- AGB subpopulations in NGC 6397
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/475/257
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- It has been well established that Galactic Globular clusters (GCs) harbour more than one stellar population, distinguishable by the anticorrelations of light-element abundances (C-N, Na-O, and Mg-Al). These studies have been extended recently to the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Here, we investigate the AGB of NGC 6397 for the first time. We have performed an abundance analysis of high-resolution spectra of 47 red giant branch (RGB) and eight AGB stars, deriving Fe, Na, O, Mg, and Al abundances. We find that NGC 6397 shows no evidence of a deficit in Na-rich AGB stars, as reported for some other GCs - the subpopulation ratios of the AGB and RGB in NGC 6397 are identical, within uncertainties. This agrees with expectations from stellar theory. This GC acts as a control for our earlier work on the AGB of M4 (with contrasting results), since the same tools and methods were used.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/647/1075
- Title:
- Age-metallicity relation of {omega} Cen
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/647/1075
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a metallicity distribution based on photometry and spectra for 442 Omega Centauri cluster members that lie at the main-sequence turnoff region of the color-magnitude diagram. This distribution is similar to that found for the red giant branch. The distribution shows a sharp rise to a mean of [Fe/H]=-1.7 with a long tail to higher metallicities. Ages have then been determined for the stars using theoretical isochrones enabling the construction of an age-metallicity diagram. Interpretation of this diagram is complicated by the correlation of the errors in the metallicities and ages. Nevertheless, after extensive Monte Carlo simulations, we conclude that our data show that the formation of the cluster took place over an extended period of time: the most metal-rich stars in our sample ([Fe/H]~-0.6) are younger by 2-4Gyr than the most metal-poor population.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/750/91
- Title:
- Ages and metallicities of old stellar systems
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/750/91
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a statistical analysis of the properties of a large sample of dynamically hot old stellar systems, from globular clusters (GCs) to giant ellipticals, which was performed in order to investigate the origin of ultracompact dwarf galaxies (UCDs). The data were mostly drawn from Forbes et al. (2008, Cat. J/MNRAS/389/1924). We recalculated some of the effective radii, computed mean surface brightnesses and mass-to-light ratios, and estimated ages and metallicities. We completed the sample with GCs of M31. We used a multivariate statistical technique (K-Means clustering), together with a new algorithm (Gap Statistics) for finding the optimum number of homogeneous sub-groups in the sample, using a total of six parameters (absolute magnitude, effective radius, virial mass-to-light ratio, stellar mass-to-light ratio, and metallicity). We found six groups. FK1 and FK5 are composed of high- and low-mass elliptical galaxies, respectively. FK3 and FK6 are composed of high-metallicity and low-metallicity objects, respectively, and both include GCs and UCDs. Two very small groups, FK2 and FK4, are composed of Local Group dwarf spheroidals. Our groups differ in their mean masses and virial mass-to-light ratios. The relations between these two parameters are also different for the various groups. The probability density distributions of metallicity for the four groups of galaxies are similar to those of the GCs and UCDs. The brightest low-metallicity GCs and UCDs tend to follow the mass-metallicity relation like elliptical galaxies. The objects of FK3 are more metal-rich per unit effective luminosity density than high-mass ellipticals.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/870/9
- Title:
- Ages & masses for GPS1 WD-MS binary systems
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/870/9
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Observational tests of stellar and Galactic chemical evolution call for the joint knowledge of a star's physical parameters, detailed element abundances, and precise age. For cool main-sequence (MS) stars the abundances of many elements can be measured from spectroscopy, but ages are very hard to determine. The situation is different if the MS star has a white dwarf (WD) companion and a known distance, as the age of such a binary system can then be determined precisely from the photometric properties of the cooling WD. As a pilot study for obtaining precise age determinations of field MS stars, we identify nearly 100 candidates for such wide binary systems: a faint WD whose Gaia-PS1-SDSS (GPS1) proper motion (Tian+ 2017, I/343) matches that of a brighter MS star in Gaia/TGAS (Gaia Collaboration 2016, I/337) with a good parallax ({sigma}_{rho}_/{rho}=<0.05). We model the WD's multi-band photometry with the BASE-9 code using this precise distance (assumed to be common for the pair) and infer ages for each binary system. The resulting age estimates are precise to =<10% (=<20%) for 42 (67) MS-WD systems. Our analysis more than doubles the number of MS-WD systems with precise distances known to date, and it boosts the number of such systems with precise age determination by an order of magnitude. With the advent of the Gaia DR2 (Gaia Collaboration, 2018, I/345) data, this approach will be applicable to a far larger sample, providing ages for many MS stars (that can yield detailed abundances for over 20 elements), especially in the age range of 2-8Gyr, where there are only few known star clusters.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/253/58
- Title:
- Ages of field stars from white dwarf comp. in Gaia
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/253/58
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We analyze 4050 wide binary star systems involving a white dwarf (WD) and usually a main-sequence (MS) star, drawn from the large sample assembled by Tian+ (2020, J/ApJS/246/4). Using the modeling code BASE-9, we determine the system's ages, the WD progenitors' zero-age MS masses, the extinction values (AV), and the distance moduli. Discarding the cases with poor age convergences, we obtain ages for 3551 WDs, with a median age precision of {sigma}{tau}/{tau}=20%, and system ages typically in the range of 1-6Gyr. We validated these ages against the very few known clusters and through cross validation of 236 WD-WD binaries. Under the assumption that the components are coeval in a binary system, this provides precise age constraints on the usually low-mass MS companions, mostly inaccessible by any other means.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/601/A10
- Title:
- A grid of MARCS model atmospheres for S stars
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/601/A10
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- S-type stars are late-type giants whose atmospheres are enriched in carbon and s-process elements because of either extrinsic pollution by a binary companion or intrinsic nucleosynthesis and dredge-up on the thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch. A grid of MARCS model atmospheres has been computed for S stars, covering the range 2700<=Teff(K)<=4000, 0.50<=C/O<0.99, 0<=logg<=5, [Fe/H]=0., -0.5dex, and [s/Fe]= 0, 1, and 2 dex (where the latter quantity refers to the global overabundance of s-process elements). The MARCS models make use of a new ZrO line list. Synthetic spectra computed from these models are used to derive photometric indices in the Johnson and Geneva systems, as well as TiO and ZrO band strengths. A method is proposed to select the model best matching any given S star, a non-trivial operation since the grid contains more than 3500 models covering a five-dimensional parameter space. The method is based on the comparison between observed and synthetic photometric indices and spectral band strengths, and has been applied on a vast subsample of the Henize sample of S stars. Our results confirm the old claim by Piccirillo (1980MNRAS.190..441P) that ZrO bands in warm S stars (Teff > 3200K) are not caused by the C/O ratio being close to unity, as traditionally believed, but rather by some Zr overabundance. The TiO and ZrO band strengths, combined with V-K and J-K photometric indices, are used to select Teff, C/O, [Fe/H] and [s/Fe]. The Geneva U-B_1 and B_2-V_1 indices (or any equivalent) are good at selecting the gravity. The defining spectral features of dwarf S stars are outlined, but none is found among the Henize S stars. More generally, it is found that, at Teff=3200K, a change of C/O from 0.5 to 0.99 has a strong impact on V-K (2mag). Conversely, a range of 2 mag in V-K corresponds to a 200K shift along the (Teff, V-K) relationship (for a fixed C/O value). Hence, the use of a (Teff, V-K) calibration established for M stars will yield large errors for S stars, so that a specific calibration must be used, as provided in the present paper. Using the atmospheric parameters derived by our method for the sample of Henize S stars, we show that the extrinsic-intrinsic dichotomy among S stars reveals itself very clearly as a bimodal distribution in the effective temperatures. Moreover, the increase of s-process element abundances with increasing C/O ratios and decreasing temperatures is apparent among intrinsic stars, confirming theoretical expectations.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/836/77
- Title:
- A library of high-S/N optical spectra of FGKM stars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/836/77
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Classification of stars, by comparing their optical spectra to a few dozen spectral standards, has been a workhorse of observational astronomy for more than a century. Here, we extend this technique by compiling a library of optical spectra of 404 touchstone stars observed with Keck/HIRES by the California Planet Search. The spectra have high resolution (R~60000), high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N~150/pixel), and are registered onto a common wavelength scale. The library stars have properties derived from interferometry, asteroseismology, LTE spectral synthesis, and spectrophotometry. To address a lack of well-characterized late-K dwarfs in the literature, we measure stellar radii and temperatures for 23 nearby K dwarfs, using modeling of the spectral energy distribution and Gaia parallaxes. This library represents a uniform data set spanning the spectral types ~M5-F1 (T_eff_~3000-7000K, R_*_~0.1-16R_{Sun}_). We also present "Empirical SpecMatch" (SpecMatch-Emp), a tool for parameterizing unknown spectra by comparing them against our spectral library. For FGKM stars, SpecMatch-Emp achieves accuracies of 100K in effective temperature (T_eff_), 15% in stellar radius (R_*_), and 0.09dex in metallicity ([Fe/H]). Because the code relies on empirical spectra it performs particularly well for stars ~K4 and later, which are challenging to model with existing spectral synthesizers, reaching accuracies of 70K in T_eff_, 10% in R_*_, and 0.12dex in [Fe/H]. We also validate the performance of SpecMatch-Emp, finding it to be robust at lower spectral resolution and S/N, enabling the characterization of faint late-type stars. Both the library and stellar characterization code are publicly available.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/883/128
- Title:
- alpha & Fe abundances in the giant stellar stream
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/883/128
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the first measurements of [Fe/H] and [{alpha}/Fe] abundances, obtained using spectral synthesis modeling, for red giant branch stars in M31's giant stellar stream (GSS). The spectroscopic observations, obtained at a projected distance of 17kpc from M31's center, yielded 61 stars with [Fe/H] measurements, including 21 stars with [{alpha}/Fe] measurements, from 112 targets identified as M31 stars. The [Fe/H] measurements confirm the expectation from photometric metallicity estimates that stars in this region of M31's halo are relatively metal rich compared to stars in the Milky Way's inner halo: more than half the stars in the field, including those not associated with kinematically identified substructure, have [Fe/H] abundances >-1.0. The stars in this field are {alpha}-enhanced at lower metallicities, while [{alpha}/Fe] decreases with increasing [Fe/H] above metallicities of [Fe/H]>~-0.9. Three kinematical components have been previously identified in this field: the GSS, a second kinematically cold feature of unknown origin, and M31's kinematically hot halo. We compare probabilistic [Fe/H] and [{alpha}/Fe] distribution functions for each of the components. The GSS and the second kinematically cold feature have very similar abundance distributions, while the halo component is more metal poor. Although the current sample sizes are small, a comparison of the abundances of stars in the GSS field with abundances of M31 halo and dSph stars from the literature indicate that the progenitor of the stream was likely more massive, and experienced a higher efficiency of star formation, than M31's existing dSphs or the dEs NGC147 and NGC185.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/725/200
- Title:
- An updated catalog of M31 globular-like clusters
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/725/200
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present an updated UBVRI photometric catalog containing 970 objects in the field of M31, selected from the Revised Bologna Catalog (RBC v.4.0), including 965, 967, 965, 953, and 827 sources in the individual UBVRI bands, respectively, of which 205, 123, 14, 126, and 109 objects do not have previously published photometry. Photometry is performed using archival images from the Local Group Galaxies Survey, which covers 2.2deg^2^ along the major axis of M31. Detailed comparisons show that our photometry is fully consistent with previous measurements in all filters. We focus on 445 confirmed "globular-like" clusters and candidates, comprising typical globular and young massive clusters. The ages and masses of these objects are derived by comparing their observed spectral-energy distributions with simple stellar population synthesis. Approximately half of the clusters are younger than 2Gyr, suggesting that there has been significant recent active star formation in M31, which is consistent with previous results.