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Register a new userNear-IR Surface Brightness Fluctuations and Optical Colours of Magellanic Star Clusters
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This work continues our efforts to calibrate model surface brightness luminosities for the study of unresolved stellar populations, through the comparison with data of Magellanic Cloud star clusters. We present here the relation between absolute K_s-band fluctuation magnitude and (V - I) integrated colour, using data from the 2MASS and DENIS surveys, and from the literature. We compare the star cluster sample with the sample of early-type galaxies and spiral bulges studied by Liu et al. (2002). We find that intermediate-age to old clusters lie along a linear correlation with the same slope, within the errors, of that defined by the galaxies in the barM_{K_s} vs. (V - I) diagram. While the calibration by Liu et al. was determined in the colour range 1.05 < (V - I_c)_0 < 1.25, ours holds in the interval -5 >= barM_{K_s} >= -9, 0.3 <= (V - I) <= 1.25. This implies, according to Bruzual & Charlot (2003) and Mouhcine & Lancon (2003) models, that the star clusters and the latest star formation bursts in the galaxies and bulges constitute an age sequence. At the same time, there is a slight offset between the galaxies and the star clusters [the latter are ~ 0.7 mag fainter than the former at a given value of (V - I)], caused by the difference in metallicity of roughly a factor of two. The confrontation between models and galaxy data also suggests that galaxies with K_s fluctuation magnitudes that are brighter than predicted, given their (V - I) colour, might be explained in part by longer lifetimes of TP-AGB stars. (Abridged version.)
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We present optical and IR integrated colours and SBF magnitudes, computed from stellar population synthesis models that include emission from the dusty envelopes surrounding TP-AGB stars undergoing mass-loss. We explore the effects of varying the mass-loss rate by one order of magnitude around the fiducial value, modifying accordingly both the stellar parameters and the output spectra of the TP-AGB stars plus their dusty envelopes. The models are single burst, and range in age from a few Myr to 14 Gyr, and in metallicity between $Z$ = 0.0001 and $Z$ = 0.07; they combine new calculations for the evolution of stars in the TP-AGB phase, with star plus envelope SEDs produced with the radiative transfer code DUSTY. We compare these models to optical and near-IR data of single AGB stars and Magellanic star clusters. This comparison validates the current understanding of the role of mass-loss in determining stellar parameters and spectra in the TP-AGB. However, neither broad-band colours nor SBF measurements in the optical or the near-IR can discern global changes in the mass-loss rate of a stellar population. We predict that mid-IR SBF measurements can pick out such changes, and actually resolve whether a relation between metallicity and mass-loss exists.
I present integrated colors and surface brightness fluctuation magnitudes in the mid-IR, derived from stellar population synthesis models that include the effects of the dusty envelopes around thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars. The models are based on the Bruzual & Charlot CB* isochrones; they are single-burst, range in age from a few Myr to 14 Gyr, and comprise metallicities between $Z$= 0.0001 and $Z$ = 0.04. I compare these models to mid-IR data of AGB stars and star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds, and study the effects of varying self-consistently the mass-loss rate, the stellar parameters, and the output spectra of the stars plus their dusty envelopes. I find that models with a higher than fiducial mass-loss rate are needed to fit the mid-IR colors of extreme single AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Surface brightness fluctuation magnitudes are quite sensitive to metallicity for 4.5 um and longer wavelengths at all stellar population ages, and powerful diagnostics of mass-loss rate in the TP-AGB for intermediate-age populations, between 100 Myr and 2-3 Gyr.
We use new WFC3 observations of the nearby grand design spiral galaxy M83 to develop two independent methods for estimating the ages of young star clusters. The first method uses the physical extent and morphology of Halpha emission to estimate the ages of clusters younger than tau ~10 Myr. It is based on the simple premise that the gas in very young (tau < few Myr) clusters is largely coincident with the cluster stars, is in a small, ring-like structure surrounding the stars in slightly older clusters (e.g., tau ~5 Myr), and is in a larger ring-like bubble for still older clusters (i.e., ~5-10 Myr). The second method is based on an observed relation between pixel-to-pixel flux variations within clusters and their ages. This method relies on the fact that the brightest individual stars in a cluster are most prominent at ages around 10 Myr, and fall below the detection limit (i.e., M_V < -3.5) for ages older than about 100 Myr. These two methods are the basis for a new morphological classification system which can be used to estimate the ages of star clusters based on their appearance. We compare previous age estimates of clusters in M83 determined from fitting UBVI Halpha measurements using predictions from stellar evolutionary models with our new morphological categories and find good agreement at the ~95% level. The scatter within categories is ~0.1 dex in log tau for young clusters (<10 Myr) and ~0.5 dex for older (>10 Myr) clusters. A by-product of this study is the identification of 22 single-star HII regions in M83, with central stars having ages ~4 Myr.
We measure F814W Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) for a sample of distant shell galaxies with radial velocities ranging from 4000 to 8000 km/s. The distance at galaxies is then evaluated by using the SBF method. For this purpose, theoretical SBF magnitudes for the ACS@HST filters are computed for single burst stellar populations covering a wide range of ages (t=1.5-14 Gyr) and metallicities (Z=0.008-0.04). Using these stellar population models we provide the first $bar{M}_{F814W}$ versus $(F475W-F814W)_0$ calibration and we extend the previous I-band versus $(B-I)_0$ color relation to colors $(B-I)_{0}leq 2.0$ mag. Coupling our SBF measurements with the theoretical calibration we derive distances with a statistical uncertainty of $sim 8%$, and systematic error of $sim 6 %$. The procedure developed to analyze data ensures that the indetermination due to possible unmasked residual shells is well below $sim 12 %$. The results suggest that emph{optical} SBFs can be measured at $d geq 100 Mpc$ with ACS@HST imaging. SBF-based distances coupled with recession velocities corrected for peculiar motion, allow us obtain $H_{0} = 76 pm 6$ (statistical) $pm 5$ (systematic) km/s/Mpc.
Like other starburst galaxies, M82 hosts compact, massive young star clusters that are interesting both in their own right and as benchmarks for population synthesis models. Can spectral synthesis models at resolutions around 1000 adequately reproduce the near-IR spectral features and the energy distribution of these clusters between 0.8 and 2.4 microns? How do the derived cluster properties compare with previous results from optical studies? We analyse the spectra of 5 massive clusters in M82, using data acquired with the spectrograph SpeX on the InfraRed Telescope Facility (NASA/IRTF) and a new population synthesis tool with a highly improved near-IR extension, based on a recent collection of empirical and theoretical spectra of red supergiant stars. We obtain excellent fits across the near-IR with models at quasi-solar metallicity and a solar neighbourhood extinction law. Spectroscopy breaks a strong degeneracy between age and extinction in the near-IR colours in the red supergiant-dominated phase of evolution. The estimated near-IR ages cluster between 9 and 30 Myr, i.e. the ages at which the molecular bands due to luminous red supergiants are strongest in the current models. They do not always agree with optical spectroscopic ages. Adding optical data sometimes leads to the rejection of the solar neighbourhood extinction law. This is not surprising considering small-scale structure around the clusters, but it has no significant effect on the near-IR based spectroscopic ages. [abridged]
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