No Arabic abstract
We present the UV photometry of the old open cluster NGC188 obtained using images acquired with Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) on board the ASTROSAT satellite, in two far-UV (FUV) and one near-UV (NUV) filters. UVIT data is utilised in combination with optical photometric data to construct the optical and UV colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). In the FUV images, we detect only hot and bright blue straggler stars (BSSs), one hot subdwarf, and one white dwarf (WD) candidate. In the NUV images, we detect members up to a faintness limit of ~22 mag including 21 BSSs, 2 yellow straggler stars (YSSs), and one WD candidate. This study presents the first NUV-optical CMDs, and are overlaid with updated BaSTI-IAC isochrones and WD cooling sequence, which are found to fit well to the observed CMDs. We use spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting to estimate the effective temperatures, radii, and luminosities of the UV-bright stars. We find the cluster to have an HB population with three stars (Teff = 4750 - 21000 K). We also detect two yellow straggler stars, with one of them with UV excess connected to its binarity and X-ray emission.
The binary fractions of open and globular clusters yield powerful constraints on their dynamical state and evolutionary history. We apply publicly available Bayesian analysis code to a $UBVRIJHK_{S}$ photometric catalog of the old open cluster NGC 188 to detect and characterize photometric binaries along the cluster main sequence. This technique has the advantage that it self-consistently handles photometric errors, missing data in various bandpasses, and star-by-star prior constraints on cluster membership. Simulations are used to verify uncertainties and quantify selection biases in our analysis, illustrating that among binaries with mass ratios >0.5, we recover the binary fraction to better than 7% in the mean, with no significant dependence on binary fraction and a mild dependence on assumed mass ratio distribution. Using our photometric catalog, we recover the majority (65%$pm$11%) of spectroscopically identified main sequence binaries, including 8 of the 9 with spectroscopically measured mass ratios. Accounting for incompleteness and systematics, we derive a mass ratio distribution that rises toward lower mass ratios (within our $q >$0.5 analysis domain). We observe a raw binary fraction for solar-type main sequence stars with mass ratios $q >$0.5 of 42%$pm$4%, independent of the assumed mass ratio distribution to within its uncertainties, consistent with literature values for old open clusters but significantly higher than the field solar-type binary fraction. We confirm that the binaries identified by our method are more concentrated than single stars, in agreement with previous studies, and we demonstrate that the binary nature of those candidates which remain unidentified spectroscopically is strongly supported by photometry from Gaia DR2.
This paper provides a detailed comparison of the differences in parameters derived for a star cluster from its color-magnitude diagrams depending on the filters and models used. We examine the consistency and reliability of fitting three widely-used stellar evolution models to fifteen combinations of optical and near-IR photometry for the old open cluster NGC 188. The optical filter response curves match those of the theoretical systems and are thus not the source of fit inconsistencies. NGC 188 is ideally suited to the present study thanks to a wide variety of high-quality photometry and available proper motions and radial velocities which enable us to remove non-cluster members and many binaries. Our Bayesian fitting technique yields inferred values of age, metallicity, distance modulus, and absorption as a function of the photometric band combinations and stellar models. We show that the historically-favored three band combinations of UBV and VRI can be meaningfully inconsistent with each other and with longer baseline datasets such as UBVRIJHKs. Differences among model sets can also be substantial. For instance, fitting Yi et al. (2001) and Dotter et al. (2008) models to UBVRIJHKs photometry for NGC 188 yields the following cluster parameters: age={5.78+ 0.03, 6.45+-0.04} Gyr, [Fe/H]={+0.125+-0.003, -0.077+-0.003} dex, m-M={11.441+-0.007, 11.525+-0.005} mag, and Av={0.162+-0.003, 0.236+-0.003} mag, respectively. Within the formal fitting errors, these two fits are substantially and statistically different. Such differences amongst fits using different filters and models are a cautionary tale regarding our current ability to fit star cluster color-magnitude diagrams. Additional modeling of this kind, with more models and star clusters, and future GAIA parallaxes are critical for isolating and quantifying the most relevant uncertainties in stellar evolutionary models.
We present the UV photometry of the globular cluster NGC 1261 using images acquired with the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) on-board ASTROSAT. We performed PSF photometry on four near-UV (NUV) and two far-UV (FUV) images and constructed UV colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), in combination with HST, Gaia, and ground-based optical photometry for member stars. We detected the full horizontal branch (HB) in NUV, blue HB in the FUV and identified two extreme HB (EHB) stars. HB stars have a tight sequence in UV-optical CMDs well-fitted with isochrones generated (12.6 Gyr age, [Fe/H] = -1.27 metallicity) using updated BaSTI-IAC models. Effective temperatures (Teff), luminosities and radii of bright HB stars were estimated using spectral energy distribution. As we detect the complete sample of UV bright HB stars, the hot end of the HB distribution is found to terminate at the G-jump (Teff ~ 11500 K). The two EHB stars, fitted well with single spectra, have Teff= 31,000 K and a mass = 0.495Msun and follow the same Teff-Radius relation of the blue HB stars. We constrain the formation pathways of these EHB stars to extreme mass loss in the RGB phase (either due to rotation or enhanced Helium), OR early hot-flash scenario.
In this paper, we present our results for the photometric and kinematical studies of old open cluster NGC 188. We determined various astrophysical parameters like limited radius, core and tidal radii, distance, luminosity and mass functions, total mass, relaxation time etc. for the cluster using 2MASS catalog. We obtained the clusters distance from the Sun as 1721+/-41 pc and log (age)= 9.85+/-0.05 at Solar metallicity. The relaxation time of the cluster is smaller than the estimated cluster age which suggests that the cluster is dynamically relaxed. Our results agree with the values mentioned in the literature. We also determined the clusters apex coordinates as (281.88 deg, -44.76 deg) using AD-diagram method. Other kinematical parameters like space velocity components, cluster center and elements of Solar motion etc. have also been computed.
We present JHK near-infrared photometric study for the old open cluster (OC) Trumpler 5 (Tr 5), based on the 2MASS data. From the color-magnitude diagrams of Tr 5, we have located the position of the red giant clump (RGC) stars, and used the mean magnitude of the RGC stars in K-band to estimate the distance to Tr 5, d = 3.1 +/- 0.1 kpc ((m-M)_0 = 12.46 +/- 0.04). From fitting the theoretical isochrones of Padova group, we have estimated the reddening, metallicity, and age : E(B-V) = 0.64 +/- 0.05, [Fe/H] = -0.4 +/- 0.1 dex, and t =2.8 +/- 0.2 Gyr (log t=9.45 +/- 0.04), respectively. These parameters generally agree well with those obtained from the previous studies on Tr 5 and confirms that this cluster is an old OC with metallicity being metal-poorer than solar abundance, located in the anti-Galactic center region.