A Library of IUE White Dwarf Spectra for Stellar Population Analyses?

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

A Library of IUE White Dwarf Spectra for Stellar Population Analyses? ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS OCTOBER II 1996, PAGE 211 SUPPLEMENT SERIES Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 119, 211-219 (1996) A library of IUE white dwarf spectra for stellar population analyses? E. Bica, C. Bonatto and O. Giovannini Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, IF, CP 15051, Porto Alegre 91501–970, RS, Brazil Received October 30, 1995; accepted February 27, 1996 Abstract. — We present high Signal to Noise ratio IUE spectra of different classes of white dwarfs, to be used as templates for stellar population analyses in the ultraviolet region. We present average stellar parameters associated to each group. The library contains 6 groups for DA’s, 2 for DO’s and 5 for DB’s. We also present equivalent widths of spectral features, and continuum measurements. We call attention to the spectral characteristics which are promising indicators of the presence of white dwarfs in the spectra of composite stellar populations. Key words: (stars): white dwarfs — ultraviolet: stars 1. Introduction spectra of much higher signal to noise ratio (S/N)than those of individual stars. This paper is structured as fol- White dwarfs are not luminous objects, but they are lows: in Sect. 2 we present the IUE white dwarf sample, very common: there are 1279 cataloged white dwarfs in gather information on individual stars from the literature, McCook & Sion (1987, hereafter MS87). Many of them and measure fluxes in the present data; in Sect. 3 we build have trigonometric parallaxes indicating distances below the groups and present the average parameters associated 100 pc from the Sun. Since hot white dwarfs emit most of to them; in Sect. 4 we measure equivalent widths, contin- their light in the ultraviolet, it is in this spectral region uum slopes and discuss the results; in Sect. 5 we present where they can most probably be detected in spectra of the concluding remarks of this work. composite stellar populations. In a recent paper, evidence was found of the presence of white dwarfs of type DA 5 in the spectra of early-type galaxies and globular clusters 2. The white dwarf sample (Bica et al. 1996). We gathered the IUE spectra for the present sam- The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) has been ple from the IUE Uniform Low Dispersion Archive collecting spectra of white dwarfs for the last 17 years, and (ULDA Version 4.0) database as stored at the Instituto several of them already have a relatively large number of Astronˆomico e Geof´ısico of the Universidade de S˜ao Paulo individual spectra stored in the IUE database. (IAG–USP). Details on the ULDA calibration processes Much information on stellar parameters have been de- and access can be found in Courvoisier & Paltani (1992, rived from the IUE spectra of individual white dwarfs, just and references therein). Some obvious r´eseau marks and to mention a few: Wesemael et al. (1985) for DO’s, Liebert bad pixels have been corrected by a linear interpolation. et al. (1986) and Wegner & Nelan (1987) for DB’s, and The population synthesis of composite spectra such as Kepler & Nelan (1993) and Bergeron et al. (1995) for those of galaxies and/or star clusters, requires the knowl- DA’s. A spectrophotometric atlas of individual white edge of the observational and theoretical parameters asso- dwarfs was compiled from IUE archives by Wegner & ciated to the different stellar types. With this in mind, we Swanson (1991). searched for white dwarfs which had information on spec- In order to further explore this database, in the present tral classification and/or atmospheric parameters from the paper we group stars of similar spectral characteristics literature. The sample contains 86 white dwarfs, and is into distinct white dwarf classes, which can be very useful not intended to be complete in any sense: we gathered for, e.g., stellar population analyses. We obtain template enough spectra in order to achieve a good (S/N)foreach Send offprint requests to:E.Bica group. We show the results for the individual early-type ?Based upon data collected with the International Ultraviolet DA stars in Table1 and for late-type DA’s in Table2, for Explorer (IUE) Satellite, supported by NASA, SERC and ESA DO’s in Table 3 and DB’s in Table4. By Cols. (1) and (2) 212 E. Bica et al.: A library of IUE white dwarf spectra for stellar population analyses Table 1. Data on individual early-type DA stars 14 WD# Other Spectral Teff(K) Teff(K) log gMV 10 fλ (2646) d × 2 1 1 Names Type (Optical) (UV) ( erg cm− s− A˚− )(pc) WD A1 0136+251 PG 0136+251 DA 1 34 980 9.7 1.68 0346 011 GD 50 DA 2 43 102 9.09 11.4 12.10 29.9† − GR 228 40 540 11.8 0548+000 GD 257 DA 1 9.0 3.67 162.9 GR 289 0549+158 GD 71 DA 1 33 753 32 800 7.76 9.3 21.90 56.5 LTT 11733 EG 210 L1241-036 0612+177 G104-27 DA 2 25 938 7.97 10.3 42.6 EG 46 24 660 10.4 ‡ LTT 11818 L1244-026 1254+223 EG 187 DA 1 40 432 41 200 7.85 10.1 18.50 46.1 PG 1254+223 1314+293 HZ 43A DA 1 38 200 50 000 7.90 8.7 31.70 65.2 PG 1314 EG 98 1615 154 G153-41 DA 2 29 833 8.08 10.2 16.60 44.0 − LTT 6497 29 730 EG 118 1620 391 GR 274 DA 2 24 406 24 800 8.10 10.6 116.0 12.0 − CD-38 10980 2014 575 L210-114 DA 28 373 7.88 10.0 11.60 40.2 2111+498− GD 394 DA 2 39 450 37 000 9.3 26.40 55.0 EG 244 DA 1.5 2309+105 GD 246 DA 1 57 990 54 000 7.91 11.1 28.20 25.1 EG 233 BPM 97895 WD A2 0047 524 BPM 16274 DA 2 18 745 18 015 7.83 10.7 4.50 50.1 − L219-48 0109 264 GD 691 DA 1 18.80 − PHL1003 † 0134+833 GD 419 DA 2 18 730 8.07 11.1 12.80 24.9 GR 308 LP2-534 0214+568 EG 17 DA 2 21 180 7.83 10.5 43.2 H PER1166 ‡ 0227+050 FEIGE 22 DA 3 19 070 7.66 10.6 17.00 27.9 EG 19 0410+117 HZ 2 DA 3 20 790 19 575 7.81 10.7 6.57 42.8 EG 31 1042 690 BPM 6502 DA 3 21 380 7.86 10.5 17.80 32.5 − L101-80 1337+705 G238-44 DA 2.5 20 230 8.05 10.7 15.60 26.2 EG 102 LTT 18341 2136+828 EG 147 DA 3 16 940 17 016 7.60 10.4 12.10 33.4 G261-45 10.9 2149+021 EG 150 DA 3 20 547 7.99 10.7 14.80 25.5 G93-48 18 250 11.0 17 653 WD A3 0232+525 GR 314 DA 3 17 050 8.13 11.5 28.2 G174-5 ‡ 0310 688 EG 21 DA 3 16 181 15 546 8.06 11.3 41.90 10.5 − LB3303 CPD-69 177 1105 048 EG 76 DA 3 15 576 16 720 7.80 11.0 9.33 24.2 − G163-50 15 300 LTT 4099 15 540 15 870 Table Notes. ( ) - no LWP/R spectrum available; ( ) - distance not available. ‡ † E. Bica et al.: A library of IUE white dwarf spectra for stellar population analyses 213 Table 2. Data on individual late-type DA stars 14 WD# Other Spectral Teff(K) Teff(K) log gMV 10 fλ (2646) d × 2 1 1 Names Type (Optical) (UV) ( erg cm− s− A˚− )(pc) WD A4 0352+096 EG 26 DA 4 14 420 15 000 8.10 11.5 2.32 40.2 HZ 4 15 100 13 824 0406+169 EG 29 DA 4 15 300 16 100 8.50 11.2 1.19 67.6 LP414-101 15 740 15 077 0954 710 BPM 6082 DA 4 13 915 13 876 7.72 11.1 5.48 29.9 − L64-27 1327 083 G14-58 DA 4.5 14 350 15 520 7.82 11.3 16.60 13.8 − WOLF485A 12 800 11.9 EG 99 BD-07 3632A 14 670 1919+145 GD 219 DA 4 15 080 15 700 8.08 11.5 9.37 19.7 EG 201 14 632 2047+372 EG 261 DA 4 14 660 15 100 8.16 11.6 9.33 20.2 G210-36 14 001 WD A4.5 0133 116 ROSS 548 DA 4 11 830 12 400 7.97 11.6 32.5 − EG 10 11 990 12 130 ‡ G271-106 10 000 ZZ Cet 0231 054 GD 31 DA 4 12 840 12 910 11.9 29.5 − EG 207 ‡ 0401+250 G8-8 DA 4 12 120 12 227 8.20 11.9 3.34 24.0 EG 28 13 248 13 500 0713+584 GD 294 DA 3.4 13 400 4.94 0858+363 GD 99 DA 4 11 100 12 000 8.08 11.8 1.24 35.5† EG 219 0921+354 EG 65 DA 4 11 620 13 150 7.97 11.7 57.5 G117-B15A 12 500 11 890 11.6 ‡ 11 840 1425 811 L19-2 DA 4 12 100 12 310 8.21 11.9 4.32 23.4 − EG 110 12 230 12 640 MY Aps 1647+591 G226-29 DA 4 12 120 12 270 8.29 11.6 13.20 13.4 GR 368 12 460 12 280 DN Dra 1855+338 EG 127 DA 4.5 10 500 12 060 12.1 1.74 31.5 G207-9 12 040 1935+276 G185-32 DA 4 12 130 11 930 8.05 11.7 6.58 17.9 GR 277 11 970 12 370 PY Vul WD A5 1236 495 BPM 37093 DA 4.5 12 100 11 530 8.81 11.9 3.35 21.5 − LTT 4816 11 200 11 560 12.7 12 899 1559+369 ROSS 808 DA 4.5 11 160 11 180 8.04 11.9 1.58 31.0 G180-23 10 880 11 560 EG 115 11 200 TY CrB 2326+049 G29-38 DA 4 11 820 11 650 8.14 11.9 5.93 16.8 EG 159 11 900 ZZ Psc Table Notes.
Recommended publications
  • Luminous Blue Variables
    Review Luminous Blue Variables Kerstin Weis 1* and Dominik J. Bomans 1,2,3 1 Astronomical Institute, Faculty for Physics and Astronomy, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany 2 Department Plasmas with Complex Interactions, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany 3 Ruhr Astroparticle and Plasma Physics (RAPP) Center, 44801 Bochum, Germany Received: 29 October 2019; Accepted: 18 February 2020; Published: 29 February 2020 Abstract: Luminous Blue Variables are massive evolved stars, here we introduce this outstanding class of objects. Described are the specific characteristics, the evolutionary state and what they are connected to other phases and types of massive stars. Our current knowledge of LBVs is limited by the fact that in comparison to other stellar classes and phases only a few “true” LBVs are known. This results from the lack of a unique, fast and always reliable identification scheme for LBVs. It literally takes time to get a true classification of a LBV. In addition the short duration of the LBV phase makes it even harder to catch and identify a star as LBV. We summarize here what is known so far, give an overview of the LBV population and the list of LBV host galaxies. LBV are clearly an important and still not fully understood phase in the live of (very) massive stars, especially due to the large and time variable mass loss during the LBV phase. We like to emphasize again the problem how to clearly identify LBV and that there are more than just one type of LBVs: The giant eruption LBVs or h Car analogs and the S Dor cycle LBVs.
    [Show full text]
  • The Impact of the Astro2010 Recommendations on Variable Star Science
    The Impact of the Astro2010 Recommendations on Variable Star Science Corresponding Authors Lucianne M. Walkowicz Department of Astronomy, University of California Berkeley [email protected] phone: (510) 642–6931 Andrew C. Becker Department of Astronomy, University of Washington [email protected] phone: (206) 685–0542 Authors Scott F. Anderson, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington Joshua S. Bloom, Department of Astronomy, University of California Berkeley Leonid Georgiev, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico Josh Grindlay, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Steve Howell, National Optical Astronomy Observatory Knox Long, Space Telescope Science Institute Anjum Mukadam, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington Andrej Prsa,ˇ Villanova University Joshua Pepper, Villanova University Arne Rau, California Institute of Technology Branimir Sesar, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington Nicole Silvestri, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington Nathan Smith, Department of Astronomy, University of California Berkeley Keivan Stassun, Vanderbilt University Paula Szkody, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington Science Frontier Panels: Stars and Stellar Evolution (SSE) February 16, 2009 Abstract The next decade of survey astronomy has the potential to transform our knowledge of variable stars. Stellar variability underpins our knowledge of the cosmological distance ladder, and provides direct tests of stellar formation and evolution theory. Variable stars can also be used to probe the fundamental physics of gravity and degenerate material in ways that are otherwise impossible in the laboratory. The computational and engineering advances of the past decade have made large–scale, time–domain surveys an immediate reality. Some surveys proposed for the next decade promise to gather more data than in the prior cumulative history of astronomy.
    [Show full text]
  • PSR J1740-3052: a Pulsar with a Massive Companion
    Haverford College Haverford Scholarship Faculty Publications Physics 2001 PSR J1740-3052: a Pulsar with a Massive Companion I. H. Stairs R. N. Manchester A. G. Lyne V. M. Kaspi Fronefield Crawford Haverford College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.haverford.edu/physics_facpubs Repository Citation "PSR J1740-3052: a Pulsar with a Massive Companion" I. H. Stairs, R. N. Manchester, A. G. Lyne, V. M. Kaspi, F. Camilo, J. F. Bell, N. D'Amico, M. Kramer, F. Crawford, D. J. Morris, A. Possenti, N. P. F. McKay, S. L. Lumsden, L. E. Tacconi-Garman, R. D. Cannon, N. C. Hambly, & P. R. Wood, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 325, 979 (2001). This Journal Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Physics at Haverford Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Haverford Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 325, 979–988 (2001) PSR J174023052: a pulsar with a massive companion I. H. Stairs,1,2P R. N. Manchester,3 A. G. Lyne,1 V. M. Kaspi,4† F. Camilo,5 J. F. Bell,3 N. D’Amico,6,7 M. Kramer,1 F. Crawford,8‡ D. J. Morris,1 A. Possenti,6 N. P. F. McKay,1 S. L. Lumsden,9 L. E. Tacconi-Garman,10 R. D. Cannon,11 N. C. Hambly12 and P. R. Wood13 1University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL 2National Radio Astronomy Observatory, PO Box 2, Green Bank, WV 24944, USA 3Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia 4Physics Department, McGill University, 3600 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T8, Canada 5Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, 550 W.
    [Show full text]
  • Radio Jets in Galaxies with Actively Accreting Black Holes: New Insights from the SDSS Guinevere Kauffmann,1 Timothy M
    Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. (2008) doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12752.x Radio jets in galaxies with actively accreting black holes: new insights from the SDSS Guinevere Kauffmann,1 Timothy M. Heckman2 and Philip N. Best3 1Max-Planck-Institut fur¨ Astrophysik, D-85748 Garching, Germany 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA 3Institute for Astronomy, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ Accepted 2007 November 21. Received 2007 November 13; in original form 2007 September 17 ABSTRACT In the local Universe, the majority of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) are found in massive elliptical galaxies with old stellar populations and weak or undetected emission lines. At high redshifts, however, almost all known radio AGN have strong emission lines. This paper focuses on a subset of radio AGN with emission lines (EL-RAGN) selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We explore the hypothesis that these objects are local analogues of powerful high-redshift radio galaxies. The probability for a nearby radio AGN to have emission lines is a strongly decreasing function of galaxy mass and velocity dispersion and an increasing function of radio luminosity above 1025 WHz−1. Emission-line and radio luminosities are correlated, but with large dispersion. At a given radio power, radio galaxies with small black holes have higher [O III] luminosities (which we interpret as higher accretion rates) than radio galaxies with big black holes. However, if we scale the emission-line and radio luminosities by the black hole mass, we find a correlation between normalized radio power and accretion rate in Eddington units that is independent of black hole mass.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:2005.03682V1 [Astro-Ph.GA] 7 May 2020
    Draft version May 11, 2020 Typeset using LATEX twocolumn style in AASTeX62 Recovering age-metallicity distributions from integrated spectra: validation with MUSE data of a nearby nuclear star cluster Alina Boecker,1 Mayte Alfaro-Cuello,1 Nadine Neumayer,1 Ignacio Mart´ın-Navarro,1, 2, 3, 4 and Ryan Leaman1 1Max-Planck-Institut f¨urAstronomie, K¨onigstuhl17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany 2Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 3Departamento de Astrof´ısica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 4University of California Observatories, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA (Received January 1, 2020; Revised January 7, 2020; Accepted May 11, 2020) Submitted to ApJ ABSTRACT Current instruments and spectral analysis programs are now able to decompose the integrated spec- trum of a stellar system into distributions of ages and metallicities. The reliability of these methods have rarely been tested on nearby systems with resolved stellar ages and metallicities. Here we derive the age-metallicity distribution of M 54, the nucleus of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy, from its integrated MUSE spectrum. We find a dominant old (8 14 Gyr), metal-poor (-1.5 dex) and a young (1 Gyr), metal-rich (+0:25 dex) component - consistent− with the complex stellar populations measured from individual stars in the same MUSE data set. There is excellent agreement between the (mass-weighted) average age and metallicity of the resolved and integrated analyses. Differences are only 3% in age and 0.2 dex metallicitiy. By co-adding individual stars to create M 54's integrated spectrum, we show that the recovered age-metallicity distribution is insensitive to the magnitude limit of the stars or the contribution of blue horizontal branch stars - even when including additional blue wavelength coverage from the WAGGS survey.
    [Show full text]
  • GEORGE HERBIG and Early Stellar Evolution
    GEORGE HERBIG and Early Stellar Evolution Bo Reipurth Institute for Astronomy Special Publications No. 1 George Herbig in 1960 —————————————————————– GEORGE HERBIG and Early Stellar Evolution —————————————————————– Bo Reipurth Institute for Astronomy University of Hawaii at Manoa 640 North Aohoku Place Hilo, HI 96720 USA . Dedicated to Hannelore Herbig c 2016 by Bo Reipurth Version 1.0 – April 19, 2016 Cover Image: The HH 24 complex in the Lynds 1630 cloud in Orion was discov- ered by Herbig and Kuhi in 1963. This near-infrared HST image shows several collimated Herbig-Haro jets emanating from an embedded multiple system of T Tauri stars. Courtesy Space Telescope Science Institute. This book can be referenced as follows: Reipurth, B. 2016, http://ifa.hawaii.edu/SP1 i FOREWORD I first learned about George Herbig’s work when I was a teenager. I grew up in Denmark in the 1950s, a time when Europe was healing the wounds after the ravages of the Second World War. Already at the age of 7 I had fallen in love with astronomy, but information was very hard to come by in those days, so I scraped together what I could, mainly relying on the local library. At some point I was introduced to the magazine Sky and Telescope, and soon invested my pocket money in a subscription. Every month I would sit at our dining room table with a dictionary and work my way through the latest issue. In one issue I read about Herbig-Haro objects, and I was completely mesmerized that these objects could be signposts of the formation of stars, and I dreamt about some day being able to contribute to this field of study.
    [Show full text]
  • The Stellar Population Synthesis Technique
    The Stellar Population Synthesis Technique Charlie Conroy Princeton Outline 1. Introduction to stellar population synthesis (SPS) – What’s the matter? 2. Flexible SPS – Propagation of uncertainties in SPS – Constraining models • i.e. comparing to star clusters – Assessing models • i.e. comparing to galaxies 3. Dust – Effects on mass estimates – Constraints from disk-dominated galaxies Galaxies, then and now Galaxy stellar mass function from z~4 to z~0 Perez-Gonzalez et al. 2007 How are these physical properties derived? Fontana et al. 2006 Stellar Population Synthesis: Overview • Stellar population synthesis (SPS) utilizes the fact that galaxies are made of dust and stars – Gas largely ignored unless considering emission lines – We simply need to know the number of stars as a function of their mass, age, and metallicity – Starlight attenuated by dust • Focus on UV, optical, near-IR data, and so ignore dust emission • SPS provides the fundamental link between theory/models and observations – Used extensively in extragalactic astrophysics Stellar Population Synthesis - I • Single/simple stellar populations (SSPs): IMF x spectra(stellar mass) star clusters t=106.6 yrs V a n D o k k IMF u m 2 0 0 8 t=1010 yrs Stellar evolution Stellar Population Synthesis - II • Composite stellar populations (CSPs): SFR x SSP x dust Integrate over stellar ages t’ galaxies An example: a galaxy made of two populations: Stellar Population Synthesis: Challenges SPS Model: IMF, spectral library, stellar evolution, SFH, dust, metallicity fit parameters of model to data Observations: Spectral energy distributions, magnitudes, etc. physical properties • But how robustly can we make this transformation between observables and physical properties?? – How do uncertainties in SPS propagate into uncertainties in physical properties? • Systematic vs.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Thesis10.Pdf
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School The Eberly College of Science POPULATION SYNTHESIS AND ITS CONNECTION TO ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVABLES A Thesis in Astronomy and Astrophysics Michael S. Sipior c 2003 Michael S. Sipior Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2003 We approve the thesis of Michael S. Sipior Date of Signature Michael Eracleous Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Thesis Advisor Chair of Committee Steinn Sigurdsson Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Gordon P. Garmire Evan Pugh Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics W. Niel Brandt Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics L. Samuel Finn Professor of Physics Peter I. M´esz´aros Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Head of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstract In this thesis, I present a model used for binary population synthesis, and 8 use it to simulate a starburst of 2 10 M over a duration of 20 Myr. This × population reaches a maximum 2{10 keV luminosity of 4 1040 erg s−1, ∼ × attained at the end of the star formation episode, and sustained for a pe- riod of several hundreds of Myr by succeeding populations of XRBs with lighter companion stars. An important property of these results is the min- imal dependence on poorly-constrained values of the initial mass function (IMF) and the average mass ratio between accreting and donating stars in XRBs. The peak X-ray luminosity is shown to be consistent with recent observationally-motivated correlations between the star formation rate and total hard (2{10 keV) X-ray luminosity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Stellar Life Cycle in This Final Class We'll Begin to Put Stars In
    Astronomy 112: The Physics of Stars Class 19 Notes: The Stellar Life Cycle In this final class we’ll begin to put stars in the larger astrophysical context. Stars are central players in what might be termed “galactic ecology”: the constant cycle of matter and energy that occurs in a galaxy, or in the universe. They are the main repositories of matter in galaxies (though not in the universe as a whole), and because they are the main sources of energy in the universe (at least today). For this reason, our understanding of stars is at the center of our understanding of all astrophysical processes. I. Stellar Populations Our first step toward putting stars in a larger context will be to examine populations of stars, and examine their collective behavior. A. Mass Functions We have seen that stars’ masses are the most important factor in determining their evolution, so the first thing we would like to know about a stellar population is the masses of the stars that comprise it. Such a description is generally written in the form of a number of stars per unit mass. A function of this sort is called a mass function. Formally, we define the mass function Φ(M) such that Φ(M) dM is the number of stars with masses between M and M + dM. With this definition, the total number of stars with masses between M1 and M2 is Z M2 N(M1,M2) = Φ(M) dM. M1 Equivalently, we can take the derivative of both sides: dN = Φ dM Thus the function Φ is the derivative of the number of stars with respect to mass, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Multiple Stellar Populations and Their Evolution in Globular Clusters: a Nucleosynthesis Perspective
    Title : Stellar Clusters: Benchmarks for Stellar Physics and Galactic Evolution Editors : will be set by the publisher EAS Publications Series, Vol. ?, 2016 MULTIPLE STELLAR POPULATIONS AND THEIR EVOLUTION IN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS: A NUCLEOSYNTHESIS PERSPECTIVE Corinne Charbonnel1; 2 Abstract. This paper presents a review of the characteristics of the multiple stellar populations observed in globular clusters, and of their possible origin. The current theoretical issues and the many open ques- tions are discussed. 1 Importance of globular clusters for cosmology and for galactic physics Globular clusters (GC) are magnificent astronomical objects that provide insight to a broad variety of astronomical and cosmological questions. These compact systems that contain between several hundreds of thousands and a million stars are among the oldest structures in the Universe. They are unique relics, witnesses, and clocks of the formation, assembly, dynamics, and evolution of galaxies and of their substructures, from the early to the present-day Universe. They play a key role in hierarchical cosmology, and potentially also in the reionization of the Universe, and they provide fundamental benchmarks for stellar evolution theory. However, their formation, evolution, and survival in a galactic and cosmological context are far from being understood. Determining the age of the oldest GCs through isochrone fitting of their ob- served color-magnitude diagram (CMD) was crucial for cosmology until the be- ginning of the 21st century, as it provided the best lower limit to the age of the Universe (e.g. Carney, 2001, and references therein). Meanwhile, a robust deter- mination of the age of the Universe was made possible thanks to precise obser- vations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck satellites.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effect of Massive Binaries on Stellar Populations and Supernova Progenitors
    Massive Stars as Cosmic Engines Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 250, 2007 c 2008 International Astronomical Union F. Bresolin, P.A. Crowther & J. Puls, eds. doi:10.1017/S1743921308020474 The Effect of Massive Binaries on Stellar Populations and Supernova Progenitors John J. Eldridge1,RobertG.Izzard2 and Christopher A. Tout1 1 University of Cambridge, Institute of Astronomy, The Observatories, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK e-mail (J.J. Eldridge): [email protected] 2 Sterrekundig Instituut Utrecht, Postbus 80000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands Abstract. We have calculated a large set of detailed binary models and used them to test the observed stellar population ratios that compare the relative populations of blue supergiants, red supergiants and Wolf-Rayet stars at different metallicities. We have also used our models to estimate the relative rate of type Ib/c to type II supernovae. We find, with an interacting binary fraction of about two thirds, that we obtain better agreement between our models and observations than with single stars. We discuss the use of models in determining the nature of supernova progenitors and show the surprising result that many type Ib/c supernova progenitors are less luminous and less massive in our models than the observed population of Wolf-Rayet stars. Keywords. binaries: close – stars: evolution – supernovae: general – stars: Wolf-Rayet 1. Introduction When we try to match the observed properties of massive stars with single star models we have always found a poor fit. For example, the ratio of the number of blue super- giants to red supergiants and its variation with metallicity cannot be reproduced (Langer & Maeder 1995; Massey & Olsen 2003).
    [Show full text]
  • Stellarmass Black Holes in Star Clusters: Implications For
    Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 402, 371–380 (2010) doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15880.x Stellar-mass black holes in star clusters: implications for gravitational wave radiation Sambaran Banerjee,1† Holger Baumgardt1 and Pavel Kroupa1 1Argelander-Institut fur¨ Astronomie, Auf dem Hugel¨ 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany Accepted 2009 October 14. Received 2009 October 10; in original form 2009 July 23 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/402/1/371/1032698 by guest on 27 September 2021 ABSTRACT We study the dynamics of stellar-mass black holes (BH) in star clusters with particular attention to the formation of BH–BH binaries, which are interesting as sources of gravitational waves (GW). In the present study, we examine the properties of these BH–BH binaries through direct N-body simulations of star clusters using the NBODY6 code on graphical processing unit platforms. We perform simulations for star clusters with ≤105 low-mass stars starting from Plummer models with an initial population of BHs, varying the cluster mass and BH-retention fraction. Additionally, we do several calculations of star clusters confined within a reflective boundary mimicking only the core of a massive star cluster which can be performed much faster than the corresponding full cluster integration. We find that stellar-mass BHs with masses ∼10 M segregate rapidly (∼100 Myr time-scale) into the cluster core and form a dense subcluster of BHs within typically 0.2–0.5 pc radius. In such a subcluster, BH–BH binaries can be formed through three-body encounters, the rate of which can become substantial in dense enough BH cores.
    [Show full text]