New insights on the Galactic Bulge Initial Mass Function

We have derived the Galactic bulge initial mass function of the SWEEPS field in the mass range 0.15 $< M/M_{odot}<$ 1.0, using deep photometry collected with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. Observations at several epochs, spread over 9 years, allowed us to separate the disk and bulge stars down to very faint magnitudes, F814W $sim$ 26 mag, with a proper-motion accuracy better than 0.5 mas/yr. This allowed us to determine the initial mass function of the pure bulge component uncontaminated by disk stars for this low-reddening field in the Sagittarius window. In deriving the mass function, we took into account the presence of unresolved binaries, errors in photometry, distance modulus and reddening, as well as the metallicity dispersion and the uncertainties caused by adopting different theoretical color-temperature relations. We found that the Galactic bulge initial mass function can be fitted with two power laws with a break at M $sim$ 0.56 $M_{odot}$, the slope being steeper ($alpha$ = -2.41$pm$0.50) for the higher masses, and shallower ($alpha$ = -1.25$pm$0.20) for the lower masses. In the high-mass range, our derived mass function agrees well with the mass function derived for other regions of the bulge. In the low-mass range however, our mass function is slightly shallower, which suggests that separating the disk and bulge components is particularly important in the low-mass range. The slope of the bulge mass function is also similar to the slope of the mass function derived for the disk in the high-mass regime, but the bulge mass function is slightly steeper in the low-mass regime. We used our new mass function to derive stellar M/L values for the Galactic bulge and we obtained 2.1 $<M/L_{F814W}<$ 2.4 and 3.1 $< M/L_{F606W}<$ 3.6 according to different assumptions on the slope of the IMF for masses larger than 1 $M_{odot}$.

First Detection of the White-Dwarf Cooling Sequence of the Galactic Bulge

We present Hubble Space Telescope data of the low-reddening Sagittarius window in the Galactic bulge. The Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search field (3x3), together with three more Advanced Camera for Surveys and eight Wide Field Camera 3 fields, were observed in the F606W and F814W filters, approximately every two weeks for two years, with the principal aim of detecting a hidden population of isolated black holes and neutron stars through astrometric microlensing. Proper motions were measured with an accuracy of ~0.1 mas/yr (~4 km/s) at F606W~25.5 mag, and better than ~0.5 mas/yr (20 km/s) at F606W~28 mag, in both axes. Proper-motion measurements allowed us to separate disk and bulge stars and obtain a clean bulge color-magnitude diagram. We then identified for the first time a white dwarf (WD) cooling sequence in the Galactic bulge, together with a dozen candidate extreme horizontal branch stars. The comparison between theory and observations shows that a substantial fraction of the WDs (30%) are systematically redder than the cooling tracks for CO-core H-rich and He-rich envelope WDs. This evidence would suggest the presence of a significant number of low-mass WDs and WD - main sequence binaries in the bulge. This hypothesis is further supported by the finding of two dwarf novae in outburst, two short-period (P < 1 d) ellipsoidal variables, and a few candidate cataclysmic variables in the same field.

On a new theoretical calibration of the Stroemgren hk metallicity index: NGC6522 as a first test case

We present a new theoretical calibration of the Stroemgren metallicity index hk by using alpha-enhanced evolutionary models transformed into the observational plane by using atmosphere models with the same chemical mixture. We apply the new Metallicity--Index--Color (MIC) relations to a sample of 85 field red giants (RGs) and find that the difference between photometric estimates and spectroscopic measurements is on average smaller than 0.1 dex with a dispersion of sigma = 0.19 dex. The outcome is the same if we apply the MIC relations to a sample of eight RGs in the bulge globular cluster NGC6522, but the standard deviation ranges from 0.26 (hk, v-y) to 0.49 (hk, u-y). The difference is mainly caused by a difference in photometric accuracy. The new MIC relations based on the (Ca-y) color provide metallicities systematically more metal-rich than the spectroscopic ones. We found that the Ca-band is affected by Ca abundance and possibly by chromospheric activity.

Stromgren photometry of Galactic Globular Clusters. II Metallicity distribution of red giants in Omega Centauri

We present new intermediate-band Stroemgren photometry based on more than 300 u,v,b,y images of the Galactic globular cluster Omega Cen. Optical data were supplemented with new multiband near-infrared (NIR) photometry (350 J,H,K_s images). The final optical-NIR catalog covers a region of more than 20*20 arcmin squared across the cluster center. We use different optical-NIR color-color planes together with proper motion data available in the literature to identify candidate cluster red giant (RG) stars. By adopting different Stroemgren metallicity indices we estimate the photometric metallicity for ~4,000 RGs, the largest sample ever collected. The metallicity distributions show multiple peaks ([Fe/H]_phot=-1.73+/-0.08,-1.29+/-0.03,-1.05+/-0.02,-0.80+/-0.04,-0.42+/-0.12 and -0.07+/-0.08 dex) and a sharp cut-off in the metal-poor tail ([Fe/H]_phot<=-2 dex) that agree quite well with spectroscopic measurements. We identify four distinct sub-populations,namely metal-poor (MP,[Fe/H]<=-1.49), metal-intermediate (MI,-1.49<[Fe/H]<=-0.93), metal-rich (MR,-0.95<[Fe/H]<=-0.15) and solar metallicity (SM,[Fe/H]~0). The last group includes only a small fraction of stars (~8+/-5%) and should be confirmed spectroscopically. Moreover, using the difference in metallicity based on different photometric indices, we find that the 19+/-1% of RGs are candidate CN-strong stars. This fraction agrees quite well with recent spectroscopic estimates and could imply a large fraction of binary stars. The Stroemgren metallicity indices display a robust correlation with alpha-elements ([Ca+Si/H]) when moving from the metal-intermediate to the metal-rich regime ([Fe/H]>-1.7 dex).

MAD@VLT: Deep into the Madding Crowd of Omega Centauri

We present deep and accurate Near-Infrared (NIR) photometry of the Galactic Globular Cluster (GC) Omega Cen. Data were collected using the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) on VLT (ESO). The unprecedented quality of the images provided the opportunity to perform accurate photometry in the central crowded regions. Preliminary results indicate that the spread in age among the different stellar populations in Omega Cen is limited.

Relative and absolute calibration for multi-band data collected with the 2.2m ESO/MPI and 1.54m Danish Telescopes

We present the strategies adopted in the relative and absolute calibration of two different data sets: U,B,V,I-band images collected with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) mosaic camera mounted on the 2.2m ESO/MPI Telescope and u,v,b,y Stroemgren images collected with the 1.54m Danish Telescope (ESO, La Silla). In the case of the WFI camera we adopted two methods for the calibration, one for images collected before 2002, with the ESO filters U/38_ESO841 and B/99_ESO842, and a different one for data secured after 2002, with the filters U/50_ESO877 and B/123_ESO878. The positional and color effects turned out to be stronger for images collected with the old filters. The eight WFI chips of these images were corrected one by one, while in the case of images secured with the new filters, we corrected the entire mosaic in a single step. In the case of the Danish data set, we compared point-spread function (PSF) and aperture photometry for each frame, finding a trend in both the X and Y directions of the chip. The corrections resulted in a set of first and second order polynomials to be applied to the instrumental magnitudes of each individual frame as a function of the star position.

On the white dwarf cooling sequence of the globular cluster Omega Centauri

We present deep and precise photometry (F435, F625W, F658N) of Omega Cen collected with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We have identified ~ 6,500 white dwarf (WD) candidates, and the ratio of WD and Main Sequence (MS) star counts is found to be at least a factor of two larger than the ratio of CO-core WD cooling and MS lifetimes. This discrepancy is not explained by the possible occurrence of a He-enhanced stellar population, since the MS lifetime changes by only 15% when changing from a canonical (Y=0.25) to a He-enhanced composition (Y=0.42). The presence of some He-core WDs seems able to explain the observed star counts. The fraction of He WDs required ranges from 10% to 80% depending on their mean mass and it is at least five times larger than for field WDs. The comparison in the Color Magnitude Diagram between theory and observations also supports the presence of He WDs. Empirical evidence indicates that He WDs have been detected in stellar systems hosting a large sample of extreme horizontal branch stars, thus suggesting that a fraction of red giants might avoid the He-core flash.

On the radial distribution of white dwarfs in the Galactic globular cluster Omega Cen

We present deep and accurate photometry (F435W, F625W, F658N) of the Galactic Globular Cluster Omega Cen collected with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We identified ~ 6,500 white dwarf (WD)candidates and compared their radial distribution with that of Main Sequence (MS) stars. We found a mild evidence that young WDs (0.1 < t < 0.6 Gyr) are less centrally concentrated when compared to MS stars in the magnitude range 25 < F435W < 26.5.

Stroemgren metallicity calibration: the m1, b-y relation

We performed a new calibration of the Stroemgren metallicity index m1 based on the b-y color of cluster red giant stars. The current Metallicity-Index-Color relation is not linear in the color range 0.40 < b-y < 1.0, but provides iron abundances of cluster and field red giants with an accuracy of ~ 0.25 dex.

Stroemgren photometry of Galactic Globular Clusters. I. New Calibrations of the metallicity index

We present a new calibration of the Stroemgren metallicity index m1 using red giant (RG) stars in 4 globular clusters (GCs:M92,M13,NGC1851,47Tuc) with metallicity ranging from [Fe/H]=-2.2 to -0.7, marginally affected by reddening (E(B-V)<0.04) and with accurate u,v,b,y photometry.The main difference between the new metallicity-index-color (MIC) relations and similar relations available in the literature is that we adopted the u-y/v-y colors instead of the b-y.These colors present a stronger sensitivity to effective temperature, and the MIC relations show a linear slope. The difference between photometric estimates and spectroscopic measurements for RGs in M71,NGC288,NGC362,NGC6397, and NGC6752 is 0.04+/-0.03dex (sigma=0.11dex). We also apply the MIC relations to 85 field RGs with metallicity raning from [Fe/H]=-2.4 to -0.5 and accurate reddening estimates. We find that the difference between photometric estimates and spectroscopic measurements is-0.14+/-0.01dex (sig=0.17dex). We also provide two sets of MIC relations based on evolutionary models that have been transformed into the observational plane by adopting either semi-empirical or theoretical color-temperature relations. We apply the semi-empirical relations to the 9 GCs and find that the difference between photometric and spectroscopic metallicities is 0.04+/-0.03dex (sig=0.10dex).A similar agreement is found for the sample of field RGs, with a difference of -0.09+/-0.03dex (sig=0.19dex).The difference between metallicity estimates based on theoretical relations and spectroscopic measurements is -0.11+/-0.03dex (sig=0.14dex) for the 9 GGCs and -0.24+/-0.03dex (sig=0.15dex) for the field RGs. Current evidence indicates that new MIC relations provide metallicities with an intrinsic accuracy better than 0.2dex.