No Arabic abstract
We use the first release of the SDSS/MaStar stellar library comprising ~9000, high S/N spectra, to calculate integrated spectra of stellar population models. The models extend over the wavelength range 0.36-1.03 micron and share the same spectral resolution (R~1800) and flux calibration as the SDSS-IV/MaNGA galaxy data. The parameter space covered by the stellar spectra collected thus far allows the calculation of models with ages and chemical composition in the range t>200 Myr, -2 <=[Z/H]<= + 0.35, which will be extended as MaStar proceeds. Notably, the models include spectra for dwarf Main Sequence stars close to the core H-burning limit, as well as spectra for cold, metal-rich giants. Both stellar types are crucial for modelling lambda>0.7 micron absorption spectra. Moreover, a better parameter coverage at low metallicity allows the calculation of models as young as 500 Myr and the full account of the Blue Horizontal Branch phase of old populations. We present models adopting two independent sets of stellar parameters (T_eff, logg, [Z/H]). In a novel approach, their reliability is tested on the fly using the stellar population models themselves. We perform tests with Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds globular clusters, finding that the new models recover their ages and metallicities remarkably well, with systematics as low as a few per cent for homogeneous calibration sets. We also fit a MaNGA galaxy spectrum, finding residuals of the order of a few per cent comparable to the state-of-art models, but now over a wider wavelength range.
We present the first release of the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), which is a large, well-calibrated, high-quality empirical library covering the wavelength range of 3,622-10,354A at a resolving power of R~1800. The spectra were obtained using the same instrument as used by the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) project, by piggybacking on the SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2N observations. Compared to previous empirical libraries, the MaStar library will have a higher number of stars and a more comprehensive stellar-parameter coverage, especially of cool dwarfs, low-metallicity stars, and stars with different [alpha/Fe], achieved by a sophisticated target selection strategy that takes advantage of stellar-parameter catalogs from the literature. This empirical library will provide a new basis for stellar population synthesis, and is particularly well-suited for stellar-population analysis of MaNGA galaxies. The first version of the library contains 8646 high-quality per-visit spectra for 3321 unique stars. Compared to photometry, the relative flux calibration of the library is accurate to 3.9% in g-r, 2.7% in r-i, and 2.2% in i-z. The data are released as part of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 15. We expect the final release of the library to contain more than 10,000 stars.
We introduce CoSHA: a Code for Stellar properties Heuristic Assignment. In order to estimate the stellar properties, CoSHA implements a Gradient Tree Boosting algorithm to label each star across the parameter space ($T_{text{eff}}$, $log{g}$, $left[text{Fe}/text{H}right]$, and $left[alpha/text{Fe}right]$). We use CoSHA to estimate these stellar atmospheric parameters of $22,$k unique stars in the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar). To quantify the reliability of our approach, we run both internal tests using the Gottingen Stellar Library (GSL, a theoretical library) and the first data release of MaStar, and external tests by comparing the resulting distributions in the parameter space with the APOGEE estimates of the same properties. In summary, our parameter estimates span in the ranges: $T_{text{eff}}=[2900,12000],$K, $log{g}=[-0.5,5.6]$, $left[text{Fe}/text{H}right]=[-3.74,0.81]$, $left[alpha/text{Fe}right]=[-0.22,1.17]$. We report internal (external) uncertainties of the properties of $sigma_{T_{text{eff}}}sim48,(325),$K, $sigma_{log{g}}sim0.2,(0.4)$, $sigma_{left[text{Fe}/text{H}right]}sim0.13,(0.27)$, $sigma_{left[alpha/text{Fe}right]}sim0.09,(0.14)$. These uncertainties are comparable to those of other methods with similar objectives. Despite the fact that CoSHA is not aware of the spatial distribution of these physical properties in the Milky Way, we are able to recover the main trends known in the literature with great statistical confidence. The catalogue of physical properties can be accessed in url{http://ifs.astroscu.unam.mx/MaStar}.
We introduce the ongoing MaStar project, which is going to construct a large, well-calibrated, high quality empirical stellar library with more than 8000 stars covering the wavelength range from 3622 to 10,354A at a resolution of R~2000, and with better than 3% relative flux calibration. The spectra are taken using hexagonal fiber bundles feeding the BOSS spectrographs on the 2.5m Sloan Foundation Telescope, by piggybacking on the SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2 observations. Compared to previous efforts of empirical libraries, the MaStar Library will have a more comprehensive stellar parameter coverage, especially in cool dwarfs, low metallicity stars, and stars with different [alpha/Fe]. This is achieved by a target selection method based on large spectroscopic catalogs from APOGEE, LAMOST, and SEGUE, combined with photometric selection. This empirical library will provide a new basis for calibrating theoretical spectral libraries and for stellar population synthesis. In addition, with identical spectral coverage and resolution to the ongoing integral field spectroscopy survey of nearby galaxies --- SDSS-IV/MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO). This library is ideal for spectral modeling and stellar population analysis of MaNGA data.
Empirical stellar spectral libraries have applications in both extragalactic and stellar studies, and they have an advantage over theoretical libraries because they naturally include all relevant chemical species and physical processes. During recent years we see a stream of new high quality sets of spectra, but increasing the spectral resolution and widening the wavelength coverage means resorting to multi-order echelle spectrographs. Assembling the spectra from many pieces results in lower fidelity of their shapes. We aim to offer the community a library of high signal-to-noise spectra with reliable continuum shapes. Furthermore, the using an integral field unit (IFU) alleviates the issue of slit losses. Our library was build with the MUSE (Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) IFU instrument. We obtained spectra over nearly the entire visual band (lambda~4800-9300 Ang). We assembled a library of 35 high-quality MUSE spectra for a subset of the stars from the X-shooter Spectral Library. We verified the continuum shape of these spectra with synthetic broad band colors derived from the spectra. We also report some spectral indices from the Lick system, derived from the new observations. We offer a high-fidelity set of stellar spectra that covers the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. It can be useful for both extragalactic and stellar work and demonstrates that the IFUs are excellent tools for building reliable spectral libraries.
The spectral predictions of stellar population models are not as accurate in the ultra-violet (UV) as in the optical wavelength domain. One of the reasons is the lack of high-quality stellar libraries. The New Generation Stellar Library (NGSL), recently released,represents a significant step towards the improvement of this situation. To prepare NGSL for population synthesis, we determined the atmospheric parameters of its stars, we assessed the precision of the wavelength calibration and characterised its intrinsic resolution. We also measured the Galactic extinction for each of the NGSL stars. For our analyses we used ULySS, a full spectrum fitting package, fitting the NGSL spectra against the MILES interpolator. We find that the wavelength calibration is precise up to 0.1 px, after correcting a systematic effect in the optical range. The spectral resolution varies from 3{AA} in the UV to 10{AA} in the near-infrared (NIR), corresponding to a roughly constant reciprocal resolution R ~ 1000 and an instrumental velocity dispersion $sigma_{ins}$ ~ 130 km/s. We derived the atmospheric parameters homogeneously. The precision for the FGK stars is 42K, 0.24 and 0.09 dex for Teff, logg and [Fe/H], respectively. The corresponding mean errors are 29K, 0.50 and 0.48 dex for theMstars, and for the OBA stars they are 4.5 percent, 0.44 and 0.18 dex. The comparison with the literature shows that our results are not biased.