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Register a new userA Multiwavelength Study of Evolved Massive Stars in the Galactic Center
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H. Dong
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The central region of the Milky Way provides a unique laboratory for a systematic, spatially-resolved population study of evolved massive stars of various types in a relatively high metallicity environment. We have conducted a multi-wavelength data analysis of 180 such stars or candidates, most of which were drawn from a recent large-scale HST/NICMOS narrow-band Pa-a survey, plus additional 14 Wolf-Rayet stars identified in earlier ground-based spectroscopic observations of the same field. The multi-wavelength data include broad-band IR photometry measurements from HST/NICMOS, SIRIUS, 2MASS, Spitzer/IRAC, and Chandra X-ray observations. We correct for extinctions toward individual stars, improve the Pa-a line equivalent width measurements, quantify the substantial mid-IR dust emission associated with WC stars, and find X-ray counterparts. In the process, we identify 10 foreground sources, some of which may be nearby cataclysmic variables. The WN stars in the Arches and Central clusters show correlations between the Pa-a equivalent width and the adjacent continuum emission. However, the WN stars in the latter cluster are systematically dimmer than those in the Arches cluster, presumably due to the different ages of the two clusters. In the EW-magnitude plot, WNL stars, WC stars and OB supergiants roughly fall into three distinct regions. We estimate that the dust mass associated with individual WC stars in the Quintuplet cluster can reach 1e-5 M, or more than one order of magnitude larger than previous estimates. Thus WC stars could be a significant source of dust in the galaxies of the early universe. Nearly half of the evolved massive stars in the GC are located outside the three known massive stellar clusters. The ionization of several compact HII regions can be accounted for by their enclosed individual evolved massive stars, which thus likely formed in isolation or in small groups.
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The presence of massive stars (MSs) in the region close to the Galactic Center (GC) poses several questions about their origin. The harsh environment of the GC favors specific formation scenarios, each of which should imprint characteristic kinematic features on the MSs. We present a 2D kinematic analysis of MSs in a GC region surrounding Sgr A* based on high-precision proper motions obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. Thanks to a careful data reduction, well-measured bright stars in our proper-motion catalogs have errors better than 0.5 mas yr$^{-1}$. We discuss the absolute motion of the MSs in the field and their motion relative to Sgr A*, the Arches and the Quintuplet. For the majority of the MSs, we rule out any distance further than 3-4 kpc from Sgr A* using only kinematic arguments. If their membership to the GC is confirmed, most of the isolated MSs are likely not associated with either the Arches or Quintuplet clusters or Sgr A*. Only a few MSs have proper motions suggesting they are likely members of the Arches cluster, in agreement with previous spectroscopic results. Line-of-sight radial velocities and distances are required to shed further light on the origin of most of these massive objects. We also present an analysis of other fast-moving objects in the GC region, finding no clear excess of high-velocity escaping stars. We make our astro-photometric catalogs publicly available.
Determining the Galactic distribution and numbers of massive stars, such as Wolf-Rayet stars (WRs), is hampered by intervening Galactic or local circumstellar dust obscuration. In order to probe such regions of the Galaxy we can use infrared observations, which provide a means for finding such hidden populations through the dust. The availability of both 2MASS and Spitzer/GLIMPSE large-scale survey data provides infrared colours from 1.25 to 8$mu$m for a large fraction of the inner Galactic plane. In 2005 we initiated a pilot study of the combined set of infrared colours for two GLIMPSE fields and showed that WRs typically occupy a sparsely populated region of the colour space. We followed up 42 of our WR candidates spectroscopically in the near-infrared, and with limited additional observations of some of these candidates in the optical. Six new WRs, four late-type WN and two late-type WC stars, were discovered as a result. Of the remaining $sim$86% of the sample, five appear to be O-type stars. 21 stars are likely of type Be, and 10 stars appear to be of late-type, or possibly young stellar objects, which have contaminated the infrared color space. The survey is generally unbiased towards clusters or field stars, and the new WRs found are in both the field and in and around the RCW 49 region (including cluster Westerlund 2). In this work, and in our other recent work, we show that the infrared broad-band colours to be the most efficient means of identifying (particularly, dust-obscured) candidate massive stars, notably WRs.
We present a multiwavelength study of 28 Galactic massive star-forming H II regions. For 17 of these regions, we present new distance measurements based on Gaia DR2 parallaxes. By fitting a multicomponent dust, blackbody, and power-law continuum model to the 3.6 $mu$m through 10 mm spectral energy distributions, we find that ${sim}34$% of Lyman continuum photons emitted by massive stars are absorbed by dust before contributing to the ionization of H II regions, while ${sim}68$% of the stellar bolometric luminosity is absorbed and reprocessed by dust in the H II regions and surrounding photodissociation regions. The most luminous, infrared-bright regions that fully sample the upper stellar initial mass function (ionizing photon rates $N_C ge 10^{50}~{rm s}^{-1}$ and dust-processed $L_{rm TIR}ge 10^{6.8}$ L$_{odot}$) have on average higher percentages of absorbed Lyman continuum photons ($sim$51%) and reprocessed starlight ($sim$82%) compared to less luminous regions. Luminous H II regions show lower average PAH fractions than less luminous regions, implying that the strong radiation fields from early-type massive stars are efficient at destroying PAH molecules. On average, the monochromatic luminosities at 8, 24, and 70 $mu$m combined carry 94% of the dust-reprocessed $L_{rm TIR}$. $L_{70}$ captures ${sim}52$% of $L_{rm TIR}$, and is therefore the preferred choice to infer the bolometric luminosity of dusty star-forming regions. We calibrate SFRs based on $L_{24}$ and $L_{70}$ against the Lyman continuum photon rates of the massive stars in each region. Standard extragalactic calibrations of monochromatic SFRs based on population synthesis models are generally consistent with our values.
We use data taken as part of HST/WFC3 observations of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) to identify massive and evolved galaxies at 3<z<4.5. This is performed using the strength of the Balmer break feature at rest-frame 3648A, which is a diagnostic of the age of the stellar population in galaxies. Using WFC3 H-band selected catalog for the CANDELS GOODS-S field and deep multi-waveband photometry from optical (HST) to mid-infrared (Spitzer) wavelengths, we identify a population of old and evolved post-starburst galaxies based on the strength of their Balmer breaks (Balmer Break Galaxies- BBGs). The galaxies are also selected to be bright in rest-frame near-IR wavelengths and hence, massive. We identify a total of 16 BBGs. Fitting the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the BBGs show that the candidate galaxies have average estimated ages of ~800 Myr and average stellar masses of ~5x10^10 M_sun, consistent with being old and massive systems. Two of our BBG candidates are also identified by the criteria that is sensitive to star forming galaxies (LBG selection). We find a number density of ~3.2x10^-5 Mpc^-3 for the BBGs corresponding to a mass density of ~2.0x10^6 M_sun/Mpc^3 in the redshift range covering the survey. Given the old age and the passive evolution, it is argued that some of these objects formed the bulk of their mass only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
Clusters of galaxies are outstanding laboratories for understanding the physics of supermassive black hole feedback. Here, we present the first textit{Chandra}, Karl G. Janksy Very Large Array and textit{Hubble Space Telescope} analysis of MACS J1447.4+0827 ($z = 0.3755$), one of the strongest cool core clusters known, in which extreme feedback from its central supermassive black hole is needed to prevent the hot intracluster gas from cooling. Using this multiwavelength approach, including 70 ks of textit{Chandra} X-ray observations, we detect the presence of collimated jetted-outflows that coincides with a southern and a northern X-ray cavity. The total mechanical power associated with these outflows ($P_{mathrm{cav}} approx 6 times 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$) is roughly consistent with the energy required to prevent catastrophic cooling of the hot intracluster gas ($L_{mathrm{cool}} = 1.71 pm 0.01 times 10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$ for t$_mathrm{cool}$ = 7.7 Gyrs); implying that powerful supermassive black hole feedback has been in place several Giga-years ago in MACS J1447.7+0827. In addition, we detect the presence of a radio mini-halo that extends over 300 kpc in diameter ($P_{1.4 mathrm{GHz}} = 3.0 pm 0.3 times 10^{24}$ W Hz$^{-1}$). The X-ray observations also reveal a $sim20$ kpc plume-like structure that coincides with optical dusty filaments that surround the central galaxy. Overall, this study demonstrates that the various physical phenomena occurring in the most nearby clusters of galaxies are also occurring in their more distant analogues.
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