We describe a large sample of 598 galaxy clusters and rich groups discovered in the data of the Faint Sky Variability Survey (FSVS). The clusters have been identified using a fully automated, semiparametric technique based on a maximum likelihood approach applied to Voronoi tessellation, and enhanced by colour discrimination. The sample covers a wide range of richness, has a density of ~28 clusters/deg^2^, and spans a range of estimated redshifts of 0.05<z<0.9 with mean <z>=0.345. Assuming the presence of a cluster red sequence, the uncertainty of the estimated cluster redshifts is assessed to be {sigma}~0.03. Containing over 100 clusters with z>0.6, the catalogue contributes substantially to the current total of optically selected, intermediate-redshift clusters, and complements the existing, usually X-ray selected, samples. The FSVS fields are accessible for observation throughout the whole year, making them particularly suited for large follow-up programmes. The construction of this FSVS Cluster Catalogue completes a fundamental component of our continuing programmes to investigate the environments of quasars and the chemical evolution of galaxies. We publish here the list of all clusters with their basic parameters, and discuss some illustrative examples in more detail. The full FSVS Cluster Catalogue, together with images and lists of member galaxies etc., will be issued as part of the 'NOAO (National Optical Astronomy Observatories) data products', and accessible at http://www.noao.edu/dpp/ . We describe the format of these data and access to them.
We present UV luminosity functions of dropout galaxies at z~6-10 with the complete Hubble Frontier Fields data. We obtain a catalog of ~450 dropout-galaxy candidates (350, 66, and 40 at z~6-7, 8, and 9, respectively), with UV absolute magnitudes that reach ~-14mag, ~2 mag deeper than the Hubble Ultra Deep Field detection limits. We carefully evaluate number densities of the dropout galaxies by Monte Carlo simulations, including all lensing effects such as magnification, distortion, and multiplication of images as well as detection completeness and contamination effects in a self-consistent manner. We find that UV luminosity functions at z~6-8 have steep faint-end slopes, {alpha}~-2, and likely steeper slopes, {alpha}<~-2 at z~9-10. We also find that the evolution of UV luminosity densities shows a non-accelerated decline beyond z~8 in the case of M_trunc_=-15, but an accelerated one in the case of M_trunc_=-17. We examine whether our results are consistent with the Thomson scattering optical depth from the Planck satellite and the ionized hydrogen fraction Q_HII_ at z<~7 based on the standard analytic reionization model. We find that reionization scenarios exist that consistently explain all of the observational measurements with the allowed parameters of f_esc_=0.17_-0.03_^+0.07^ and M_trunc_>-14.0 for log{xi}_ion_/[erg^-1^Hz]=25.34, where f_esc_ is the escape fraction, Mtrunc is the faint limit of the UV luminosity function, and {xi}_ion_ is the conversion factor of the UV luminosity to the ionizing photon emission rate. The length of the reionization period is estimated to be {Delta}z=3.9_-1.6_^+2.0^ (for 0.1<Q_HII_<0.99), consistent with the recent estimate from Planck.
We present the results of SPT-GMOS, a spectroscopic survey with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South. The targets of SPT-GMOS are galaxy clusters identified in the SPT-SZ survey, a millimeter-wave survey of 2500deg^2^ of the southern sky using the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Multi-object spectroscopic observations of 62 SPT-selected galaxy clusters were performed between 2011 January and 2015 December, yielding spectra with radial velocity measurements for 2595 sources. We identify 2243 of these sources as galaxies, and 352 as stars. Of the galaxies, we identify 1579 as members of SPT-SZ galaxy clusters. The primary goal of these observations was to obtain spectra of cluster member galaxies to estimate cluster redshifts and velocity dispersions. We describe the full spectroscopic data set and resulting data products, including galaxy redshifts, cluster redshifts, and velocity dispersions, and measurements of several well-known spectral indices for each galaxy: the equivalent width, W, of [OII]{lambda}{lambda}3727, 3729 and H-{delta}, and the 4000{AA} break strength, D4000. We use the spectral indices to classify galaxies by spectral type (i.e., passive, post-starburst, star-forming), and we match the spectra against photometric catalogs to characterize spectroscopically observed cluster members as a function of brightness (relative to m*). Finally, we report several new measurements of redshifts for ten bright, strongly lensed background galaxies in the cores of eight galaxy clusters. Combining the SPT-GMOS data set with previous spectroscopic follow-up of SPT-SZ galaxy clusters results in spectroscopic measurements for >100 clusters, or ~20% of the full SPT-SZ sample.
Spitzer's final Infrared Array Camera observations of SN 1987A show the 3.6 and 4.5{mu}m emission from the equatorial ring (ER) continues a period of steady decline. Deconvolution of the images reveals that the emission is dominated by the ring, not the ejecta, and is brightest on the west side. Decomposition of the marginally resolved emission also confirms this, and shows that the west side of the ER has been brightening relative to the other portions of the ER. The infrared morphological changes resemble those seen in both the soft X-ray emission and the optical emission. The integrated ER light curves at 3.6 and 4.5{mu}m are more similar to the optical light curves than the soft X-ray light curve, though differences would be expected if dust is responsible for this emission and its destruction is rapid. Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope will continue to monitor the ER evolution, and will reveal the true spectrum and nature of the material responsible for the broadband emission at 3.6 and 4.5{mu}m. The present observations also serendipitously reveal a nearby variable source, subsequently identified as a Be star, that has gone through a multiyear outburst during the course of these observations.
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.
We empirically determine effective temperatures and bolometric luminosities for a large sample of nearby M dwarfs, for which high accuracy optical and infrared photometry is available. We introduce a new technique which exploits the flux ratio in different bands as a proxy of both effective temperature and metallicity. Our temperature scale for late-type dwarfs extends well below 3000K (almost to the brown dwarf limit) and is supported by interferometric angular diameter measurements above 3000K. Our metallicities are in excellent agreement (usually within 0.2dex) with recent determinations via independent techniques. A subsample of cool M dwarfs with metallicity estimates based on hotter Hipparcos common proper motion companions indicates our metallicities are also reliable below 3000K, a temperature range unexplored until now. The high quality of our data allows us to identify a striking feature in the bolometric luminosity versus temperature plane, around the transition from K to M dwarfs. We have compared our sample of stars with theoretical models and conclude that this transition is due to an increase in the radii of the M dwarfs, a feature which is not reproduced by theoretical models.
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.
We present the fundamental properties of 87 stars based on angular diameter measurements from the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer, 36 of which have not been measured previously using interferometry. Our sample consists of 5 dwarfs, 3 subgiants, 69 giants, 3 bright giants, and 7 supergiants, and span a wide range of spectral classes from B to M. We combined our angular diameters with photometric and distance information from the literature to determine each star's physical radius, effective temperature, bolometric flux, luminosity, mass, and age.
We present bolometric fluxes and angular diameters for over 1.6 million stars in the Tycho-2 catalog (I/259), determined using previously determined empirical color-temperature and color-flux relations. We vet these relations via full fits to the full broadband spectral energy distributions for a subset of benchmark stars and perform quality checks against the large set of stars for which spectroscopically determined parameters are available from LAMOST, RAVE, and/or APOGEE. We then estimate radii for the 355502 Tycho-2 stars in our sample whose Gaia DR1 (I/337) parallaxes are precise to ~<10%. For these stars, we achieve effective temperature, bolometric flux, and angular diameter uncertainties of the order of 1%-2% and radius uncertainties of order 8%, and we explore the effect that imposing spectroscopic effective temperature priors has on these uncertainties. These stellar parameters are shown to be reliable for stars with T_eff_~<7000 K. The over half a million bolometric fluxes and angular diameters presented here will serve as an immediate trove of empirical stellar radii with the Gaia second data release, at which point effective temperature uncertainties will dominate the radius uncertainties. Already, dwarf, subgiant, and giant populations are readily identifiable in our purely empirical luminosity-effective temperature (theoretical) Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams.
We derive the fundamental plane (FP) relation for a sample of 1430 early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the optical (r band) and the near-infrared (K band), by combining SDSS-DR5 and UKIDSS (UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey, 2007MNRAS.379.1599L), second release data. With such a large, homogeneous data set, we are able to assess the dependence of the FP on the wave band. Our analysis indicates that the FP of luminous early-type galaxies is essentially wave band-independent, with its coefficients increasing at most by 8% from the optical to the NIR. This finding fits well into a consistent picture in which the tilt of the FP is not driven by stellar populations but results from other effects, such as nonhomology. In this framework, the optical and NIR FPs require more massive galaxies to be slightly more metal-rich than less massive ones, and to have highly synchronized ages, with an age variation per decade in mass smaller than a few percent.
