No Arabic abstract
We present an analysis of the structure, kinematics and orbit of a newly found stellar stream emanating from the globular cluster M92 (NGC 6341). This stream was discovered in an improved matched-filter map of the outer Galaxy, based on a color-color-magnitude diagram, created using photometry from the Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) and the Pan-STARRS 1 3$pi$ survey (PS1). We find the stream to have a length of 17{deg} (2.5 kpc at the distance of M92), a width dispersion of $0.29${deg}(42 pc) and a stellar mass of $[3.17 pm{0.89}] times 10^{4} $ M$_odot$ ($10 %$ of the stellar mass of the current main body of M92). We examine the kinematics of main sequence, red giant and blue horizontal branch stars belonging to the stream and that have proper motion measurements from the second data release of Gaia. N-body simulations suggest that the stream was likely formed very recently (during the last $sim 500$ Myr) forcing us to question the orbital origin of this ancient, metal-poor globular cluster.
The Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) will map the northern high Galactic latitude sky in the $u$-band (CFIS-u, 10,000$, {rm deg^2}$) and in the $r$-band (CFIS-r, 5,000$, {rm deg^2}$), enabling a host of stand-alone science investigations, and providing some of the ground-based data necessary for photometric redshift determination for the Euclid mission. In this first contribution we present the $u$-band component of the survey, describe the observational strategy, and discuss some first highlight results, based on approximately one third of the final area. We show that the Galactic anticenter structure is distributed continuously along the line of sight, out to beyond 20 kpc, and possesses a metallicity distribution that is essentially identical to that of the outer disk sampled by APOGEE. This suggests that it is probably a buckled disk of old metal-rich stars, rather than a stream or a flare. We also discuss the future potential for CFIS-u in discovering star-forming dwarf galaxies around the Local Group, the characterization of the white dwarf and blue straggler population of the Milky Way, as well as its sensitivity to low-surface brightness structures in external galaxies.
We present optical spectroscopy for 18 halo white dwarfs identified using photometry from the Canada-France Imaging Survey and Pan-STARRS1 DR1 3$pi$ survey combined with astrometry from Gaia DR2. The sample contains 13 DA, 1 DZ, 2 DC, and two potentially exotic types of white dwarf. We fit both the spectrum and the spectral energy distribution in order to obtain the temperature and surface gravity, which we then convert into a mass, and then an age, using stellar isochrones and the initial-to-final mass relation. We find a large spread in ages that is not consistent with expected formation scenarios for the Galactic halo. We find a mean age of 9.03$^{+2.13}_{-2.03}$ Gyr and a dispersion of 4.21$^{+2.33}_{-1.58}$ Gyr for the inner halo using a maximum likelihood method. This result suggests an extended star formation history within the local halo population.
We present a new fully data-driven algorithm that uses photometric data from the Canada-France-Imaging-Survey (CFIS; $u$), Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1; $griz$), and Gaia ($G$) to discriminate between dwarf and giant stars and to estimate their distances and metallicities. The algorithm is trained and tested using the SDSS/SEGUE spectroscopic dataset and Gaia photometric/astrometric dataset. At [Fe/H]$<-1.2$, the algorithm succeeds in identifying more than 70% of the giants in the training/test set, with a dwarf contamination fraction below 30% (with respect to the SDSS/SEGUE dataset). The photometric metallicity estimates have uncertainties better than 0.2 dex when compared with the spectroscopic measurements. The distances estimated by the algorithm are valid out to a distance of at least $sim 80$ kpc without requiring any prior on the stellar distribution, and have fully independent uncertainities that take into account both random and systematic errors. These advances allow us to estimate these stellar parameters for approximately 12 million stars in the photometric dataset. This will enable studies involving the chemical mapping of the distant outer disc and the stellar halo, including their kinematics using the Gaia proper motions. This type of algorithm can be applied in the Southern hemisphere to the first release of LSST data, thus providing an almost complete view of the external components of our Galaxy out to at least $sim 80$ kpc. Critical to the success of these efforts will be ensuring well-defined spectroscopic training sets that sample a broad range of stellar parameters with minimal biases. A catalogue containing the training/test set and all relevant parameters within the public footprint of CFIS is available online.
We present the chemical distribution of the Milky Way, based on 2,900$, {rm deg^2}$ of $u$-band photometry taken as part of the Canada-France Imaging Survey. When complete, this survey will cover 10,000$, {rm deg^2}$ of the Northern sky. By combing the CFHT $u$-band photometry together with SDSS and Pan-STARRS $g,r,$ and $i$, we demonstrate that we are able to measure reliably the metallicities of individual stars to $sim 0.2$ dex, and hence additionally obtain good photometric distance estimates. This survey thus permits the measurement of metallicities and distances of the dominant main-sequence population out to approximately 30 kpc, and provides much higher number of stars at large extraplanar distances than have been available from previous surveys. We develop a non-parametric distance-metallicity decomposition algorithm and apply it to the sky at $30deg < |b| < 70deg$ and to the North Galactic Cap. We find that the metallicity-distance distribution is well-represented by three populations whose metallicity distributions do not vary significantly with vertical height above the disk. As traced in main-sequence stars, the stellar halo component shows a vertical density profile that is close to exponential, with a scale height of around 3 kpc. This may indicate that the inner halo was formed partly from disk stars ejected in an ancient minor merger.
We present data products from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). CFHTLenS is based on the Wide component of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS). It encompasses 154 deg^2 of deep, optical, high-quality, sub-arcsecond imaging data in the five optical filters u^*griz. The article presents our data processing of the complete CFHTLenS data set. We were able to obtain a data set with very good image quality and high-quality astrometric and photometric calibration. Our external astrometric accuracy is between 60-70 mas with respect to SDSS data and the internal alignment in all filters is around 30 mas. Our average photometric calibration shows a dispersion on the order of 0.01 to 0.03 mag for griz and about 0.04 mag for u^* with respect to SDSS sources down to i <= 21. In the spirit of the CFHTLS all our data products are released to the astronomical community via the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre. We give a description and how-to manuals of the public products which include image pixel data, source catalogues with photometric redshift estimates and all relevant quantities to perform weak lensing studies.