Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userThe horizontal branch luminosity vs metallicity in M31 globular clusters
267
0
0.0
(
0
)
Authors
Luciana Federici
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
Thanks to the outstanding capabilites of the HST, our current knowledge about the M31 globular clusters (GCs) is similar to our knowledge of the Milky Way GCs in the 1960s-1970s, which set the basis for studying the halo and galaxy formation using these objects as tracers, and established their importance in defining the cosmic distance scale. We intend to derive a new calibration of the M_V(HB)-[Fe/H] relation by exploiting the large photometric database of old GCs in M31 in the HST archive. We collected the BVI data for 48 old GCs in M31 and analysed them by applying the same methods and procedures to all objects. We obtained a set of homogeneous colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) that were best-fitted with the fiducial CMD ridge lines of selected Milky Way template GCs. Reddening, metallicity, Horizontal Branch (HB) luminosity and distance were determined self-consistently for each cluster. There are three main results of this study: i) the relation M_V(HB)=(0.25+/-0.02)[Fe/H]+(0.89+/-0.03), which is obtained from the above parameters and is calibrated on the distances of the template Galactic GCs; ii) the distance modulus to M31 of (m-M)_0=24.42+/-0.06 mag, obtained by normalising this relation at the reference value of [Fe/H]=-1.5 to a similar relation using V_0(HB). This is the first determination of the distance to M31 based on the characteristics of its GC system which is calibrated on Galactic GCs; iii) the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is estimated to be 18.54+/-0.07 mag as a consequence of the previous results. These values agree excellently with the most recent estimate based on HST parallaxes of Galactic Cepheid and RR Lyrae stars, as well as with recent methods.
rate research
Read More
We use deep, high quality colour magnitude diagrams obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope to compute a simplified version of the Mironov index [SMI; B/(B+R)] to parametrize the horizontal branch (HB) morphology for 23 globular clusters in the M31 galaxy (Sample-A), all located in the outer halo at projected distances between 10 kpc and 100 kpc. This allows us to compare them with their Galactic counterparts, for which we estimated the SMI exactly in the same way, in the SMI vs. [Fe/H] plane. We find that the majority of the considered M31 clusters lie in a significantly different locus, in this plane, with respect to Galactic clusters lying at any distance from the center of the Milky Way. In particular they have redder HB morphologies at a given metallicity, or, in other words, clusters with the same SMI value are ~0.4 dex more metal rich in the Milky Way than in M31. We discuss the possible origin of this difference and we conclude that the most likely explanation is that many globular clusters in the outer halo of M31 formed ~1-2 Gyr later than their counterparts in the outer halo of the Milky Way, while differences in the cluster-to-cluster distribution of He abundance of individual stars may also play a role. The analysis of another sample of 25 bright M31 clusters (eighteen of them with M_V<= -9.0, Sample-B), whose SMI estimates are much more uncertain as they are computed on shallow colour magnitude diagrams, suggests that extended blue HB tails can be relatively frequent among the most massive M31 globular clusters, possibly hinting at the presence of multiple populations.
The Horizontal Branch (HB) second parameter of Globular Clusters (GCs) is a major open issue in stellar evolution. Large photometric and spectroscopic databases allow a re-examination of this issue. We derive median and extreme (90% of the distribution) colours and magnitudes of stars along the HB for about a hundred GCs. We transform these into median and extreme masses of stars on the HB taking into account evolutionary effects, and compare these masses with those expected at the tip of the Red Giant Branch to derive the total mass lost by the stars. A simple linear dependence on metallicity of this total mass lost explains well the median colours of HB stars. Adopting this mass loss law as universal, we find that age is the main second parameter. However, at least a third parameter is clearly required. The most likely candidate is the He abundance, which might be different in GCs stars belonging to the different stellar generations whose presence was previously derived from the Na-O and Mg-Al anticorrelations. Variations in the median He abundance allow explaining the extremely blue HB of some GCs; such variations are correlated with the R-parameter. Suitable He abundances allow deriving ages from the HB which are consistent with those obtained from the Main Sequence. Small corrections to these latter ages are then proposed, producing a tight age-metallicity relation for disk and bulge GCs. Star-to-star variations in the He content explain the extension of the HB. There is a strong correlation between this extension and the interquartile of the Na-O anticorrelation. The main driver for the variations in the He-content within GCs seems the total cluster mass. 47 Tuc and M3 exhibit exceptional behaviours; however, they can be accommodated in a scenario for the formation of GCs that relates their origin to cooling flows generated after very large episodes of star formation.
Small distortions in the images of Einstein rings or giant arcs offer the exciting prospect of detecting dark matter haloes or subhaloes of mass below $10^9$M$_{odot}$, most of which are too small to have made a visible galaxy. A very large number of such haloes are predicted to exist in the cold dark matter model of cosmogony; in contrast other models, such as warm dark matter, predict no haloes below a mass of this order which depends on the properties of the warm dark matter particle. Attempting to detect these small perturbers could therefore discriminate between different kinds of dark matter particles, and even rule out the cold dark matter model altogether. Globular clusters in the lens galaxy also induce distortions in the image which could, in principle, contaminate the test. Here, we investigate the population of globular clusters in six early type galaxies in the Virgo cluster. We find that the number density of globular clusters of mass $sim10^6$M$_{odot}$ is comparable to that of the dark matter perturbers (including subhaloes in the lens and haloes along the line-of-sight). We show that the very different degrees of mass concentration in globular clusters and dark matter haloes result in different lensing distortions. These are detectable with milli-arcsecond resolution imaging which can distinguish between globular cluster and dark matter halo signals.
We have performed the first detailed simulation of the horizontal branch of the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy by means of synthetic modelling techniques,taking consistently into account the star formation history and metallicity evolution as determined from the main sequence and red giant branch spectroscopic observations. The only free parameter in the whole analysis is the integrated mass loss of red giant branch stars. This is the first time that synthetic horizontal branch models, consistent with the complex star formation history of a galaxy, are calculated and matched to the observations. We find that the metallicity range covered by the star formation history, as constrained by observations, plus a simple mass loss law, enable us to cover both the full magnitude and colour range of HB stars. In addition the number count distribution along the observed horizontal branch, can be also reproduced, provided that the red giant branch mass loss is mildly metallicity dependent, with a very small dispersion at fixed metallicity. The magnitude, metallicity and period distribution of the RR Lyrae stars are also well reproduced. There is no excess of bright objects that require enhanced-He models. The lack of signatures of enhanced-He stars along the horizontal branch is consistent with the lack of the O-Na anticorrelation observed in Sculptor and other dwarf galaxies, and confirms the intrinsic difference between Local Group dwarf galaxies and globular cluster populations. We also compare the brightness of the observed red giant branch bump with the synthetic counterpart, and find a discrepancy -- the theoretical bump being brighter -- similar to what is observed in Galactic globular clusters.
We have analyzed new HST/ACS and HST/WFC3 imaging in F475W and F814W of two previously-unobserved fields along the M31 minor axis to confirm our previous constraints on the shape of M31s inner stellar halo. Both of these new datasets reach a depth of at least F814W$<$27 and clearly detect the blue horizontal branch (BHB) of the field as a distinct feature of the color-magnitude diagram. We measure the density of BHB stars and the ratio of BHB to red giant branch stars in each field using identical techniques to our previous work. We find excellent agreement with our previous measurement of a power-law for the 2-D projected surface density with an index of 2.6$^{+0.3}_{-0.2}$ outside of 3 kpc, which flattens to $alpha <$1.2 inside of 3 kpc. Our findings confirm our previous suggestion that the field BHB stars in M31 are part of the halo population. However, the total halo profile is now known to differ from this BHB profile, which suggests that we have isolated the metal-poor component. This component appears to have an unbroken power-law profile from 3-150 kpc but accounts for only about half of the total halo stellar mass. Discrepancies between the BHB density profile and other measurements of the inner halo are therefore likely due to the different profile of the metal-rich halo component, which is not only steeper than the profile of the met al-poor component, but also has a larger core radius. These profile differences also help to explain the large ratio of BHB/RGB stars in our observations.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
