DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Deason, Alis J.; Mao, Yao-Yuan; Wechsler, Risa H., E-mail: adeason@stanford.edu

We study the mass spectrum of destroyed dwarfs that contribute to the accreted stellar mass of Milky Way (MW)-mass (M{sub vir} ∼ 10{sup 12.1} M{sub ⊙}) halos using a suite of 45 zoom-in dissipationless simulations. Empirical models are employed to relate (peak) subhalo mass to dwarf stellar mass, and we use constraints from z = 0 observations and hydrodynamical simulations to estimate the metallicity distribution of the accreted stellar material. The dominant contributors to the accreted stellar mass are relatively massive dwarfs with M{sub star} ∼ 10{sup 8}–10{sup 10}M{sub ⊙}. Halos with more quiescent accretion histories tend to have lower mass progenitors (10{sup 8}–10{sup 9} M{sub ⊙}), andmore » lower overall accreted stellar masses. Ultra-faint mass (M{sub star} < 10{sup 5} M{sub ⊙}) dwarfs contribute a negligible amount (≪1%) to the accreted stellar mass and, despite having low average metallicities, supply a small fraction (∼2%–5%) of the very metal-poor stars with [Fe/H] < −2. Dwarfs with masses 10{sup 5} < M{sub star}/M{sub ⊙} < 10{sup 8} provide a substantial amount of the very metal-poor stellar material (∼40%–80%), and even relatively metal-rich dwarfs with M{sub star} > 10{sup 8} M{sub ⊙} can contribute a considerable fraction (∼20%–60%) of metal-poor stars if their metallicity distributions have significant metal-poor tails. Finally, we find that the generic assumption of a quiescent assembly history for the MW halo seems to be in tension with the mass spectrum of its surviving dwarfs. We suggest that the MW could be a “transient fossil”; a quiescent halo with a recent accretion event(s) that disguises the preceding formation history of the halo.« less

The Role Of Environment In Stellar Mass Growth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, Daniel

2017-06-01

In this talk I give a brief summary of methods to measure galaxy environment. I then discuss the dependence of stellar population properties on environmental density: it turns out that the latter are driven by galaxy mass, and galaxy environment only plays a secondary role, mostly at late times in low-mass galaxies. I show that this evidence has now been extended to stellar population gradients using the IFU survey SDSS/MaNGA that again turn out to be independent of environment, including central-satellite classification. Finally I present results from the DES, where the dependence of the stellar mass function with redshift and environmental density is explored. It is found that the fraction of massive galaxies is larger in high density environments than in low density environments. The low density and high density components converge with increasing redshift up to z 1.0 where the shapes of the mass function components are indistinguishable. This study shows how high density structures build up around massive galaxies through cosmic time, which sets new valuable constraints on galaxy formation models.

Multiple populations within globular clusters in Early-type galaxies Exploring their effect on stellar initial mass function estimates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chantereau, W.; Usher, C.; Bastian, N.

2018-05-01

It is now well-established that most (if not all) ancient globular clusters host multiple populations, that are characterised by distinct chemical features such as helium abundance variations along with N-C and Na-O anti-correlations, at fixed [Fe/H]. These very distinct chemical features are similar to what is found in the centres of the massive early-type galaxies and may influence measurements of the global properties of the galaxies. Additionally, recent results have suggested that M/L variations found in the centres of massive early-type galaxies might be due to a bottom-heavy stellar initial mass function. We present an analysis of the effects of globular cluster-like multiple populations on the integrated properties of early-type galaxies. In particular, we focus on spectral features in the integrated optical spectrum and the global mass-to-light ratio that have been used to infer variations in the stellar initial mass function. To achieve this we develop appropriate stellar population synthesis models and take into account, for the first time, an initial-final mass relation which takes into consideration a varying He abundance. We conclude that while the multiple populations may be present in massive early-type galaxies, they are likely not responsible for the observed variations in the mass-to-light ratio and IMF sensitive line strengths. Finally, we estimate the fraction of stars with multiple populations chemistry that come from disrupted globular clusters within massive ellipticals and find that they may explain some of the observed chemical patterns in the centres of these galaxies.

Early assembly of the most massive galaxies.

PubMed

Collins, Chris A; Stott, John P; Hilton, Matt; Kay, Scott T; Stanford, S Adam; Davidson, Michael; Hosmer, Mark; Hoyle, Ben; Liddle, Andrew; Lloyd-Davies, Ed; Mann, Robert G; Mehrtens, Nicola; Miller, Christopher J; Nichol, Robert C; Romer, A Kathy; Sahlén, Martin; Viana, Pedro T P; West, Michael J

2009-04-02

The current consensus is that galaxies begin as small density fluctuations in the early Universe and grow by in situ star formation and hierarchical merging. Stars begin to form relatively quickly in sub-galactic-sized building blocks called haloes which are subsequently assembled into galaxies. However, exactly when this assembly takes place is a matter of some debate. Here we report that the stellar masses of brightest cluster galaxies, which are the most luminous objects emitting stellar light, some 9 billion years ago are not significantly different from their stellar masses today. Brightest cluster galaxies are almost fully assembled 4-5 billion years after the Big Bang, having grown to more than 90 per cent of their final stellar mass by this time. Our data conflict with the most recent galaxy formation models based on the largest simulations of dark-matter halo development. These models predict protracted formation of brightest cluster galaxies over a Hubble time, with only 22 per cent of the stellar mass assembled at the epoch probed by our sample. Our findings suggest a new picture in which brightest cluster galaxies experience an early period of rapid growth rather than prolonged hierarchical assembly.

Accreting CO material onto ONe white dwarfs towards accretion-induced collapse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Cheng-Yuan; Wang, Bo

2018-03-01

The final outcomes of accreting ONe white dwarfs (ONe WDs) have been studied for several decades, but there are still some issues that are not resolved. Recently, some studies suggested that the deflagration of oxygen would occur for accreting ONe WDs with Chandrasekhar masses. In this paper, we aim to investigate whether ONe WDs can experience accretion-induced collapse (AIC) or explosions when their masses approach the Chandrasekhar limit. Employing the stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA), we simulate the long-term evolution of ONe WDs with accreting CO material. The ONe WDs undergo weak multicycle carbon flashes during the mass-accretion process, leading to mass increase of the WDs. We found that different initial WD masses and mass-accretion rates influence the evolution of central density and temperature. However, the central temperature cannot reach the explosive oxygen ignition temperature due to neutrino cooling. This work implies that the final outcome of accreting ONe WDs is electron-capture induced collapse rather than thermonuclear explosion.

The Evolution of Massive Stars: a Selection of Facts and Questions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanbeveren, D.

In the present paper we discuss a selection of facts and questions related to observations and evolutionary calculations of massive single stars and massive stars in interacting binaries. We focus on the surface chemical abundances, the role of stellar winds, the early Be-stars, the high mass X-ray binaries and the effects of rotation on stellar evolution. Finally, we present an unconventionally formed object scenario (UFO-scenario) of WR binaries in dense stellar environments.

GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Abernathy, M. R.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.; Adams, C.; Adams, T.; Addesso, P.; Camp, Jordan B.;

On Stellar Winds as a Source of Mass: Applying Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton Accretion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Detweiler, L. G.; Yates, K.; Siem, E.

2017-12-01

The interaction between planets orbiting stars and the stellar wind that stars emit is investigated and explored. The main goal of this research is to devise a method of calculating the amount of mass accumulated by an arbitrary planet from the stellar wind of its parent star via accretion processes. To achieve this goal, the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton (BHL) mass accretion rate equation and model is employed. In order to use the BHL equation, various parameters of the stellar wind is required to be known, including the velocity, density, and speed of sound of the wind. In order to create a method that is applicable to arbitrary planets orbiting arbitrary stars, Eugene Parker's isothermal stellar wind model is used to calculate these stellar wind parameters. In an isothermal wind, the speed of sound is simple to compute, however the velocity and density equations are transcendental and so the solutions must be approximated using a numerical approximation method. By combining Eugene Parker's isothermal stellar wind model with the BHL accretion equation, a method for computing planetary accretion rates inside a star's stellar wind is realized. This method is then applied to a variety of scenarios. First, this method is used to calculate the amount of mass that our solar system's planets will accrete from the solar wind throughout our Sun's lifetime. Then, some theoretical situations are considered. We consider the amount of mass various brown dwarfs would accrete from the solar wind of our Sun throughout its lifetime if they were orbiting the Sun at Jupiter's distance. For very high mass brown dwarfs, a significant amount of mass is accreted. In the case of the brown dwarf 15 Sagittae B, it actually accretes enough mass to surpass the mass limit for hydrogen fusion. Since 15 Sagittae B is orbiting a star that is very similar to our Sun, this encouraged making calculations for 15 Sagittae B orbiting our Sun at its true distance from its star, 15 Sagittae. It was found that at this distance, it does not accrete enough mass to surpass the mass limit for hydrogen fusion. Finally, we apply this method to brown dwarfs orbiting a 15 solar mass star at Jupiter's distance. It is found that a significantly smaller amount of mass is accreted when compared to the same brown dwarfs orbiting our Sun at the same distance.

MASSIVE GALAXIES IN COSMOS: EVOLUTION OF BLACK HOLE VERSUS BULGE MASS BUT NOT VERSUS TOTAL STELLAR MASS OVER THE LAST 9 Gyr?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jahnke, Knud; Cisternas, Mauricio; Inskip, Katherine

2009-12-01

We constrain the ratio of black hole (BH) mass to total stellar mass of type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the COSMOS survey at 1 < z < 2. For 10 AGNs at mean redshift z approx 1.4 with both Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/ACS and HST/NICMOS imaging data, we are able to compute the total stellar mass M {sub *,total}, based on rest-frame UV-to-optical host galaxy colors which constrain mass-to-light ratios. All objects have virial M {sub BH} estimates available from the COSMOS Magellan/IMACS and zCOSMOS surveys. We find within errors zero difference between the M {sub BH}-M {sub *,total}more » relation at z approx 1.4 and the M {sub BH}-M {sub *,bulge} relation in the local universe. Our interpretation is (1) if our objects were purely bulge-dominated, the M {sub BH}-M {sub *,bulge} relation has not evolved since z approx 1.4. However, (2) since we have evidence for substantial disk components, the bulges of massive galaxies (M {sub *,total} = 11.1 +- 0.3 or log M {sub BH} approx 8.3 +- 0.2) must have grown over the last 9 Gyr predominantly by redistribution of the disk into the bulge mass. Since all necessary stellar mass exists in galaxies at z = 1.4, no star formation or addition of external stellar material is required, but only a redistribution, e.g., induced by minor and major merging or through disk instabilities. Merging, in addition to redistributing mass in the galaxy, will add both BH and stellar/bulge mass, but does not change the overall final M {sub BH}/M {sub *,bulge} ratio. Since the overall cosmic stellar and BH mass buildup trace each other tightly over time, our scenario of bulge formation in massive galaxies is independent of any strong BH feedback and means that the mechanism coupling BH and bulge mass until the present is very indirect.« less

The Average Star Formation Histories of Galaxies in Dark Matter Halos from z = 0-8

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Behroozi, Peter S.; Wechsler, Risa H.; Conroy, Charlie

2013-06-01

We present a robust method to constrain average galaxy star formation rates (SFRs), star formation histories (SFHs), and the intracluster light (ICL) as a function of halo mass. Our results are consistent with observed galaxy stellar mass functions, specific star formation rates (SSFRs), and cosmic star formation rates (CSFRs) from z = 0 to z = 8. We consider the effects of a wide range of uncertainties on our results, including those affecting stellar masses, SFRs, and the halo mass function at the heart of our analysis. As they are relevant to our method, we also present new calibrations of the dark matter halo mass function, halo mass accretion histories, and halo-subhalo merger rates out to z = 8. We also provide new compilations of CSFRs and SSFRs; more recent measurements are now consistent with the buildup of the cosmic stellar mass density at all redshifts. Implications of our work include: halos near 1012 M ⊙ are the most efficient at forming stars at all redshifts, the baryon conversion efficiency of massive halos drops markedly after z ~ 2.5 (consistent with theories of cold-mode accretion), the ICL for massive galaxies is expected to be significant out to at least z ~ 1-1.5, and dwarf galaxies at low redshifts have higher stellar mass to halo mass ratios than previous expectations and form later than in most theoretical models. Finally, we provide new fitting formulae for SFHs that are more accurate than the standard declining tau model. Our approach places a wide variety of observations relating to the SFH of galaxies into a self-consistent framework based on the modern understanding of structure formation in ΛCDM. Constraints on the stellar mass-halo mass relationship and SFRs are available for download online.

Autocorrelations of stellar light and mass at z˜ 0 and ˜1: from SDSS to DEEP2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Cheng; White, Simon D. M.; Chen, Yanmei; Coil, Alison L.; Davis, Marc; De Lucia, Gabriella; Guo, Qi; Jing, Y. P.; Kauffmann, Guinevere; Willmer, Christopher N. A.; Zhang, Wei

2012-01-01

We present measurements of projected autocorrelation functions wp(rp) for the stellar mass of galaxies and for their light in the U, B and V bands, using data from the third data release of the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey and the final data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We investigate the clustering bias of stellar mass and light by comparing these to projected autocorrelations of dark matter estimated from the Millennium Simulations (MS) at z= 1 and 0.07, the median redshifts of our galaxy samples. All of the autocorrelation and bias functions show systematic trends with spatial scale and waveband which are impressively similar at the two redshifts. This shows that the well-established environmental dependence of stellar populations in the local Universe is already in place at z= 1. The recent MS-based galaxy formation simulation of Guo et al. reproduces the scale-dependent clustering of luminosity to an accuracy better than 30 per cent in all bands and at both redshifts, but substantially overpredicts mass autocorrelations at separations below about 2 Mpc. Further comparison of the shapes of our stellar mass bias functions with those predicted by the model suggests that both the SDSS and DEEP2 data prefer a fluctuation amplitude of σ8˜ 0.8 rather than the σ8= 0.9 assumed by the MS.

The Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G): Precise Stellar Mass Distributions from Automated Dust Correction at 3.6 μm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Querejeta, Miguel; Meidt, Sharon E.; Schinnerer, Eva; Cisternas, Mauricio; Muñoz-Mateos, Juan Carlos; Sheth, Kartik; Knapen, Johan; van de Ven, Glenn; Norris, Mark A.; Peletier, Reynier; Laurikainen, Eija; Salo, Heikki; Holwerda, Benne W.; Athanassoula, E.; Bosma, Albert; Groves, Brent; Ho, Luis C.; Gadotti, Dimitri A.; Zaritsky, Dennis; Regan, Michael; Hinz, Joannah; Gil de Paz, Armando; Menendez-Delmestre, Karin; Seibert, Mark; Mizusawa, Trisha; Kim, Taehyun; Erroz-Ferrer, Santiago; Laine, Jarkko; Comerón, Sébastien

2015-07-01

The mid-infrared is an optimal window to trace stellar mass in nearby galaxies and the 3.6 μ {{m}} IRAC band has been exploited to this effect, but such mass estimates can be biased by dust emission. We present our pipeline to reveal the old stellar flux at 3.6 μm and obtain stellar mass maps for more than 1600 galaxies available from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G). This survey consists of images in two infrared bands (3.6 and 4.5 μ {{m}}), and we use the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) method presented in Meidt et al. to separate the dominant light from old stars and the dust emission that can significantly contribute to the observed 3.6 μ {{m}} flux. We exclude from our ICA analysis galaxies with low signal-to-noise ratio ({{S}}/{{N}}\\lt 10) and those with original [3.6]-[4.5] colors compatible with an old stellar population, indicative of little dust emission (mostly early Hubble types, which can directly provide good mass maps). For the remaining 1251 galaxies to which ICA was successfully applied, we find that as much as 10%-30% of the total light at 3.6 μ {{m}} typically originates from dust, and locally it can reach even higher values. This contamination fraction shows a correlation with specific star formation rates, confirming that the dust emission that we detect is related to star formation. Additionally, we have used our large sample of mass estimates to calibrate a relationship of effective mass-to-light ratio (M/L) as a function of observed [3.6]-[4.5] color: {log}({\\text{}}M/L) = -0.339(+/- 0.057) × ([3.6]-[4.5])-0.336(+/- 0.002). Our final pipeline products have been made public through IRSA, providing the astronomical community with an unprecedentedly large set of stellar mass maps ready to use for scientific applications.

Strange mode instabilities and mass loss in evolved massive primordial stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yadav, Abhay Pratap; Kühnrich Biavatti, Stefan Henrique; Glatzel, Wolfgang

2018-04-01

A linear stability analysis of models for evolved primordial stars with masses between 150 and 250 M⊙ is presented. Strange mode instabilities with growth rates in the dynamical range are identified for stellar models with effective temperatures below log Teff = 4.5. For selected models, the final fate of the instabilities is determined by numerical simulation of their evolution into the non-linear regime. As a result, the instabilities lead to finite amplitude pulsations. Associated with them are acoustic energy fluxes capable of driving stellar winds with mass-loss rates in the range between 7.7 × 10-7 and 3.5 × 10-4 M⊙ yr-1.

Stellar Populations. A User Guide from Low to High Redshift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greggio, Laura; Renzini, Alvio

2011-09-01

This textbook is meant to illustrate the specific role played by stellar population diagnostics in our attempt to understand galaxy formation and evolution. The book starts with a rather unconventional summary of the results of stellar evolution theory (Chapter 1), as they provide the basis for the construction of synthetic stellar populations. Current limitations of stellar models are highlighted, which arise from the necessity to parametrize all those physical processes that involve bulk mass motions, such as convection, mixing, mass loss, etc. Chapter 2 deals with the foundations of the theory of synthetic stellar populations, and illustrates their energetics and metabolic functions, providing basic tools that will be used in subsequent chapters. Chapters 3 and 4 deal with resolved stellar populations, first addressing some general problems encountered in photometric studies of stellar fields. Then some highlights are presented illustrating our current capacity of measuring stellar ages in Galactic globular clusters, in the Galactic bulge and in nearby galaxies. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the exemplification of synthetic spectra of simple as well as composite stellar populations, drawing attention to those spectral features that may depend on less secure results of stellar evolution models. Chapter 6 illustrates how synthetic stellar populations are used to derive basic galaxy properties, such as star formation rates, stellar masses, ages and metallicities, and does so for galaxies at low as well as at high redshifts. Chapter 7 is dedicated to supernovae, distinguishing them in core collapse and thermonuclear cases, describing the evolution of their rates for various star formation histories, and estimating the supernova productivity of stellar populations and their chemical yields. In Chapter 8 the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is discussed, first showing how even apparently small IMF variations may have large effects on the demo! graphy of stellar populations, and then using galaxies at low ! and high redshifts and clusters of galaxies to set tight constraints on possible IMF variations in space or time. In Chapter 9 a phenomenological model of galaxy evolution is presented which illustrates a concrete application of the stellar population tools described in the previous chapters. Finally, Chapter 10 is dedicated to the chemical evolution on the scale of galaxies, clusters of galaxies and the whole Universe.

The frequency of very young galaxies in the local Universe: I. A test for galaxy formation and cosmological models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tweed, D. P.; Mamon, G. A.; Thuan, T. X.; Cattaneo, A.; Dekel, A.; Menci, N.; Calura, F.; Silk, J.

2018-06-01

In the local Universe, the existence of very young galaxies (VYGs), having formed at least half their stellar mass in the last 1 Gyr, is debated. We predict the present-day fraction of VYGs among central galaxies as a function of galaxy stellar mass. For this, we apply to high mass resolution Monte Carlo halo merger trees (MCHMTs) three (one) analytical models of galaxy formation, where the ratio of stellar to halo mass (mass growth rate) is a function of halo mass and redshift. Galaxy merging is delayed until orbital decay by dynamical friction. With starbursts associated with halo mergers, our models predict typically 1 per cent of VYGs up to galaxy masses of m = 1010 M⊙, falling rapidly at higher masses, and VYGs are usually associated with recent major mergers of their haloes. Without these starbursts, two of the models have VYG fractions reduced by 1 or 2 dex at low or intermediate stellar masses, and VYGs are rarely associated with major halo mergers. In comparison, the state-of-the-art semi-analytical model (SAM) of Henriques et al. produces only 0.01 per cent of VYGs at intermediate masses. Finally, the Menci et al. SAM run on MCHMTs with Warm Dark Matter cosmology generates 10 times more VYGs at m < 108 M⊙ than when run with Cold Dark Matter. The wide range in these VYG fractions illustrates the usefulness of VYGs to constrain both galaxy formation and cosmological models.

The Core Mass Growth and Stellar Lifetime of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalirai, Jason S.; Marigo, Paola; Tremblay, Pier-Emmanuel

2014-02-01

We establish new constraints on the intermediate-mass range of the initial-final mass relation, and apply the results to study the evolution of stars on the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB). These constraints derive from newly discovered (bright) white dwarfs in the nearby Hyades and Praesepe star clusters, including a total of 18 high signal-to-noise ratio measurements with progenitor masses of M initial = 2.8-3.8 M ⊙. We also include a new analysis of existing white dwarfs in the older NGC 6819 and NGC 7789 star clusters, M initial = 1.6 and 2.0 M ⊙. Over this range of initial masses, stellar evolutionary models for metallicity Z initial = 0.02 predict the maximum growth of the core of TP-AGB stars. By comparing the newly measured remnant masses to the robust prediction of the core mass at the first thermal pulse on the AGB (i.e., from stellar interior models), we establish several findings. First, we show that the stellar core mass on the AGB grows rapidly from 10% to 30% for stars with M initial = 1.6 to 2.0 M ⊙. At larger masses, the core-mass growth decreases steadily to ~10% at M initial = 3.4 M ⊙, after which there is a small hint of a upturn out to M initial = 3.8 M ⊙. These observations are in excellent agreement with predictions from the latest TP-AGB evolutionary models in Marigo et al. We also compare to models with varying efficiencies of the third dredge-up and mass loss, and demonstrate that the process governing the growth of the core is largely the stellar wind, while the third dredge-up plays a secondary, but non-negligible role. Based on the new white dwarf measurements, we perform an exploratory calibration of the most popular mass-loss prescriptions in the literature, as well as of the third dredge-up efficiency as a function of the stellar mass. Finally, we estimate the lifetime and the integrated luminosity of stars on the TP-AGB to peak at t ~ 3 Myr and E = 1.2 × 1010 L ⊙ yr for M initial ~ 2 M ⊙ (t ~ 2 Myr for luminosities brighter than the red giant branch tip at log (L/L ⊙) > 3.4), decreasing to t = 0.4 Myr and E = 6.1 × 109 L ⊙ yr for stars with M initial ~ 3.5 M ⊙. The implications of these results are discussed, especially with respect to general studies aimed at characterizing the integrated light output of TP-AGB stars in population synthesis models.

Stellar Parameters for Trappist-1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Grootel, Valérie; Fernandes, Catarina S.; Gillon, Michael; Jehin, Emmanuel; Manfroid, Jean; Scuflaire, Richard; Burgasser, Adam J.; Barkaoui, Khalid; Benkhaldoun, Zouhair; Burdanov, Artem; Delrez, Laetitia; Demory, Brice-Olivier; de Wit, Julien; Queloz, Didier; Triaud, Amaury H. M. J.

2018-01-01

TRAPPIST-1 is an ultracool dwarf star transited by seven Earth-sized planets, for which thorough characterization of atmospheric properties, surface conditions encompassing habitability, and internal compositions is possible with current and next-generation telescopes. Accurate modeling of the star is essential to achieve this goal. We aim to obtain updated stellar parameters for TRAPPIST-1 based on new measurements and evolutionary models, compared to those used in discovery studies. We present a new measurement for the parallax of TRAPPIST-1, 82.4 ± 0.8 mas, based on 188 epochs of observations with the TRAPPIST and Liverpool Telescopes from 2013 to 2016. This revised parallax yields an updated luminosity of {L}* =(5.22+/- 0.19)× {10}-4 {L}ȯ , which is very close to the previous estimate but almost two times more precise. We next present an updated estimate for TRAPPIST-1 stellar mass, based on two approaches: mass from stellar evolution modeling, and empirical mass derived from dynamical masses of equivalently classified ultracool dwarfs in astrometric binaries. We combine them using a Monte-Carlo approach to derive a semi-empirical estimate for the mass of TRAPPIST-1. We also derive estimate for the radius by combining this mass with stellar density inferred from transits, as well as an estimate for the effective temperature from our revised luminosity and radius. Our final results are {M}* =0.089+/- 0.006 {M}ȯ , {R}* =0.121+/- 0.003 {R}ȯ , and {T}{eff} = 2516 ± 41 K. Considering the degree to which the TRAPPIST-1 system will be scrutinized in coming years, these revised and more precise stellar parameters should be considered when assessing the properties of TRAPPIST-1 planets.

Massive star formation in 100,000 years from turbulent and pressurized molecular clouds.

PubMed

McKee, Christopher F; Tan, Jonathan C

2002-03-07

Massive stars (with mass m* > 8 solar masses Mmiddle dot in circle) are fundamental to the evolution of galaxies, because they produce heavy elements, inject energy into the interstellar medium, and possibly regulate the star formation rate. The individual star formation time, t*f, determines the accretion rate of the star; the value of the former quantity is currently uncertain by many orders of magnitude, leading to other astrophysical questions. For example, the variation of t*f with stellar mass dictates whether massive stars can form simultaneously with low-mass stars in clusters. Here we show that t*f is determined by the conditions in the star's natal cloud, and is typically about 105yr. The corresponding mass accretion rate depends on the pressure within the cloud--which we relate to the gas surface density--and on both the instantaneous and final stellar masses. Characteristic accretion rates are sufficient to overcome radiation pressure from about 100M middle dot in circle protostars, while simultaneously driving intense bipolar gas outflows. The weak dependence of t*f on the final mass of the star allows high- and low-mass star formation to occur nearly simultaneously in clusters.

Age and Mass for 920 Large Magellanic Cloud Clusters Derived from 100 Million Monte Carlo Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popescu, Bogdan; Hanson, M. M.; Elmegreen, Bruce G.

2012-06-01

We present new age and mass estimates for 920 stellar clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) based on previously published broadband photometry and the stellar cluster analysis package, MASSCLEANage. Expressed in the generic fitting formula, d 2 N/dMdtvpropM α t β, the distribution of observed clusters is described by α = -1.5 to -1.6 and β = -2.1 to -2.2. For 288 of these clusters, ages have recently been determined based on stellar photometric color-magnitude diagrams, allowing us to gauge the confidence of our ages. The results look very promising, opening up the possibility that this sample of 920 clusters, with reliable and consistent age, mass, and photometric measures, might be used to constrain important characteristics about the stellar cluster population in the LMC. We also investigate a traditional age determination method that uses a χ2 minimization routine to fit observed cluster colors to standard infinite-mass limit simple stellar population models. This reveals serious defects in the derived cluster age distribution using this method. The traditional χ2 minimization method, due to the variation of U, B, V, R colors, will always produce an overdensity of younger and older clusters, with an underdensity of clusters in the log (age/yr) = [7.0, 7.5] range. Finally, we present a unique simulation aimed at illustrating and constraining the fading limit in observed cluster distributions that includes the complex effects of stochastic variations in the observed properties of stellar clusters.

Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis Version 2.1: Construction, Observational Verification, and New Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eldridge, J. J.; Stanway, E. R.; Xiao, L.; McClelland, L. A. S.; Taylor, G.; Ng, M.; Greis, S. M. L.; Bray, J. C.

2017-11-01

The Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis suite of binary stellar evolution models and synthetic stellar populations provides a framework for the physically motivated analysis of both the integrated light from distant stellar populations and the detailed properties of those nearby. We present a new version 2.1 data release of these models, detailing the methodology by which Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis incorporates binary mass transfer and its effect on stellar evolution pathways, as well as the construction of simple stellar populations. We demonstrate key tests of the latest Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis model suite demonstrating its ability to reproduce the colours and derived properties of resolved stellar populations, including well-constrained eclipsing binaries. We consider observational constraints on the ratio of massive star types and the distribution of stellar remnant masses. We describe the identification of supernova progenitors in our models, and demonstrate a good agreement to the properties of observed progenitors. We also test our models against photometric and spectroscopic observations of unresolved stellar populations, both in the local and distant Universe, finding that binary models provide a self-consistent explanation for observed galaxy properties across a broad redshift range. Finally, we carefully describe the limitations of our models, and areas where we expect to see significant improvement in future versions.

Mass ejection in failed supernovae: variation with stellar progenitor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernández, Rodrigo; Quataert, Eliot; Kashiyama, Kazumi; Coughlin, Eric R.

2018-05-01

We study the ejection of mass during stellar core-collapse when the stalled shock does not revive and a black hole forms. Neutrino emission during the protoneutron star phase causes a decrease in the gravitational mass of the core, resulting in an outward going sound pulse that steepens into a shock as it travels out through the star. We explore the properties of this mass ejection mechanism over a range of stellar progenitors using spherically symmetric, time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations that treat neutrino mass-loss parametrically and follow the shock propagation over the entire star. We find that all types of stellar progenitor can eject mass through this mechanism. The ejected mass is a decreasing function of the surface gravity of the star, ranging from several M⊙ for red supergiants to ˜0.1 M⊙ for blue supergiants and ˜10-3 M⊙ for Wolf-Rayet stars. We find that the final shock energy at the surface is a decreasing function of the core-compactness, and is ≲ 1047-1048 erg in all cases. In progenitors with a sufficiently large envelope, high core-compactness, or a combination of both, the sound pulse fails to unbind mass. Successful mass ejection is accompanied by significant fallback accretion that can last from hours to years. We predict the properties of shock breakout and thermal plateau emission produced by the ejection of the outer envelope of blue supergiant and Wolf-Rayet progenitors in otherwise failed supernovae.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Van de Sande, Jesse; Franx, Marijn; Labbe, Ivo

Recent photometric studies have shown that early-type galaxies at fixed stellar mass were smaller and denser at earlier times. In this Letter, we assess that finding by deriving the dynamical mass of such a compact quiescent galaxy at z = 1.8. We have obtained a high-quality spectrum with full UV-NIR wavelength coverage of galaxy NMBS-C7447 using X-Shooter on the Very Large Telescope. We determined a velocity dispersion of 294 {+-} 51 km s{sup -1}. Given this velocity dispersion and the effective radius of 1.64 {+-} 0.15 kpc (as determined from Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 F160W observations) wemore » derive a dynamical mass of (1.7 {+-} 0.5) x 10{sup 11} M{sub sun}. Comparison of the full spectrum with stellar population synthesis models indicates that NMBS-C774 has a relatively young stellar population (0.40 Gyr) with little or no star formation and a stellar mass of M{sub *} {approx} 1.5 x 10{sup 11} M{sub sun}. The dynamical and photometric stellar masses are in good agreement. Thus, our study supports the conclusion that the mass densities of quiescent galaxies were indeed higher at earlier times, and this earlier result is not caused by systematic measurement errors. By combining available spectroscopic measurements at different redshifts, we find that the velocity dispersion at fixed dynamical mass was a factor of {approx}1.8 higher at z = 1.8 compared with z = 0. Finally, we show that the apparent discrepancies between the few available velocity dispersion measurements at z > 1.5 are consistent with the intrinsic scatter of the mass-size relation.« less

The Two Components of the Evolved Massive Binary LZ Cephei: Testing the Effects of Binarity on Stellar Evolution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mahy, L.; Martins, F.; Donati, J.-F.; Bouret, J.-C.

2011-01-01

We present an in-dep(h study of the two components of the binary system LZ Cep to constrain the effects of binarity on the evolution of massive stars. Methods. We analyzed a set of high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio optical spectra obtained over the orbital period of the system to perform a spectroscopic disentangling and derive an orbital solution. We subsequently determine the stellar properties of each component by means of an analysis with the CMFGEN atmosphere code. Finally, with the derived stellar parameters, we model the Hipparcos photometric light curve using the program NIGHTFALL to obtain the orbit inclination and the stellar masses. Results.LZ Cep is a O9III+ON9.7V binary. It is as a semi-detailed system in which either the primary or the secondary star almost fills up its Roche lobe. The dynamical masses are about 16.0 Stellar Mass (primary) and 6.5 Stellar Mass (secondary). The latter is lower than the typical mass of late-type O stars. The secondary component is chemically more evolved than the primary (which barely shows any sign of CNO processing), with strong helium and nitrogen enhancements as well as carbon and oxygen depletions. These properties (surface abundances and mass) are typical of Wolf-Rayet stars, although the spectral type is ON9.7V. The luminosity of the secondary is consistent with that of core He-burning objects. The preferred, tentative evolutionary scenario to explain abe observed properties involves mass transfer from the secondary - which was initially more massive- towards the primary. The secondary is now almost a core He-burning object, probably with only a thin envelope of H-rich and CNO processed material. A very inefficient mass transfer is necessary to explain the chemical appearance of the primary. Alternative scenarios are discussed but they are affected by greater uncertainties.

The relativistic equations of stellar structure and evolution. Stars with degenerate neutron cores. 1: Structure of equilibrium models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thorne, K. S.; Zytkow, A. N.

1976-01-01

The general relativistic equations of stellar structure and evolution are reformulated in a notation which makes easy contact with Newtonian theory. Also, a general relativistic version of the mixing-length formalism for convection is presented. Finally, it is argued that in previous work on spherical systems general relativity theorists have identified the wrong quantity as "total mass-energy inside radius r."

Estimating the HI gas fractions of galaxies in the local Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Wei; Li, Cheng; Kauffmann, Guinevere; Zou, Hu; Catinella, Barbara; Shen, Shiyin; Guo, Qi; Chang, Ruixiang

2009-08-01

We use a sample of 800 galaxies with HI mass measurements from the HyperLeda catalogue and optical photometry from the fourth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to calibrate a new photometric estimator of the HI-to-stellar-mass ratio for nearby galaxies. Our estimator, which is motivated by the Kennicutt-Schmidt star formation law, is log10(GHI/S) = -1.73238(g - r) + 0.215182μi - 4.08451, where μi is the i-band surface brightness and g - r is the optical colour estimated from the g- and r-band Petrosian apparent magnitudes. This estimator has a scatter of σ = 0.31 dex in log (GHI/S), compared to σ ~ 0.4 dex for previous estimators that were based on colour alone. We investigate whether the residuals in our estimate of log (GHI/S) depend in a systematic way on a variety of different galaxy properties. We find no effect as a function of stellar mass or 4000 Å break strength, but there is a systematic effect as a function of the concentration index of the light. We then apply our estimator to a sample of 105 emission-line galaxies in the SDSS Data Release 4 (DR4) and derive an estimate of the HI mass function, which is in excellent agreement with recent results from HI blind surveys. Finally, we re-examine the well-known relation between gas-phase metallicity and stellar mass, and ask whether there is a dependence on HI-to-stellar-mass ratio, as predicted by chemical evolution models. We do find that gas-poor galaxies are more metal rich at fixed stellar mass. We compare our results with the semi-analytic models of De Lucia & Blaizot, which include supernova feedback, as well as the cosmological infall of gas.

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey. XVII. Physical and wind properties of massive stars at the top of the main sequence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bestenlehner, J. M.; Gräfener, G.; Vink, J. S.; Najarro, F.; de Koter, A.; Sana, H.; Evans, C. J.; Crowther, P. A.; Hénault-Brunet, V.; Herrero, A.; Langer, N.; Schneider, F. R. N.; Simón-Díaz, S.; Taylor, W. D.; Walborn, N. R.

2014-10-01

The evolution and fate of very massive stars (VMS) is tightly connected to their mass-loss properties. Their initial and final masses differ significantly as a result of mass loss. VMS have strong stellar winds and extremely high ionising fluxes, which are thought to be critical sources of both mechanical and radiative feedback in giant H ii regions. However, how VMS mass-loss properties change during stellar evolution is poorly understood. In the framework of the VLT-Flames Tarantula Survey (VFTS), we explore the mass-loss transition region from optically thin O star winds to denser WNh Wolf-Rayet star winds, thereby testing theoretical predictions. To this purpose we select 62 O, Of, Of/WN, and WNh stars, an unprecedented sample of stars with the highest masses and luminosities known. We perform a spectral analysis of optical VFTS as well as near-infrared VLT/SINFONI data using the non-LTE radiative transfer code CMFGEN to obtain both stellar and wind parameters. For the first time, we observationally resolve the transition between optically thin O star winds and optically thick hydrogen-rich WNh Wolf-Rayet winds. Our results suggest the existence of a "kink" between both mass-loss regimes, in agreement with recent Monte Carlo simulations. For the optically thick regime, we confirm the steep dependence on the classical Eddington factor Γe from previous theoretical and observational studies. The transition occurs on the main sequence near a luminosity of 106.1L⊙, or a mass of 80 ... 90 M⊙. Above this limit, we find that - even when accounting for moderate wind clumping (with fv = 0.1) - wind mass-loss rates are enhanced with respect to standard prescriptions currently adopted in stellar evolution calculations. We also show that this results in substantial helium surface enrichment. Finally, based on our spectroscopic analyses, we are able to provide the most accurate ionising fluxes for VMS known to date, confirming the pivotal role of VMS in ionising and shaping their environments. Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

How Massive Single Stars End Their Life

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heger, A.; Fryer, C. L.; Woosley, S. E.; Langer, N.; Hartmann, D. H.

2003-01-01

How massive stars die-what sort of explosion and remnant each produces-depends chiefly on the masses of their helium cores and hydrogen envelopes at death. For single stars, stellar winds are the only means of mass loss, and these are a function of the metallicity of the star. We discuss how metallicity, and a simplified prescription for its effect on mass loss, affects the evolution and final fate of massive stars. We map, as a function of mass and metallicity, where black holes and neutron stars are likely to form and where different types of supernovae are produced. Integrating over an initial mass function, we derive the relative populations as a function of metallicity. Provided that single stars rotate rapidly enough at death, we speculate on stellar populations that might produce gamma-ray bursts and jet-driven supernovae.

Stellar populations in the Carina region. The Galactic plane at l = 291°

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molina-Lera, J. A.; Baume, G.; Gamen, R.; Costa, E.; Carraro, G.

2016-08-01

Context. Previous studies of the Carina region have revealed its complexity and richness as well as a significant number of early-type stars. However, in many cases, these studies only concentrated on the central region (Trumpler 14/16) or were not homogeneous. This latter aspect, in particular, is crucial because very different ages and distances for key clusters have been claimed in recent years. Aims: The aim of this work is to study in detail an area of the Galactic plane in Carina, eastward η Carina. We analyze the properties of different stellar populations and focus on a sample of open clusters and their population of young stellar objects and highly reddened early stars. We also studied the stellar mass distribution in these clusters and the possible scenario of their formation. Finally, we outline the Galactic spiral structure in this direction. Methods: We obtained deep and homogeneous photometric data (UBVIKC) for six young open clusters: NGC 3752, Trumpler 18, NGC 3590, Hogg 10, 11, and 12, located in Carina at l ~ 291°, and their adjacent stellar fields, which we complemented with spectroscopic observations of a few selected targets. We also culled additional information from the literature, which includes stellar spectral classifications and near-infrared photometry from 2MASS. We finally developed a numerical code that allowed us to perform a homogeneous and systematic analysis of the data. Our results provide more reliable estimates of distances, color excesses, masses, and ages of the stellar populations in this direction. Results: We estimate the basic parameters of the studied clusters and find that they identify two overdensities of young stellar populations located at about 1.8 kpc and 2.8 kpc, with EB - V ~ 0.1 - 0.6. We find evidence of pre-main-sequence populations inside them, with an apparent coeval stellar formation in the most conspicuous clusters. We also discuss apparent age and distance gradients in the direction NW-SE. We study the mass distributions of the covered clusters and several others in the region (which we took form the literature). They consistently show a canonical IMF slope (the Salpeter one). We discover and characterise an abnormally reddened massive stellar population, scattered between 6.6 and 11 kpc. Spectroscopic observations of ten stars of this latter population show that all selected targets were massive OB stars. Their location is consistent with the position of the Carina-Sagittarius spiral arm. The catalogue is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/592/A149

Radial Velocities of 41 Kepler Eclipsing Binaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matson, Rachel A.; Gies, Douglas R.; Guo, Zhao; Williams, Stephen J.

2017-12-01

Eclipsing binaries are vital for directly determining stellar parameters without reliance on models or scaling relations. Spectroscopically derived parameters of detached and semi-detached binaries allow us to determine component masses that can inform theories of stellar and binary evolution. Here we present moderate resolution ground-based spectra of stars in close binary systems with and without (detected) tertiary companions observed by NASA’s Kepler mission and analyzed for eclipse timing variations. We obtain radial velocities and spectroscopic orbits for five single-lined and 35 double-lined systems, and confirm one false positive eclipsing binary. For the double-lined spectroscopic binaries, we also determine individual component masses and examine the mass ratio {M}2/{M}1 distribution, which is dominated by binaries with like-mass pairs and semi-detached classical Algol systems that have undergone mass transfer. Finally, we constrain the mass of the tertiary component for five double-lined binaries with previously detected companions.

Particle tagging and its implications for stellar population dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Bret, Theo; Pontzen, Andrew; Cooper, Andrew P.; Frenk, Carlos; Zolotov, Adi; Brooks, Alyson M.; Governato, Fabio; Parry, Owen H.

2017-07-01

We establish a controlled comparison between the properties of galactic stellar haloes obtained with hydrodynamical simulations and with 'particle tagging'. Tagging is a fast way to obtain stellar population dynamics: instead of tracking gas and star formation, it 'paints' stars directly on to a suitably defined subset of dark matter particles in a collisionless, dark-matter-only simulation. Our study shows that 'live' particle tagging schemes, where stellar masses are painted on to the dark matter particles dynamically throughout the simulation, can generate good fits to the hydrodynamical stellar density profiles of a central Milky Way-like galaxy and its most prominent substructure. Energy diffusion processes are crucial to reshaping the distribution of stars in infalling spheroidal systems and hence the final stellar halo. We conclude that the success of any particular tagging scheme hinges on this diffusion being taken into account, and discuss the role of different subgrid feedback prescriptions in driving this diffusion.

Mass distribution in galaxy clusters: the role of Active Galactic Nuclei feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teyssier, Romain; Moore, Ben; Martizzi, Davide; Dubois, Yohan; Mayer, Lucio

2011-06-01

We use 1-kpc resolution cosmological Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) simulations of a Virgo-like galaxy cluster to investigate the effect of feedback from supermassive black holes on the mass distribution of dark matter, gas and stars. We compared three different models: (i) a standard galaxy formation model featuring gas cooling, star formation and supernovae feedback, (ii) a 'quenching' model for which star formation is artificially suppressed in massive haloes and finally (iii) the recently proposed active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback model of Booth and Schaye. Without AGN feedback (even in the quenching case), our simulated cluster suffers from a strong overcooling problem, with a stellar mass fraction significantly above observed values in M87. The baryon distribution is highly concentrated, resulting in a strong adiabatic contraction (AC) of dark matter. With AGN feedback, on the contrary, the stellar mass in the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) lies below observational estimates and the overcooling problem disappears. The stellar mass of the BCG is seen to increase with increasing mass resolution, suggesting that our stellar masses converge to the correct value from below. The gas and total mass distributions are in better agreement with observations. We also find a slight deficit (˜10 per cent) of baryons at the virial radius, due to the combined effect of AGN-driven convective motions in the inner parts and shock waves in the outer regions, pushing gas to Mpc scales and beyond. This baryon deficit results in a slight adiabatic expansion of the dark matter distribution that can be explained quantitatively by AC theory.

The Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae Discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pan, Y.-C.; Sullivan, M.; McGuire, K.; Hook, I. M.; Nugent, P. E.; Howell, D. A.; Arcavi, I.; Botyanszki, J.; Cenko, Stephen Bradley; DeRose, J.

2013-01-01

We present spectroscopic observations of the host galaxies of 82 low-redshift type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). We determine star-formation rates, gas-phase stellar metallicities, and stellar masses and ages of these objects. As expected, strong correlations between the SN Ia light-curve width (stretch) and the host age mass metallicity are found: fainter, faster-declining events tend to be hosted by older massive metal-rich galaxies. There is some evidence that redder SNe Ia explode in higher metallicity galaxies, but we found no relation between the SN colour and host galaxy extinction based on the Balmer decrement, suggesting that the colour variation of these SNe does not primarily arise from this source. SNe Ia in higher-mass metallicity galaxies also appear brighter after stretch colour corrections than their counterparts in lower mass hosts, and the stronger correlation is with gas-phase metallicity suggesting this may be the more important variable. We also compared the host stellar mass distribution to that in galaxy targeted SN surveys and the high-redshift untargeted Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS). SNLS has many more low mass galaxies, while the targeted searches have fewer. This can be explained by an evolution in the galaxy stellar mass function, coupled with a SN delay-time distribution proportional to t1. Finally, we found no significant difference in the mass--metallicity relation of our SN Ia hosts compared to field galaxies, suggesting any metallicity effect on the SN Ia rate is small.

Validation: Codes to compare simulation data to various observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohn, J. D.

2017-02-01

Validation provides codes to compare several observations to simulated data with stellar mass and star formation rate, simulated data stellar mass function with observed stellar mass function from PRIMUS or SDSS-GALEX in several redshift bins from 0.01-1.0, and simulated data B band luminosity function with observed stellar mass function, and to create plots for various attributes, including stellar mass functions, and stellar mass to halo mass. These codes can model predictions (in some cases alongside observational data) to test other mock catalogs.

Effects of Planetesimal Accretion on the Structural Evolution of Sub-Neptunes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chatterjee, Sourav; Chen, Howard

2018-01-01

A remarkable discovery of NASA's Kepler mission is the wide diversity in the average densities of planets even when they are of similar mass. After gas disk dissipation, fully formed planets could accrete nearby planetesimals from a remnant planetesimal disk. We present calculations using the open-source stellar evolution toolkit Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) modified to include the deposition of planetesimals into the H/He envelopes of sub-Neptunes. We show that planetesimal accretion can alter the mass-radius isochrones for these planets. The additional energy deposited via planetesimal accretion puffs up the envelopes leading to enhanced gas loss during the phase of rapid accretion. As a result, the same initial planet can evolve to contain very different final envelope-mass fractions. This manifest as differences in the average planet densities long after accretion stops. Differences in the accretion history, total accreted mass, and the inherent stochasticity of the accretion process can bring wide diversity in final average densities even when the initial planets are very similar. These effects are particularly important for planets initially less massive than ~10 MEarth and with envelope mass fraction less than ~10%, thought to be the most common type of planets discovered by Kepler.

THE OBSERVED RELATION BETWEEN STELLAR MASS, DUST EXTINCTION, AND STAR FORMATION RATE IN LOCAL GALAXIES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zahid, H. J.; Kewley, L. J.; Kudritzki, R. P.

In this study, we investigate the relation between stellar mass, dust extinction, and star formation rate (SFR) using {approx}150,000 star-forming galaxies from SDSS DR7. We show that the relation between dust extinction and SFR changes with stellar mass. For galaxies at the same stellar mass, dust extinction is anti-correlated with the SFR at stellar masses <10{sup 10} M {sub Sun }. There is a sharp transition in the relation at a stellar mass of 10{sup 10} M {sub Sun }. At larger stellar masses, dust extinction is positively correlated with the SFR for galaxies at the same stellar mass. Themore » observed relation between stellar mass, dust extinction, and SFR presented in this study helps to confirm similar trends observed in the relation between stellar mass, metallicity, and SFR. The relation reported in this study provides important new constraints on the physical processes governing the chemical evolution of galaxies. The correlation between SFR and dust extinction for galaxies with stellar masses >10{sup 10} M {sub Sun} is shown to extend to the population of quiescent galaxies suggesting that the physical processes responsible for the observed relation between stellar mass, dust extinction, and SFR may be related to the processes leading to the shutdown of star formation in galaxies.« less

ON THE RELIABILITY OF STELLAR AGES AND AGE SPREADS INFERRED FROM PRE-MAIN-SEQUENCE EVOLUTIONARY MODELS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hosokawa, Takashi; Offner, Stella S. R.; Krumholz, Mark R., E-mail: Takashi.Hosokawa@jpl.nasa.gov, E-mail: hosokwtk@gmail.com

2011-09-10

We revisit the problem of low-mass pre-main-sequence stellar evolution and its observational consequences for where stars fall on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD). In contrast to most previous work, our models follow stars as they grow from small masses via accretion, and we perform a systematic study of how the stars' HRD evolution is influenced by their initial radius, by the radiative properties of the accretion flow, and by the accretion history, using both simple idealized accretion histories and histories taken from numerical simulations of star cluster formation. We compare our numerical results to both non-accreting isochrones and to the positionsmore » of observed stars in the HRD, with a goal of determining whether both the absolute ages and the age dispersions inferred from non-accreting isochrones are reliable. We show that non-accreting isochrones can sometimes overestimate stellar ages for more massive stars (those with effective temperatures above {approx}3500 K), thereby explaining why non-accreting isochrones often suggest a systematic age difference between more and less massive stars in the same cluster. However, we also find the only way to produce a similar overestimate for the ages of cooler stars is if these stars grow from {approx}0.01 M{sub sun} seed protostars that are an order of magnitude smaller than predicted by current theoretical models, and if the size of the seed protostar correlates systematically with the final stellar mass at the end of accretion. We therefore conclude that, unless both of these conditions are met, inferred ages and age spreads for cool stars are reliable, at least to the extent that the observed bolometric luminosities and temperatures are accurate. Finally, we note that the time dependence of the mass accretion rate has remarkably little effect on low-mass stars' evolution on the HRD, and that such time dependence may be neglected for all stars except those with effective temperatures above {approx}4000 K.« less

The Barred Inner Region of the Milky Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerhard, Ortwin

2018-04-01

The central few kpc of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, are dominated by thegravitational field of the Galactic bar. This talk describes dynamicalmodels of the bar and box/peanut bulge, and what we have learnt fromthem about the dynamical structure, the distribution of stellar anddark matter mass, and the spatial and orbital distributions of theGalactic stellar populations. Finally I discuss models for theformation of galaxies like ours, and how Milky Way studies enlightengalaxy formation theories in general.

STELLAR ATMOSPHERES, ATMOSPHERIC EXTENSION, AND FUNDAMENTAL PARAMETERS: WEIGHING STARS USING THE STELLAR MASS INDEX

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Neilson, Hilding R.; Lester, John B.; Baron, Fabien

2016-10-20

One of the great challenges of understanding stars is measuring their masses. The best methods for measuring stellar masses include binary interaction, asteroseismology, and stellar evolution models, but these methods are not ideal for red giant and supergiant stars. In this work, we propose a novel method for inferring stellar masses of evolved red giant and supergiant stars using interferometric and spectrophotometric observations combined with spherical model stellar atmospheres to measure what we call the stellar mass index, defined as the ratio between the stellar radius and mass. The method is based on the correlation between different measurements of angularmore » diameter, used as a proxy for atmospheric extension, and fundamental stellar parameters. For a given star, spectrophotometry measures the Rosseland angular diameter while interferometric observations generally probe a larger limb-darkened angular diameter. The ratio of these two angular diameters is proportional to the relative extension of the stellar atmosphere, which is strongly correlated to the star’s effective temperature, radius, and mass. We show that these correlations are strong and can lead to precise measurements of stellar masses.« less

On p-mode oscillations in stars from 1 solar mass to 2 solar masses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Audard, N.; Provost, J.

1994-06-01

The structure of stars more massive than about 1.2 solar masses is characterized by a convective core. We have studied the evolution with age and mass of acoustic frequencies of high radical order n and low degree l for models of stars of 1, 1.5 and 2 solar masses. Using a polynomial approximation for the frequency, the p-mode spectrum can be characterized by derived global asteroseismic coefficients, i.e. the mean separation nu0 is approximately equal to nun, l - nun - 1, l and the small frequency separation Delta nu0, 2 is approximately equal to nun, l = 0 - nun - 1, l = 2. The diagram (nu0, delta nu0, 2/nu0) plotted along the evolutionary tracks would help to separate the effects of age and mass. We study the sensitivity of these coefficients and other observable quantities, like the radius and luminosity, to stellar parameters in the vicinity of 1 solar mass and 2 solar masses; this sensitivity substantially depends on the stellar mass and must be taken into account for asteroseismic calibration of stellar clusters. Considering finally some rapid variations of the internal structure, we show that the second frequency difference delta2 nu = nu(subn, l) - 2 nun - 1, l + nun - 2, l exponent gamma in the He II ionization zone.

The universal relation of galactic chemical evolution: the origin of the mass-metallicity relation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zahid, H. Jabran; Dima, Gabriel I.; Kudritzki, Rolf-Peter

2014-08-20

We examine the mass-metallicity relation for z ≲ 1.6. The mass-metallicity relation follows a steep slope with a turnover, or 'knee', at stellar masses around 10{sup 10} M {sub ☉}. At stellar masses higher than the characteristic turnover mass, the mass-metallicity relation flattens as metallicities begin to saturate. We show that the redshift evolution of the mass-metallicity relation depends only on the evolution of the characteristic turnover mass. The relationship between metallicity and the stellar mass normalized to the characteristic turnover mass is independent of redshift. We find that the redshift-independent slope of the mass-metallicity relation is set by themore » slope of the relationship between gas mass and stellar mass. The turnover in the mass-metallicity relation occurs when the gas-phase oxygen abundance is high enough that the amount of oxygen locked up in low-mass stars is an appreciable fraction of the amount of oxygen produced by massive stars. The characteristic turnover mass is the stellar mass, where the stellar-to-gas mass ratio is unity. Numerical modeling suggests that the relationship between metallicity and the stellar-to-gas mass ratio is a redshift-independent, universal relationship followed by all galaxies as they evolve. The mass-metallicity relation originates from this more fundamental universal relationship between metallicity and the stellar-to-gas mass ratio. We test the validity of this universal metallicity relation in local galaxies where stellar mass, metallicity, and gas mass measurements are available. The data are consistent with a universal metallicity relation. We derive an equation for estimating the hydrogen gas mass from measurements of stellar mass and metallicity valid for z ≲ 1.6 and predict the cosmological evolution of galactic gas masses.« less

The masses and metallicities of stellar haloes reflect galactic merger histories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Souza, Richard; Bell, Eric F.

2018-03-01

There is increasing observational and theoretical evidence for a correlation between the metallicity and the mass of the stellar halo for galaxies with Milky Way-like stellar masses. Using the Illustris cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, we find that this relationship arises because a single massive progenitor contributes the bulk of the mass to the accreted stellar component as well as sets its metallicity. Moreover, in the Illustris simulations, this relationship extends over 3 orders of magnitude in accreted stellar mass for central galaxies. We show that for Milky Way-like mass galaxies, the scatter in accreted metallicity at a fixed accreted stellar mass encodes information about the stellar mass of the dominant accreted progenitor, while the radial density and metallicity gradients of the accreted stellar component encodes information about the time of accretion of the dominant progenitor. We demonstrate that for Milky Way-like mass galaxies, the Illustris simulations predict that the metallicity and the stellar mass of the total accreted stellar component can be reconstructed from aperture measurements of the stellar halo along the minor axis of edge-on disc galaxies. These correlations highlight the potential for observational studies of stellar haloes to quantify our understanding of the most dominant events in the growth history of galaxies. We explore the implications of our model for our understanding of the accretion histories of the Milky Way, M31, and NGC 5128. In particular, a relatively late and massive accretion is favoured for M31; additionally, we provide a first estimate of the accreted stellar mass for NGC 5128.

The age of the Milky Way inner halo.

PubMed

Kalirai, Jason S

2012-05-30

The Milky Way galaxy has several components, such as the bulge, disk and halo. Unravelling the assembly history of these stellar populations is often restricted because of difficulties in measuring accurate ages for low-mass, hydrogen-burning stars. Unlike these progenitors, white dwarf stars, the 'cinders' of stellar evolution, are remarkably simple objects and their fundamental properties can be measured with little ambiguity. Here I report observations of newly formed white dwarf stars in the halo of the Milky Way, and a separate analysis of archival data in the well studied 12.5-billion-year-old globular cluster Messier 4. I measure the mass distribution of the remnant stars and invert the stellar evolution process to develop a mathematical relation that links this final stellar mass to the mass of their immediate progenitors, and therefore to the age of the parent population. By applying this technique to a small sample of four nearby and kinematically confirmed halo white dwarf stars, I calculate the age of local field halo stars to be 11.4 ± 0.7 billion years. The oldest globular clusters formed 13.5 billion years ago. Future observations of newly formed white dwarf stars in the halo could be used to reduce the uncertainty, and to probe relative differences between the formation times of the youngest globular clusters and the inner halo.

Physical properties of distant red galaxies in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Zhongyang; Fang, Guanwen; Kong, Xu; Fan, Lulu

2015-10-01

We present a study on physical properties for a large distant red galaxy (DRG) sample, using the K-selected multi-band photometry catalog of the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field and the CANDELS near-infrared data. Our sample includes 4485 DRGs with (J - K)AB > 1.16 and KAB < 23.4 mag, and 132 DRGs have HST/WFC3 morphological measurements. The results of nonparametric measurements of DRG morphology are consistent with our rest-frame UVJ color classification; quiescent DRGs are generally compact while star-forming DRGs tend to have extended structures. We find the star formation rate (SFR) and the stellar mass of star-forming DRGs present tight "main sequence" relations in all redshift bins. Moreover, the specific SFR (sSFR) of DRGs increases with redshift in all stellar mass bins and DRGs with higher stellar masses generally have lower sSFRs, which indicates that galaxies were much more active on average in the past, and star formation contributes more to the mass growth of low-mass galaxies than to high-mass galaxies. The infrared-derived SFR dominates the total SFR of DRGs which occupy the high-mass range, implying that the J - K color criterion effectively selects massive and dusty galaxies. DRGs with higher M* generally have redder (U - V)rest colors, and the (U - V)rest colors of DRGs become bluer at higher redshifts, suggesting high-mass galaxies have higher internal dust extinctions or older stellar ages and they evolve with time. Finally, we find that DRGs have different overlap among extremely red objects, BzK galaxies, IRAC-selected extremely red objects, and high-z ultraluminous infrared galaxies, indicating that DRGs are not a special population and they can also be selected by other color criteria.

Stellar winds and coronae of low-mass Population II/III stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Takeru K.

2018-06-01

We investigated stellar winds from zero-/low-metallicity low-mass stars by magnetohydrodynamical simulations for stellar winds driven by Alfvén waves from stars with mass M = (0.6-0.8) M⊙ and metallicity Z = (0-1) Z⊙, where M⊙ and Z⊙ are the solar mass and metallicity, respectively. Alfvénic waves, which are excited by the surface convection, travel upward from the photosphere and heat up the corona by their dissipation. For lower Z, denser gas can be heated up to the coronal temperature because of the inefficient radiation cooling. The coronal density of Population II/III stars with Z ≤ 0.01 Z⊙ is one to two orders of magnitude larger than that of a solar-metallicity star with the same mass, and as a result, the mass loss rate, \\dot{M}, is 4.5-20 times larger. This indicates that metal accretion on low-mass Pop. III stars is negligible. The soft X-ray flux of the Pop. II/III stars is also expected to be ˜1-30 times larger than that of a solar-metallicity counterpart owing to the larger coronal density, even though the radiation cooling efficiency is smaller. A larger fraction of the input Alfvénic wave energy is transmitted to the corona in low-Z stars because they avoid severe reflection owing to the smaller density difference between the photosphere and the corona. Therefore, a larger fraction is converted to the thermal energy of the corona and the kinetic energy of the stellar wind. From this energetics argument, we finally derived a scaling of \\dot{M} as \\dot{M}∝ L R_{\\star }^{11/9} M_{\\star }^{-10/9} T_eff^{11/2}[\\max (Z/Z_{⊙},0.01)]^{-1/5}, where L, R⋆, and Teff are the stellar luminosity, radius, and effective temperature, respectively.

Stellar winds and coronae of low-mass Population II/III stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Takeru K.

2018-04-01

We investigated stellar winds from zero-/low-metallicity low-mass stars by magnetohydrodynamical simulations for stellar winds driven by Alfvén waves from stars with mass M = (0.6-0.8) M⊙ and metallicity Z = (0-1) Z⊙, where M⊙ and Z⊙ are the solar mass and metallicity, respectively. Alfvénic waves, which are excited by the surface convection, travel upward from the photosphere and heat up the corona by their dissipation. For lower Z, denser gas can be heated up to the coronal temperature because of the inefficient radiation cooling. The coronal density of Population II/III stars with Z ≤ 0.01 Z⊙ is one to two orders of magnitude larger than that of a solar-metallicity star with the same mass, and as a result, the mass loss rate, \\dot{M}, is 4.5-20 times larger. This indicates that metal accretion on low-mass Pop. III stars is negligible. The soft X-ray flux of the Pop. II/III stars is also expected to be ˜1-30 times larger than that of a solar-metallicity counterpart owing to the larger coronal density, even though the radiation cooling efficiency is smaller. A larger fraction of the input Alfvénic wave energy is transmitted to the corona in low-Z stars because they avoid severe reflection owing to the smaller density difference between the photosphere and the corona. Therefore, a larger fraction is converted to the thermal energy of the corona and the kinetic energy of the stellar wind. From this energetics argument, we finally derived a scaling of \\dot{M} as \\dot{M}∝ L R_{\\star }^{11/9} M_{\\star }^{-10/9} T_eff^{11/2}[\\max (Z/Z_{⊙},0.01)]^{-1/5}, where L, R⋆, and Teff are the stellar luminosity, radius, and effective temperature, respectively.

A comparison of LBGs, DRGs, and BzK galaxies: their contribution to the stellar mass density in the GOODS-MUSIC sample

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grazian, A.; Salimbeni, S.; Pentericci, L.; Fontana, A.; Nonino, M.; Vanzella, E.; Cristiani, S.; de Santis, C.; Gallozzi, S.; Giallongo, E.; Santini, P.

2007-04-01

Context: The classification scheme for high redshift galaxies is complex at the present time, with simple colour-selection criteria (i.e. EROs, IEROs, LBGs, DRGs, BzKs), resulting in ill-defined properties for the stellar mass and star formation rate of these distant galaxies. Aims: The goal of this work is to investigate the properties of different classes of high-z galaxies, focusing in particular on the stellar masses of LBGs, DRGs, and BzKs, in order to derive their contribution to the total mass budget of the distant Universe. Methods: We used the GOODS-MUSIC catalog, containing ~3000 Ks-selected (~10 000 z-selected) galaxies with multi-wavelength coverage extending from the U band to the Spitzer 8~μm band, with spectroscopic or accurate photometric redshifts. We selected samples of BM/BX/LBGs, DRGs, and BzK galaxies to discuss the overlap and the limitations of these criteria, which can be overridden by a selection criterion based on physical parameters. We then measured the stellar masses of these galaxies and computed the stellar mass density (SMD) for the different samples up to redshift ≃4. Results: We show that the BzK-PE criterion is not optimal for selecting early type galaxies at the faint end. On the other hand, BzK-SF is highly contaminated by passively evolving galaxies at red z-Ks colours. We find that LBGs and DRGs contribute almost equally to the global SMD at z≥ 2 and, in general, that star-forming galaxies form a substantial fraction of the universal SMD. Passively evolving galaxies show a strong negative density evolution from redshift 2 to 3, indicating that we are witnessing the epoch of mass assembly of such objects. Finally we have indications that by pushing the selection to deeper magnitudes, the contribution of less massive DRGs could overtake that of LBGs. Deeper surveys, like the HUDF, are required to confirm this suggestion.

The Planetary Nebulae Luminosity Function (PNLF): current perspectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Méndez, Roberto H.

2017-10-01

This paper starts with a brief historical review about the PNLF and its use as a distance indicator. Then the PNLF distances are compared with Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) distances and Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) distances. A Monte Carlo method to generate simulated PNLFs is described, leading to the last subject: recent progress in reproducing the expected maximum final mass in old stellar populations, a stellar astrophysics enigma that has been challenging us for quite some time.

The Role of Stellar Feedback on the Structure of the ISM and Star Formation in Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grisdale, Kearn Michael

2017-08-01

Stellar feedback refers to the injection of energy, momentum and mass into the interstellar medium (ISM) by massive stars. This feedback owes to a combination of ionising radiation, radiation pressure, stellar winds and supernovae and is likely responsible both for the inefficiency of star formation in galaxies, and the observed super-sonic turbulence of the ISM. In this thesis, I study how stellar feedback shapes the ISM thereby regulating galaxy evolution. In particular, I focus on three key questions: (i) How does stellar feedback shape the gas density distribution of the ISM? (ii) How does feedback change or influence the distribution of the kinetic energy in the ISM? and (iii) What role does feedback play in determining the star formation efficiency of giant molecular clouds (GMCs)? To answer these questions, I run high resolution (Deltax 4.6 pc) numerical simulations of three isolated galaxies, both with and without stellar feedback. I compare these simulations to observations of six galaxies from The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS) using power spectra, and I use clump finding techniques to identify GMCs in my simulations and calculate their properties. I find that the kinetic energy power spectra in stellar feedback- regulated galaxies, regardless of the galaxy's mass and size, show scalings in excellent agreement with supersonic turbulence on scales below the thickness of the HI layer. I show that feedback influences the gas density field, and drives gas turbulence, up to large (kiloparsec) scales. This is in stark contrast to the density fields generated by large-scale gravity-only driven turbulence (i.e. without stellar feedback). Simulations with stellar feedback are able to reproduce the internal properties of GMCs such as: mass, size and velocity dispersion. Finally, I demonstrate that my simulations naturally reproduce the observed scatter (3.5-4 dex) in the star formation efficiency per free-fall time of GMCs, despite only employing a simple Schmidt star formation law. I conclude that the neutral gas content of galaxies carries signatures of stellar feedback on all scales and that stellar feedback is, therefore, key to regulating the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time.

The Close Stellar Companions to Intermediate-mass Black Holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

MacLeod, Morgan; Trenti, Michele; Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico

2016-03-01

When embedded in dense cluster cores, intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) acquire close stellar or stellar-remnant companions. These companions are not only gravitationally bound, but also tend to hierarchically isolate from other cluster stars through series of multibody encounters. In this paper we study the demographics of IMBH companions in compact star clusters through direct N-body simulations. We study clusters initially composed of 105 or 2 × 105 stars with IMBHs of 75 and 150 solar masses, and we follow their evolution for 6-10 Gyr. A tight, innermost binary pair of IMBH and stellar object rapidly forms. The IMBH has a companion with an orbital semimajor axis at least three times tighter than the second-most-bound object over 90% of the time. These companionships have typical periods on the order of years and are subject to cycles of exchange and destruction. The most frequently observed, long-lived pairings persist for ˜107 years. The demographics of IMBH companions in clusters are diverse: they include both main-sequence, giant stars and stellar remnants. Companion objects may reveal the presence of an IMBH in a cluster in one of several ways. The most-bound companion stars routinely suffer grazing tidal interactions with the IMBH, offering a dynamical mechanism to produce repeated flaring episodes like those seen in the IMBH candidate HLX-1. The stellar winds of companion stars provide a minimum quiescent accretion rate for IMBHs, with implications for radio searches for IMBH accretion in globular clusters. Finally, gravitational wave inspirals of compact objects occur with promising frequency.

Color-size Relations of Disc Galaxies with Similar Stellar Masses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, W.; Chang, R. X.; Shen, S. Y.; Zhang, B.

2011-01-01

To investigate the correlations between colors and sizes of disc galaxies with similar stellar masses, a sample of 7959 local face-on disc galaxies is collected from the main galaxy sample of the Seventh Data Release of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS DR7). Our results show that, under the condition that the stellar masses of disc galaxies are similar, the relation between u-r and size is weak, while g-r, r-i and r-z colors decrease with disk size. This means that the color-size relations of disc galaxies with similar stellar masses do exist, i.e., the more extended disc galaxies with similar stellar masses tend to have bluer colors. An artificial sample is constructed to confirm that this correlation is not driven by the color-stellar mass relations and size-stellar mass relation of disc galaxies. Our results suggest that the mass distribution of disk galaxies may have an important influence on their stellar formation history, i.e., the galaxies with more extended mass distribution evolve more slowly.

On the Scatter of the Present-day Stellar Metallicity–Mass Relation of Cluster Dwarf Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engler, Christoph; Lisker, Thorsten; Pillepich, Annalisa

2018-04-01

We examine the scatter of the relation between stellar mass and stellar metallicity for cluster dwarf galaxies in the cosmological simulation Illustris. The mass-metallicity relation exhibits the smallest intrinsic scatter at the galaxies' times of peak stellar mass, suggesting stellar mass stripping to be the primary effect responsible for the rather broad relation at present. However, for about 40% of galaxies in the high-metallicity tail of the relation, we find mass stripping to coincide with an increased enrichment of stellar metallicity, possibly caused by the stripping of low-metallicity stars in the galaxy outskirts.

Collisions in Compact Star Clusters.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Portegies Zwart, S. F.

The high stellar densities in young compact star clusters, such as the star cluster R136 in the 30 Doradus region, may lead to a large number of stellar collisions. Such collisions were recently found to be much more frequent than previous estimates. The number of collisions scales with the number of stars for clusters with the same initial relaxation time. These collisions take place in a few million years. The collision products may finally collapse into massive black holes. The fraction of the total mass in the star cluster which ends up in a single massive object scales with the total mass of the cluster and its relaxation time. This mass fraction is rather constant, within a factor two or so. Wild extrapolation from the relatively small masses of the studied systems to the cores of galactic nuclei may indicate that the massive black holes in these systems have formed in a similar way.

Instability, finite amplitude pulsation and mass-loss in models of massive OB-type stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yadav, Abhay Pratap; Glatzel, Wolfgang

2017-11-01

Variability and mass-loss are common phenomena in massive OB-type stars. It is argued that they are caused by violent strange mode instabilities identified in corresponding stellar models. We present a systematic linear stability analysis with respect to radial perturbations of massive OB-type stars with solar chemical composition and masses between 23 and 100 M⊙. For selected unstable stellar models, we perform non-linear simulations of the evolution of the instabilities into the non-linear regime. Finite amplitude pulsations with periods in the range between hours and 100 d are found to be the final result of the instabilities. The pulsations are associated with a mean acoustic luminosity which can be the origin of a pulsationally driven wind. Corresponding mass-loss rates lie in the range between 10-9 and 10-4 M⊙ yr-1 and may thus affect the evolution of massive stars.

HI-Selected Galaxies in Hierarchical Models of Galaxy Formation and Evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zoldan, Anna

2017-07-01

This poster presents the main results of a statistical study of HI-selected galaxies based on six different semi-analytic models, all run on the same cosmological N-body simulation. One of these models includes an explicit treatment for the partition of cold gas into atomic and molecular hydrogen. All models considered agree nicely with the measured HI mass function in the local Universe and with the measured scaling relations between HI and galaxy stellar mass. Most models also reproduce the observed 2-point correlation function for HI rich galaxies, with the exception of one model that predicts very little HI associated with galaxies in haloes above 10^12 Msun. We investigated the influence of satellite treatment on the final HI content and found that it introduces large uncertainties at low HI masses. We found that the assumption of instantaneous stripping of hot gas in satellites does not translate necessarily in lower HI masses. We demonstrate that the assumed stellar feedback, combined with star formation, also affect significantly the gas content of satellite galaxies. Finally, we also analyse the origin of the correlation between HI content of model galaxies and the spin of the parent haloes. Zoldan et al., 2016, MNRAS, 465, 2236

Distinguishing between Formation Channels for Binary Black Holes with LISA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Breivik, Katelyn; Rodriguez, Carl L.; Larson, Shane L.; Kalogera, Vassiliki; Rasio, Frederic A.

2016-10-01

The recent detections of GW150914 and GW151226 imply an abundance of stellar-mass binary black hole (BBH) mergers in the local universe. While ground-based gravitational wave detectors are limited to observing the final moments before a binary merges, space-based detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), can observe binaries at lower orbital frequencies where such systems may still encode information about their formation histories. In particular, the orbital eccentricity and mass of BBHs in the LISA frequency band can be used together to discriminate between binaries formed in isolation in galactic fields and those formed in dense stellar environments such as globular clusters. In this letter, we explore the orbital eccentricity and mass of BBH populations as they evolve through the LISA frequency band. Overall we find that there are two distinct populations discernible by LISA. We show that up to ∼ 90 % of binaries formed either dynamically or in isolation have eccentricities that are measurable with LISA. Finally, we note how measured eccentricities of low-mass BBHs evolved in isolation could provide detailed constraints on the physics of black hole natal kicks and common-envelope evolution.

Distinguishing Between Formation Channels for Binary Black Holes with LISA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Breivik, Katelyn; Rodriguez, Carl L.; Larson, Shane L.; Kalogera, Vassiliki; Rasio, Frederic A.

2017-01-01

The recent detections of GW150914 and GW151226 imply an abundance of stellar-mass binary-black-hole mergers in the local universe. While ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are limited to observing the final moments before a binary merges, space-based detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), can observe binaries at lower orbital frequencies where such systems may still encode information about their formation histories. In particular, the orbital eccentricity and mass of binary black holes in the LISA frequency band can be used together to discriminate between binaries formed in isolation in galactic fields and those formed in dense stellar environments such as globular clusters. In this letter, we explore the orbital eccentricity and mass of binary-black-hole populations as they evolve through the LISA frequency band. Overall we find that there are two distinct populations discernible by LISA. We show that up to ~90% of binaries formed either dynamically or in isolation have eccentricities measurable by LISA. Finally, we note how measured eccentricities of low-mass binary black holes evolved in isolation could provide detailed constraints on the physics of black-hole natal kicks and common-envelope evolution.

New analytical solutions for chemical evolution models: characterizing the population of star-forming and passive galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spitoni, E.; Vincenzo, F.; Matteucci, F.

2017-03-01

Context. Analytical models of chemical evolution, including inflow and outflow of gas, are important tools for studying how the metal content in galaxies evolves as a function of time. Aims: We present new analytical solutions for the evolution of the gas mass, total mass, and metallicity of a galactic system when a decaying exponential infall rate of gas and galactic winds are assumed. We apply our model to characterize a sample of local star-forming and passive galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, with the aim of reproducing their observed mass-metallicity relation. Methods: We derived how the two populations of star-forming and passive galaxies differ in their particular distribution of ages, formation timescales, infall masses, and mass loading factors. Results: We find that the local passive galaxies are, on average, older and assembled on shorter typical timescales than the local star-forming galaxies; on the other hand, the star-forming galaxies with higher masses generally show older ages and longer typical formation timescales compared than star-forming galaxies with lower masses. The local star-forming galaxies experience stronger galactic winds than the passive galaxy population. Exploring the effect of assuming different initial mass functions in our model, we show that to reproduce the observed mass-metallicity relation, stronger winds are requested if the initial mass function is top-heavy. Finally, our analytical models predict the assumed sample of local galaxies to lie on a tight surface in the 3D space defined by stellar metallicity, star formation rate, and stellar mass, in agreement with the well-known fundamental relation from adopting gas-phase metallicity. Conclusions: By using a new analytical model of chemical evolution, we characterize an ensemble of SDSS galaxies in terms of their infall timescales, infall masses, and mass loading factors. Local passive galaxies are, on average, older and assembled on shorter typical timescales than the local star-forming galaxies. Moreover, the local star-forming galaxies show stronger galactic winds than the passive galaxy population. Finally, we find that the fundamental relation between metallicity, mass, and star formation rate for these local galaxies is still valid when adopting the average galaxy stellar metallicity.

Implications of Stellar Feedback for Dynamical Modeling of the Milky Way and Dwarf Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wetzel, Andrew

2018-04-01

I will present recent results on dynamical modeling of stellar populations from the FIRE cosmological zoom-in baryonic simulations of Milky Way-like and dwarf galaxies. First, I will discuss the dynamical formation of the Milky Way, including the origin of thin+thick stellar disk morphology. I also will discuss the curious origin of metal-rich stars on halo-like orbits near the Sun, as recently measured by Gaia, with new insights from FIRE simulations on stellar radial migration/heating. Next, I will discuss role of stellar feedback in generating non-equilibrium fluctuations of the gravitational potential in low-mass 'dwarf' galaxies, which can explain the origin of cores in their dark-matter density profiles. In particular, we predict significant observable effects on stellar dynamics, including radial migration, size fluctuations, and population gradients, which can provide observational tests of feedback-driven core formation. Finally, this scenario can explain the formation of newly discovered 'ultra-diffuse' galaxies.

Low Masses and High Redshifts: The Evolution of the Mass-Metallicity Relation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Henry, Alaina; Scarlata, Claudia; Dominguez, Alberto; Malkan, Matthew; Martin, Crystal L.; Siana, Brian; Atek, Hakim; Bedregal, Alejandro G.; Colbert, James W.; Rafelski, Marc;

THE PANCHROMATIC HUBBLE ANDROMEDA TREASURY. IV. A PROBABILISTIC APPROACH TO INFERRING THE HIGH-MASS STELLAR INITIAL MASS FUNCTION AND OTHER POWER-LAW FUNCTIONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Weisz, Daniel R.; Fouesneau, Morgan; Dalcanton, Julianne J.

2013-01-10

We present a probabilistic approach for inferring the parameters of the present-day power-law stellar mass function (MF) of a resolved young star cluster. This technique (1) fully exploits the information content of a given data set; (2) can account for observational uncertainties in a straightforward way; (3) assigns meaningful uncertainties to the inferred parameters; (4) avoids the pitfalls associated with binning data; and (5) can be applied to virtually any resolved young cluster, laying the groundwork for a systematic study of the high-mass stellar MF (M {approx}> 1 M {sub Sun }). Using simulated clusters and Markov Chain Monte Carlomore » sampling of the probability distribution functions, we show that estimates of the MF slope, {alpha}, are unbiased and that the uncertainty, {Delta}{alpha}, depends primarily on the number of observed stars and on the range of stellar masses they span, assuming that the uncertainties on individual masses and the completeness are both well characterized. Using idealized mock data, we compute the theoretical precision, i.e., lower limits, on {alpha}, and provide an analytic approximation for {Delta}{alpha} as a function of the observed number of stars and mass range. Comparison with literature studies shows that {approx}3/4 of quoted uncertainties are smaller than the theoretical lower limit. By correcting these uncertainties to the theoretical lower limits, we find that the literature studies yield ({alpha}) = 2.46, with a 1{sigma} dispersion of 0.35 dex. We verify that it is impossible for a power-law MF to obtain meaningful constraints on the upper mass limit of the initial mass function, beyond the lower bound of the most massive star actually observed. We show that avoiding substantial biases in the MF slope requires (1) including the MF as a prior when deriving individual stellar mass estimates, (2) modeling the uncertainties in the individual stellar masses, and (3) fully characterizing and then explicitly modeling the completeness for stars of a given mass. The precision on MF slope recovery in this paper are lower limits, as we do not explicitly consider all possible sources of uncertainty, including dynamical effects (e.g., mass segregation), unresolved binaries, and non-coeval populations. We briefly discuss how each of these effects can be incorporated into extensions of the present framework. Finally, we emphasize that the technique and lessons learned are applicable to more general problems involving power-law fitting.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reines, Amy E.; Volonteri, Marta, E-mail: reines@umich.edu

Scaling relations between central black hole (BH) mass and host galaxy properties are of fundamental importance to studies of BH and galaxy evolution throughout cosmic time. Here we investigate the relationship between BH mass and host galaxy total stellar mass using a sample of 262 broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the nearby universe (z < 0.055), as well as 79 galaxies with dynamical BH masses. The vast majority of our AGN sample is constructed using Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy and searching for Seyfert-like narrow-line ratios and broad Hα emission. BH masses are estimated using standard virial techniques. Wemore » also include a small number of dwarf galaxies with total stellar masses M{sub stellar} ≲ 10{sup 9.5} M{sub ⊙} and a subsample of the reverberation-mapped AGNs. Total stellar masses of all 341 galaxies are calculated in the most consistent manner feasible using color-dependent mass-to-light ratios. We find a clear correlation between BH mass and total stellar mass for the AGN host galaxies, with M{sub BH} ∝ M{sub stellar}, similar to that of early-type galaxies with dynamically detected BHs. However, the relation defined by the AGNs has a normalization that is lower by more than an order of magnitude, with a BH-to-total stellar mass fraction of M{sub BH}/M{sub stellar} ∼ 0.025% across the stellar mass range 10{sup 8} ≤ M{sub stellar}/M{sub ⊙} ≤ 10{sup 12}. This result has significant implications for studies at high redshift and cosmological simulations in which stellar bulges cannot be resolved.« less

Ubiquitous time variability of integrated stellar populations.

PubMed

Conroy, Charlie; van Dokkum, Pieter G; Choi, Jieun

2015-11-26

Long-period variable stars arise in the final stages of the asymptotic giant branch phase of stellar evolution. They have periods of up to about 1,000 days and amplitudes that can exceed a factor of three in the I-band flux. These stars pulsate predominantly in their fundamental mode, which is a function of mass and radius, and so the pulsation periods are sensitive to the age of the underlying stellar population. The overall number of long-period variables in a population is directly related to their lifetimes, which is difficult to predict from first principles because of uncertainties associated with stellar mass-loss and convective mixing. The time variability of these stars has not previously been taken into account when modelling the spectral energy distributions of galaxies. Here we construct time-dependent stellar population models that include the effects of long-period variable stars, and report the ubiquitous detection of this expected 'pixel shimmer' in the massive metal-rich galaxy M87. The pixel light curves display a variety of behaviours. The observed variation of 0.1 to 1 per cent is very well matched to the predictions of our models. The data provide a strong constraint on the properties of variable stars in an old and metal-rich stellar population, and we infer that the lifetime of long-period variables in M87 is shorter by approximately 30 per cent compared to predictions from the latest stellar evolution models.

The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: final data release and the metallicity of UV-luminous galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drinkwater, Michael J.; Byrne, Zachary J.; Blake, Chris; Glazebrook, Karl; Brough, Sarah; Colless, Matthew; Couch, Warrick; Croton, Darren J.; Croom, Scott M.; Davis, Tamara M.; Forster, Karl; Gilbank, David; Hinton, Samuel R.; Jelliffe, Ben; Jurek, Russell J.; Li, I.-hui; Martin, D. Christopher; Pimbblet, Kevin; Poole, Gregory B.; Pracy, Michael; Sharp, Rob; Smillie, Jon; Spolaor, Max; Wisnioski, Emily; Woods, David; Wyder, Ted K.; Yee, Howard K. C.

2018-03-01

The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey measured the redshifts of over 200 000 ultraviolet (UV)-selected (NUV < 22.8 mag) galaxies on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The survey detected the baryon acoustic oscillation signal in the large-scale distribution of galaxies over the redshift range 0.2 < z < 1.0, confirming the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe and measuring the rate of structure growth within it. Here, we present the final data release of the survey: a catalogue of 225 415 galaxies and individual files of the galaxy spectra. We analyse the emission-line properties of these UV-luminous Lyman-break galaxies by stacking the spectra in bins of luminosity, redshift, and stellar mass. The most luminous (-25 mag

Low-mass Stellar and Substellar Companions to sdB Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geier, S.; Classen, L.; Brünner, P.; Nagel, K.; Schaffenroth, V.; Heuser, C.; Heber, U.; Drechsel, H.; Edelmann, H.; Koen, C.; O'Toole, S. J.; Morales-Rueda, L.

2012-03-01

It has been suggested that besides stellar companions, substellar objects in close orbits may be able to trigger mass loss in a common envelope phase and form hot subdwarfs. In an ongoing project we search for close substellar companions combining time resolved high resolution spectroscopy with photometry. We determine the fraction of as yet undetected radial velocity variable systems from a sample of 27 apparently single sdB stars to be ˜eq16%. We discovered low-mass stellar companions to the He-sdB CPD-20circ 1123 and the pulsator KPD 0629-0016. The brown dwarf reported to orbit the eclipsing binary SDSS J0820+0008 could be confirmed by an analysis of high resolution spectra taken with UVES. Reflection effects have been detected in the light curves of the known sdB binaries CPD -64circ 481 and BPS CS 22169-0001. The inclinations of these systems must be much higher than expected and the most likely companion masses are in the substellar regime. Finally, we determined the orbit of the sdB binary PHL 457, which has a very small radial velocity amplitude and may host the lowest mass substellar companion known. The implications of these new results for the open question of sdB formation are discussed.

The Faber–Jackson relation and Fundamental Plane from halo abundance matching

DOE PAGES

Desmond, Harry; Wechsler, Risa H.

2016-11-02

The Fundamental Plane (FP) describes the relation between the stellar mass, size, and velocity dispersion of elliptical galaxies; the Faber–Jackson relation (FJR) is its projection on to {mass, velocity} space. In this work, we re-deploy and expand the framework of Desmond & Wechsler to ask whether abundance matching-based Λ-cold dark matter models which have shown success in matching the spatial distribution of galaxies are also capable of explaining key properties of the FJR and FP, including their scatter. Within our framework, agreement with the normalization of the FJR requires haloes to expand in response to disc formation. We find thatmore » the tilt of the FP may be explained by a combination of the observed non-homology in galaxy structure and the variation in mass-to-light ratio produced by abundance matching with a universal initial mass function, provided that the anisotropy of stellar motions is taken into account. However, the predicted scatter around the FP is considerably increased by situating galaxies in cosmologically motivated haloes due to the variations in halo properties at fixed stellar mass and appears to exceed that of the data. Finally, this implies that additional correlations between galaxy and halo variables may be required to fully reconcile these models with elliptical galaxy scaling relations.« less

AGN host galaxy mass function in COSMOS. Is AGN feedback responsible for the mass-quenching of galaxies?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bongiorno, A.; Schulze, A.; Merloni, A.; Zamorani, G.; Ilbert, O.; La Franca, F.; Peng, Y.; Piconcelli, E.; Mainieri, V.; Silverman, J. D.; Brusa, M.; Fiore, F.; Salvato, M.; Scoville, N.

2016-04-01

We investigate the role of supermassive black holes in the global context of galaxy evolution by measuring the host galaxy stellar mass function (HGMF) and the specific accretion rate, that is, λSAR, the distribution function (SARDF), up to z ~ 2.5 with ~1000 X-ray selected AGN from XMM-COSMOS. Using a maximum likelihood approach, we jointly fit the stellar mass function and specific accretion rate distribution function, with the X-ray luminosity function as an additional constraint. Our best-fit model characterizes the SARDF as a double power-law with mass-dependent but redshift-independent break, whose low λSAR slope flattens with increasing redshift while the normalization increases. This implies that for a given stellar mass, higher λSAR objects have a peak in their space density at earlier epoch than the lower λSAR objects, following and mimicking the well-known AGN cosmic downsizing as observed in the AGN luminosity function. The mass function of active galaxies is described by a Schechter function with an almost constant M∗⋆ and a low-mass slope α that flattens with redshift. Compared to the stellar mass function, we find that the HGMF has a similar shape and that up to log (M⋆/M⊙) ~ 11.5, the ratio of AGN host galaxies to star-forming galaxies is basically constant (~10%). Finally, the comparison of the AGN HGMF for different luminosity and specific accretion rate subclasses with a previously published phenomenological model prediction for the "transient" population, which are galaxies in the process of being mass-quenched, reveals that low-luminosity AGN do not appear to be able to contribute significantly to the quenching and that at least at high masses, that is, M⋆ > 1010.7 M⊙, feedback from luminous AGN (log Lbol ≳ 46 [erg/s]) may be responsible for the quenching of star formation in the host galaxy.

Revised Stellar Properties of Kepler Targets for the Q1-17 (DR25) Transit Detection Run

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mathur, Savita; Huber, Daniel; Batalha, Natalie M.; Ciardi, David R.; Bastien, Fabienne A.; Bieryla, Allyson; Buchhave, Lars A.; Cochran, William D.; Endl, Michael; Esquerdo, Gilbert A.; Furlan, Elise; Howard, Andrew; Howell, Steve B.; Isaacson, Howard; Latham, David W.; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Silva, David R.

2017-04-01

The determination of exoplanet properties and occurrence rates using Kepler data critically depends on our knowledge of the fundamental properties (such as temperature, radius, and mass) of the observed stars. We present revised stellar properties for 197,096 Kepler targets observed between Quarters 1–17 (Q1-17), which were used for the final transiting planet search run by the Kepler Mission (Data Release 25, DR25). Similar to the Q1–16 catalog by Huber et al., the classifications are based on conditioning published atmospheric parameters on a grid of Dartmouth isochrones, with significant improvements in the adopted method and over 29,000 new sources for temperatures, surface gravities, or metallicities. In addition to fundamental stellar properties, the new catalog also includes distances and extinctions, and we provide posterior samples for each stellar parameter of each star. Typical uncertainties are ∼27% in radius, ∼17% in mass, and ∼51% in density, which is somewhat smaller than previous catalogs because of the larger number of improved {log}g constraints and the inclusion of isochrone weighting when deriving stellar posterior distributions. On average, the catalog includes a significantly larger number of evolved solar-type stars, with an increase of 43.5% in the number of subgiants. We discuss the overall changes of radii and masses of Kepler targets as a function of spectral type, with a particular focus on exoplanet host stars.

Analyzing the Effects of Stellar Evolution on White Dwarf Ages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moss, Adam; Von Hippel, Ted, Dr.

2018-01-01

White dwarfs are among the oldest objects in our Galaxy, thus if we can determine their ages, we can derive the star formation history of our Galaxy. As part of a larger project that will use Gaia parallaxes to derive the ages of tens of thousands of white dwarfs, we explore the impact on the total white dwarf age of various modern models of main sequence and red giant branch stellar evolution, as well as uncertainties in progenitor metallicity. In addition, we study the effect on white dwarf ages caused by uncertainties in the Initial Final Mass Relation, which is the mapping between zero age main sequence and white dwarf masses. We find that for old and high mass white dwarfs, uncertainties in these factors have little effect on the total white dwarf age.

Panchromatic spectral energy distributions of simulated galaxies: results at redshift z = 0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goz, David; Monaco, Pierluigi; Granato, Gian Luigi; Murante, Giuseppe; Domínguez-Tenreiro, Rosa; Obreja, Aura; Annunziatella, Marianna; Tescari, Edoardo

2017-08-01

We present predictions of spectral energy distributions (SEDs), from the UV to the FIR, of simulated galaxies at z = 0. These were obtained by post-processing the results of an N-body+hydro simulation of a cosmological box of side 25 Mpc, which uses the Multi-Phase Particle Integrator (MUPPI) for star formation and stellar feedback, with the grasil-3d radiative transfer code that includes reprocessing of UV light by dust. Physical properties of our sample of ˜500 galaxies resemble observed ones, though with some tension at small and large stellar masses. Comparing predicted SEDs of simulated galaxies with different samples of local galaxies, we find that these resemble observed ones, when normalized at 3.6 μm. A comparison with the Herschel Reference Survey shows that the average SEDs of galaxies, divided in bins of star formation rate (SFR), are reproduced in shape and absolute normalization to within a factor of ˜2, while average SEDs of galaxies divided in bins of stellar mass show tensions that are an effect of the difference of simulated and observed galaxies in the stellar mass-SFR plane. We use our sample to investigate the correlation of IR luminosity in Spitzer and Herschel bands with several galaxy properties. SFR is the quantity that best correlates with IR light up to 160 μm, while at longer wavelengths better correlations are found with molecular mass and, at 500 μm, with dust mass. However, using the position of the FIR peak as a proxy for cold dust temperature, we assess that heating of cold dust is mostly determined by SFR, with stellar mass giving only a minor contribution. We finally show how our sample of simulated galaxies can be used as a guide to understand the physical properties and selection biases of observed samples.

The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) . Luminosity and stellar mass dependence of galaxy clustering at 0.5 < z < 1.1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marulli, F.; Bolzonella, M.; Branchini, E.; Davidzon, I.; de la Torre, S.; Granett, B. R.; Guzzo, L.; Iovino, A.; Moscardini, L.; Pollo, A.; Abbas, U.; Adami, C.; Arnouts, S.; Bel, J.; Bottini, D.; Cappi, A.; Coupon, J.; Cucciati, O.; De Lucia, G.; Fritz, A.; Franzetti, P.; Fumana, M.; Garilli, B.; Ilbert, O.; Krywult, J.; Le Brun, V.; Le Fèvre, O.; Maccagni, D.; Małek, K.; McCracken, H. J.; Paioro, L.; Polletta, M.; Schlagenhaufer, H.; Scodeggio, M.; Tasca, L. A. M.; Tojeiro, R.; Vergani, D.; Zanichelli, A.; Burden, A.; Di Porto, C.; Marchetti, A.; Marinoni, C.; Mellier, Y.; Nichol, R. C.; Peacock, J. A.; Percival, W. J.; Phleps, S.; Wolk, M.; Zamorani, G.

2013-09-01

Aims: We investigate the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and stellar mass in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.1, using the first ~ 55 000 redshifts from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). Methods: We measured the redshift-space two-point correlation functions (2PCF), ξ(s) and ξ(rp,π) , and the projected correlation function, wp(rp), in samples covering different ranges of B-band absolute magnitudes and stellar masses. We considered both threshold and binned galaxy samples, with median B-band absolute magnitudes - 21.6 ≲ MB - 5log (h) ≲ - 19.5 and median stellar masses 9.8 ≲ log (M⋆ [h-2 M⊙]) ≲ 10.7. We assessed the real-space clustering in the data from the projected correlation function, which we model as a power law in the range 0.2 < rp [h-1 Mpc ] < 20. Finally, we estimated the galaxy bias as a function of luminosity, stellar mass, and redshift, assuming a flat Λ cold dark matter model to derive the dark matter 2PCF. Results: We provide the best-fit parameters of the power-law model assumed for the real-space 2PCF - the correlation length, r0, and the slope, γ - as well as the linear bias parameter, as a function of the B-band absolute magnitude, stellar mass, and redshift. We confirm and provide the tightest constraints on the dependence of clustering on luminosity at 0.5 < z < 1.1. We prove the complexity of comparing the clustering dependence on stellar mass from samples that are originally flux-limited and discuss the possible origin of the observed discrepancies. Overall, our measurements provide stronger constraints on galaxy formation models, which are now required to match, in addition to local observations, the clustering evolution measured by VIPERS galaxies between z = 0.5 and z = 1.1 for a broad range of luminosities and stellar masses. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile, under programmes 182.A-0886 (LP) at the Very Large Telescope, and also based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Science de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at TERAPIX and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS. The VIPERS web site is http://vipers.inaf.it/

The scaling relationship between baryonic mass and stellar disc size in morphologically late-type galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Po-Feng

2018-02-01

Here I report the scaling relationship between the baryonic mass and scale-length of stellar discs for ∼1000 morphologically late-type galaxies. The baryonic mass-size relationship is a single power law R_\\ast ∝ M_b^{0.38} across ∼3 orders of magnitude in baryonic mass. The scatter in size at fixed baryonic mass is nearly constant and there are no outliers. The baryonic mass-size relationship provides a more fundamental description of the structure of the disc than the stellar mass-size relationship. The slope and the scatter of the stellar mass-size relationship can be understood in the context of the baryonic mass-size relationship. For gas-rich galaxies, the stars are no longer a good tracer for the baryons. High-baryonic-mass, gas-rich galaxies appear to be much larger at fixed stellar mass because most of the baryonic content is gas. The stellar mass-size relationship thus deviates from the power-law baryonic relationship, and the scatter increases at the low-stellar-mass end. These extremely gas-rich low-mass galaxies can be classified as ultra-diffuse galaxies based on the structure.

The Host Galaxies of Fast-Ejecta Core-Collapse Supernovae

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kelly, Patrick L.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Modjaz, Maryam; Kocevski, Daniel

2014-01-01

Spectra of broad-lined Type Ic supernovae (SN Ic-BL), the only kind of SN observed at the locations of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs), exhibit wide features indicative of high ejecta velocities ((is) approximately 0.1c). We study the host galaxies of a sample of 245 low-redshift (z (is) less than 0.2) core-collapse SN, including 17 SN Ic-BL, discovered by galaxy-untargeted searches, and 15 optically luminous and dust-obscured z (is) less than 1.2 LGRBs. We show that, in comparison with SDSS galaxies having similar stellar masses, the hosts of low-redshift SN Ic- BL and z (is) is less than 1.2 LGRBs have high stellar-mass and star-formation-rate densities. Core-collapse SN having typical ejecta velocities, in contrast, show no preference for such galaxies. Moreover, we find that the hosts of SN Ic-BL, unlike those of SN Ib/Ic and SN II, exhibit high gas velocity dispersions for their stellar masses. The patterns likely reflect variations among star-forming environments, and suggest that LGRBs can be used as probes of conditions in high-redshift galaxies. They may be caused by efficient formation of massive binary progenitors systems in densely star-forming regions, or, less probably, a higher fraction of stars created with the initial masses required for a SN Ic-BL or LGRB. Finally, we show that the preference of SN Ic-BL and LGRBs for galaxies with high stellar-mass and star-formation-rate densities cannot be attributed to a preference for low metal abundances but must reflect the influence of a separate environmental factor.

Starburst to Quiescent from HST/ALMA: Stars and Dust Unveil Minor Mergers in Submillimeter Galaxies at z ∼ 4.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gómez-Guijarro, C.; Toft, S.; Karim, A.; Magnelli, B.; Magdis, G. E.; Jiménez-Andrade, E. F.; Capak, P. L.; Fraternali, F.; Fujimoto, S.; Riechers, D. A.; Schinnerer, E.; Smolčić, V.; Aravena, M.; Bertoldi, F.; Cortzen, I.; Hasinger, G.; Hu, E. M.; Jones, G. C.; Koekemoer, A. M.; Lee, N.; McCracken, H. J.; Michałowski, M. J.; Navarrete, F.; Pović, M.; Puglisi, A.; Romano-Díaz, E.; Sheth, K.; Silverman, J. D.; Staguhn, J.; Steinhardt, C. L.; Stockmann, M.; Tanaka, M.; Valentino, F.; van Kampen, E.; Zirm, A.

2018-04-01

Dust-enshrouded, starbursting, submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at z ≥ 3 have been proposed as progenitors of z ≥ 2 compact quiescent galaxies (cQGs). To test this connection, we present a detailed spatially resolved study of the stars, dust, and stellar mass in a sample of six submillimeter-bright starburst galaxies at z ∼ 4.5. The stellar UV emission probed by HST is extended and irregular and shows evidence of multiple components. Informed by HST, we deblend Spitzer/IRAC data at rest-frame optical, finding that the systems are undergoing minor mergers with a typical stellar mass ratio of 1:6.5. The FIR dust continuum emission traced by ALMA locates the bulk of star formation in extremely compact regions (median r e = 0.70 ± 0.29 kpc), and it is in all cases associated with the most massive component of the mergers (median {log}({M}* /{M}ȯ )=10.49+/- 0.32). We compare spatially resolved UV slope (β) maps with the FIR dust continuum to study the infrared excess (IRX = L IR/L UV)–β relation. The SMGs display systematically higher IRX values than expected from the nominal trend, demonstrating that the FIR and UV emissions are spatially disconnected. Finally, we show that the SMGs fall on the mass–size plane at smaller stellar masses and sizes than the cQGs at z = 2. Taking into account the expected evolution in stellar mass and size between z = 4.5 and z = 2 due to the ongoing starburst and mergers with minor companions, this is in agreement with a direct evolutionary connection between the two populations.

The Effect of Filaments and Tendrils on the H I Content of Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crone Odekon, Mary; Hallenbeck, Gregory; Haynes, Martha P.; Koopmann, Rebecca A.; Phi, An; Wolfe, Pierre-Francois

2018-01-01

We use the ALFALFA H I survey to examine whether the cold gas reservoirs of galaxies are inhibited or enhanced in large-scale filaments. Our sample includes 9947 late-type galaxies with H I detections and 4236 late-type galaxies with well-determined H I detection limits that we incorporate using survival analysis statistics. We find that, even at fixed local density and stellar mass, and with group galaxies removed, the H I deficiency of galaxies in the stellar mass range 8.5 < log(M/M ⊙) < 10.5 decreases with distance from the filament spine, suggesting that galaxies are cut off from their supply of cold gas in this environment. We also find that, at fixed local density and stellar mass, the galaxies that are the most gas-rich are those in small, correlated “tendril” structures within voids: although galaxies in tendrils are in significantly denser environments, on average, than galaxies in voids, they are not redder or more H I deficient. This stands in contrast to the fact that galaxies in tendrils are more massive than those in voids, suggesting a more advanced stage of evolution. Finally, at fixed stellar mass and color, galaxies closer to the filament spine, or in high-density environments, are more deficient in H I. This fits a picture where, as galaxies enter denser regions, they first lose H I gas and then redden as star formation is reduced.

The KMOS Redshift One Spectroscopic Survey (KROSS): the origin of disc turbulence in z ≈ 1 star-forming galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, H. L.; Harrison, C. M.; Swinbank, A. M.; Tiley, A. L.; Stott, J. P.; Bower, R. G.; Smail, Ian; Bunker, A. J.; Sobral, D.; Turner, O. J.; Best, P.; Bureau, M.; Cirasuolo, M.; Jarvis, M. J.; Magdis, G.; Sharples, R. M.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Catinella, B.; Cortese, L.; Croom, S. M.; Federrath, C.; Glazebrook, K.; Sweet, S. M.; Bryant, J. J.; Goodwin, M.; Konstantopoulos, I. S.; Lawrence, J. S.; Medling, A. M.; Owers, M. S.; Richards, S.

2018-03-01

We analyse the velocity dispersion properties of 472 z ˜ 0.9 star-forming galaxies observed as part of the KMOS Redshift One Spectroscopic Survey (KROSS). The majority of this sample is rotationally dominated (83 ± 5 per cent with vC/σ0 > 1) but also dynamically hot and highly turbulent. After correcting for beam smearing effects, the median intrinsic velocity dispersion for the final sample is σ0 = 43.2 ± 0.8 km s-1 with a rotational velocity to dispersion ratio of vC/σ0 = 2.6 ± 0.1. To explore the relationship between velocity dispersion, stellar mass, star formation rate, and redshift, we combine KROSS with data from the SAMI survey (z ˜ 0.05) and an intermediate redshift MUSE sample (z ˜ 0.5). Whilst there is, at most, a weak trend between velocity dispersion and stellar mass, at fixed mass there is a strong increase with redshift. At all redshifts, galaxies appear to follow the same weak trend of increasing velocity dispersion with star formation rate. Our results are consistent with an evolution of galaxy dynamics driven by discs that are more gas rich, and increasingly gravitationally unstable, as a function of increasing redshift. Finally, we test two analytic models that predict turbulence is driven by either gravitational instabilities or stellar feedback. Both provide an adequate description of the data, and further observations are required to rule out either model.

Mass Accretion Processes in Young Stellar Objects: Role of Intense Flaring Activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orlando, Salvatore; Reale, Fabio; Peres, Giovanni; Mignone, Andrea

2014-11-01

According to the magnetospheric accretion scenario, young low-mass stars are surrounded by circumstellar disks which they interact with through accretion of mass. The accretion builds up the star to its final mass and is also believed to power the mass outflows, which may in turn have a signicant role in removing the excess angular momentum from the star-disk system. Although the process of mass accretion is a critical aspect of star formation, some of its mechanisms are still to be fully understood. On the other hand, strong flaring activity is a common feature of young stellar objects (YSOs). In the Sun, such events give rise to perturbations of the interplanetary medium. Similar but more energetic phenomena occur in YSOs and may influence the circumstellar environment. In fact, a recent study has shown that an intense flaring activity close to the disk may strongly perturb the stability of circumstellar disks, thus inducing mass accretion episodes (Orlando et al. 2011). Here we review the main results obtained in the field and the future perspectives.

Time evolution of high-energy emissions of low-mass stars. I. Age determination using stellar chronology with white dwarfs in wide binaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcés, A.; Catalán, S.; Ribas, I.

2011-07-01

Context. Stellar ages are extremely difficult to determine and often subject to large uncertainties, especially for field low-mass stars. We plan to carry out a calibration of the decrease in high-energy emissions of low-mass GKM stars with time, and therefore precise age determination is a key ingredient. The overall goal of our research is to study the time evolution of these high-energy emissions as an essential input to studying exoplanetary atmospheres. Aims: We propose to determine stellar ages with a methodology based on wide binaries. We are interested in systems composed of a low-mass star and a white dwarf (WD), where the latter serves as a stellar chronometer for the system. We aim at obtaining reliable ages for a sample of late-type stars older than 1 Gyr. Methods: We selected a sample of wide binaries composed by a DA type WD and a GKM companion. High signal-to-noise, low-resolution spectroscopic observations were obtained for most of the WD members of the sample. Atmospheric parameters were determined by fitting the spectroscopic data to appropiate WD models. The total ages of the systems were derived by using cooling sequences, an initial-final mass relationship and evolutionary tracks, to account for the progenitor life. Results: The spectroscopic observations have allowed us to determine ages for the binary systems using WDs as cosmochronometers. We obtained reliable ages for 27 stars between 1 and 5 Gyr, which is a range where age determination becomes difficult for field objects. Roughly half of these systems have cooling ages that contribute at least 30% the total age. We select those for further study since their age estimate should be less prone to systematic errors coming from the initial-final mass relationship. Conclusions: We have determined robust ages for a sizeable sample of GKM stars that can be subsequently used to study the time evolution of their emissions associated to stellar magnetic activity. Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by the Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC).Based on observations made with the WHT (William Herschel Telescope) operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

THE FIRST Hi-GAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE OUTER GALAXY: A LOOK AT STAR FORMATION IN THE THIRD GALACTIC QUADRANT IN THE LONGITUDE RANGE 216. Degree-Sign 5 {approx}< l {approx}< 225. Degree-Sign 5

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Elia, D.; Molinari, S.; Schisano, E.

2013-07-20

We present the first Herschel PACS and SPIRE photometric observations in a portion of the outer Galaxy (216. Degree-Sign 5 {approx}< l {approx}< 225. Degree-Sign 5 and -2 Degree-Sign {approx}< b {approx}< 0 Degree-Sign ) as a part of the Hi-GAL survey. The maps between 70 and 500 {mu}m, the derived column density and temperature maps, and the compact source catalog are presented. NANTEN CO(1-0) line observations are used to derive cloud kinematics and distances so that we can estimate distance-dependent physical parameters of the compact sources (cores and clumps) having a reliable spectral energy distribution that we separate intomore » 255 proto-stellar and 688 starless sources. Both typologies are found in association with all the distance components observed in the field, up to {approx}5.8 kpc, testifying to the presence of star formation beyond the Perseus arm at these longitudes. Selecting the starless gravitationally bound sources, we identify 590 pre-stellar candidates. Several sources of both proto- and pre-stellar nature are found to exceed the minimum requirement for being compatible with massive star formation based on the mass-radius relation. For the pre-stellar sources belonging to the Local arm (d {approx}< 1.5 kpc) we study the mass function whose high-mass end shows a power law N(log M){proportional_to}M {sup -1.0{+-}0.2}. Finally, we use a luminosity versus mass diagram to infer the evolutionary status of the sources, finding that most of the proto-stellar sources are in the early accretion phase (with some cases compatible with a Class I stage), while for pre-stellar sources, in general, accretion has not yet started.« less

Biological effects of stellar collapse neutrinos

PubMed

Collar, J I

1996-02-05

Massive stars in their final stages of collapse radiate most of their binding energy in the form of MeV neutrinos. The recoil atoms that they produce in elastic scattering off nuclei in organic tissue create radiation damage which is highly effective in the production of irreparable DNA harm, leading to cellular mutation, neoplasia, and oncogenesis. Using a conventional model of the galaxy and of the collapse mechanism, the periodicity of nearby stellar collapses and the radiation dose are calculated. The possible contribution of this process to the paleontological record of mass extinctions is examined.

The Stellar Mass-Halo Mass Relation for Low-mass X-Ray Groups At 0.5< z< 1 in the CDFS With CSI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patel, Shannon G.; Kelson, Daniel D.; Williams, Rik J.; Mulchaey, John S.; Dressler, Alan; McCarthy, Patrick J.; Shectman, Stephen A.

2015-02-01

Since z˜ 1, the stellar mass density locked in low-mass groups and clusters has grown by a factor of ˜8. Here, we make the first statistical measurements of the stellar mass content of low-mass X-ray groups at 0.5\\lt z\\lt 1, enabling the calibration of stellar-to-halo mass scales for wide-field optical and infrared surveys. Groups are selected from combined Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations in the Chandra Deep Field South. These ultra-deep observations allow us to identify bona fide low-mass groups at high redshift and enable measurements of their total halo masses. We compute aggregate stellar masses for these halos using galaxies from the Carnegie-Spitzer-IMACS (CSI) spectroscopic redshift survey. Stars comprise ˜3%-4% of the total mass of group halos with masses {{10}12.8}\\lt {{M}200}/{{M}⊙ }\\lt {{10}13.5} (about the mass of Fornax and one-fiftieth the mass of Virgo). Complementing our sample with higher mass halos at these redshifts, we find that the stellar-to-halo mass ratio decreases toward higher halo masses, consistent with other work in the local and high redshift universe. The observed scatter about the stellar-halo mass relation is σ ˜ 0.25 dex, which is relatively small and suggests that total group stellar mass can serve as a rough proxy for halo mass. We find no evidence for any significant evolution in the stellar-halo mass relation since z≲ 1. Quantifying the stellar content in groups since this epoch is critical given that hierarchical assembly leads to such halos growing in number density and hosting increasing shares of quiescent galaxies. This Letter includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.

MASSCLEANage—Stellar Cluster Ages from Integrated Colors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popescu, Bogdan; Hanson, M. M.

2010-11-01

We present the recently updated and expanded MASSCLEANcolors, a database of 70 million Monte Carlo models selected to match the properties (metallicity, ages, and masses) of stellar clusters found in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This database shows the rather extreme and non-Gaussian distribution of integrated colors and magnitudes expected with different cluster age and mass and the enormous age degeneracy of integrated colors when mass is unknown. This degeneracy could lead to catastrophic failures in estimating age with standard simple stellar population models, particularly if most of the clusters are of intermediate or low mass, like in the LMC. Utilizing the MASSCLEANcolors database, we have developed MASSCLEANage, a statistical inference package which assigns the most likely age and mass (solved simultaneously) to a cluster based only on its integrated broadband photometric properties. Finally, we use MASSCLEANage to derive the age and mass of LMC clusters based on integrated photometry alone. First, we compare our cluster ages against those obtained for the same seven clusters using more accurate integrated spectroscopy. We find improved agreement with the integrated spectroscopy ages over the original photometric ages. A close examination of our results demonstrates the necessity of solving simultaneously for mass and age to reduce degeneracies in the cluster ages derived via integrated colors. We then selected an additional subset of 30 photometric clusters with previously well-constrained ages and independently derive their age using the MASSCLEANage with the same photometry with very good agreement. The MASSCLEANage program is freely available under GNU General Public License.

Star-forming galaxies in intermediate-redshift clusters: stellar versus dynamical masses of luminous compact blue galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Randriamampandry, S. M.; Crawford, S. M.; Bershady, M. A.; Wirth, G. D.; Cress, C. M.

2017-10-01

We investigate the stellar masses of the class of star-forming objects known as luminous compact blue galaxies (LCBGs) by studying a sample of galaxies in the distant cluster MS 0451.6-0305 at z ≈ 0.54 with ground-based multicolour imaging and spectroscopy. For a sample of 16 spectroscopically confirmed cluster LCBGs (colour B - V < 0.5, surface brightness μB < 21 mag arcsec-2 and magnitude MB < -18.5), we measure stellar masses by fitting spectral energy distribution (SED) models to multiband photometry, and compare with dynamical masses [determined from velocity dispersion in the range 10 < σv(km s- 1) < 80] we previously obtained from their emission-line spectra. We compare two different stellar population models that measure stellar mass in star-bursting galaxies, indicating correlations between the stellar age, extinction and stellar mass derived from the two different SED models. The stellar masses of cluster LCBGs are distributed similarly to those of field LCBGs, but the cluster LCBGs show lower dynamical-to-stellar mass ratios (Mdyn/M⋆ = 2.6) than their field LCBG counterparts (Mdyn/M⋆ = 4.8), echoing trends noted previously in low-redshift dwarf elliptical galaxies. Within this limited sample, the specific star formation rate declines steeply with increasing mass, suggesting that these cluster LCBGs have undergone vigorous star formation.

Radial velocity variability and stellar properties of FGK stars in the cores of NGC 2516 and NGC 2422

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bailey, John I.; Mateo, Mario; White, Russel J.; Shectman, Stephen A.; Crane, Jeffrey D.

2018-04-01

We present multi-epoch high-dispersion optical spectra obtained with the Michigan/Magellan Fibre System of 126 and 125 Sun-like stars in the young clusters NGC 2516 (141 Myr) and NGC 2422 (73 Myr). We determine stellar properties including radial velocity (RV), Teff, [Fe/H], [α/Fe] and the line-of-sight rotation rate, vrsin (i), from these spectra. Our median RV precision of 80 m s-1 on individual epochs that span a temporal baseline of 1.1 yr enables us to investigate membership and stellar binarity, and to search for sub-stellar companions. We determine membership probabilities and RV variability probabilities for our sample along with candidate companion orbital periods for a select subset of stars. In NGC 2516, we identified 81 RV members, 27 spectroscopic binaries (17 previously identified as photometric binaries) and 16 other stars that show significant RV variability after accounting for average stellar jitter at the 74 m s-1 level. In NGC 2422, we identify 57 members, 11 spectroscopic binaries and three other stars that show significant RV variability after accounting for an average jitter of 138 m s-1. We use Monte Carlo simulations to verify our stellar jitter measurements, determine the proportion of exoplanets and stellar companions to which we are sensitive, and estimate companion-mass limits for our targets. We also report mean cluster metallicity, velocity and velocity dispersion based on our member targets. We identify 58 non-member stars as RV variables, 24 of which have RV amplitudes that imply stellar or brown-dwarf mass companions. Finally, we note the discovery of a separate RV clustering of stars in our NGC 2422 sample.

The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. IV. A Probabilistic Approach to Inferring the High-mass Stellar Initial Mass Function and Other Power-law Functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weisz, Daniel R.; Fouesneau, Morgan; Hogg, David W.; Rix, Hans-Walter; Dolphin, Andrew E.; Dalcanton, Julianne J.; Foreman-Mackey, Daniel T.; Lang, Dustin; Johnson, L. Clifton; Beerman, Lori C.; Bell, Eric F.; Gordon, Karl D.; Gouliermis, Dimitrios; Kalirai, Jason S.; Skillman, Evan D.; Williams, Benjamin F.

2013-01-01

We present a probabilistic approach for inferring the parameters of the present-day power-law stellar mass function (MF) of a resolved young star cluster. This technique (1) fully exploits the information content of a given data set; (2) can account for observational uncertainties in a straightforward way; (3) assigns meaningful uncertainties to the inferred parameters; (4) avoids the pitfalls associated with binning data; and (5) can be applied to virtually any resolved young cluster, laying the groundwork for a systematic study of the high-mass stellar MF (M >~ 1 M ⊙). Using simulated clusters and Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling of the probability distribution functions, we show that estimates of the MF slope, α, are unbiased and that the uncertainty, Δα, depends primarily on the number of observed stars and on the range of stellar masses they span, assuming that the uncertainties on individual masses and the completeness are both well characterized. Using idealized mock data, we compute the theoretical precision, i.e., lower limits, on α, and provide an analytic approximation for Δα as a function of the observed number of stars and mass range. Comparison with literature studies shows that ~3/4 of quoted uncertainties are smaller than the theoretical lower limit. By correcting these uncertainties to the theoretical lower limits, we find that the literature studies yield langαrang = 2.46, with a 1σ dispersion of 0.35 dex. We verify that it is impossible for a power-law MF to obtain meaningful constraints on the upper mass limit of the initial mass function, beyond the lower bound of the most massive star actually observed. We show that avoiding substantial biases in the MF slope requires (1) including the MF as a prior when deriving individual stellar mass estimates, (2) modeling the uncertainties in the individual stellar masses, and (3) fully characterizing and then explicitly modeling the completeness for stars of a given mass. The precision on MF slope recovery in this paper are lower limits, as we do not explicitly consider all possible sources of uncertainty, including dynamical effects (e.g., mass segregation), unresolved binaries, and non-coeval populations. We briefly discuss how each of these effects can be incorporated into extensions of the present framework. Finally, we emphasize that the technique and lessons learned are applicable to more general problems involving power-law fitting. Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the Data Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.

The edge of galaxy formation - II. Evolution of Milky Way satellite analogues after infall

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frings, Jonas; Macciò, Andrea; Buck, Tobias; Penzo, Camilla; Dutton, Aaron; Blank, Marvin; Obreja, Aura

2017-12-01

In the first paper, we presented 27 hydrodynamical cosmological simulations of galaxies with total masses between 5 × 108 and 1010 M⊙. In this second paper, we use a subset of these cosmological simulations as initial conditions (ICs) for more than 40 hydrodynamical simulations of satellite and host galaxy interaction. Our cosmological ICs seem to suggest that galaxies on these mass scales have very little rotational support and are velocity dispersion (σ) dominated. Accretion and environmental effects increase the scatter in the galaxy scaling relations (e.g. size-velocity dispersion) in very good agreement with observations. Star formation is substantially quenched after accretion. Mass removal due to tidal forces has several effects: it creates a very flat stellar velocity dispersion profile, and it reduces the dark matter content at all scales (even in the centre), which in turn lowers the stellar velocity on scales around 0.5 kpc even when the galaxy does not lose stellar mass. Satellites which start with a cored dark matter profile are more prone to either be destroyed or to end up in a very dark matter poor galaxy. Finally, we found that tidal effects always increase the 'cuspyness' of the dark matter profile, even for haloes that infall with a core.

RADIUS-DEPENDENT ANGULAR MOMENTUM EVOLUTION IN LOW-MASS STARS. I

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reiners, Ansgar; Mohanty, Subhanjoy, E-mail: Ansgar.Reiners@phys.uni-goettingen.de

2012-02-10

Angular momentum evolution in low-mass stars is determined by initial conditions during star formation, stellar structure evolution, and the behavior of stellar magnetic fields. Here we show that the empirical picture of angular momentum evolution arises naturally if rotation is related to magnetic field strength instead of to magnetic flux and formulate a corrected braking law based on this. Angular momentum evolution then becomes a strong function of stellar radius, explaining the main trends observed in open clusters and field stars at a few Gyr: the steep transition in rotation at the boundary to full convection arises primarily from themore » large change in radius across this boundary and does not require changes in dynamo mode or field topology. Additionally, the data suggest transient core-envelope decoupling among solar-type stars and field saturation at longer periods in very low mass stars. For solar-type stars, our model is also in good agreement with the empirical Skumanich law. Finally, in further support of the theory, we show that the predicted age at which low-mass stars spin down from the saturated to unsaturated field regimes in our model corresponds remarkably well to the observed lifetime of magnetic activity in these stars.« less

Neutrino probe comparisons of supernovae as a function of redshift

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fryer, Christopher Lee

2009-01-01

We compare aspects of supernova explosions produced in the current epoch against those produced in the first round of star formation. Although the total final mass of stars can change dramatically between these two epochs due to different mass-loss rates from winds, their cores remam very similar. The core structure is more sensitive to the stellar evolution code than it is to the amount of metals. As such, current stellar models produce supernovae from first stars that look very similar to that of stars produced in the current epoch. The neutrino signal, a powerful probe of the inner core, ismore » identical to the few percent level for both star formation epochs. A change in the neutrino signal in the supernova population between these two star formation epochs will only arise if the initial mass function is altered.« less

On the Spatially Resolved Star Formation History in M51. II. X-Ray Binary Population Evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehmer, B. D.; Eufrasio, R. T.; Markwardt, L.; Zezas, A.; Basu-Zych, A.; Fragos, T.; Hornschemeier, A. E.; Ptak, A.; Tzanavaris, P.; Yukita, M.

2017-12-01

We present a new technique for empirically calibrating how the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of X-ray binary (XRB) populations evolves following a star formation event. We first utilize detailed stellar population synthesis modeling of far-UV-to-far-IR photometry of the nearby face-on spiral galaxy M51 to construct maps of the star formation histories (SFHs) on subgalactic (≈400 pc) scales. Next, we use the ≈850 ks cumulative Chandra exposure of M51 to identify and isolate 2-7 keV detected point sources within the galaxy, and we use our SFH maps to recover the local properties of the stellar populations in which each X-ray source is located. We then divide the galaxy into various subregions based on their SFH properties (e.g., star formation rate (SFR) per stellar mass ({M}\\star ) and mass-weighted stellar age) and group the X-ray point sources according to the characteristics of the regions in which they are found. Finally, we construct and fit a parameterized XLF model that quantifies how the XLF shape and normalization evolves as a function of the XRB population age Our best-fit model indicates that the XRB XLF per unit stellar mass declines in normalization, by ˜3-3.5 dex, and steepens in slope from ≈10 Myr to ≈10 Gyr. We find that our technique recovers results from past studies of how XRB XLFs and XRB luminosity scaling relations vary with age and provides a self-consistent picture for how XRB XLFs evolve with age.

Simulating the environment around planet-hosting stars. II. Stellar winds and inner astrospheres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alvarado-Gómez, J. D.; Hussain, G. A. J.; Cohen, O.; Drake, J. J.; Garraffo, C.; Grunhut, J.; Gombosi, T. I.

2016-10-01

We present the results of a comprehensive numerical simulation of the environment around three exoplanet-host stars (HD 1237, HD 22049, and HD 147513). Our simulations consider one of the latest models currently used for space weather studies in the Heliosphere, with turbulent Alfvén wave dissipation as the source of coronal heating and stellar wind acceleration. Large-scale magnetic field maps, recovered with two implementations of the tomographic technique of Zeeman-Doppler imaging, serve to drive steady-state solutions in each system. This paper contains the description of the stellar wind and inner astrosphere, while the coronal structure was discussed in a previous paper. The analysis includes the magneto-hydrodynamical properties of the stellar wind, the associated mass and angular momentum loss rates, as well as the topology of the astrospheric current sheet in each system. A systematic comparison among the considered cases is performed, including two reference solar simulations covering activity minimum and maximum. For HD 1237, we investigate the interactions between the structure of the developed stellar wind, and a possible magnetosphere around the Jupiter-mass planet in this system. We find that the process of particle injection into the planetary atmosphere is dominated by the density distribution rather than the velocity profile of the stellar wind. In this context, we predict a maximum exoplanetary radio emission of 12 mJy at 40 MHz in this system, assuming the crossing of a high-density streamer during periastron passage. Furthermore, in combination with the analysis performed in the first paper of this study, we obtain for the first time a fully simulated mass loss-activity relation. This relation is compared and discussed in the context of the previously proposed observational counterpart, derived from astrospheric detections. Finally, we provide a characterisation of the global 3D properties of the stellar wind of these systems, at the inner edges of their habitable zones.

Diverse stellar haloes in nearby Milky Way mass disc galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harmsen, Benjamin; Monachesi, Antonela; Bell, Eric F.; de Jong, Roelof S.; Bailin, Jeremy; Radburn-Smith, David J.; Holwerda, Benne W.

2017-04-01

We have examined the resolved stellar populations at large galactocentric distances along the minor axis (from 10 kpc up to between 40 and 75 kpc), with limited major axis coverage, of six nearby highly inclined Milky Way (MW) mass disc galaxies using Hubble Space Telescope data from the Galaxy haloes, Outer discs, Substructure, Thick discs, and Star clusters (GHOSTS) survey. We select red giant branch stars to derive stellar halo density profiles. The projected minor axis density profiles can be approximated by power laws with projected slopes of -2 to -3.7 and a diversity of stellar halo masses of 1-6 × 109 M⊙, or 2-14 per cent of the total galaxy stellar masses. The typical intrinsic scatter around a smooth power-law fit is 0.05-0.1 dex owing to substructure. By comparing the minor and major axis profiles, we infer projected axis ratios c/a at ˜25 kpc between 0.4and0.75. The GHOSTS stellar haloes are diverse, lying between the extremes charted out by the (rather atypical) haloes of the MW and M31. We find a strong correlation between the stellar halo metallicities and the stellar halo masses. We compare our results with cosmological models, finding good agreement between our observations and accretion-only models where the stellar haloes are formed by the disruption of dwarf satellites. In particular, the strong observed correlation between stellar halo metallicity and mass is naturally reproduced. Low-resolution hydrodynamical models have unrealistically high stellar halo masses. Current high-resolution hydrodynamical models appear to predict stellar halo masses somewhat higher than observed but with reasonable metallicities, metallicity gradients, and density profiles.

The optimally sampled galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function. Observational tests and the publicly available GalIMF code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Zhiqiang; Jerabkova, Tereza; Kroupa, Pavel

2017-11-01

Here we present a full description of the integrated galaxy-wide initial mass function (IGIMF) theory in terms of the optimal sampling and compare it with available observations. Optimal sampling is the method we use to discretize the IMF deterministically into stellar masses. Evidence indicates that nature may be closer to deterministic sampling as observations suggest a smaller scatter of various relevant observables than random sampling would give, which may result from a high level of self-regulation during the star formation process. We document the variation of IGIMFs under various assumptions. The results of the IGIMF theory are consistent with the empirical relation between the total mass of a star cluster and the mass of its most massive star, and the empirical relation between the star formation rate (SFR) of a galaxy and the mass of its most massive cluster. Particularly, we note a natural agreement with the empirical relation between the IMF power-law index and the SFR of a galaxy. The IGIMF also results in a relation between the SFR of a galaxy and the mass of its most massive star such that, if there were no binaries, galaxies with SFR < 10-4M⊙/yr should host no Type II supernova events. In addition, a specific list of initial stellar masses can be useful in numerical simulations of stellar systems. For the first time, we show optimally sampled galaxy-wide IMFs (OSGIMF) that mimic the IGIMF with an additional serrated feature. Finally, a Python module, GalIMF, is provided allowing the calculation of the IGIMF and OSGIMF dependent on the galaxy-wide SFR and metallicity. A copy of the python code model is available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/607/A126

The dependence of halo mass on galaxy size at fixed stellar mass using weak lensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charlton, Paul J. L.; Hudson, Michael J.; Balogh, Michael L.; Khatri, Sumeet

2017-12-01

Stellar mass has been shown to correlate with halo mass, with non-negligible scatter. The stellar mass-size and luminosity-size relationships of galaxies also show significant scatter in galaxy size at fixed stellar mass. It is possible that, at fixed stellar mass and galaxy colour, the halo mass is correlated with galaxy size. Galaxy-galaxy lensing allows us to measure the mean masses of dark matter haloes for stacked samples of galaxies. We extend the analysis of the galaxies in the CFHTLenS catalogue by fitting single Sérsic surface brightness profiles to the lens galaxies in order to recover half-light radius values, allowing us to determine halo masses for lenses according to their size. Comparing our halo masses and sizes to baselines for that stellar mass yields a differential measurement of the halo mass-galaxy size relationship at fixed stellar mass, defined as Mh(M_{*}) ∝ r_{eff}^{η }(M_{*}). We find that, on average, our lens galaxies have an η = 0.42 ± 0.12, i.e. larger galaxies live in more massive dark matter haloes. The η is strongest for high-mass luminous red galaxies. Investigation of this relationship in hydrodynamical simulations suggests that, at a fixed M*, satellite galaxies have a larger η and greater scatter in the Mh and reff relationship compared to central galaxies.

On the scatter in the relation between stellar mass and halo mass: random or halo formation time dependent?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Lan; De Lucia, Gabriella; Weinmann, Simone M.

2013-05-01

The empirical traditional halo occupation distribution (HOD) model of Wang et al. fits, by construction, both the stellar mass function and correlation function of galaxies in the local Universe. In contrast, the semi-analytical models of De Lucia & Blazoit (hereafter DLB07) and Guo et al. (hereafter Guo11), built on the same dark matter halo merger trees than the empirical model, still have difficulties in reproducing these observational data simultaneously. We compare the relations between the stellar mass of galaxies and their host halo mass in the three models, and find that they are different. When the relations are rescaled to have the same median values and the same scatter as in Wang et al., the rescaled DLB07 model can fit both the measured galaxy stellar mass function and the correlation function measured in different galaxy stellar mass bins. In contrast, the rescaled Guo11 model still overpredicts the clustering of low-mass galaxies. This indicates that the detail of how galaxies populate the scatter in the stellar mass-halo mass relation does play an important role in determining the correlation functions of galaxies. While the stellar mass of galaxies in the Wang et al. model depends only on halo mass and is randomly distributed within the scatter, galaxy stellar mass depends also on the halo formation time in semi-analytical models. At fixed value of infall mass, galaxies that lie above the median stellar mass-halo mass relation reside in haloes that formed earlier, while galaxies that lie below the median relation reside in haloes that formed later. This effect is much stronger in Guo11 than in DLB07, which explains the overclustering of low mass galaxies in Guo11. Assembly bias in Guo11 model might be overly strong. Nevertheless, in case that a significant assembly bias indeed exists in the real Universe, one needs to use caution when applying current HOD and abundance matching models that employ the assumption of random scatter in the relation between stellar and halo mass.

The V-band Empirical Mass-luminosity Relation for Main Sequence Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Fang; Fu, Yan-Ning

2010-07-01

Stellar mass is an indispensable parameter in the studies of stellar physics and stellar dynamics. On the one hand, the most reliable way to determine the stellar dynamical mass is via orbital determinations of binaries. On the other hand, however, most stellar masses have to be estimated by using the mass luminosity relation (MLR). Therefore, it is important to obtain the empirical MLR through fitting the data of stellar dynamical mass and luminosity. The effect of metallicity can make this relation disperse in the V-band, but studies show that this is mainly limited to the case when the stellar mass is less than 0.6M⊙ Recently, many relevant data have been accumulated for main sequence stars with larger masses, which make it possible to significantly improve the corresponding MLR. Using a fitting method which can reasonably assign weights to the observational data including two quantities with different dimensions, we obtain a V-band MLR based on the dynamical masses and luminosities of 203 main sequence stars. In comparison with the previous work, the improved MLR is statistically significant, and the relative error of mass estimation reaches about 5%. Therefore, our MLR is useful not only in the studies of statistical nature, but also in the studies of concrete stellar systems, such as the long-term dynamical study and the short-term positioning study of a specific multiple star system.

The V Band Empirical Mass-Luminosity Relation for Main Sequence Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, F.; Fu, Y. N.

2010-01-01

Stellar mass is an indispensable parameter in the studies of stellar physics and stellar dynamics. On the one hand, the most reliable way to determine the stellar dynamical mass is via orbital determination of binaries. On the other hand, however, most stellar masses have to be estimated by using the mass-luminosity relation (MLR). Therefore, it is important to obtain the empirical MLR through fitting the data of stellar dynamical mass and luminosity. The effect of metallicity can make this relation disperse in the V-band, but studies show that this is mainly limited to the case when the stellar mass is less than 0.6M⊙. Recently, many relevant data have been accumulated for main sequence stars with larger mass, which make it possible to significantly improve the corresponding MLR. Using a fitting method which can reasonably assign weight to the observational data including two quantities with different dimensions, we obtain a V-band MLR based on the dynamical masses and luminosities of 203 main sequence stars. Compared with the previous work, the improved MLR is statistically significant, and the relative error of mass estimation reaches about 5%. Therefore, our MLR is useful not only in studies of statistical nature, but also in studies of concrete stellar systems, such as the long-term dynamical study and the short-term positioning study of a specific multiple star system.

Stellar Mass Versus Stellar Velocity Dispersion: Which is Better for Linking Galaxies to Their Dark Matter Halos?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Cheng; Wang, Lixin; Jing, Y. P.

2013-01-01

It was recently suggested that compared to its stellar mass (M *), the central stellar velocity dispersion (σ*) of a galaxy might be a better indicator for its host dark matter halo mass. Here we test this hypothesis by estimating the dark matter halo mass for central galaxies in groups as a function of M * and σ*. For this we have estimated the redshift-space cross-correlation function (CCF) between the central galaxies at given M * and σ* and a reference galaxy sample, from which we determine both the projected CCF, wp (rp ), and the velocity dispersion profile. A halo mass is then obtained from the average velocity dispersion within the virial radius. At fixed M *, we find very weak or no correlation between halo mass and σ*. In contrast, strong mass dependence is clearly seen even when σ* is limited to a narrow range. Our results thus firmly demonstrate that the stellar mass of central galaxies is still a good (if not the best) indicator for dark matter halo mass, better than the stellar velocity dispersion. The dependence of galaxy clustering on σ* at fixed M *, as recently discovered by Wake et al., may be attributed to satellite galaxies, for which the tidal stripping occurring within halos has stronger effect on stellar mass than on central stellar velocity dispersion.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Yu; Benson, Andrew; Mao, Yao -Yuan

Many properties of the Milky Way's (MW) dark matter halo, including its mass-assembly history, concentration, and subhalo population, remain poorly constrained. We explore the connection between these properties of the MW and its satellite galaxy population, especially the implication of the presence of the Magellanic Clouds for the properties of the MW halo. Using a suite of high-resolution N-body simulations of MW-mass halos with a fixed finalmore » $${M}_{\\mathrm{vir}}\\sim {10}^{12.1}\\,{M}_{\\odot }$$, we find that the presence of Magellanic Cloud-like satellites strongly correlates with the assembly history, concentration, and subhalo population of the host halo, such that MW-mass systems with Magellanic Clouds have lower concentration, more rapid recent accretion, and more massive subhalos than typical halos of the same mass. Using a flexible semi-analytic galaxy formation model that is tuned to reproduce the stellar mass function of the classical dwarf galaxies of the MW with Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo, we show that adopting host halos with different mass-assembly histories and concentrations can lead to different best-fit models for galaxy-formation physics, especially for the strength of feedback. These biases arise because the presence of the Magellanic Clouds boosts the overall population of high-mass subhalos, thus requiring a different stellar-mass-to-halo-mass ratio to match the data. These biases also lead to significant differences in the mass–metallicity relation, the kinematics of low-mass satellites, the number counts of small satellites associated with the Magellanic Clouds, and the stellar mass of MW itself. Finally, observations of these galaxy properties can thus provide useful constraints on the properties of the MW halo.« less

The connection between the host halo and the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way

DOE PAGES

Lu, Yu; Benson, Andrew; Mao, Yao -Yuan; ...

2016-10-11

Many properties of the Milky Way's (MW) dark matter halo, including its mass-assembly history, concentration, and subhalo population, remain poorly constrained. We explore the connection between these properties of the MW and its satellite galaxy population, especially the implication of the presence of the Magellanic Clouds for the properties of the MW halo. Using a suite of high-resolution N-body simulations of MW-mass halos with a fixed finalmore » $${M}_{\\mathrm{vir}}\\sim {10}^{12.1}\\,{M}_{\\odot }$$, we find that the presence of Magellanic Cloud-like satellites strongly correlates with the assembly history, concentration, and subhalo population of the host halo, such that MW-mass systems with Magellanic Clouds have lower concentration, more rapid recent accretion, and more massive subhalos than typical halos of the same mass. Using a flexible semi-analytic galaxy formation model that is tuned to reproduce the stellar mass function of the classical dwarf galaxies of the MW with Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo, we show that adopting host halos with different mass-assembly histories and concentrations can lead to different best-fit models for galaxy-formation physics, especially for the strength of feedback. These biases arise because the presence of the Magellanic Clouds boosts the overall population of high-mass subhalos, thus requiring a different stellar-mass-to-halo-mass ratio to match the data. These biases also lead to significant differences in the mass–metallicity relation, the kinematics of low-mass satellites, the number counts of small satellites associated with the Magellanic Clouds, and the stellar mass of MW itself. Finally, observations of these galaxy properties can thus provide useful constraints on the properties of the MW halo.« less

A chronicle of galaxy mass assembly in the EAGLE simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qu, Yan; Helly, John C.; Bower, Richard G.; Theuns, Tom; Crain, Robert A.; Frenk, Carlos S.; Furlong, Michelle; McAlpine, Stuart; Schaller, Matthieu; Schaye, Joop; White, Simon D. M.

2017-01-01

We analyse the mass assembly of central galaxies in the Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) hydrodynamical simulations. We build merger trees to connect galaxies to their progenitors at different redshifts and characterize their assembly histories by focusing on the time when half of the galaxy stellar mass was assembled into the main progenitor. We show that galaxies with stellar mass M* < 1010.5 M⊙ assemble most of their stellar mass through star formation in the main progenitor (`in situ' star formation). This can be understood as a consequence of the steep rise in star formation efficiency with halo mass for these galaxies. For more massive galaxies, however, an increasing fraction of their stellar mass is formed outside the main progenitor and subsequently accreted. Consequently, while for low-mass galaxies, the assembly time is close to the stellar formation time, the stars in high-mass galaxies typically formed long before half of the present-day stellar mass was assembled into a single object, giving rise to the observed antihierarchical downsizing trend. In a typical present-day M* ≥ 1011 M⊙ galaxy, around 20 per cent of the stellar mass has an external origin. This fraction decreases with increasing redshift. Bearing in mind that mergers only make an important contribution to the stellar mass growth of massive galaxies, we find that the dominant contribution comes from mergers with galaxies of mass greater than one-tenth of the main progenitor's mass. The galaxy merger fraction derived from our simulations agrees with recent observational estimates.

Seismological properties of intermediate-mass stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Audard, N.; Provost, J.

1994-02-01

Stars more massive than about 1.2 solar mass are characterized by a convective core, which induces at its frontier a rapid variation of the density, sound speed and Brunt-Vaisala frequency, close to a discontinuity. For three stars of 1, 1.5 and 2 solar mass we have studied the properties of p-mode frequencies of high radial order and low degree, and we present results on the effects on p-mode oscillations of some rapid variations of the internal structure. We first point out the difficulties of the classical asymptotic theory to represent with accuracy the p-mode spectrum of the stars considered. We compare the numerical frequencies with asymptotic and polynomial approximations obtained from fits. The variation of the derived global coefficients characterizing the p-mode spectrum along the evolutionary tracks has been estimated; it would help to separate the effects of age and mass of intermediate-mass stars. The sensitivity of these coefficients to stellar parameters substantially depends on the stellar mass and must be considered for asteroseismic calibration. The effects of rapid variations in the stellar internal structure are finally considered. An asymptotic formula taking into account the rapid variation of the sound speed at the convective core boundary of the 1.5 and 2 solar mass stars predicts an oscillatory behavior of the frequencies with a very large period. We also show that the second frequency difference delta2nu = nun, l - 2nun-1, l + nun-2, l exhibits a substantial oscillation which corresponds to the region of the He II ionization of the 1, 1.5 and 2 solar mass stars.

THE STELLAR MASS–HALO MASS RELATION FOR LOW-MASS X-RAY GROUPS AT 0.5< z< 1 IN THE CDFS WITH CSI

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Patel, Shannon G.; Kelson, Daniel D.; Williams, Rik J.

2015-01-30

Since z∼1, the stellar mass density locked in low-mass groups and clusters has grown by a factor of ∼8. Here, we make the first statistical measurements of the stellar mass content of low-mass X-ray groups at 0.5

Very Massive Stars and the Eddington Limit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crowther, P. A.; Hirschi, R.; Walborn, N. R.; Yusof, N.

2012-12-01

We use contemporary evolutionary models for very massive stars (VMS) to assess whether the Eddington limit constrains the upper stellar mass limit. We also consider the interplay between mass and age for the wind properties and spectral morphology of VMS, with reference to the recently modified classification scheme for O2-3.5 If*/WN stars. Finally, the death of VMS in the local universe is considered in the context of pair instability supernovae.

Cluster galaxy population evolution from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey: brightest cluster galaxies, stellar mass distribution, and active galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Yen-Ting; Hsieh, Bau-Ching; Lin, Sheng-Chieh; Oguri, Masamune; Chen, Kai-Feng; Tanaka, Masayuki; Chiu, I.-non; Huang, Song; Kodama, Tadayuki; Leauthaud, Alexie; More, Surhud; Nishizawa, Atsushi J.; Bundy, Kevin; Lin, Lihwai; Miyazaki, Satoshi; HSC Collaboration

2018-01-01

The unprecedented depth and area surveyed by the Subaru Strategic Program with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC-SSP) have enabled us to construct and publish the largest distant cluster sample out to z~1 to date. In this exploratory study of cluster galaxy evolution from z=1 to z=0.3, we investigate the stellar mass assembly history of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), and evolution of stellar mass and luminosity distributions, stellar mass surface density profile, as well as the population of radio galaxies. Our analysis is the first high redshift application of the top N richest cluster selection, which is shown to allow us to trace the cluster galaxy evolution faithfully. Our stellar mass is derived from a machine-learning algorithm, which we show to be unbiased and accurate with respect to the COSMOS data. We find very mild stellar mass growth in BCGs, and no evidence for evolution in both the total stellar mass-cluster mass correlation and the shape of the stellar mass surface density profile. The clusters are found to contain more red galaxies compared to the expectations from the field, even after the differences in density between the two environments have been taken into account. We also present the first measurement of the radio luminosity distribution in clusters out to z~1.

Stellar mass buildup in galaxies in the first 1.5 Gyr of the universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez, Valentino

In this thesis we have made extensive use of the deepest optical and infrared images currently available from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Spitzer Space Telescope to study the properties of the stellar populations and the stellar mass buildup in galaxies in the first 1.5 Gyr after the Big Bang. The star formation Rates (SFRs) estimated for LBGs at z ≳ 4 are generally in the range 1 -- 100 M⊙ yr--1. The stellar mass estimates are most robust for sources with good Spitzer/IRAC detections, corresponding to galaxies with stellar masses ≳ 108.5 M⊙ at z ˜ 4 ( ≳ 109.5 M⊙ at z ˜ 7). For sources with lower rest-frame optical luminosities, that, as a result, are individually undetected in IRAC, their average stellar masses have been studied in a stacking analysis of a large number of sources. This enables us to reach stellar masses ˜ 10 7.8 M⊙ at z ˜ 4. The stellar masses show a fairly tight correlation with UV luminosity or SFR, and the zeropoint of the relation does not seem to evolve strongly with redshift. We have taken advantage of the UV luminosity vs. stellar mass relation observed in LBGs at z ≳ 4 -- 7 to derive the stellar mass function (SMF) of galaxies at these redshifts. The method uses a combination of the UV LF and the mean UV vs. stellar mass relation (including the scatter, estimated to be ˜ 0.5 dex at bright luminosities at z ˜ 4). This method allows an analytic estimate of the low mass slope of the SMF. This slope (the power-law exponent of the SMF at low masses), is estimated to be in the --1.44 -- --1.55, range which is flatter than the UV LF faint end slope at these redshifts ( ≲ --1.74). This means that low mass systems contribute less to the total stellar mass density (SMD) of the Universe than would have been estimated assuming a constant mass-to-UV-light ratio. We show that this is also much flatter than the theoretical predictions from simulations, which generally over-predict the number density of low mass systems at these redshifts. The UV luminosity vs. stellar mass relation indicates only a small variation of the mass-to-light ratio as a function of UV luminosity. This is confirmed in a stacking analysis of a large number of sources from the HUDF and the Early Release Science fields (˜ 400 z ˜ 4, ˜ 120 z ˜ 5, ˜ 60 z ˜ 6, 36 at z ˜ 7). Interestingly, the stacked SEDs at z ≳ 5 in the rest-frame optical shows a color [3.6] -- [4.5] ˜ 0.3 mag. This color is hard to reproduce by synthetic stellar population models that only include stellar continua, and it probably indicates the presence of moderately strong emission lines (Halpha EWrest ˜ 300 A). The contribution from such emission lines in the IRAC fluxes indicates that the stellar masses and ages could both be over-estimated by a factor ˜ 2. One of the most interesting results presented in this thesis is the apparent plateau of the specific SFR (sSFR = SFR / stellar mass). In early results, the similarity in the SEDs of galaxies at a given UV luminosity in the z ˜ 4 -- 7 redshift range resulted in very similar estimates of the SFR and stellar masses of these galaxies. Furthermore, we find that the reported sSFR estimates at z ˜ 2 are also very similar to the ones in the z ˜ 4 -- 7 redshift range (˜ 2 Gyr--1 for ˜ 5 x 109 M⊙ galaxies). A puzzle arises from the fact that the dark matter accretion rate onto halos is predicted to decrease monotonically and rather fast as a function of cosmic time (approximately ∝ (1 + z) 2.5). If gas and star formation follow the inflow of dark matter, the sSFR at a constant mass should also decrease monotonically with time, which is contrary to the indication from these observations. When we include the possible effects of emission lines, the stellar masses decrease by a factor ˜ 2x at z ≳ 5. The revised stellar masses may favor a slowly rising sSFR at z ≳ 2, but the rise as a function of redshift is still much slower (sSFR(z) ∝ (1 + z)0.7) than that of specific dark matter accretion rate. This suggests that the stellar mass buildup is somehow decoupled from the dark matter buildup at early times. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The Galaxy mass function up to z =4 in the GOODS-MUSIC sample: into the epoch of formation of massive galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fontana, A.; Salimbeni, S.; Grazian, A.; Giallongo, E.; Pentericci, L.; Nonino, M.; Fontanot, F.; Menci, N.; Monaco, P.; Cristiani, S.; Vanzella, E.; de Santis, C.; Gallozzi, S.

2006-12-01

Aims.The goal of this work is to measure the evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function and of the resulting Stellar Mass Density up to redshift ≃4, in order to study the assembly of massive galaxies in the high redshift Universe. Methods: .We have used the GOODS-MUSIC catalog, containing 3000 Ks-selected galaxies with multi-wavelength coverage extending from the U band to the Spitzer 8 μm band, of which 27% have spectroscopic redshifts and the remaining fraction have accurate photometric redshifts. On this sample we have applied a standard fitting procedure to measure stellar masses. We compute the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function and the resulting Stellar Mass Density up to redshift ≃4, taking into proper account the biases and incompleteness effects. Results: .Within the well known trend of global decline of the Stellar Mass Density with redshift, we show that the decline of the more massive galaxies may be described by an exponential timescale of ≃6 Gyr up to z≃ 1.5, and proceeds much faster thereafter, with an exponential timescale of ≃0.6 Gyr. We also show that there is some evidence for a differential evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function, with low mass galaxies evolving faster than more massive ones up to z≃ 1{-}1.5 and that the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function remains remarkably flat (i.e. with a slope close to the local one) up to z≃ 1{-}1.3. Conclusions: .The observed behaviour of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function is consistent with a scenario where about 50% of present-day massive galaxies formed at a vigorous rate in the epoch between redshift 4 and 1.5, followed by a milder evolution until the present-day epoch.

Testing the Universality of the Stellar IMF with Chandra and HST

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coulter, D. A.; Lehmer, B. D.; Eufrasio, R. T.; Kundu, A.; Maccarone, T.; Peacock, M.; Hornschemeier, A. E.; Basu-Zych, A.; Gonzalez, A. H.; Maraston, C.;

Relationships between HI Gas Mass, Stellar Mass and Star Formation Rate of HICAT+WISE Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parkash, Vaishali; Brown, Michael J. I.

2018-01-01

Galaxies grow via a combination of star formation and mergers. In this thesis, I have studied what drives star formation in nearby galaxies. Using archival WISE, Galex, 21-cm data and new IFU observations, I examine the HI content, Hα emission, stellar kinematics, and gas kinematics of three sub-classes of galaxies: spiral galaxies, shell galaxies and HI galaxies with unusually low star formation rates (SFR). In this dissertation talk, I will focus on the scaling relations between atomic (HI) gas, stellar mass and SFR of spiral galaxies. Star formation is fuelled by HI and molecular hydrogen, therefore we expect correlations between HI mass, stellar mass and SFR. However, the measured scaling relationships vary in the prior literature due to sample selection or low completeness. I will discuss new scaling relationships determined using HI Parkes All Sky-Survey Catalogue (HICAT) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The combination of the local HICAT survey with sensitive WISE mid-infrared imaging improves the stellar masses, SFRs and completeness relative to previous literature. Of the 3,513 HICAT sources, we find 3.4 μm counterparts for 2,824 sources (80%), and provide new WISE matched aperture photometry for these galaxies. For a stellar mass selected sample of z ≤ 0.01 spiral galaxies, we find HI detections for 94% of the galaxies, enabling us to accurately measure HI mass as a function of stellar mass. In contrast to HI-selected galaxy samples, we find that star formation efficiency of spiral galaxies is constant at 10-9.5 yr‑1 with a scatter of 0.5 dex for stellar masses above 109.5 solar masses. We find HI mass increases with stellar mass for spiral galaxies, but the scatter is 1.7 dex for all spiral galaxies and 0.6 dex for galaxies with the T-type 5 to 7. We find an upper limit on HI mass that depends on stellar mass, which is consistent with this limit being dictated by the halo spin parameter.

The stellar metallicity gradients in galaxy discs in a cosmological scenario

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tissera, Patricia B.; Machado, Rubens E. G.; Sanchez-Blazquez, Patricia; Pedrosa, Susana E.; Sánchez, Sebastián F.; Snaith, Owain; Vilchez, Jose

2016-08-01

Context. The stellar metallicity gradients of disc galaxies provide information on disc assembly, star formation processes, and chemical evolution. They also might store information on dynamical processes that could affect the distribution of chemical elements in the gas phase and the stellar components. Understanding their joint effects within a hierarchical clustering scenario is of paramount importance. Aims: We studied the stellar metallicity gradients of simulated discs in a cosmological simulation. We explored the dependence of the stellar metallicity gradients on stellar age and on the size and mass of the stellar discs. Methods: We used a catalogue of galaxies with disc components selected from a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation performed including a physically motivated supernova feedback and chemical evolution. Disc components were defined based on angular momentum and binding energy criteria. The metallicity profiles were estimated for stars with different ages. We confront our numerical findings with results from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) Survey. Results: The simulated stellar discs are found to have metallicity profiles with slopes in global agreement with observations. Low stellar mass galaxies tend to have a larger variety of metallicity slopes. When normalized by the half-mass radius, the stellar metallicity gradients do not show any dependence and the dispersion increases significantly, regardless of the galaxy mass. Galaxies with stellar masses o f around 1010M⊙ show steeper negative metallicity gradients. The stellar metallicity gradients correlate with the half-mass radius. However, the correlation signal is not present when they are normalized by the half-mass radius. Stellar discs with positive age gradients are detected to have negative and positive metallicity gradients, depending on the relative importance of recent star formation activity in the central regions. Conclusions: Our results suggest that inside-out formation is the main process responsible for the metallicity and age profiles. The large dispersions in the metallicity gradients as a function of stellar mass could be ascribed to the effects of dynamical processes such as mergers, interactions and/or migration as well as those regulating the conversion of gas into stars. The fingerprints of the inside-out formation seem better preserved by the stellar metallicity gradients as a function of the half-mass radius.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sonnenfeld, Alessandro; Treu, Tommaso; Marshall, Philip J.

Here, we investigate the cosmic evolution of the internal structure of massive early-type galaxies over half of the age of the universe. We also perform a joint lensing and stellar dynamics analysis of a sample of 81 strong lenses from the Strong Lensing Legacy Survey and Sloan ACS Lens Survey and combine the results with a hierarchical Bayesian inference method to measure the distribution of dark matter mass and stellar initial mass function (IMF) across the population of massive early-type galaxies. Lensing selection effects are taken into account. Furthermore, we found that the dark matter mass projected within the innermore » 5 kpc increases for increasing redshift, decreases for increasing stellar mass density, but is roughly constant along the evolutionary tracks of early-type galaxies. The average dark matter slope is consistent with that of a Navarro-Frenk-White profile, but is not well constrained. The stellar IMF normalization is close to a Salpeter IMF at log M * = 11.5 and scales strongly with increasing stellar mass. No dependence of the IMF on redshift or stellar mass density is detected. The anti-correlation between dark matter mass and stellar mass density supports the idea of mergers being more frequent in more massive dark matter halos.« less

The Effects of Single and Close Binary Evolution on the Stellar Mass Function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schneider, R. N. F.; Izzard, G. R.; de Mink, S.; Langer, N., Stolte, A., de Koter, A.; Gvaramadze, V. V.; Hussmann, B.; Liermann, A.; Sana, H.

2013-06-01

Massive stars are almost exclusively born in star clusters, where stars in a cluster are expected to be born quasi-simultaneously and with the same chemical composition. The distribution of their birth masses favors lower over higher stellar masses, such that the most massive stars are rare, and the existence of an stellar upper mass limit is still debated. The majority of massive stars are born as members of close binary systems and most of them will exchange mass with a close companion during their lifetime. We explore the influence of single and binary star evolution on the high mass end of the stellar mass function using a rapid binary evolution code. We apply our results to two massive Galactic star clusters and show how the shape of their mass functions can be used to determine cluster ages and comment on the stellar upper mass limit in view of our new findings.

Comparing Dark Energy Survey and HST –CLASH observations of the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7-4431: implications for stellar mass versus dark matter

DOE PAGES

Palmese, A.; Lahav, O.; Banerji, M.; ...

2016-08-20

We derive the stellar mass fraction in the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7-4431 observed with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) during the Science Verification period. We compare the stellar mass results from DES (5 filters) with those from the Hubble Space Telescope CLASH (17 filters). When the cluster spectroscopic redshift is assumed, we show that stellar masses from DES can be estimated within 25% of CLASH values. We compute the stellar mass contribution coming from red and blue galaxies, and study the relation between stellar mass and the underlying dark matter using weak lensing studies with DES and CLASH. An analysismore » of the radial profiles of the DES total and stellar mass yields a stellar-to-total fraction of f*=7.0+-2.2x10^-3 within a radius of r_200c~3 Mpc. Our analysis also includes a comparison of photometric redshifts and star/galaxy separation efficiency for both datasets. We conclude that space-based small field imaging can be used to calibrate the galaxy properties in DES for the much wider field of view. The technique developed to derive the stellar mass fraction in galaxy clusters can be applied to the ~100 000 clusters that will be observed within this survey. The stacking of all the DES clusters would reduce the errors on f* estimates and deduce important information about galaxy evolution.« less

Comparing Dark Energy Survey and HST-CLASH observations of the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7-4431: implications for stellar mass versus dark matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palmese, A.; Lahav, O.; Banerji, M.; Gruen, D.; Jouvel, S.; Melchior, P.; Aleksić, J.; Annis, J.; Diehl, H. T.; Hartley, W. G.; Jeltema, T.; Romer, A. K.; Rozo, E.; Rykoff, E. S.; Seitz, S.; Suchyta, E.; Zhang, Y.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Abdalla, F. B.; Allam, S.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bertin, E.; Brooks, D.; Buckley-Geer, E.; Burke, D. L.; Capozzi, D.; Carnero Rosell, A.; Carrasco Kind, M.; Carretero, J.; Crocce, M.; Cunha, C. E.; D'Andrea, C. B.; da Costa, L. N.; Desai, S.; Dietrich, J. P.; Doel, P.; Estrada, J.; Evrard, A. E.; Flaugher, B.; Frieman, J.; Gerdes, D. W.; Goldstein, D. A.; Gruendl, R. A.; Gutierrez, G.; Honscheid, K.; James, D. J.; Kuehn, K.; Kuropatkin, N.; Li, T. S.; Lima, M.; Maia, M. A. G.; Marshall, J. L.; Miller, C. J.; Miquel, R.; Nord, B.; Ogando, R.; Plazas, A. A.; Roodman, A.; Sanchez, E.; Scarpine, V.; Sevilla-Noarbe, I.; Smith, R. C.; Soares-Santos, M.; Sobreira, F.; Swanson, M. E. C.; Tarle, G.; Thomas, D.; Tucker, D.; Vikram, V.

2016-12-01

We derive the stellar mass fraction in the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7-4431 observed with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) during the Science Verification period. We compare the stellar mass results from DES (five filters) with those from the Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey (CLASH; 17 filters). When the cluster spectroscopic redshift is assumed, we show that stellar masses from DES can be estimated within 25 per cent of CLASH values. We compute the stellar mass contribution coming from red and blue galaxies, and study the relation between stellar mass and the underlying dark matter using weak lensing studies with DES and CLASH. An analysis of the radial profiles of the DES total and stellar mass yields a stellar-to-total fraction of f⋆ = (6.8 ± 1.7) × 10-3 within a radius of r200c ≃ 2 Mpc. Our analysis also includes a comparison of photometric redshifts and star/galaxy separation efficiency for both data sets. We conclude that space-based small field imaging can be used to calibrate the galaxy properties in DES for the much wider field of view. The technique developed to derive the stellar mass fraction in galaxy clusters can be applied to the ˜100 000 clusters that will be observed within this survey and yield important information about galaxy evolution.

Comparing Dark Energy Survey and HST –CLASH observations of the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7-4431: implications for stellar mass versus dark matter

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Palmese, A.; Lahav, O.; Banerji, M.

We derive the stellar mass fraction in the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7-4431 observed with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) during the Science Verification period. We compare the stellar mass results from DES (5 filters) with those from the Hubble Space Telescope CLASH (17 filters). When the cluster spectroscopic redshift is assumed, we show that stellar masses from DES can be estimated within 25% of CLASH values. We compute the stellar mass contribution coming from red and blue galaxies, and study the relation between stellar mass and the underlying dark matter using weak lensing studies with DES and CLASH. An analysismore » of the radial profiles of the DES total and stellar mass yields a stellar-to-total fraction of f*=7.0+-2.2x10^-3 within a radius of r_200c~3 Mpc. Our analysis also includes a comparison of photometric redshifts and star/galaxy separation efficiency for both datasets. We conclude that space-based small field imaging can be used to calibrate the galaxy properties in DES for the much wider field of view. The technique developed to derive the stellar mass fraction in galaxy clusters can be applied to the ~100 000 clusters that will be observed within this survey. The stacking of all the DES clusters would reduce the errors on f* estimates and deduce important information about galaxy evolution.« less

Comparing Dark Energy Survey and HST –CLASH observations of the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7-4431: implications for stellar mass versus dark matter

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Palmese, A.; Lahav, O.; Banerji, M.

We derive the stellar mass fraction in the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7-4431 observed with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) during the Science Verification period. We compare the stellar mass results from DES (five filters) with those from the Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey (CLASH; 17 filters). When the cluster spectroscopic redshift is assumed, we show that stellar masses from DES can be estimated within 25 per cent of CLASH values. We compute the stellar mass contribution coming from red and blue galaxies, and study the relation between stellar mass and the underlying dark matter using weak lensingmore » studies with DES and CLASH. An analysis of the radial profiles of the DES total and stellar mass yields a stellar-to-total fraction of f(star) = (6.8 +/- 1.7) x 10(-3) within a radius of r(200c) similar or equal to 2 Mpc. Our analysis also includes a comparison of photometric redshifts and star/galaxy separation efficiency for both data sets. We conclude that space-based small field imaging can be used to calibrate the galaxy properties in DES for the much wider field of view. The technique developed to derive the stellar mass fraction in galaxy clusters can be applied to the similar to 100 000 clusters that will be observed within this survey and yield important information about galaxy evolution.« less

Evolution of the Stellar Mass–Metallicity Relation. I. Galaxies in the z ∼ 0.4 Cluster Cl0024

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leethochawalit, Nicha; Kirby, Evan N.; Moran, Sean M.; Ellis, Richard S.; Treu, Tommaso

2018-03-01

We present the stellar mass–stellar metallicity relationship (MZR) in the galaxy cluster Cl0024+1654 at z ∼ 0.4 using full-spectrum stellar population synthesis modeling of individual quiescent galaxies. The lower limit of our stellar mass range is M * = 109.7 M ⊙, the lowest galaxy mass at which individual stellar metallicity has been measured beyond the local universe. We report a detection of an evolution of the stellar MZR with observed redshift at 0.037 ± 0.007 dex per Gyr, consistent with the predictions from hydrodynamical simulations. Additionally, we find that the evolution of the stellar MZR with observed redshift can be explained by an evolution of the stellar MZR with the formation time of galaxies, i.e., when the single stellar population (SSP)-equivalent ages of galaxies are taken into account. This behavior is consistent with stars forming out of gas that also has an MZR with a normalization that decreases with redshift. Lastly, we find that over the observed mass range, the MZR can be described by a linear function with a shallow slope ([{Fe}/{{H}}]\\propto (0.16+/- 0.03){log}{M}* ). The slope suggests that galaxy feedback, in terms of mass-loading factor, might be mass-independent over the observed mass and redshift range.

THE FORMATION OF SECONDARY STELLAR GENERATIONS IN MASSIVE YOUNG STAR CLUSTERS FROM RAPIDLY COOLING SHOCKED STELLAR WINDS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wünsch, R.; Palouš, J.; Ehlerová, S.

We study a model of rapidly cooling shocked stellar winds in young massive clusters and estimate the circumstances under which secondary star formation, out of the reinserted winds from a first stellar generation (1G), is possible. We have used two implementations of the model: a highly idealized, computationally inexpensive, spherically symmetric semi-analytic model, and a complex, three-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic, simulation; they are in a good mutual agreement. The results confirm our previous findings that, in a cluster with 1G mass 10{sup 7} M {sub ⊙} and half-mass–radius 2.38 pc, the shocked stellar winds become thermally unstable, collapse into dense gaseous structuresmore » that partially accumulate inside the cluster, self-shield against ionizing stellar radiation, and form the second generation (2G) of stars. We have used the semi-analytic model to explore a subset of the parameter space covering a wide range of the observationally poorly constrained parameters: the heating efficiency, η {sub he}, and the mass loading, η {sub ml}. The results show that the fraction of the 1G stellar winds accumulating inside the cluster can be larger than 50% if η {sub he} ≲ 10%, which is suggested by the observations. Furthermore, for low η {sub he}, the model provides a self-consistent mechanism predicting 2G stars forming only in the central zones of the cluster. Finally, we have calculated the accumulated warm gas emission in the H30 α recombination line, analyzed its velocity profile, and estimated its intensity for super star clusters in interacting galaxies NGC4038/9 (Antennae) showing that the warm gas should be detectable with ALMA.« less

MASSCLEANage-STELLAR CLUSTER AGES FROM INTEGRATED COLORS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Popescu, Bogdan; Hanson, M. M., E-mail: popescb@mail.uc.ed, E-mail: margaret.hanson@uc.ed

2010-11-20

We present the recently updated and expanded MASSCLEANcolors, a database of 70 million Monte Carlo models selected to match the properties (metallicity, ages, and masses) of stellar clusters found in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This database shows the rather extreme and non-Gaussian distribution of integrated colors and magnitudes expected with different cluster age and mass and the enormous age degeneracy of integrated colors when mass is unknown. This degeneracy could lead to catastrophic failures in estimating age with standard simple stellar population models, particularly if most of the clusters are of intermediate or low mass, like in the LMC.more » Utilizing the MASSCLEANcolors database, we have developed MASSCLEANage, a statistical inference package which assigns the most likely age and mass (solved simultaneously) to a cluster based only on its integrated broadband photometric properties. Finally, we use MASSCLEANage to derive the age and mass of LMC clusters based on integrated photometry alone. First, we compare our cluster ages against those obtained for the same seven clusters using more accurate integrated spectroscopy. We find improved agreement with the integrated spectroscopy ages over the original photometric ages. A close examination of our results demonstrates the necessity of solving simultaneously for mass and age to reduce degeneracies in the cluster ages derived via integrated colors. We then selected an additional subset of 30 photometric clusters with previously well-constrained ages and independently derive their age using the MASSCLEANage with the same photometry with very good agreement. The MASSCLEANage program is freely available under GNU General Public License.« less

The Star Formation Main Sequence in the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santini, Paola; Fontana, Adriano; Castellano, Marco; Di Criscienzo, Marcella; Merlin, Emiliano; Amorin, Ricardo; Cullen, Fergus; Daddi, Emanuele; Dickinson, Mark; Dunlop, James S.; Grazian, Andrea; Lamastra, Alessandra; McLure, Ross J.; Michałowski, Michał. J.; Pentericci, Laura; Shu, Xinwen

2017-09-01

We investigate the relation between star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass (M), I.e., the main sequence (MS) relation of star-forming galaxies, at 1.3≤slant z< 6 in the first four Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Frontier Fields, on the basis of rest-frame UV observations. Gravitational lensing combined with deep HST observations allows us to extend the analysis of the MS down to {log} M/{M}⊙ ˜ 7.5 at z≲ 4 and {log} M/{M}⊙ ˜ 8 at higher redshifts, a factor of ˜10 below most previous results. We perform an accurate simulation to take into account the effect of observational uncertainties and correct for the Eddington bias. This step allows us to reliably measure the MS and in particular its slope. While the normalization increases with redshift, we fit an unevolving and approximately linear slope. We nicely extend to lower masses the results of brighter surveys. Thanks to the large dynamic range in mass and by making use of the simulation, we analyzed any possible mass dependence of the dispersion around the MS. We find tentative evidence that the scatter decreases with increasing mass, suggesting a larger variety of star formation histories in low-mass galaxies. This trend agrees with theoretical predictions and is explained as either a consequence of the smaller number of progenitors of low-mass galaxies in a hierarchical scenario and/or of the efficient but intermittent stellar feedback processes in low-mass halos. Finally, we observe an increase in the SFR per unit stellar mass with redshift milder than predicted by theoretical models, implying a still incomplete understanding of the processes responsible for galaxy growth.

Galaxy structure from multiple tracers - III. Radial variations in M87's IMF

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oldham, Lindsay; Auger, Matthew

2018-03-01

We present the first constraints on stellar mass-to-light ratio gradients in an early-type galaxy (ETG) using multiple dynamical tracer populations to model the dark and luminous mass structure simultaneously. We combine the kinematics of the central starlight, two globular cluster populations and satellite galaxies in a Jeans analysis to obtain new constraints on M87's mass structure, employing a flexible mass model which allows for radial gradients in the stellar-mass-to-light ratio. We find that, in the context of our model, a radially declining stellar-mass-to-light ratio is strongly favoured. Modelling the stellar-mass-to-light ratio as following a power law, ϒ⋆ ˜ R-μ, we infer a power-law slope μ = -0.54 ± 0.05; equally, parametrizing the stellar-mass-to-light ratio via a central mismatch parameter relative to a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF), α, and scale radius RM, we find α > 1.48 at 95% confidence and RM = 0.35 ± 0.04 kpc. We use stellar population modelling of high-resolution 11-band HST photometry to show that such a steep gradient cannot be achieved by variations in only the metallicity, age, dust extinction and star formation history if the stellar IMF remains spatially constant. On the other hand, the stellar-mass-to-light ratio gradient that we find is consistent with an IMF whose inner slope changes such that it is Salpeter-like in the central ˜0.5 kpc and becomes Chabrier-like within the stellar effective radius. This adds to recent evidence that the non-universality of the IMF in ETGs may be confined to their core regions, and points towards a picture in which the stars in these central regions may have formed in fundamentally different physical conditions.

THE SL2S GALAXY-SCALE LENS SAMPLE. V. DARK MATTER HALOS AND STELLAR IMF OF MASSIVE EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES OUT TO REDSHIFT 0.8

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sonnenfeld, Alessandro; Treu, Tommaso; Marshall, Philip J.

2015-02-20

We investigate the cosmic evolution of the internal structure of massive early-type galaxies over half of the age of the universe. We perform a joint lensing and stellar dynamics analysis of a sample of 81 strong lenses from the Strong Lensing Legacy Survey and Sloan ACS Lens Survey and combine the results with a hierarchical Bayesian inference method to measure the distribution of dark matter mass and stellar initial mass function (IMF) across the population of massive early-type galaxies. Lensing selection effects are taken into account. We find that the dark matter mass projected within the inner 5 kpc increasesmore » for increasing redshift, decreases for increasing stellar mass density, but is roughly constant along the evolutionary tracks of early-type galaxies. The average dark matter slope is consistent with that of a Navarro-Frenk-White profile, but is not well constrained. The stellar IMF normalization is close to a Salpeter IMF at log M {sub *} = 11.5 and scales strongly with increasing stellar mass. No dependence of the IMF on redshift or stellar mass density is detected. The anti-correlation between dark matter mass and stellar mass density supports the idea of mergers being more frequent in more massive dark matter halos.« less

The SL2S galaxy-scale lens sample. V. dark matter halos and stellar IMF of massive early-type galaxies out to redshift 0.8

DOE PAGES

Sonnenfeld, Alessandro; Treu, Tommaso; Marshall, Philip J.; ...

2015-02-17

Here, we investigate the cosmic evolution of the internal structure of massive early-type galaxies over half of the age of the universe. We also perform a joint lensing and stellar dynamics analysis of a sample of 81 strong lenses from the Strong Lensing Legacy Survey and Sloan ACS Lens Survey and combine the results with a hierarchical Bayesian inference method to measure the distribution of dark matter mass and stellar initial mass function (IMF) across the population of massive early-type galaxies. Lensing selection effects are taken into account. Furthermore, we found that the dark matter mass projected within the innermore » 5 kpc increases for increasing redshift, decreases for increasing stellar mass density, but is roughly constant along the evolutionary tracks of early-type galaxies. The average dark matter slope is consistent with that of a Navarro-Frenk-White profile, but is not well constrained. The stellar IMF normalization is close to a Salpeter IMF at log M * = 11.5 and scales strongly with increasing stellar mass. No dependence of the IMF on redshift or stellar mass density is detected. The anti-correlation between dark matter mass and stellar mass density supports the idea of mergers being more frequent in more massive dark matter halos.« less

Galaxies Grow Their Bulges and Black Holes in Diverse Ways

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, Eric F.; Monachesi, Antonela; Harmsen, Benjamin; de Jong, Roelof S.; Bailin, Jeremy; Radburn-Smith, David J.; D'Souza, Richard; Holwerda, Benne W.

2017-03-01

Galaxies with Milky Way-like stellar masses have a wide range of bulge and black hole masses; in turn, these correlate with other properties such as star formation history. While many processes may drive bulge formation, major and minor mergers are expected to play a crucial role. Stellar halos offer a novel and robust measurement of galactic merger history; cosmologically motivated models predict that mergers with larger satellites produce more massive, higher-metallicity stellar halos, reproducing the recently observed stellar halo metallicity-mass relation. We quantify the relationship between stellar halo mass and bulge or black hole prominence using a sample of 18 Milky Way-mass galaxies with newly available measurements of (or limits on) stellar halo properties. There is an order of magnitude range in bulge mass, and two orders of magnitude in black hole mass, at a given stellar halo mass (or, equivalently, merger history). Galaxies with low-mass bulges show a wide range of quiet merger histories, implying formation mechanisms that do not require intense merging activity. Galaxies with massive “classical” bulges and central black holes also show a wide range of merger histories. While three of these galaxies have massive stellar halos consistent with a merger origin, two do not—merging appears to have had little impact on making these two massive “classical” bulges. Such galaxies may be ideal laboratories to study massive bulge formation through pathways such as early gas-rich accretion, violent disk instabilities, or misaligned infall of gas throughout cosmic time.

The Kepler Catalog of Stellar Flares

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davenport, James R. A.

2016-09-01

A homogeneous search for stellar flares has been performed using every available Kepler light curve. An iterative light curve de-trending approach was used to filter out both astrophysical and systematic variability to detect flares. The flare recovery completeness has also been computed throughout each light curve using artificial flare injection tests, and the tools for this work have been made publicly available. The final sample contains 851,168 candidate flare events recovered above the 68% completeness threshold, which were detected from 4041 stars, or 1.9% of the stars in the Kepler database. The average flare energy detected is ˜1035 erg. The net fraction of flare stars increases with g - I color, or decreasing stellar mass. For stars in this sample with previously measured rotation periods, the total relative flare luminosity is compared to the Rossby number. A tentative detection of flare activity saturation for low-mass stars with rapid rotation below a Rossby number of ˜0.03 is found. A power-law decay in flare activity with Rossby number is found with a slope of -1, shallower than typical measurements for X-ray activity decay with Rossby number.

Unmixing the Galactic halo with RR Lyrae tagging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belokurov, V.; Deason, A. J.; Koposov, S. E.; Catelan, M.; Erkal, D.; Drake, A. J.; Evans, N. W.

2018-06-01

We show that tagging RR Lyrae stars according to their location in the period-amplitude diagram can be used to shed light on the genesis of the Galactic stellar halo. The mixture of RR Lyrae of ab type, separated into classes along the lines suggested by Oosterhoff, displays a strong and coherent evolution with Galactocentric radius. The change in the RR Lyrae composition appears to coincide with the break in the halo's radial density profile at ˜25 kpc. Using simple models of the stellar halo, we establish that at least three different types of accretion events are necessary to explain the observed RRab behaviour. Given that there exists a correlation between the RRab class fraction and the total stellar content of a dwarf satellite, we hypothesize that the field halo RRab composition is controlled by the mass of the progenitor contributing the bulk of the stellar debris at the given radius. This idea is tested against a suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations of Milky Way-like stellar halo formation. Finally, we study some of the most prominent stellar streams in the Milky Way halo and demonstrate that their RRab class fractions follow the trends established previously.

Influence of the outer boundary condition on models of AGB stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wagstaff, G.; Weiss, A.

2018-07-01

Current implementations of the stellar atmosphere typically derive boundary conditions for the interior model from either grey plane-parallel atmospheres or scaled solar atmospheres, neither of which can be considered to have appropriate underlying assumptions for the Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB). This paper discusses the treatment and influence of the outer boundary condition within stellar evolution codes, and the resulting effects on the AGB evolution. The complex interaction of processes, such as the third dredge up and mass-loss, governing the TP-AGB can be affected by varying the treatment of this boundary condition. Presented here are the results from altering the geometry, opacities, and the implementation of a grid of MARCS/COMARCS model atmospheres in order to improve this treatment. Although there are changes in the TP-AGB evolution, observable quantities, such as the final core mass, are not significantly altered as a result of the change of atmospheric treatment. During the course of the investigation, a previously unseen phenomenon in the AGB models was observed and further investigated. This is believed to be physical, although arising from specific conditions which make its presence unlikely. If it were present in stars, this phenomenon would increase the carbon-star lifetime above 10 Myr and increase the final core mass by ˜0.1 M⊙ in the narrow initial-mass range where it was observed (˜2-2.3 M⊙).

Influence of the Outer Boundary Condition on models of AGB stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wagstaff, G.; Weiss, A.

2018-04-01

Current implementations of the stellar atmosphere typically derive boundary conditions for the interior model from either grey plane-parallel atmospheres or scaled solar atmospheres, neither of which can be considered to have appropriate underlying assumptions for the Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB). This paper discusses the treatment and influence of the outer boundary condition within stellar evolution codes, and the resulting effects on the AGB evolution. The complex interaction of processes, such as the third dredge up and mass loss, governing the TP-AGB can be affected by varying the treatment of this boundary condition. Presented here are the results from altering the geometry, opacities and the implementation of a grid of MARCS/COMARCS model atmospheres in order to improve this treatment. Although there are changes in the TP-AGB evolution, observable quantities, such as the final core mass, are not significantly altered as a result of the change of atmospheric treatment. During the course of the investigation, a previously unseen phenomena in the AGB models was observed and further investigated. This is believed to be physical, although arising from specific conditions which make its presence unlikely. If it were present in stars, this phenomenon would increase the carbon-star lifetime above 10Myr and increase the final core mass by ˜0.1M⊙ in the narrow initial-mass range where it was observed (˜2 - 2.3M⊙).

The limited role of galaxy mergers in driving stellar mass growth over cosmic time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, G.; Kaviraj, S.; Devriendt, J. E. G.; Dubois, Y.; Laigle, C.; Pichon, C.

2017-11-01

A key unresolved question is the role that galaxy mergers play in driving stellar mass growth over cosmic time. Recent observational work hints at the possibility that the overall contribution of 'major' mergers (mass ratios ≳ 1 : 4) to cosmic stellar mass growth may be small, because they enhance star formation rates by relatively small amounts at high redshift, when much of today's stellar mass was assembled. However, the heterogeneity and relatively small size of today's data sets, coupled with the difficulty in identifying genuine mergers, makes it challenging to empirically quantify the merger contribution to stellar mass growth. Here, we use Horizon-AGN, a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, to comprehensively quantify the contribution of mergers to the star formation budget over the lifetime of the Universe. We show that (1) both major and minor mergers enhance star formation to similar amounts, (2) the fraction of star formation directly attributable to merging is small at all redshifts (e.g. ∼35 and ∼20 per cent at z ∼ 3 and z ∼ 1, respectively) and (3) only ∼25 per cent of today's stellar mass is directly attributable to galaxy mergers over cosmic time. Our results suggest that smooth accretion, not merging, is the dominant driver of stellar mass growth over the lifetime of the Universe.

Examining the effect of galaxy evolution on the stellar-halo mass relation in the EAGLE simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulier, Andrea; Padilla, Nelson; Schaye, Joop; Crain, Robert; Schaller, Matthieu; Bower, Richard; Theuns, Tom; Paillas, Enrique

2018-01-01

The EAGLE hydrodynamical simulation was used in Matthee et al. 2016 to examine the scatter in the stellar mass-halo mass relation of central galaxies, finding that the stellar mass (M*) correlates well with the maximum circular velocity (Vmax) of the host halo, but with a substantial scatter that does not correlate significantly with other host halo properties. Here we further examine the scatter in the stellar mass-halo mass relation of central galaxies in EAGLE, its correlation with other properties, and its origin. We find that at fixed Vmax, galaxies with lower concentration have younger stellar populations, as expected from the relationship between concentration and halo assembly time. However, at fixed Vmax and halo concentration, galaxies with larger M* have younger stellar ages, so that combining the two effects, galaxies with younger stellar ages at fixed halo mass have higher stellar masses. The host halos of galaxies with larger M* at fixed Vmax and concentration also contain more gas than those with smaller stellar masses at z = 0.1, i.e. the baryon fraction of the halos is larger. There is an even stronger correlation between the scatter in M* at z = 0.1 and the scatter in the baryon fraction of the galaxy's progenitors at z ~ 1, such that the latter sets ~50% of the scatter in M* at z = 0.1. We conclude that most of the scatter between Vmax and M* at z = 0.1 is set at earlier redshifts by the scatter in the baryon fraction of halos, which in turn is primarily the result of differences in feedback strength within halos.

Stellar Absorption Line Analysis of Local Star-forming Galaxies: The Relation between Stellar Mass, Metallicity, Dust Attenuation, and Star Formation Rate

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jabran Zahid, H.; Kudritzki, Rolf-Peter; Ho, I-Ting

We analyze the optical continuum of star-forming galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by fitting stacked spectra with stellar population synthesis models to investigate the relation between stellar mass, stellar metallicity, dust attenuation, and star formation rate. We fit models calculated with star formation and chemical evolution histories that are derived empirically from multi-epoch observations of the stellar mass–star formation rate and the stellar mass–gas-phase metallicity relations, respectively. We also fit linear combinations of single-burst models with a range of metallicities and ages. Star formation and chemical evolution histories are unconstrained for these models. The stellar mass–stellar metallicity relationsmore » obtained from the two methods agree with the relation measured from individual supergiant stars in nearby galaxies. These relations are also consistent with the relation obtained from emission-line analysis of gas-phase metallicity after accounting for systematic offsets in the gas-phase metallicity. We measure dust attenuation of the stellar continuum and show that its dependence on stellar mass and star formation rate is consistent with previously reported results derived from nebular emission lines. However, stellar continuum attenuation is smaller than nebular emission line attenuation. The continuum-to-nebular attenuation ratio depends on stellar mass and is smaller in more massive galaxies. Our consistent analysis of stellar continuum and nebular emission lines paves the way for a comprehensive investigation of stellar metallicities of star-forming and quiescent galaxies.« less

The Galaxy-Halo Connection in High-redshift Universe: Details and Evolution of Stellar-to-halo Mass Ratios of Lyman Break Galaxies on CFHTLS Deep Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishikawa, Shogo; Kashikawa, Nobunari; Toshikawa, Jun; Tanaka, Masayuki; Hamana, Takashi; Niino, Yuu; Ichikawa, Kohei; Uchiyama, Hisakazu

2017-05-01

We present the results of clustering analyses of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at z˜ 3, 4, and 5 using the final data release of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS). Deep- and wide-field images of the CFHTLS Deep Survey enable us to obtain sufficiently accurate two-point angular correlation functions to apply a halo occupation distribution analysis. The mean halo masses, calculated as < {M}h> ={10}11.7{--}{10}12.8 {h}-1 {M}⊙ , increase with the stellar-mass limit of LBGs. The threshold halo mass to have a central galaxy, {M}\\min , follows the same increasing trend as the low-z results, whereas the threshold halo mass to have a satellite galaxy, M 1, shows higher values at z=3{--}5 than z=0.5{--}1.5, over the entire stellar mass range. Satellite fractions of dropout galaxies, even at less massive halos, are found to drop sharply, from z = 2 down to less than 0.04, at z=3{--}5. These results suggest that satellite galaxies form inefficiently within dark halos at z=3{--}5, even for less massive satellites with {M}\\star < {10}10 {M}⊙ . We compute stellar-to-halo mass ratios (SHMRs) assuming a main sequence of galaxies, which is found to provide SHMRs consistent with those derived from a spectral energy distribution fitting method. The observed SHMRs are in good agreement with model predictions based on the abundance-matching method, within 1σ confidence intervals. We derive observationally, for the first time, {M}{{h}}{pivot}, which is the halo mass at a peak in the star-formation efficiency, at 3< z< 5, and it shows a small increasing trend with cosmic time at z> 3. In addition, {M}{{h}}{pivot} and its normalization are found to be almost unchanged during 0< z< 5. Our study provides observational evidence that galaxy formation is ubiquitously most efficient near a halo mass of {M}{{h}}˜ {10}12 {M}⊙ over cosmic time.

LBGs properties from z˜3 to z˜6

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Barros, S.; Schaerer, D.; Stark, D. P.

2011-12-01

We analyse the spectral energy distribution (SED) of U, B, V and i-dropout samples from GOODS-MUSIC and we determine their physical properties, such as stellar age and mass, dust attenuation and star formation rate (SFR). Furthermore, we examine how the strength of Lyα emission can be constrained from broad-band SED fits instead of relying in spectroscopy. We use our SED fitting tool including the effects of nebular emission and we explore different star formation histories (SFHs). We find that SEDs are statistically better fitted with nebular emission and exponentially decreasing star formation. Considering this result, stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) estimations modify the specific SFR (SFR/M_{⋆}) - redshift relation, in compared to previous studies. Finally, our inferred Lyα properties are in good agreement with the available spectroscopic observations.

Determining Empirical Stellar Masses and Radii from Transits and Gaia Parallaxes as Illustrated by Spitzer Observations of KELT-11b

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beatty, Thomas G.; Stevens, Daniel J.; Collins, Karen A.; Colón, Knicole D.; James, David J.; Kreidberg, Laura; Pepper, Joshua; Rodriguez, Joseph E.; Siverd, Robert J.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Kielkopf, John F.

2017-07-01

Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, we observed a transit at 3.6 μm of KELT-11b. We also observed three partial planetary transits from the ground. We simultaneously fit these observations, ground-based photometry from Pepper et al., radial velocity data from Pepper et al., and a spectral energy distribution (SED) model using catalog magnitudes and the Hipparcos parallax to the system. The only significant difference between our results and those of Pepper et al. is that we find the orbital period to be shorter by 37 s, 4.73610 ± 0.00003 versus 4.73653 ± 0.00006 days, and we measure a transit center time of {{BJD}}{TDB} 2457483.4310 ± 0.0007, which is 42 minutes earlier than predicted. Using our new photometry, we precisely measure the density of the star KELT-11 to 4%. By combining the parallax and catalog magnitudes of the system, we are able to measure the radius of KELT-11b essentially empirically. Coupled with the stellar density, this gives a parallactic mass and radius of 1.8 {M}⊙ and 2.9 {R}⊙ , which are each approximately 1σ higher than the adopted model-estimated mass and radius. If we conduct the same fit using the expected parallax uncertainty from the final Gaia data release, this difference increases to 4σ. The differences between the model and parallactic masses and radii for KELT-11 demonstrate the role that precise Gaia parallaxes, coupled with simultaneous photometric, radial velocity, and SED fitting, can play in determining stellar and planetary parameters. With high-precision photometry of transiting planets and high-precision Gaia parallaxes, the parallactic mass and radius uncertainties of stars become 1% and 3%, respectively. TESS is expected to discover 60-80 systems where these measurements will be possible. These parallactic mass and radius measurements have uncertainties small enough that they may provide observational input into the stellar models themselves.

Tracing the Mass-Dependent Star Formation History of Late-Type Galaxies using X-ray Emission: Results from the CHANDRA Deep Fields

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lehmer, B.D; Brandt, W.N.; Schneider, D.P.; Steffen, A.T.; Alexander, D.M.; Bell, E.F.; Hornschemeier, A.E.; McIntosh, D.H.; Bauer, F.E.; Gilli, R.;

The two components of the evolved massive binary LZ Cephei. Testing the effects of binarity on stellar evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahy, L.; Martins, F.; Machado, C.; Donati, J.-F.; Bouret, J.-C.

2011-09-01

Aims: We present an in-depth study of the two components of the binary system LZ Cep to constrain the effects of binarity on the evolution of massive stars. Methods: We analyzed a set of high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio optical spectra obtained over the orbital period of the system to perform a spectroscopic disentangling and derive an orbital solution. We subsequently determine the stellar properties of each component by means of an analysis with the CMFGEN atmosphere code. Finally, with the derived stellar parameters, we model the Hipparcos photometric light curve using the program NIGHTFALL to obtain the orbit inclination and the stellar masses. Results: LZ Cep is a O 9III+ON 9.7V binary. It is as a semi-detached system in which either the primary or the secondary star almost fills up its Roche lobe. The dynamical masses are about 16.0 M⊙ (primary) and 6.5 M⊙ (secondary). The latter is lower than the typical mass of late-type O stars. The secondary component is chemically more evolved than the primary (which barely shows any sign of CNO processing), with strong helium and nitrogen enhancements as well as carbon and oxygen depletions. These properties (surface abundances and mass) are typical of Wolf-Rayet stars, although the spectral type is ON 9.7V. The luminosity of the secondary is consistent with that of core He-burning objects. The preferred, tentative evolutionary scenario to explain the observed properties involves mass transfer from the secondary - which was initially more massive- towards the primary. The secondary is now almost a core He-burning object, probably with only a thin envelope of H-rich and CNO processed material. A very inefficient mass transfer is necessary to explain the chemical appearance of the primary. Alternative scenarios are discussed but they are affected by greater uncertainties.

REMOVING BIASES IN RESOLVED STELLAR MASS MAPS OF GALAXY DISKS THROUGH SUCCESSIVE BAYESIAN MARGINALIZATION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Martínez-García, Eric E.; González-Lópezlira, Rosa A.; Bruzual A, Gustavo

2017-01-20

Stellar masses of galaxies are frequently obtained by fitting stellar population synthesis models to galaxy photometry or spectra. The state of the art method resolves spatial structures within a galaxy to assess the total stellar mass content. In comparison to unresolved studies, resolved methods yield, on average, higher fractions of stellar mass for galaxies. In this work we improve the current method in order to mitigate a bias related to the resolved spatial distribution derived for the mass. The bias consists in an apparent filamentary mass distribution and a spatial coincidence between mass structures and dust lanes near spiral arms.more » The improved method is based on iterative Bayesian marginalization, through a new algorithm we have named Bayesian Successive Priors (BSP). We have applied BSP to M51 and to a pilot sample of 90 spiral galaxies from the Ohio State University Bright Spiral Galaxy Survey. By quantitatively comparing both methods, we find that the average fraction of stellar mass missed by unresolved studies is only half what previously thought. In contrast with the previous method, the output BSP mass maps bear a better resemblance to near-infrared images.« less

Scaling Stellar Mass Estimates of Dwarf Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carr, Brandon Michael; McQuinn, Kristen B.; Cannon, John M.; Dalcanton, Julianne; Dolphin, Andrew E.; Skillman, Evan D.; Williams, Benjamin F.; van Zee, Liese

2017-01-01

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical imaging of resolved stellar populations has been used to constrain the star formation history (SFH) and chemical evolution of many nearby dwarf galaxies. However, even for dwarf galaxies, the angle subtended by nearby systems can be greater than the HST field of view. Thus, estimates of stellar mass from the HST footprint do not accurately represent the total mass of the system, impacting how SFH results can be used in holistic comparisons of galaxy properties. Here, we use the SFHs of dwarfs combined with stellar population synthesis models to determine mass-to-light ratios for individual galaxies, and compare these values with measured infrared luminosities from Spitzer IRAC data. In this way, we determine what fraction of mass is not included in the HST field of view. To test our methodology, we focus on dwarfs whose stellar disks are contained within the HST observations. Then, we also apply this method to galaxies with larger angular sizes to scale the stellar masses accordingly.

The FMOS-COSMOS survey of star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 1.6. II. The mass-metallicity relation and the dependence on star formation rate and dust extinction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zahid, H. J.; Sanders, D. B.; Chu, J.

We investigate the relationships between stellar mass, gas-phase oxygen abundance (metallicity), star formation rate (SFR), and dust content of star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 1.6 using Subaru/FMOS spectroscopy in the COSMOS field. The mass-metallicity (MZ) relation at z ∼ 1.6 is steeper than the relation observed in the local universe. The steeper MZ relation at z ∼ 1.6 is mainly due to evolution in the stellar mass where the MZ relation begins to turnover and flatten. This turnover mass is 1.2 dex larger at z ∼ 1.6. The most massive galaxies at z ∼ 1.6 (∼10{sup 11} M {sub ☉})more » are enriched to the level observed in massive galaxies in the local universe. The MZ relation we measure at z ∼ 1.6 supports the suggestion of an empirical upper metallicity limit that does not significantly evolve with redshift. We find an anti-correlation between metallicity and SFR for galaxies at a fixed stellar mass at z ∼ 1.6, which is similar to trends observed in the local universe. We do not find a relation between stellar mass, metallicity, and SFR that is independent of redshift; rather, our data suggest that there is redshift evolution in this relation. We examine the relation between stellar mass, metallicity, and dust extinction, and find that at a fixed stellar mass, dustier galaxies tend to be more metal rich. From examination of the stellar masses, metallicities, SFRs, and dust extinctions, we conclude that stellar mass is most closely related to dust extinction.« less

SDSS-IV MaNGA: global stellar population and gradients for about 2000 early-type and spiral galaxies on the mass-size plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Hongyu; Mao, Shude; Cappellari, Michele; Ge, Junqiang; Long, R. J.; Li, Ran; Mo, H. J.; Li, Cheng; Zheng, Zheng; Bundy, Kevin; Thomas, Daniel; Brownstein, Joel R.; Roman Lopes, Alexandre; Law, David R.; Drory, Niv

2018-05-01

We perform full spectrum fitting stellar population analysis and Jeans Anisotropic modelling of the stellar kinematics for about 2000 early-type galaxies (ETGs) and spiral galaxies from the MaNGA DR14 sample. Galaxies with different morphologies are found to be located on a remarkably tight mass plane which is close to the prediction of the virial theorem, extending previous results for ETGs. By examining an inclined projection (`the mass-size' plane), we find that spiral and early-type galaxies occupy different regions on the plane, and their stellar population properties (i.e. age, metallicity, and stellar mass-to-light ratio) vary systematically along roughly the direction of velocity dispersion, which is a proxy for the bulge fraction. Galaxies with higher velocity dispersions have typically older ages, larger stellar mass-to-light ratios and are more metal rich, which indicates that galaxies increase their bulge fractions as their stellar populations age and become enriched chemically. The age and stellar mass-to-light ratio gradients for low-mass galaxies in our sample tend to be positive (centre < outer), while the gradients for most massive galaxies are negative. The metallicity gradients show a clear peak around velocity dispersion log10 σe ≈ 2.0, which corresponds to the critical mass ˜3 × 1010 M⊙ of the break in the mass-size relation. Spiral galaxies with large mass and size have the steepest gradients, while the most massive ETGs, especially above the critical mass Mcrit ≳ 2 × 1011 M⊙, where slow rotator ETGs start dominating, have much flatter gradients. This may be due to differences in their evolution histories, e.g. mergers.

The spatially resolved star formation history of CALIFA galaxies. Cosmic time scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García-Benito, R.; González Delgado, R. M.; Pérez, E.; Cid Fernandes, R.; Cortijo-Ferrero, C.; López Fernández, R.; de Amorim, A. L.; Lacerda, E. A. D.; Vale Asari, N.; Sánchez, S. F.

2017-12-01

This paper presents the mass assembly time scales of nearby galaxies observed by CALIFA at the 3.5 m telescope in Calar Alto. We apply the fossil record method of the stellar populations to the complete sample of the 3rd CALIFA data release, with a total of 661 galaxies, covering stellar masses from 108.4 to 1012M⊙ and a wide range of Hubble types. We apply spectral synthesis techniques to the datacubes and process the results to produce the mass growth time scales and mass weighted ages, from which we obtain temporal and spatially resolved information in seven bins of galaxy morphology (E, S0, Sa, Sb, Sc, and Sd) and six bins of stellar mass and stellar mass surface density. We use three different tracers of the spatially resolved star formation history (mass assembly curves, ratio of half mass to half light radii, and mass-weighted age gradients) to test if galaxies grow inside-out, and its dependence with galaxy stellar mass, stellar mass surface density, and morphology. Our main results are as follows: (a) the innermost regions of galaxies assemble their mass at an earlier time than regions located in the outer parts; this happens at any given stellar mass (M⋆), stellar mass surface density (Σ⋆), or Hubble type, including the lowest mass systems in our sample. (b) Galaxies present a significant diversity in their characteristic formation epochs for lower-mass systems. This diversity shows a strong dependence of the mass assembly time scales on Σ⋆ and Hubble type in the lower-mass range (108.4 to 1010.4), but a very mild dependence in higher-mass bins. (c) The lowest half mass radius (HMR) to half light radius (HLR) ratio is found for galaxies between 1010.4 and 1011.1M⊙, where galaxies are 25% smaller in mass than in light. Low-mass galaxies show the largest ratio with HMR/HLR 0.89. Sb and Sbc galaxies present the lowest HMR/HLR ratio (0.74). The ratio HMR/HLR is always, on average, below 1, indicating that galaxies grow faster in mass than in light. (d) All galaxies show negative ⟨log age⟩ M gradients in the inner 1 HLR. The profile flattens (slope less negative) with increasing values of Σ⋆. There is no significant dependence on M⋆ within a particular Σ⋆ bin, except for the lowest bin, where the gradients becomes steeper. (e) Downsizing is spatially preserved as a function of M⋆ and Σ⋆, but it is broken for E and SO where the outer parts are assembled in later epochs than Sa galaxies. These results suggest that independently of their stellar mass, stellar mass surface density, and morphology, galaxies form inside-out on average.

Low-Mass Stars and Their Companions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montet, Benjamin Tyler

In this thesis, I present seven studies aimed towards better understanding the demographics and physical properties of M dwarfs and their companions. These studies focus in turn on planetary, brown dwarf, and stellar companions to M dwarfs. I begin with an analysis of radial velocity and transit timing analyses of multi-transiting planetary systems, finding that if both signals are measured to sufficiently high precision the stellar and planetary masses can be measured to a high precision, eliminating a need for stellar models which may have systematic errors. I then combine long-term radial velocity monitoring and a direct imaging campaign to measure the occurrence rate of giant planets around M dwarfs. I find that 6.5 +/- 3.0% of M dwarfs host a Jupiter mass or larger planet within 20 AU, with a strong dependence on stellar metallicity. I then present two papers analyzing the LHS 6343 system, which contains a widely separated M dwarf binary (AB). Star A hosts a transiting brown dwarf (LHS 6343 C) with a 12.7 day period. By combining radial velocity data with transit photometry, I am able to measure the mass and radius of the brown dwarf to 2% precision, the most precise measurement of a brown dwarf to date. I then analyze four secondary eclipses of the LHS 6343 AC system as observed by Spitzer in order to measure the luminosity of the brown dwarf in both Spitzer bandpasses. I find the brown dwarf is consistent with theoretical models of an 1100 K T dwarf at an age of 5 Gyr and empirical observations of field T5-6 dwarfs with temperatures of 1070 +/- 130 K. This is the first non-inflated brown dwarf with a measured mass, radius, and multi-band photometry, making it an ideal test of evolutionary models of field brown dwarfs. Next, I present the results of an astrometric and radial velocity campaign to measure the orbit and masses of both stars in the GJ 3305 AB system, an M+M binary comoving with 51 Eridani, a more massive star with a directly imaged planetary companion. I compare the masses of both stars to largely untested theoretical models of young M dwarfs, finding that the models are consistent with the measured mass of star A but slightly overpredict the luminosity of star B. In the final two science chapters I focus on space-based transit surveys, present and future. First, I present the first catalog of statistically validated planets from the K2 mission, as well as updated stellar and planetary parameters for all systems with candidate planets in the first K2 field. The catalog includes K2-18b, a ``mini-Neptune'' planet that receives a stellar insolation consistent with the level that the Earth receives from the Sun, making it a useful comparison against planets of a similar size that are highly irradiated, such as GJ 1214 b. Finally, I present predictions for the WFIRST mission. While designed largely as a microlensing mission, I find it will be able to detect as many as 30,000 transiting planets towards the galactic bulge, providing information about how planet occurrence changes across the galaxy. These planets will be able to be confirmed largely through direct detection of their secondary eclipses. Moreover, I find that more than 50% of the planets it detects smaller than Neptune will be found around M dwarf hosts.

The emergence of the galactic stellar mass function from a non-universal IMF in clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dib, Sami; Basu, Shantanu

2018-06-01

We investigate the dependence of a single-generation galactic mass function (SGMF) on variations in the initial stellar mass functions (IMF) of stellar clusters. We show that cluster-to-cluster variations of the IMF lead to a multi-component SGMF where each component in a given mass range can be described by a distinct power-law function. We also show that a dispersion of ≈0.3 M⊙ in the characteristic mass of the IMF, as observed for young Galactic clusters, leads to a low-mass slope of the SGMF that matches the observed Galactic stellar mass function even when the IMFs in the low-mass end of individual clusters are much steeper.

Star cluster formation in a turbulent molecular cloud self-regulated by photoionization feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gavagnin, Elena; Bleuler, Andreas; Rosdahl, Joakim; Teyssier, Romain

2017-12-01

Most stars in the Galaxy are believed to be formed within star clusters from collapsing molecular clouds. However, the complete process of star formation, from the parent cloud to a gas-free star cluster, is still poorly understood. We perform radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of the collapse of a turbulent molecular cloud using the RAMSES-RT code. Stars are modelled using sink particles, from which we self-consistently follow the propagation of the ionizing radiation. We study how different feedback models affect the gas expulsion from the cloud and how they shape the final properties of the emerging star cluster. We find that the star formation efficiency is lower for stronger feedback models. Feedback also changes the high-mass end of the stellar mass function. Stronger feedback also allows the establishment of a lower density star cluster, which can maintain a virial or sub-virial state. In the absence of feedback, the star formation efficiency is very high, as well as the final stellar density. As a result, high-energy close encounters make the cluster evaporate quickly. Other indicators, such as mass segregation, statistics of multiple systems and escaping stars confirm this picture. Observations of young star clusters are in best agreement with our strong feedback simulation.

Star clusters and K2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dotson, Jessie; Barentsen, Geert; Cody, Ann Marie

2018-01-01

The K2 survey has expanded the Kepler legacy by using the repurposed spacecraft to observe over 20 star clusters. The sample includes open and globular clusters at all ages, including very young (1-10 Myr, e.g. Taurus, Upper Sco, NGC 6530), moderately young (0.1-1 Gyr, e.g. M35, M44, Pleiades, Hyades), middle-aged (e.g. M67, Ruprecht 147, NGC 2158), and old globular clusters (e.g. M9, M19, Terzan 5). K2 observations of stellar clusters are exploring the rotation period-mass relationship to significantly lower masses than was previously possible, shedding light on the angular momentum budget and its dependence on mass and circumstellar disk properties, and illuminating the role of multiplicity in stellar angular momentum. Exoplanets discovered by K2 in stellar clusters provides planetary systems ripe for modeling given the extensive information available about their ages and environment. I will review the star clusters sampled by K2 across 16 fields so far, highlighting several characteristics, caveats, and unexplored uses of the public data set along the way. With fuel expected to run out in 2018, I will discuss the closing Campaigns, highlight the final target selection opportunities, and explain the data archive and TESS-compatible software tools the K2 mission intends to leave behind for posterity.

Some observational tests of a minimal galaxy formation model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohn, J. D.

2017-04-01

Dark matter simulations can serve as a basis for creating galaxy histories via the galaxy-dark matter connection. Here, one such model by Becker is implemented with several variations on three different dark matter simulations. Stellar mass and star formation rates are assigned to all simulation subhaloes at all times, using subhalo mass gain to determine stellar mass gain. The observational properties of the resulting galaxy distributions are compared to each other and observations for a range of redshifts from 0 to 2. Although many of the galaxy distributions seem reasonable, there are noticeable differences as simulations, subhalo mass gain definitions or subhalo mass definitions are altered, suggesting that the model should change as these properties are varied. Agreement with observations may improve by including redshift dependence in the added-by-hand random contribution to star formation rate. There appears to be an excess of faint quiescent galaxies as well (perhaps due in part to differing definitions of quiescence). The ensemble of galaxy formation histories for these models tend to have more scatter around their average histories (for a fixed final stellar mass) than the two more predictive and elaborate semi-analytic models of Guo et al. and Henriques et al., and require more basis fluctuations (using principal component analysis) to capture 90 per cent of the scatter around their average histories. The codes to plot model predictions (in some cases alongside observational data) are publicly available to test other mock catalogues at https://github.com/jdcphysics/validation/. Information on how to use these codes is in Appendix A.

Characterization of Omega-WINGS galaxy clusters. I. Stellar light and mass profiles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cariddi, S.; D'Onofrio, M.; Fasano, G.; Poggianti, B. M.; Moretti, A.; Gullieuszik, M.; Bettoni, D.; Sciarratta, M.

2018-02-01

Context. Galaxy clusters are the largest virialized structures in the observable Universe. Knowledge of their properties provides many useful astrophysical and cosmological information. Aims: Our aim is to derive the luminosity and stellar mass profiles of the nearby galaxy clusters of the Omega-WINGS survey and to study the main scaling relations valid for such systems. Methods: We merged data from the WINGS and Omega-WINGS databases, sorted the sources according to the distance from the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), and calculated the integrated luminosity profiles in the B and V bands, taking into account extinction, photometric and spatial completeness, K correction, and background contribution. Then, by exploiting the spectroscopic sample we derived the stellar mass profiles of the clusters. Results: We obtained the luminosity profiles of 46 galaxy clusters, reaching r200 in 30 cases, and the stellar mass profiles of 42 of our objects. We successfully fitted all the integrated luminosity growth profiles with one or two embedded Sérsic components, deriving the main clusters parameters. Finally, we checked the main scaling relation among the clusters parameters in comparison with those obtained for a selected sample of early-type galaxies (ETGs) of the same clusters. Conclusions: We found that the nearby galaxy clusters are non-homologous structures such as ETGs and exhibit a color-magnitude (CM) red-sequence relation very similar to that observed for galaxies in clusters. These properties are not expected in the current cluster formation scenarios. In particular the existence of a CM relation for clusters, shown here for the first time, suggests that the baryonic structures grow and evolve in a similar way at all scales.

Stellar populations, stellar masses and the formation of galaxy bulges and discs at z < 3 in CANDELS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Margalef-Bentabol, Berta; Conselice, Christopher J.; Mortlock, Alice; Hartley, Will; Duncan, Kenneth; Kennedy, Rebecca; Kocevski, Dale D.; Hasinger, Guenther

2018-02-01

We present a multicomponent structural analysis of the internal structure of 1074 high-redshift massive galaxies at 1 < z < 3 from the CANDELS HST Survey. In particular, we examine galaxies best fitted by two structural components, and thus likely forming discs and bulges. We examine the stellar mass, star formation rates (SFRs) and colours of both the inner 'bulge' and outer 'disc' components for these systems using Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) information from the resolved ACS+WFC3 HST imaging. We find that the majority of both inner and outer components lie in the star-forming region of UVJ space (68 and 90 per cent, respectively). However, the inner portions, or the likely forming bulges, are dominated by dusty star formation. Furthermore, we show that the outer components of these systems have a higher SFR than their inner regions, and the ratio of SFR between 'disc' and 'bulge' increases at lower redshifts. Despite the higher SFR of the outer component, the stellar mass ratio of inner to outer component remains constant through this epoch. This suggests that there is mass transfer from the outer to inner components for typical two-component-forming systems, thus building bulges from discs. Finally, using Chandra data we find that the presence of an active galactic nucleus is more common in both one-component spheroid-like galaxies and two-component systems (13 ± 3 and 11 ± 2 per cent) than in one-component disc-like galaxies (3 ± 1 per cent), demonstrating that the formation of a central inner component likely triggers the formation of central massive black holes in these galaxies.

OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ULTRALUMINOUS X-RAY SOURCE HOLMBERG IX X-1 AND ITS STELLAR ENVIRONMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Grise, F.; Kaaret, P.; Pakull, M. W.

2011-06-10

Holmberg IX X-1 is an archetypal ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX). Here we study the properties of the optical counterpart and of its stellar environment using optical data from SUBARU/Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph, GEMINI/GMOS-N and Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Advanced Camera for Surveys, as well as simultaneous Chandra X-ray data. The V {approx} 22.6 spectroscopically identified optical counterpart is part of a loose cluster with an age {approx}< 20 Myr. Consequently, the mass upper limit on individual stars in the association is about 20 M{sub sun}. The counterpart is more luminous than the other stars of the association, suggesting a non-negligiblemore » optical contribution from the accretion disk. An observed UV excess also points to non-stellar light similar to X-ray active low-mass X-ray binaries. A broad He II {lambda}4686 emission line identified in the optical spectrum of the ULX further suggests optical light from X-ray reprocessing in the accretion disk. Using stellar evolutionary tracks, we have constrained the mass of the counterpart to be {approx}> 10 M{sub sun}, even if the accretion disk contributes significantly to the optical luminosity. Comparison of the photometric properties of the counterpart with binary models show that the donor may be more massive, {approx}> 25 M{sub sun}, with the ULX system likely undergoing case AB mass transfer. Finally, the counterpart exhibits photometric variability of 0.14 mag between two HST observations separated by 50 days which could be due to ellipsoidal variations and/or disk reprocessing of variable X-ray emission.« less

Near-Field Cosmology with Resolved Stellar Populations Around Local Volume LMC Stellar-Mass Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlin, Jeffrey L.; Sand, David J.; Willman, Beth; Brodie, Jean P.; Crnojevic, Denija; Forbes, Duncan; Hargis, Jonathan R.; Peter, Annika; Pucha, Ragadeepika; Romanowsky, Aaron J.; Spekkens, Kristine; Strader, Jay

2018-06-01

We discuss our ongoing observational program to comprehensively map the entire virial volumes of roughly LMC stellar mass galaxies at distances of ~2-4 Mpc. The MADCASH (Magellanic Analog Dwarf Companions And Stellar Halos) survey will deliver the first census of the dwarf satellite populations and stellar halo properties within LMC-like environments in the Local Volume. Our results will inform our understanding of the recent DES discoveries of dwarf satellites tentatively affiliated with the LMC/SMC system. This program has already yielded the discovery of the faintest known dwarf galaxy satellite of an LMC stellar-mass host beyond the Local Group, based on deep Subaru+HyperSuprimeCam imaging reaching ~2 magnitudes below its TRGB, and at least two additional candidate satellites. We will summarize the survey results and status to date, highlighting some challenges encountered and lessons learned as we process the data for this program through a prototype LSST pipeline. Our program will examine whether LMC stellar mass dwarfs have extended stellar halos, allowing us to assess the relative contributions of in-situ stars vs. merger debris to their stellar populations and halo density profiles. We outline the constraints on galaxy formation models that will be provided by our observations of low-mass galaxy halos and their satellites.

Galaxies Grow Their Bulges and Black Holes in Diverse Ways

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bell, Eric F.; Harmsen, Benjamin; D’Souza, Richard

Galaxies with Milky Way–like stellar masses have a wide range of bulge and black hole masses; in turn, these correlate with other properties such as star formation history. While many processes may drive bulge formation, major and minor mergers are expected to play a crucial role. Stellar halos offer a novel and robust measurement of galactic merger history; cosmologically motivated models predict that mergers with larger satellites produce more massive, higher-metallicity stellar halos, reproducing the recently observed stellar halo metallicity–mass relation. We quantify the relationship between stellar halo mass and bulge or black hole prominence using a sample of 18more » Milky Way-mass galaxies with newly available measurements of (or limits on) stellar halo properties. There is an order of magnitude range in bulge mass, and two orders of magnitude in black hole mass, at a given stellar halo mass (or, equivalently, merger history). Galaxies with low-mass bulges show a wide range of quiet merger histories, implying formation mechanisms that do not require intense merging activity. Galaxies with massive “classical” bulges and central black holes also show a wide range of merger histories. While three of these galaxies have massive stellar halos consistent with a merger origin, two do not—merging appears to have had little impact on making these two massive “classical” bulges. Such galaxies may be ideal laboratories to study massive bulge formation through pathways such as early gas-rich accretion, violent disk instabilities, or misaligned infall of gas throughout cosmic time.« less

When the Jeans Do Not Fit: How Stellar Feedback Drives Stellar Kinematics and Complicates Dynamical Modeling in Low-mass Galaxies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

El-Badry, Kareem; Quataert, Eliot; Wetzel, Andrew R.

In low-mass galaxies, stellar feedback can drive gas outflows that generate non-equilibrium fluctuations in the gravitational potential. Using cosmological zoom-in baryonic simulations from the Feedback in Realistic Environments project, we investigate how these fluctuations affect stellar kinematics and the reliability of Jeans dynamical modeling in low-mass galaxies. We find that stellar velocity dispersion and anisotropy profiles fluctuate significantly over the course of galaxies’ starburst cycles. We therefore predict an observable correlation between star formation rate and stellar kinematics: dwarf galaxies with higher recent star formation rates should have systemically higher stellar velocity dispersions. This prediction provides an observational test ofmore » the role of stellar feedback in regulating both stellar and dark-matter densities in dwarf galaxies. We find that Jeans modeling, which treats galaxies as virialized systems in dynamical equilibrium, overestimates a galaxy’s dynamical mass during periods of post-starburst gas outflow and underestimates it during periods of net inflow. Short-timescale potential fluctuations lead to typical errors of ∼20% in dynamical mass estimates, even if full three-dimensional stellar kinematics—including the orbital anisotropy—are known exactly. When orbital anisotropy is not known a priori, typical mass errors arising from non-equilibrium fluctuations in the potential are larger than those arising from the mass-anisotropy degeneracy. However, Jeans modeling alone cannot reliably constrain the orbital anisotropy, and problematically, it often favors anisotropy models that do not reflect the true profile. If galaxies completely lose their gas and cease forming stars, fluctuations in the potential subside, and Jeans modeling becomes much more reliable.« less

Black hole mass function from gravitational wave measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovetz, Ely D.; Cholis, Ilias; Breysse, Patrick C.; Kamionkowski, Marc

2017-05-01

We examine how future gravitational-wave measurements from merging black holes (BHs) can be used to infer the shape of the black-hole mass function, with important implications for the study of star formation and evolution and the properties of binary BHs. We model the mass function as a power law, inherited from the stellar initial mass function, and introduce lower and upper mass cutoff parametrizations in order to probe the minimum and maximum BH masses allowed by stellar evolution, respectively. We initially focus on the heavier BH in each binary, to minimize model dependence. Taking into account the experimental noise, the mass measurement errors and the uncertainty in the redshift dependence of the merger rate, we show that the mass function parameters, as well as the total rate of merger events, can be measured to <10 % accuracy within a few years of advanced LIGO observations at its design sensitivity. This can be used to address important open questions such as the upper limit on the stellar mass which allows for BH formation and to confirm or refute the currently observed mass gap between neutron stars and BHs. In order to glean information on the progenitors of the merging BH binaries, we then advocate the study of the two-dimensional mass distribution to constrain parameters that describe the two-body system, such as the mass ratio between the two BHs, in addition to the merger rate and mass function parameters. We argue that several years of data collection can efficiently probe models of binary formation, and show, as an example, that the hypothesis that some gravitational-wave events may involve primordial black holes can be tested. Finally, we point out that in order to maximize the constraining power of the data, it may be worthwhile to lower the signal-to-noise threshold imposed on each candidate event and amass a larger statistical ensemble of BH mergers.

The Prospect for Detecting Stellar Coronal Mass Ejections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osten, Rachel A.; Crosley, Michael Kevin

2018-06-01

The astrophysical study of mass loss, both steady-state and transient, on the cool half of the HR diagram has implications bothfor the star itself and the conditions created around the star that can be hospitable or inimical to supporting life. Recent results from exoplanet studies show that planets around M dwarfs are exceedingly common, which together with the commonality of M dwarfs in our galaxy make this the dominant mode of star and planet configurations. The closeness of the exoplanets to the parent M star motivate a comprehensive understanding of habitability for these systems. Radio observations provide the most clear signature of accelerated particles and shocks in stars arising as the result of MHD processes in the stellar outer atmosphere. Stellar coronal mass ejections have not been conclusively detected, despite the ubiquity with which their radiative counterparts in an eruptive event (stellar flares) have. I will review some of the different observational methods which have been used and possibly could be used in the future in the stellar case, emphasizing some of the difficulties inherent in such attempts. I will provide a framework for interpreting potential transient stellar mass loss in light of the properties of flares known to occur on magnetically active stars. This uses a physically motivated way to connect the properties of flares and coronal mass ejections and provides a testable hypothesis for observing or constraining transient stellar mass loss. I will describe recent results using radio observations to detect stellar coronal mass ejections, and what those results imply about transient stellar mass loss. I will provide some motivation for what could be learned in this topic from space-based low frequency radio experiments.

Stellar Velocity Dispersion: Linking Quiescent Galaxies to Their Dark Matter Halos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zahid, H. Jabran; Sohn, Jubee; Geller, Margaret J.

2018-06-01

We analyze the Illustris-1 hydrodynamical cosmological simulation to explore the stellar velocity dispersion of quiescent galaxies as an observational probe of dark matter halo velocity dispersion and mass. Stellar velocity dispersion is proportional to dark matter halo velocity dispersion for both central and satellite galaxies. The dark matter halos of central galaxies are in virial equilibrium and thus the stellar velocity dispersion is also proportional to dark matter halo mass. This proportionality holds even when a line-of-sight aperture dispersion is calculated in analogy to observations. In contrast, at a given stellar velocity dispersion, the dark matter halo mass of satellite galaxies is smaller than virial equilibrium expectations. This deviation from virial equilibrium probably results from tidal stripping of the outer dark matter halo. Stellar velocity dispersion appears insensitive to tidal effects and thus reflects the correlation between stellar velocity dispersion and dark matter halo mass prior to infall. There is a tight relation (≲0.2 dex scatter) between line-of-sight aperture stellar velocity dispersion and dark matter halo mass suggesting that the dark matter halo mass may be estimated from the measured stellar velocity dispersion for both central and satellite galaxies. We evaluate the impact of treating all objects as central galaxies if the relation we derive is applied to a statistical ensemble. A large fraction (≳2/3) of massive quiescent galaxies are central galaxies and systematic uncertainty in the inferred dark matter halo mass is ≲0.1 dex thus simplifying application of the simulation results to currently available observations.

The Dragonfly Nearby Galaxies Survey. IV. A Giant Stellar Disk in NGC 2841

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jielai; Abraham, Roberto; van Dokkum, Pieter; Merritt, Allison; Janssens, Steven

2018-03-01

Neutral gas is commonly believed to dominate over stars in the outskirts of galaxies, and investigations of the disk-halo interface are generally considered to be in the domain of radio astronomy. This may simply be a consequence of the fact that deep H I observations typically probe to a lower-mass surface density than visible wavelength data. This paper presents low-surface-brightness, optimized visible wavelength observations of the extreme outskirts of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2841. We report the discovery of an enormous low-surface brightness stellar disk in this object. When azimuthally averaged, the stellar disk can be traced out to a radius of ∼70 kpc (5 R 25 or 23 inner disk scale lengths). The structure in the stellar disk traces the morphology of H I emission and extended UV emission. Contrary to expectations, the stellar mass surface density does not fall below that of the gas mass surface density at any radius. In fact, at all radii greater than ∼20 kpc, the ratio of the stellar mass to gas mass surface density is a constant 3:1. Beyond ∼30 kpc, the low-surface-brightness stellar disk begins to warp, which may be an indication of a physical connection between the outskirts of the galaxy and infall from the circumgalactic medium. A combination of stellar migration, accretion, and in situ star formation might be responsible for building up the outer stellar disk, but whatever mechanisms formed the outer disk must also explain the constant ratio between stellar and gas mass in the outskirts of this galaxy.

Resolving the problem of galaxy clustering on small scales: any new physics needed?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, X.

2014-02-01

Galaxy clustering sets strong constraints on the physics governing galaxy formation and evolution. However, most current models fail to reproduce the clustering of low-mass galaxies on small scales (r < 1 Mpc h-1). In this paper, we study the galaxy clusterings predicted from a few semi-analytical models. We first compare two Munich versions, Guo et al. and De Lucia & Blaizot. The Guo11 model well reproduces the galaxy stellar mass function, but overpredicts the clustering of low-mass galaxies on small scales. The DLB07 model provides a better fit to the clustering on small scales, but overpredicts the stellar mass function. These seem to be puzzling. The clustering on small scales is dominated by galaxies in the same dark matter halo, and there is slightly more fraction of satellite galaxies residing in massive haloes in the Guo11 model, which is the dominant contribution to the clustering discrepancy between the two models. However, both models still overpredict the clustering at 0.1 < r < 10 Mpc h-1 for low-mass galaxies. This is because both models overpredict the number of satellites by 30 per cent in massive haloes than the data. We show that the Guo11 model could be slightly modified to simultaneously fit the stellar mass function and clusterings, but that cannot be easily achieved in the DLB07 model. The better agreement of DLB07 model with the data actually comes as a coincidence as it predicts too many low-mass central galaxies which are less clustered and thus brings down the total clustering. Finally, we show the predictions from the semi-analytical models of Kang et al. We find that this model can simultaneously fit the stellar mass function and galaxy clustering if the supernova feedback in satellite galaxies is stronger. We conclude that semi-analytical models are now able to solve the small-scales clustering problem, without invoking of any other new physics or changing the dark matter properties, such as the recent favoured warm dark matter.

First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: the stellar mass content of groups and clusters of galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pillepich, Annalisa; Nelson, Dylan; Hernquist, Lars; Springel, Volker; Pakmor, Rüdiger; Torrey, Paul; Weinberger, Rainer; Genel, Shy; Naiman, Jill P.; Marinacci, Federico; Vogelsberger, Mark

2018-03-01

The IllustrisTNG project is a new suite of cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation performed with the AREPO code and updated models for feedback physics. Here, we introduce the first two simulations of the series, TNG100 and TNG300, and quantify the stellar mass content of about 4000 massive galaxy groups and clusters (1013 ≤ M200c/M⊙ ≤ 1015) at recent times (z ≤ 1). The richest clusters have half of their total stellar mass bound to satellite galaxies, with the other half being associated with the central galaxy and the diffuse intracluster light. Haloes more massive than about 5 × 1014 M⊙ have more diffuse stellar mass outside 100 kpc than within 100 kpc, with power-law slopes of the radial mass density distribution as shallow as the dark matter's ( - 3.5 ≲ α3D ≲ -3). Total halo mass is a very good predictor of stellar mass, and vice versa: at z = 0, the 3D stellar mass measured within 30 kpc scales as ∝(M500c)0.49 with a ˜0.12 dex scatter. This is possibly too steep in comparison to the available observational constraints, even though the abundance of The Next Generation less-massive galaxies ( ≲ 1011 M⊙ in stars) is in good agreement with the measured galaxy stellar mass functions at recent epochs. The 3D sizes of massive galaxies fall too on a tight (˜0.16 dex scatter) power-law relation with halo mass, with r^stars_0.5 ∝ (M_200c)^{0.53}. Even more fundamentally, halo mass alone is a good predictor for the whole stellar mass profiles beyond the inner few kiloparsecs, and we show how on average these can be precisely recovered given a single-mass measurement of the galaxy or its halo.

Some Like it Hot: Linking Diffuse X-Ray Luminosity, Baryonic Mass, and Star Formation Rate in Compact Groups of Galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Desjardins, Tyler D.; Gallagher, Sarah C.; Hornschemeier, Ann E.; Mulchaey, John S.; Walker, Lisa May; Brandt, Willian N.; Charlton, Jane C.; Johnson, Kelsey E.; Tzanavaris, Panayiotis

2014-01-01

We present an analysis of the diffuse X-ray emission in 19 compact groups (CGs) of galaxies observed with Chandra. The hottest, most X-ray luminous CGs agree well with the galaxy cluster X-ray scaling relations in L(x-T) and (L(x-sigma), even in CGs where the hot gas is associated with only the brightest galaxy. Using Spitzer photometry, we compute stellar masses and classify Hickson CGs 19, 22, 40, and 42, and RSCGs 32, 44, and 86 as fossil groups using a new definition for fossil systems that includes a broader range of masses. We find that CGs with total stellar and Hi masses are great than or equal to 10(sup (11.3) solar mass are often X-ray luminous, while lower-mass CGs only sometimes exhibit faint, localized X-ray emission. Additionally, we compare the diffuse X-ray luminosity against both the total UV and 24 micron star formation rates of each CG and optical colors of the most massive galaxy in each of the CGs. The most X-ray luminous CGs have the lowest star formation rates, likely because there is no cold gas available for star formation, either because the majority of the baryons in these CGs are in stars or the X-ray halo, or due togas stripping from the galaxies in CGs with hot halos. Finally, the optical colors that trace recent star formation histories of the most massive group galaxies do not correlate with the X-ray luminosities of the CGs, indicating that perhaps the current state of the X-ray halos is independent of the recent history of stellar mass assembly in the most massive galaxies.

White Dwarfs in Star Clusters: The Initial-Final Mass Relation for Stars from 0.85 to 8 M$_\\odot$

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cummings, Jeffrey; Kalirai, Jason; Tremblay, P.-E.; Ramírez-Ruiz, Enrico

2018-01-01

The spectroscopic study of white dwarfs provides both their mass, cooling age, and intrinsic photometric properties. For white dwarfs in the field of well-studied star clusters, this intrinsic photometry can be used to determine if they are members of that star cluster. Comparison of a member white dwarf's cooling age to its total cluster's age provides the evolutionary timescale of its progenitor star, and hence the mass. This is the initial-final mass relation (IFMR) for stars, which gives critical information on how a progenitor star evolves and loses mass throughout its lifetime, and how this changes with progenitor mass. Our work, for the first time, presents a uniform analysis of 85 white dwarf cluster members spanning from progenitor masses of 0.85 to 8 M$_\\odot$. Comparison of our work to theoretical IFMRs shows remarkable consistency in their shape but differences remain. We will discuss possible explanations for these differences, including the effects of stellar rotation.

A short review of relativistic iron lines from stellar-mass black holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, J. M.

2006-12-01

% In this contribution, I briefly review recent progress in detecting and measuring the properties of relativistic iron lines observed in stellar-mass black hole systems, and the aspects of these lines that are most relevant to studies of similar lines in Seyfert-1 AGN. In particular, the lines observed in stellar-mass black holes are not complicated by complex low-energy absorption or partial-covering of the central engine, and strong lines are largely independent of the model used to fit the underlying broad-band continuum flux. Indeed, relativistic iron lines are the most robust diagnostic of black hole spin that is presently available to observers, with specific advantages over the systematics-plagued disk continuum. If accretion onto stellar-mass black holes simply scales with mass, then the widespread nature of lines in stellar-mass black holes may indicate that lines should be common in Seyfert-1 AGN, though perhaps harder to detect.

Black Hole and Galaxy Coevolution from Continuity Equation and Abundance Matching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aversa, R.; Lapi, A.; de Zotti, G.; Shankar, F.; Danese, L.

2015-09-01

We investigate the coevolution of galaxies and hosted supermassive black holes (BHs) throughout the history of the universe by a statistical approach based on the continuity equation and the abundance matching technique. Specifically, we present analytical solutions of the continuity equation without source terms to reconstruct the supermassive BH mass function from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity functions. Such an approach includes physically motivated AGN light curves tested on independent data sets, which describe the evolution of the Eddington ratio and radiative efficiency from slim- to thin-disk conditions. We nicely reproduce the local estimates of the BH mass function, the AGN duty cycle as a function of mass and redshift, along with the Eddington ratio function and the fraction of galaxies with given stellar mass hosting an AGN with given Eddington ratio. We exploit the same approach to reconstruct the observed stellar mass function at different redshift from the ultraviolet and far-IR luminosity functions associated with star formation in galaxies. These results imply that the build-up of stars and BHs in galaxies occurs via in situ processes, with dry mergers playing a marginal role at least for stellar masses ≲ 3× {10}11 {M}⊙ and BH masses ≲ {10}9 {M}⊙ , where the statistical data are more secure and less biased by systematic errors. In addition, we develop an improved abundance matching technique to link the stellar and BH content of galaxies to the gravitationally dominant dark matter (DM) component. The resulting relationships constitute a testbed for galaxy evolution models, highlighting the complementary role of stellar and AGN feedback in the star formation process. In addition, they may be operationally implemented in numerical simulations to populate DM halos or to gauge subgrid physics. Moreover, they may be exploited to investigate the galaxy/AGN clustering as a function of redshift, mass, and/or luminosity. In fact, the clustering properties of BHs and galaxies are found to be in full agreement with current observations, thus further validating our results from the continuity equation. Finally, our analysis highlights that (i) the fraction of AGNs observed in the slim-disk regime, where most of the BH mass is accreted, increases with redshift; and (ii) already at z≳ 6 a substantial amount of dust must have formed over timescales ≲ {10}8 yr in strongly star-forming galaxies, making these sources well within the reach of ALMA surveys in (sub)millimeter bands.

Stellar-to-halo mass relation of cluster galaxies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Niemiec, Anna; Jullo, Eric; Limousin, Marceau

In the formation of galaxy groups and clusters, the dark matter haloes containing satellite galaxies are expected to be tidally stripped in gravitational interactions with the host. We use galaxy-galaxy weak lensing to measure the average mass of dark matter haloes of satellite galaxies as a function of projected distance to the centre of the host, since stripping is expected to be greater for satellites closer to the centre of the cluster. We further classify the satellites according to their stellar mass: assuming that the stellar component of the galaxy is less disrupted by tidal stripping, stellar mass can bemore » used as a proxy of the infall mass. We study the stellar to halo mass relation of satellites as a function of the cluster-centric distance to measure tidal stripping. We use the shear catalogues of the DES science veri cation archive, the CFHTLenS and the CFHT Stripe 82 surveys, and we select satellites from the redMaPPer catalogue of clusters. For galaxies located in the outskirts of clusters, we nd a stellar to halo mass relation in good agreement with the theoretical expectations from Moster, Naab & White (2013) for central galaxies. In the centre of the cluster, we nd that this relation is shifted to smaller halo mass for a given stellar mass. We interpret this nding as further evidence for tidal stripping of dark matter haloes in high density environments.« less

Stellar-to-halo mass relation of cluster galaxies

DOE PAGES

Niemiec, Anna; Jullo, Eric; Limousin, Marceau; ...

2017-07-04

In the formation of galaxy groups and clusters, the dark matter haloes containing satellite galaxies are expected to be tidally stripped in gravitational interactions with the host. We use galaxy-galaxy weak lensing to measure the average mass of dark matter haloes of satellite galaxies as a function of projected distance to the centre of the host, since stripping is expected to be greater for satellites closer to the centre of the cluster. We further classify the satellites according to their stellar mass: assuming that the stellar component of the galaxy is less disrupted by tidal stripping, stellar mass can bemore » used as a proxy of the infall mass. We study the stellar to halo mass relation of satellites as a function of the cluster-centric distance to measure tidal stripping. We use the shear catalogues of the DES science veri cation archive, the CFHTLenS and the CFHT Stripe 82 surveys, and we select satellites from the redMaPPer catalogue of clusters. For galaxies located in the outskirts of clusters, we nd a stellar to halo mass relation in good agreement with the theoretical expectations from Moster, Naab & White (2013) for central galaxies. In the centre of the cluster, we nd that this relation is shifted to smaller halo mass for a given stellar mass. We interpret this nding as further evidence for tidal stripping of dark matter haloes in high density environments.« less

Binary black hole mergers from globular clusters: Masses, merger rates, and the impact of stellar evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, Carl L.; Chatterjee, Sourav; Rasio, Frederic A.

2016-04-01

The recent discovery of GW150914, the binary black hole merger detected by Advanced LIGO, has the potential to revolutionize observational astrophysics. But to fully utilize this new window into the Universe, we must compare these new observations to detailed models of binary black hole formation throughout cosmic time. Expanding upon our previous work [C. L. Rodriguez, M. Morscher, B. Pattabiraman, S. Chatterjee, C.-J. Haster, and F. A. Rasio, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 051101 (2015).], we study merging binary black holes formed in globular clusters using our Monte Carlo approach to stellar dynamics. We have created a new set of 52 cluster models with different masses, metallicities, and radii to fully characterize the binary black hole merger rate. These models include all the relevant dynamical processes (such as two-body relaxation, strong encounters, and three-body binary formation) and agree well with detailed direct N -body simulations. In addition, we have enhanced our stellar evolution algorithms with updated metallicity-dependent stellar wind and supernova prescriptions, allowing us to compare our results directly to the most recent population synthesis predictions for merger rates from isolated binary evolution. We explore the relationship between a cluster's global properties and the population of binary black holes that it produces. In particular, we derive a numerically calibrated relationship between the merger times of ejected black hole binaries and a cluster's mass and radius. With our improved treatment of stellar evolution, we find that globular clusters can produce a significant population of massive black hole binaries that merge in the local Universe. We explore the masses and mass ratios of these binaries as a function of redshift, and find a merger rate of ˜5 Gpc-3yr-1 in the local Universe, with 80% of sources having total masses from 32 M⊙ to 64 M⊙. Under standard assumptions, approximately one out of every seven binary black hole mergers in the local Universe will have originated in a globular cluster, but we also explore the sensitivity of this result to different assumptions for binary stellar evolution. If black holes were born with significant natal kicks, comparable to those of neutron stars, then the merger rate of binary black holes from globular clusters would be comparable to that from the field, with approximately 1 /2 of mergers originating in clusters. Finally we point out that population synthesis results for the field may also be modified by dynamical interactions of binaries taking place in dense star clusters which, unlike globular clusters, dissolved before the present day.

Correlations among Galaxy Properties from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Zhongmu; Mao, Caiyan

2013-07-01

Galaxies are complex systems with many properties. Correlations among galaxy properties can supply important clues for studying the formation and evolution of galaxies. Using principal component analysis and least-squares fitting, this paper investigates the correlations among galactic parameters involving more properties (color, morphology, stellar population, and absolute magnitude) than previous studies. We use a volume-limited sample (whole sample) of 75,423 galaxies that was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2 and divided into two subsamples (blue and red samples) using a critical color of (g - r) = 0.70 mag. In addition to recovering some previous results, we also obtain some new results. First, all separators for dividing galaxies into two groups can be related via good parameter-first principal component (PC1) correlations. A critical PC1 that indicates whether or not stellar age (or the evolution of a stellar population over time) is important can be used to separate galaxies. This suggests that a statistical parameter, PC1, is helpful in understanding the physical separators of galaxies. In addition, stellar age is shown to be unimportant for red galaxies, while both stellar age and mass are dominating parameters of blue galaxies. This suggests that the various numbers of dominating parameters of galaxies may result from the use of different samples. Finally, some parameters are shown to be correlated, and quantitative fits for a few correlations are obtained, e.g., log(t) = 8.57 + 1.65 (g - r) for the age (log t) and color (g - r) of blue galaxies and log (M *) = 4.31 - 0.30 M r for the stellar mass (log M *) and absolute magnitude (M r) of red galaxies. The median relationships between various parameter pairs are also presented for comparison.

KINETyS II: Constraints on spatial variations of the stellar initial mass function from K-band spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alton, P. D.; Smith, R. J.; Lucey, J. R.

2018-05-01

We investigate the spatially resolved stellar populations of a sample of seven nearby massive Early-type galaxies (ETGs), using optical and near infrared data, including K-band spectroscopy. This data offers good prospects for mitigating the uncertainties inherent in stellar population modelling by making a wide variety of strong spectroscopic features available. We report new VLT-KMOS measurements of the average empirical radial gradients out to the effective radius in the strengths of the Ca I 1.98 μm and 2.26 μm features, the Na I 2.21 μm line, and the CO 2.30 μm bandhead. Following previous work, which has indicated an excess of dwarf stars in the cores of massive ETGs, we pay specific attention to radial variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) as well as modelling the chemical abundance patterns and stellar population ages in our sample. Using state-of-the-art stellar population models we infer an [Fe/H] gradient of -0.16±0.05 per dex in fractional radius and an average [Na/Fe] gradient of -0.35±0.09. We find a large but radially-constant enhancement to [Mg/Fe] of ˜ 0.4 and a much lower [Ca/Fe] enhancement of ˜ 0.1. Finally, we find no significant IMF radial gradient in our sample on average and find that most galaxies in our sample are consistent with having a Milky Way-like IMF, or at most a modestly bottom heavy IMF (e.g. less dwarf enriched than a single power law IMF with the Salpeter slope).

First Results on the Cluster Galaxy Population from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey. III. Brightest Cluster Galaxies, Stellar Mass Distribution, and Active Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Yen-Ting; Hsieh, Bau-Ching; Lin, Sheng-Chieh; Oguri, Masamune; Chen, Kai-Feng; Tanaka, Masayuki; Chiu, I.-Non; Huang, Song; Kodama, Tadayuki; Leauthaud, Alexie; More, Surhud; Nishizawa, Atsushi J.; Bundy, Kevin; Lin, Lihwai; Miyazaki, Satoshi

2017-12-01

The unprecedented depth and area surveyed by the Subaru Strategic Program with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC-SSP) have enabled us to construct and publish the largest distant cluster sample out to z∼ 1 to date. In this exploratory study of cluster galaxy evolution from z = 1 to z = 0.3, we investigate the stellar mass assembly history of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), the evolution of stellar mass and luminosity distributions, the stellar mass surface density profile, as well as the population of radio galaxies. Our analysis is the first high-redshift application of the top N richest cluster selection, which is shown to allow us to trace the cluster galaxy evolution faithfully. Over the 230 deg2 area of the current HSC-SSP footprint, selecting the top 100 clusters in each of the four redshift bins allows us to observe the buildup of galaxy population in descendants of clusters whose z≈ 1 mass is about 2× {10}14 {M}ȯ . Our stellar mass is derived from a machine-learning algorithm, which is found to be unbiased and accurate with respect to the COSMOS data. We find very mild stellar mass growth in BCGs (about 35% between z = 1 and 0.3), and no evidence for evolution in both the total stellar mass–cluster mass correlation and the shape of the stellar mass surface density profile. We also present the first measurement of the radio luminosity distribution in clusters out to z∼ 1, and show hints of changes in the dominant accretion mode powering the cluster radio galaxies at z∼ 0.8.

The physical properties of Lyα emitting galaxies: not just primeval galaxies?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pentericci, L.; Grazian, A.; Fontana, A.; Castellano, M.; Giallongo, E.; Salimbeni, S.; Santini, P.

2009-02-01

Aims: We have analyzed a sample of Lyman break galaxies from z ~ 3.5 to z ~ 6 selected from the GOODS-S field as B, V, and i-dropouts, and with spectroscopic observations showing that they have the Lyα line in emission. Our main aim is to investigate their physical properties and their dependence on the emission line characteristic and to shed light on the relation between galaxies with Lyα emission and the general LBG population. Methods: The objects were selected from their optical continuum colors and then spectroscopically confirmed by the GOODS collaboration and other campaigns. From the public spectra we derived the main properties of the Lyα emission such as total flux and rest frame EW. We then used complete photometry, from U band to mid-infrared from the GOODS-MUSIC database, and through standard spectro-photometric techniques we derived the physical properties of the galaxies, such as total stellar mass, stellar ages, star formation rates, and dust content. Finally we investigated the relation between emission line and physical properties. Results: Although most galaxies are fit by young stellar populations, a small but non negligible fraction has SEDs that cannot be represented well by young models and require considerably older stellar component, up to ~1 Gyr. There is no apparent relation between age and EW: some of the oldest galaxies have high line EW, and should be also selected in narrow-band surveys. Therefore not all Lyα emitting galaxies are primeval galaxies in the very early stages of formation, as is commonly assumed. We also find a range of stellar populations, with masses from 5 × 108 M_⊙ to 5 × 1010 M_⊙ and SFR from few to 60 M_⊙ yr-1. Although there is no net correlation between mass and EW, we find a significant lack of massive galaxies with high EW, which could be explained if the most massive galaxies were either dustier and/or if they contained more neutral gas than less massive objects. Finally we find that more than half of the galaxies contain small but non negligible amounts of dust: the mean E(B-V) derived from the SED fit and the EW are well-correlated, although with a large scatter, as already found at lower redshift.

The effects of solar Reimers η on the final destinies of Venus, the Earth, and Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Jianpo; Lin, Ling; Bai, Chunyan; Liu, Jinzhong

2016-04-01

Our Sun will lose sizable mass and expand enormously when it evolves to the red giant branch phase and the asymptotic giant branch phase. The loss of solar mass will push a planet outward. On the contrary, solar expansion will enhance tidal effects, and tidal force will drive a planet inward. Will our Sun finally engulf Venus, the Earth, and Mars? In the literature, one can find a large number of studies with different points of view. A key factor is that we do not know how much mass the Sun will lose at the late stages. The Reimers η can describe the efficiency of stellar mass-loss and greatly affect solar mass and solar radius at the late stages. In this work, we study how the final destinies of Venus, the Earth, and Mars can be depending on Reimers η chosen. In our calculation, the Reimers η varies from 0.00 to 0.75, with the minimum interval 0.0025. Our results show that Venus will be engulfed by the Sun and Mars will most probably survive finally. The fate of the Earth is uncertain. The Earth will finally be engulfed by the Sun while η <0.4600, and it will finally survive while η ≥ 0.4600. New observations indicate that the average Reimers η for solar-like stars is 0.477. This implies that Earth may survive finally.

THE EFFECT OF WARM DARK MATTER ON GALAXY PROPERTIES: CONSTRAINTS FROM THE STELLAR MASS FUNCTION AND THE TULLY-FISHER RELATION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kang, Xi; Maccio, Andrea V.; Dutton, Aaron A.

2013-04-10

In this paper, we combine high-resolution N-body simulations with a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation to study the effects of a possible warm dark matter (WDM) component on the observable properties of galaxies. We compare three WDM models with a dark matter (DM) mass of 0.5, 0.75, and 2.0 keV with the standard cold dark matter case. For a fixed set of parameters describing the baryonic physics, the WDM models predict fewer galaxies at low (stellar) masses, as expected due to the suppression of power on small scales, while no substantial difference is found at the high-mass end. However, thesemore » differences in the stellar mass function vanish when a different set of parameters is used to describe the (largely unknown) galaxy formation processes. We show that it is possible to break this degeneracy between DM properties and the parameterization of baryonic physics by combining observations on the stellar mass function with the Tully-Fisher relation (the relation between stellar mass and the rotation velocity at large galactic radii as probed by resolved H I rotation curves). WDM models with a too warm candidate (m{sub {nu}} < 0.75 keV) cannot simultaneously reproduce the stellar mass function and the Tully-Fisher relation. We conclude that accurate measurements of the galaxy stellar mass function and the link between galaxies and DM halos down to the very low mass end can give very tight constraints on the nature of DM candidates.« less

The Galaxy–Halo Connection for 1.5\\lesssim z\\lesssim 5 as Revealed by the Spitzer Matching Survey of the UltraVISTA Ultra-deep Stripes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowley, William I.; Caputi, Karina I.; Deshmukh, Smaran; Ashby, Matthew L. N.; Fazio, Giovanni G.; Le Fèvre, Olivier; Fynbo, Johan P. U.; Ilbert, Olivier; McCracken, Henry J.; Milvang-Jensen, Bo; Somerville, Rachel S.

2018-01-01

The Spitzer Matching Survey of the UltraVISTA ultra-deep Stripes (SMUVS) provides unparalleled depth at 3.6 and 4.5 μm over ∼0.66 deg2 of the COSMOS field, allowing precise photometric determinations of redshift and stellar mass. From this unique data set we can connect galaxy samples, selected by stellar mass, to their host dark matter halos for 1.5< z< 5.0, filling in a large hitherto unexplored region of the parameter space. To interpret the observed galaxy clustering, we use a phenomenological halo model, combined with a novel method to account for uncertainties arising from the use of photometric redshifts. We find that the satellite fraction decreases with increasing redshift and that the clustering amplitude (e.g., comoving correlation length/large-scale bias) displays monotonic trends with redshift and stellar mass. Applying ΛCDM halo mass accretion histories and cumulative abundance arguments for the evolution of stellar mass content, we propose pathways for the coevolution of dark matter and stellar mass assembly. Additionally, we are able to estimate that the halo mass at which the ratio of stellar-to-halo mass is maximized is {10}{12.5-0.08+0.10} {M}ȯ at z∼ 2.5. This peak halo mass is here inferred for the first time from stellar mass-selected clustering measurements at z≳ 2, and it implies a mild evolution of this quantity for z≲ 3, consistent with constraints from abundance-matching techniques.

The rise and fall of stellar across the peak of cosmic star formation history: effects of mergers versus diffuse stellar mass acquisition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welker, C.; Dubois, Y.; Devriendt, J.; Pichon, C.; Kaviraj, S.; Peirani, S.

2017-02-01

Building galaxy merger trees from a state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, Horizon-AGN, we perform a statistical study of how mergers and diffuse stellar mass acquisition processes drive galaxy morphologic properties above z > 1. By diffuse mass acquisition here, we mean both accretion of stars by unresolved mergers (relative stellar mass growth smaller than 4.5 per cent) as well as in situ star formation when no resolved mergers are detected along the main progenitor branch of a galaxy. We investigate how stellar densities, galaxy sizes and galaxy morphologies (defined via shape parameters derived from the inertia tensor of the stellar density) depend on mergers of different mass ratios. We investigate how stellar densities, effective radii and shape parameters derived from the inertia tensor depend on mergers of different mass ratios. We find strong evidence that diffuse stellar accretion and in situ formation tend to flatten small galaxies over cosmic time, leading to the formation of discs. On the other hand, mergers, and not only the major ones, exhibit a propensity to puff up and destroy stellar discs, confirming the origin of elliptical galaxies. We confirm that mergers grow galaxy sizes more efficiently than diffuse processes (r_{0.5}∝ M_s^{0.85} and r_{0.5}∝ M_s^{0.1} on average, respectively) and we also find that elliptical galaxies are more susceptible to grow in size through mergers than disc galaxies with a size-mass evolution r_{0.5}∝ M_s^{1.2} instead of r_{0.5}∝ M_s^{-0.5}-M^{0.5} for discs depending on the merger mass ratio. The gas content drives the size-mass evolution due to merger with a faster size growth for gas-poor galaxies r_{0.5}∝ M_s2 than for gas-rich galaxies r0.5 ∝ Ms.

Stellar populations dominated by massive stars in dusty starburst galaxies across cosmic time.

PubMed

Zhang, Zhi-Yu; Romano, D; Ivison, R J; Papadopoulos, Padelis P; Matteucci, F

2018-06-01

All measurements of cosmic star formation must assume an initial distribution of stellar masses-the stellar initial mass function-in order to extrapolate from the star-formation rate measured for typically rare, massive stars (of more than eight solar masses) to the total star-formation rate across the full stellar mass spectrum 1 . The shape of the stellar initial mass function in various galaxy populations underpins our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time 2 . Classical determinations of the stellar initial mass function in local galaxies are traditionally made at ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared wavelengths, which cannot be probed in dust-obscured galaxies 2,3 , especially distant starbursts, whose apparent star-formation rates are hundreds to thousands of times higher than in the Milky Way, selected at submillimetre (rest-frame far-infrared) wavelengths 4,5 . The 13 C/ 18 O isotope abundance ratio in the cold molecular gas-which can be probed via the rotational transitions of the 13 CO and C 18 O isotopologues-is a very sensitive index of the stellar initial mass function, with its determination immune to the pernicious effects of dust. Here we report observations of 13 CO and C 18 O emission for a sample of four dust-enshrouded starbursts at redshifts of approximately two to three, and find unambiguous evidence for a top-heavy stellar initial mass function in all of them. A low 13 CO/C 18 O ratio for all our targets-alongside a well tested, detailed chemical evolution model benchmarked on the Milky Way 6 -implies that there are considerably more massive stars in starburst events than in ordinary star-forming spiral galaxies. This can bring these extraordinary starbursts closer to the 'main sequence' of star-forming galaxies 7 , although such main-sequence galaxies may not be immune to changes in initial stellar mass function, depending on their star-formation densities.

New Insights of High-precision Asteroseismology: Acoustic Radius and χ2-matching Method for Solar-like Oscillator KIC 6225718

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Tao; Li, Yan

2017-10-01

Asteroseismology is a powerful tool for probing stellar interiors and determining stellar fundamental parameters. In the present work, we adopt the χ2-minimization method but only use the observed high-precision seismic observations (i.e., oscillation frequencies) to constrain theoretical models for analyzing solar-like oscillator KIC 6225718. Finally, we find the acoustic radius τ0 is the only global parameter that can be accurately measured by the χ2-matching method between observed frequencies and theoretical model calculations for a pure p-mode oscillation star. We obtain seconds for KIC 6225718. It leads that the mass and radius of the CMMs are degenerate with each other. In addition, we find that the distribution range of acoustic radius is slightly enlarged by some extreme cases, which posses both a larger mass and a higher (or lower) metal abundance, at the lower acoustic radius end.

Optical veiling, disk accretion, and the evolution of T Tauri stars

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hartmann, L.W.; Kenyon, S.J.

1990-01-01

High-resolution spectra of 31 K7-M1 T Tauri stars (TTs) in the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud demonstrate that most of these objects exhibit substantial excess emission at 5200 A. Extrapolations of these data consistent with low-resolution spectrophotometry indicate that the extra emission is comparable to the stellar luminosity in many cases. If this continuum emission arises in the boundary layers of accreting disks, more than about 30 percent of all TTs may be accreting material at a rate which is sufficiently rapid to alter their evolution from standard Hayashi tracks. It is estimated that roughly 10 percent of the final stellar massmore » is accreted in the TT phase. This amount of material is comparable to the minimum gravitationally unstable disk mass estimated by Larson and it is speculated that the TT phase represents the final stages of disk accretion driven by gravitational instabilities. 40 refs.« less

THE STELLAR AGES AND MASSES OF SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURST HOST GALAXIES: INVESTIGATING THE PROGENITOR DELAY TIME DISTRIBUTION AND THE ROLE OF MASS AND STAR FORMATION IN THE SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURST RATE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Leibler, C. N.; Berger, E.

2010-12-10

We present multi-band optical and near-infrared observations of 19 short {gamma}-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies, aimed at measuring their stellar masses and population ages. The goals of this study are to evaluate whether short GRBs track the stellar mass distribution of galaxies, to investigate the progenitor delay time distribution, and to explore any connection between long and short GRB progenitors. Using single stellar population models we infer masses of log(M{sub *}/M{sub sun}) {approx} 8.8-11.6, with a median of (log(M{sub *}/M{sub sun})) {approx} 10.1, and population ages of {tau}{sub *} {approx} 0.03-4.4 Gyr with a median of ({tau}{sub *}) {approx} 0.3more » Gyr. We further infer maximal masses of log(M{sub *}/M{sub sun}) {approx} 9.7-11.9 by assuming stellar population ages equal to the age of the universe at each host's redshift. Comparing the distribution of stellar masses to the general galaxy mass function, we find that short GRBs track the cosmic stellar mass distribution only if the late-type hosts generally have maximal masses. However, there is an apparent dearth of early-type hosts compared to the equal contribution of early- and late-type galaxies to the cosmic stellar mass budget. Similarly, the short GRB rate per unit old stellar mass appears to be elevated in the late-type hosts. These results suggest that stellar mass may not be the sole parameter controlling the short GRB rate, and raise the possibility of a two-component model with both mass and star formation playing a role (reminiscent of the case for Type Ia supernovae). If short GRBs in late-type galaxies indeed track the star formation activity, the resulting typical delay time is {approx}0.2 Gyr, while those in early-type hosts have a typical delay of {approx}3 Gyr. Using the same stellar population models, we fit the broadband photometry for 22 long GRB host galaxies in a similar redshift range and find that they have significantly lower masses and younger population ages, with (log(M{sub *}/M{sub sun})) {approx} 9.1 and ({tau}{sub *}) {approx} 0.06 Gyr, respectively; their maximal masses are similarly lower, (log(M{sub *}/M{sub sun})) {approx} 9.6, and as expected do not track the galaxy mass function. Most importantly, the two GRB host populations remain distinct even if we consider only the star-forming hosts of short GRBs, supporting our previous findings (based on star formation rates and metallicities) that the progenitors of long and short GRBs in late-type galaxies are distinct. Given the much younger stellar populations of long GRB hosts (and hence of long GRB progenitors), and the substantial differences in host properties, we caution against the use of Type I and II designations for GRBs since this may erroneously imply that all GRBs which track star formation activity share the same massive star progenitors.« less

Systematic variation of the stellar initial mass function in early-type galaxies.

PubMed

Cappellari, Michele; McDermid, Richard M; Alatalo, Katherine; Blitz, Leo; Bois, Maxime; Bournaud, Frédéric; Bureau, M; Crocker, Alison F; Davies, Roger L; Davis, Timothy A; de Zeeuw, P T; Duc, Pierre-Alain; Emsellem, Eric; Khochfar, Sadegh; Krajnović, Davor; Kuntschner, Harald; Lablanche, Pierre-Yves; Morganti, Raffaella; Naab, Thorsten; Oosterloo, Tom; Sarzi, Marc; Scott, Nicholas; Serra, Paolo; Weijmans, Anne-Marie; Young, Lisa M

2012-04-25

Much of our knowledge of galaxies comes from analysing the radiation emitted by their stars, which depends on the present number of each type of star in the galaxy. The present number depends on the stellar initial mass function (IMF), which describes the distribution of stellar masses when the population formed, and knowledge of it is critical to almost every aspect of galaxy evolution. More than 50 years after the first IMF determination, no consensus has emerged on whether it is universal among different types of galaxies. Previous studies indicated that the IMF and the dark matter fraction in galaxy centres cannot both be universal, but they could not convincingly discriminate between the two possibilities. Only recently were indications found that massive elliptical galaxies may not have the same IMF as the Milky Way. Here we report a study of the two-dimensional stellar kinematics for the large representative ATLAS(3D) sample of nearby early-type galaxies spanning two orders of magnitude in stellar mass, using detailed dynamical models. We find a strong systematic variation in IMF in early-type galaxies as a function of their stellar mass-to-light ratios, producing differences of a factor of up to three in galactic stellar mass. This implies that a galaxy's IMF depends intimately on the galaxy's formation history.

A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF UNCERTAINTIES AFFECTING THE STELLAR MASS-HALO MASS RELATION FOR 0 < z < 4

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Behroozi, Peter S.; Wechsler, Risa H.; Conroy, Charlie

2010-07-01

We conduct a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between central galaxies and their host dark matter halos, as characterized by the stellar mass-halo mass (SM-HM) relation, with rigorous consideration of uncertainties. Our analysis focuses on results from the abundance matching technique, which assumes that every dark matter halo or subhalo above a specific mass threshold hosts one galaxy. We provide a robust estimate of the SM-HM relation for 0 < z < 1 and discuss the quantitative effects of uncertainties in observed galaxy stellar mass functions (including stellar mass estimates and counting uncertainties), halo mass functions (including cosmology and uncertaintiesmore » from substructure), and the abundance matching technique used to link galaxies to halos (including scatter in this connection). Our analysis results in a robust estimate of the SM-HM relation and its evolution from z = 0 to z = 4. The shape and the evolution are well constrained for z < 1. The largest uncertainties at these redshifts are due to stellar mass estimates (0.25 dex uncertainty in normalization); however, failure to account for scatter in stellar masses at fixed halo mass can lead to errors of similar magnitude in the SM-HM relation for central galaxies in massive halos. We also investigate the SM-HM relation to z = 4, although the shape of the relation at higher redshifts remains fairly unconstrained when uncertainties are taken into account. We find that the integrated star formation at a given halo mass peaks at 10%-20% of available baryons for all redshifts from 0 to 4. This peak occurs at a halo mass of 7 x 10{sup 11} M{sub sun} at z = 0 and this mass increases by a factor of 5 to z = 4. At lower and higher masses, star formation is substantially less efficient, with stellar mass scaling as M{sub *} {approx} M {sup 2.3}{sub h} at low masses and M{sub *} {approx} M {sup 0.29}{sub h} at high masses. The typical stellar mass for halos with mass less than 10{sup 12} M{sub sun} has increased by 0.3-0.45 dex for halos since z {approx} 1. These results will provide a powerful tool to inform galaxy evolution models.« less

A Comprehensive Analysis of Uncertainties Affecting the Stellar Mass-Halo Mass Relation for 0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Behroozi, Peter S.; Conroy, Charlie; Wechsler, Risa H.

2010-06-07

We conduct a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between central galaxies and their host dark matter halos, as characterized by the stellar mass - halo mass (SM-HM) relation, with rigorous consideration of uncertainties. Our analysis focuses on results from the abundance matching technique, which assumes that every dark matter halo or subhalo above a specific mass threshold hosts one galaxy. We provide a robust estimate of the SM-HM relation for 0 < z < 1 and discuss the quantitative effects of uncertainties in observed galaxy stellar mass functions (GSMFs) (including stellar mass estimates and counting uncertainties), halo mass functions (includingmore » cosmology and uncertainties from substructure), and the abundance matching technique used to link galaxies to halos (including scatter in this connection). Our analysis results in a robust estimate of the SM-HM relation and its evolution from z=0 to z=4. The shape and evolution are well constrained for z < 1. The largest uncertainties at these redshifts are due to stellar mass estimates (0.25 dex uncertainty in normalization); however, failure to account for scatter in stellar masses at fixed halo mass can lead to errors of similar magnitude in the SM-HM relation for central galaxies in massive halos. We also investigate the SM-HM relation to z = 4, although the shape of the relation at higher redshifts remains fairly unconstrained when uncertainties are taken into account. We find that the integrated star formation at a given halo mass peaks at 10-20% of available baryons for all redshifts from 0 to 4. This peak occurs at a halo mass of 7 x 10{sup 11} M{sub {circle_dot}} at z = 0 and this mass increases by a factor of 5 to z = 4. At lower and higher masses, star formation is substantially less efficient, with stellar mass scaling as M{sub *} {approx} M{sub h}{sup 2.3} at low masses and M{sub *} {approx} M{sub h}{sup 0.29} at high masses. The typical stellar mass for halos with mass less than 10{sup 12} M{sub {circle_dot}} has increased by 0.3-0.45 dex for halos since z {approx} 1. These results will provide a powerful tool to inform galaxy evolution models.« less

SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Spatially Resolved Stellar Initial Mass Function in ˜400 Early-Type Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parikh, Taniya; Thomas, Daniel; Maraston, Claudia; Westfall, Kyle B.; Goddard, Daniel; Lian, Jianhui; Meneses-Goytia, Sofia; Jones, Amy; Vaughan, Sam; Andrews, Brett H.; Bershady, Matthew; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Brinkmann, Jonathan; Brownstein, Joel R.; Bundy, Kevin; Drory, Niv; Emsellem, Eric; Law, David R.; Newman, Jeffrey A.; Roman-Lopes, Alexandre; Wake, David; Yan, Renbin; Zheng, Zheng

2018-03-01

MaNGA provides the opportunity to make precise spatially resolved measurements of the IMF slope in galaxies owing to its unique combination of spatial resolution, wavelength coverage and sample size. We derive radial gradients in age, element abundances and IMF slope analysing optical and near-infrared absorption features from stacked spectra out to the half-light radius of 366 early-type galaxies with masses 9.9 - 10.8 log M/M⊙. We find flat gradients in age and [α/Fe] ratio, as well as negative gradients in metallicity, consistent with the literature. We further derive significant negative gradients in the [Na/Fe] ratio with galaxy centres being well enhanced in Na abundance by up to 0.5 dex. Finally, we find a gradient in IMF slope with a bottom-heavy IMF in the centre (typical mass excess factor of 1.5) and a Milky Way-type IMF at the half-light radius. This pattern is mass-dependent with the lowest mass galaxies in our sample featuring only a shallow gradient around a Milky Way IMF. Our results imply the local IMF-σ relation within galaxies to be even steeper than the global relation and hint towards the local metallicity being the dominating factor behind the IMF variations. We also employ different stellar population models in our analysis and show that a radial IMF gradient is found independently of the stellar population model used. A similar analysis of the Wing-Ford band provides inconsistent results and further evidence of the difficulty in measuring and modelling this particular feature.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: SDSS bulge, disk and total stellar mass estimates (Mendel+, 2014)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mendel, J. T.; Simard, L.; Palmer, M.; Ellison, S. L.; Patton, D. R.

2014-01-01

We present a catalog of bulge, disk, and total stellar mass estimates for ~660000 galaxies in the Legacy area of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data (SDSS) Release 7. These masses are based on a homogeneous catalog of g- and r-band photometry described by Simard et al. (2011, Cat. J/ApJS/196/11), which we extend here with bulge+disk and Sersic profile photometric decompositions in the SDSS u, i, and z bands. We discuss the methodology used to derive stellar masses from these data via fitting to broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs), and show that the typical statistical uncertainty on total, bulge, and disk stellar mass is ~0.15 dex. Despite relatively small formal uncertainties, we argue that SED modeling assumptions, including the choice of synthesis model, extinction law, initial mass function, and details of stellar evolution likely contribute an additional 60% systematic uncertainty in any mass estimate based on broadband SED fitting. We discuss several approaches for identifying genuine bulge+disk systems based on both their statistical likelihood and an analysis of their one-dimensional surface-brightness profiles, and include these metrics in the catalogs. Estimates of the total, bulge and disk stellar masses for both normal and dust-free models and their uncertainties are made publicly available here. (4 data files).

High-precision infra-red stellar interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lane, Benjamin F.

2003-08-01

This dissertation describes work performed at the Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) during 1998 2002. Using PTI, we developed a method to measure stellar angular diameters in the 1 3 milli-arcsecond range with a precision of better than 5%. Such diameter measurements were used to measure the mass-radius relations of several lower main sequence stars and hence verify model predictions for these stars. In addition, by measuring the changes in Cepheid angular diameters during the pulsational cycle and applying a Baade-Wesselink analysis we are able to derive the distances to two galactic Cepheids (η Aql & ζ Gem) with a precision of ˜10%; such distance determinations provide an independent calibration of the Cepheid period- luminosity relations that underpin current estimates of cosmic distance scales. Second, we used PTI and the adaptive optics facility at the Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea to resolve the low mass binary systems BY Dra and GJ 569B, resulting in dynamical mass determinations for these systems. GJ 569B most likely contains at least one sub-stellar component, and as such represents the first dynamical mass determination of a brown dwarf. Finally, a new observing technique, dual star phase referencing, was developed and demonstrated at PTI. Phase referencing allows interferometric observations of stars previously too faint to observe, and is a prerequisite for large-scale interferometric astrometry programs such as the one planned for the Keck Interferometer; interferometric astrometry is a promising technique for the study of extra-solar planetary systems, particularly ones with long-period planets.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bekki, Kenji

We propose that there is an evolutionary link between ultra-compact blue dwarf galaxies (UCBDs) with active star formation and nucleated dwarfs based on the results of numerical simulations of dwarf–dwarf merging. We consider the observational fact that low-mass dwarfs can be very gas-rich, and thereby investigate the dynamical and chemical evolution of very gas-rich, dissipative dwarf–dwarf mergers. We find that the remnants of dwarf–dwarf mergers can be dominated by new stellar populations formed from the triggered starbursts and consequently can have blue colors and higher metallicities (Z ∼ [0.2–1]Z{sub ⊙}). We also find that the remnants of these mergers canmore » have rather high mass densities (10{sup 4} M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −3}) within the central 10 pc and small half-light radii (40−100 pc). The radial stellar structures of some merger remnants are similar to those of nucleated dwarfs. Star formation can continue in nuclear gas disks (R < 100 pc) surrounding stellar galactic nuclei (SGNs) so that the SGNs can finally have multiple stellar populations with different ages and metallicities. These very compact blue remnants can be identified as UCBDs soon after merging and as nucleated dwarfs after the young stars fade. We discuss these results in the context of the origins of metal-rich ultra-compact dwarfs and SGNs.« less

A scaling relation between merger rate of galaxies and their close pair count

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jiang, C. Y.; Jing, Y. P.; Han, Jiaxin, E-mail: ypjing@sjtu.edu.cn

We study how to measure the galaxy merger rate from the observed close pair count. Using a high-resolution N-body/SPH cosmological simulation, we find an accurate scaling relation between galaxy pair counts and merger rates down to a stellar mass ratio of about 1:30. The relation explicitly accounts for the dependence on redshift (or time), on pair separation, and on mass of the two galaxies in a pair. With this relation, one can easily obtain the mean merger timescale for a close pair of galaxies. The use of virial masses, instead of the stellar mass, is motivated by the fact thatmore » the dynamical friction timescale is mainly determined by the dark matter surrounding central and satellite galaxies. This fact can also minimize the error induced by uncertainties in modeling star formation in the simulation. Since the virial mass can be determined from the well-established relation between the virial masses and the stellar masses in observations, our scaling relation can easily be applied to observations to obtain the merger rate and merger timescale. For major merger pairs (1:1-1:4) of galaxies above a stellar mass of 4 × 10{sup 10} h {sup –1} M{sub ☉} at z = 0.1, it takes about 0.31 Gyr to merge for pairs within a projected distance of 20 h {sup –1} kpc with a stellar mass ratio of 1:1, while the time goes up to 1.6 Gyr for mergers with stellar mass ratio of 1:4. Our results indicate that a single timescale usually used in the literature is not accurate to describe mergers with a stellar mass ratio spanning even a narrow range from 1:1 to 1:4.« less

Probing stellar mass build-up in galaxies at z=4-7 with CANDELS and S-CANDELS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Mimi; Finkelstein, Steven L.; Ashby, Matthew; Merlin, Emiliano

2015-01-01

Over the last few years the advent of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 has enabled us to build statistically significant samples of galaxies out to z=8. We have subsequently witnessed remarkable progress in our understanding of galaxy evolution in the early universe. However, our understanding of the galaxy stellar mass growth in this era has been limited due to the lack of rest-frame optical data at a comparable depth as the HST data. Here we present results on the galaxy stellar mass function at z=4-7 from a sample of ~7500 galaxies over an area of ~280 square arcmin in the CANDELS GOODS-South and North fields, as well as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Utilizing deep IRAC data from the S-CANDELS and IUDF10 programs to robustly constrain the stellar masses of galaxies in our sample, we measure the stellar-mass to rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) luminosity trends in each of our redshift bins. We convolve these trends with recent measurements of the rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity function to derive the stellar mass functions. Contrary to initial studies at these redshifts, we find steeper low-mass-end slopes (-1.6 at z=4, and -2.0 at z=7), similar to recent simulations. Our results provide the most accurate estimates to date of the cosmic stellar mass density over the first two billion years after the Big Bang.

The core mass-radius relation for giants - A new test of stellar evolution theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Joss, P. C.; Rappaport, S.; Lewis, W.

1987-01-01

It is demonstrated here that the measurable properties of systems containing degenerate dwarfs can be used as a direct test of the core mass-radius relation for moderate-mass giants if the final stages of the loss of the envelope of the progenitor giant occurred via stable critical lobe overflow. This relation directly probes the internal structure of stars at a relatively advanced evolutionary state and is only modestly influenced by adjustable parameters. The measured properties of six binary systems, including such diverse systems as Sirius and Procyon and two millisecond pulsars, are utilized to derive constraints on the empirical core mass-radius relation, and the constraints are compared to the theoretical relation. The possibility that the final stages of envelope ejection of the giant progenitor of Sirius B occurred via critical lobe overflow in historical times is considered.

COUPLED EVOLUTIONS OF THE STELLAR OBLIQUITY, ORBITAL DISTANCE, AND PLANET'S RADIUS DUE TO THE OHMIC DISSIPATION INDUCED IN A DIAMAGNETIC HOT JUPITER AROUND A MAGNETIC T TAURI STAR

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chang, Yu-Ling; Gu, Pin-Gao; Bodenheimer, Peter H.

We revisit the calculation of the ohmic dissipation in a hot Jupiter presented by Laine et al. by considering more realistic interior structures, stellar obliquity, and the resulting orbital evolution. In this simplified approach, the young hot Jupiter of one Jupiter mass is modeled as a diamagnetic sphere with a finite resistivity, orbiting across tilted stellar magnetic dipole fields in vacuum. Since the induced ohmic dissipation occurs mostly near the planet's surface, we find that the dissipation is unable to significantly expand the young hot Jupiter. Nevertheless, the planet inside a small corotation orbital radius can undergo orbital decay bymore » the dissipation torque and finally overfill its Roche lobe during the T Tauri star phase. The stellar obliquity can evolve significantly if the magnetic dipole is parallel/antiparallel to the stellar spin. Our results are validated by the general torque-dissipation relation in the presence of the stellar obliquity. We also run the fiducial model of Laine et al. and find that the planet's radius is sustained at a nearly constant value by the ohmic heating, rather than being thermally expanded to the Roche radius as suggested by the authors.« less

ELUCID. IV. Galaxy Quenching and its Relation to Halo Mass, Environment, and Assembly Bias

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Huiyuan; Mo, H. J.; Chen, Sihan; Yang, Yang; Yang, Xiaohu; Wang, Enci; van den Bosch, Frank C.; Jing, Yipeng; Kang, Xi; Lin, Weipeng; Lim, S. H.; Huang, Shuiyao; Lu, Yi; Li, Shijie; Cui, Weiguang; Zhang, Youcai; Tweed, Dylan; Wei, Chengliang; Li, Guoliang; Shi, Feng

2018-01-01

We examine the quenched fraction of central and satellite galaxies as a function of galaxy stellar mass, halo mass, and the matter density of their large-scale environment. Matter densities are inferred from our ELUCID simulation, a constrained simulation of the local universe sampled by SDSS, while halo masses and central/satellite classification are taken from the galaxy group catalog of Yang et al. The quenched fraction for the total population increases systematically with the three quantities. We find that the “environmental quenching efficiency,” which quantifies the quenched fraction as a function of halo mass, is independent of stellar mass. And this independence is the origin of the stellar mass independence of density-based quenching efficiency found in previous studies. Considering centrals and satellites separately, we find that the two populations follow similar correlations of quenching efficiency with halo mass and stellar mass, suggesting that they have experienced similar quenching processes in their host halo. We demonstrate that satellite quenching alone cannot account for the environmental quenching efficiency of the total galaxy population, and that the difference between the two populations found previously arises mainly from the fact that centrals and satellites of the same stellar mass reside, on average, in halos of different mass. After removing these effects of halo mass and stellar mass, there remains a weak, but significant, residual dependence on environmental density, which is eliminated when halo assembly bias is taken into account. Our results therefore indicate that halo mass is the prime environmental parameter that regulates the quenching of both centrals and satellites.

The Origin of Stellar Species: constraining stellar evolution scenarios with Local Group galaxy surveys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarbadhicary, Sumit; Badenes, Carles; Chomiuk, Laura; Maldonado, Jessica; Caprioli, Damiano; Heger, Mairead; Huizenga, Daniel

2018-01-01

Our understanding of the progenitors of many stellar species, such as supernovae, massive and low-mass He-burning stars, is limited because of many poorly constrained aspects of stellar evolution theory. For my dissertation, I have focused on using Local Group galaxy surveys to constrain stellar evolution scenarios by measuring delay-time distributions (DTD). The DTD is the hypothetical occurrence rate of a stellar object per elapsed time after a brief burst of star formation. It is the measured distribution of timescales on which stars evolve, and therefore serves as a powerful observational constraint on theoretical progenitor models. The DTD can be measured from a survey of stellar objects and a set of star-formation histories of the host galaxy, and is particularly effective in the Local Group, where high-quality star-formation histories are available from resolved stellar populations. I am currently calculating a SN DTD with supernova remnants (SNRs) in order to provide the strongest constraints on the progenitors of thermonuclear and core-collapse supernovae. However, most SNRs do not have reliable age measurements and their evolution depends on the ambient environment. For this reason, I wrote a radio light curve model of an SNR population to extract the visibility times and rates of supernovae - crucial ingredients for the DTD - from an SNR survey. The model uses observational constraints on the local environments from multi-wavelength surveys, accounts for missing SNRs and employs the latest models of shock-driven particle acceleration. The final calculation of the SN DTD in the Local Group is awaiting completion of a systematic SNR catalog from deep radio-continuum images, now in preparation by a group led by Dr. Laura Chomiuk. I have also calculated DTDs for the LMC population of RR Lyrae and Cepheid variables, which serve as important distance calibrators and stellar population tracers. We find that Cepheids can have delay-times between 10 Myrs - 1 Gyr, while RR Lyrae can have delay-times < 10 Gyrs. These observations cannot be explained by models using mass and metallicity alone. In future projects, I will apply the DTD technique to constrain the supergiant and pre-supernova evolutionary models.

XUV-Exposed, Non-Hydrostatic Hydrogen-Rich Upper Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets. Part II: Hydrogen Coronae and Ion Escape

PubMed Central

Lammer, Helmut; Holmström, Mats; Panchenko, Mykhaylo; Odert, Petra; Erkaev, Nikolai V.; Leitzinger, Martin; Khodachenko, Maxim L.; Kulikov, Yuri N.; Güdel, Manuel; Hanslmeier, Arnold

2013-01-01

Abstract We studied the interactions between the stellar wind plasma flow of a typical M star, such as GJ 436, and the hydrogen-rich upper atmosphere of an Earth-like planet and a “super-Earth” with a radius of 2 REarth and a mass of 10 MEarth, located within the habitable zone at ∼0.24 AU. We investigated the formation of extended atomic hydrogen coronae under the influences of the stellar XUV flux (soft X-rays and EUV), stellar wind density and velocity, shape of a planetary obstacle (e.g., magnetosphere, ionopause), and the loss of planetary pickup ions on the evolution of hydrogen-dominated upper atmospheres. Stellar XUV fluxes that are 1, 10, 50, and 100 times higher compared to that of the present-day Sun were considered, and the formation of high-energy neutral hydrogen clouds around the planets due to the charge-exchange reaction under various stellar conditions was modeled. Charge-exchange between stellar wind protons with planetary hydrogen atoms, and photoionization, lead to the production of initially cold ions of planetary origin. We found that the ion production rates for the studied planets can vary over a wide range, from ∼1.0×1025 s−1 to ∼5.3×1030 s−1, depending on the stellar wind conditions and the assumed XUV exposure of the upper atmosphere. Our findings indicate that most likely the majority of these planetary ions are picked up by the stellar wind and lost from the planet. Finally, we estimated the long-time nonthermal ion pickup escape for the studied planets and compared them with the thermal escape. According to our estimates, nonthermal escape of picked-up ionized hydrogen atoms over a planet's lifetime within the habitable zone of an M dwarf varies between ∼0.4 Earth ocean equivalent amounts of hydrogen (EOH) to <3 EOH and usually is several times smaller in comparison to the thermal atmospheric escape rates. Key Words: Stellar activity—Low-mass stars—Early atmospheres—Earth-like exoplanets—Energetic neutral atoms—Ion escape—Habitability. Astrobiology 13, 1030–1048. PMID:24283926

The Class of Jsolated Stars and Luminous Planetary Nebulae in old stellar populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabach, Efrat; Soker, Noam

2018-06-01

We suggest that stars whose angular momentum (J) does not increase by a companion, star or planet, along their post-main sequence evolution have much lower mass loss rates along their giant branches. Their classification to a separate group can bring insight on their late evolution stages. We here term these Jsolated stars. We argue that the mass loss rate of Jsolated stars is poorly determined because the mass loss rate expressions on the giant branches are empirically based on samples containing stars that experience strong binary interaction, with stellar or sub-stellar companions, e.g., planetary nebula (PN) progenitors. We use our earlier claim for a low mass loss rate of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars that are not spun-up by a stellar or substellar companion to show that we can account for the enigmatic finding that the brightest PNe in old stellar populations reach the same luminosity as the brightest PNe in young populations. It is quite likely that the best solution to the existence of bright PNe in old stellar populations is the combination of higher AGB luminosities, as obtained in some new stellar models, and the lower mass loss rates invoked here.

The Mass-Metallicity Relation with the Direct Method on Stacked Spectra of SDSS Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andrews, Brett H.; Martini, Paul

2013-03-01

The relation between galaxy stellar mass and gas-phase metallicity is a sensitive diagnostic of the main processes that drive galaxy evolution, namely cosmological gas inflow, metal production in stars, and gas outflow via galactic winds. We employed the direct method to measure the metallicities of ~200,000 star-forming galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey that were stacked in bins of (1) stellar mass and (2) both stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) to significantly enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the weak [O III] λ4363 and [O II] λλ7320, 7330 auroral lines required to apply the direct method. These metallicity measurements span three decades in stellar mass from log(M sstarf/M ⊙) = 7.4-10.5, which allows the direct method mass-metallicity relation to simultaneously capture the high-mass turnover and extend a full decade lower in mass than previous studies that employed more uncertain strong line methods. The direct method mass-metallicity relation rises steeply at low mass (O/H vprop M sstarf 1/2) until it turns over at log(M sstarf/M ⊙) = 8.9 and asymptotes to 12 + log(O/H) = 8.8 at high mass. The direct method mass-metallicity relation has a steeper slope, a lower turnover mass, and a factor of two to three greater dependence on SFR than strong line mass-metallicity relations. Furthermore, the SFR-dependence appears monotonic with stellar mass, unlike strong line mass-metallicity relations. We also measure the N/O abundance ratio, an important tracer of star formation history, and find the clear signature of primary and secondary nitrogen enrichment. N/O correlates tightly with oxygen abundance, and even more so with stellar mass.

The structure of galaxies : the division of stellar mass by morphological type and structural component

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelvin, Lee Steven

This thesis explores the relation between galaxy structure, morphology and stellar mass. In the first part I present single-Sersic two-dimensional model fits to 167,600 galaxies modelled independently in the ugrizYJHK bandpasses using reprocessed Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven (SDSS DR7) and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey Large Area Survey (UKIDSS LAS) imaging data available via the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) data base. In order to facilitate this study, we developed Structural Investigation of Galaxies via Model Analysis (SIGMA): an automated wrapper around several contemporary astronomy software packages. We confirm that variations in global structural measurements with wavelength arise due to the effects of dust attenuation and stellar population/metallicity gradients within galaxies. In the second part of this thesis we establish a volume-limited sample of 3,845 galaxies in the local Universe and visually classify these galaxies according to their morphological Hubble type. We find that single-Sersic photometry accurately reproduces the morphology luminosity functions predicted in the literature. We employ multi-component Sersic profiling to provide bulge-disk decompositions for this sample, allowing for the luminosity and stellar mass to be divided between the key structural components: spheroids and disks. Grouping the stellar mass in these structures by the evolutionary mechanisms that formed them, we find that hot-mode collapse, merger or otherwise turbulent mechanisms account for ~46% of the total stellar mass budget, cold-mode gas accretion and splashback mechanisms account for ~48% of the total stellar mass budget and secular evolutionary processes for ~6.5% of the total stellar mass budget in the local (z<0.06) Universe.

On the Maximum Mass of Accreting Primordial Supermassive Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woods, T. E.; Heger, Alexander; Whalen, Daniel J.; Haemmerlé, Lionel; Klessen, Ralf S.

2017-06-01

Supermassive primordial stars are suspected to be the progenitors of the most massive quasars at z ˜ 6. Previous studies of such stars were either unable to resolve hydrodynamical timescales or considered stars in isolation, not in the extreme accretion flows in which they actually form. Therefore, they could not self-consistently predict their final masses at collapse, or those of the resulting supermassive black hole seeds, but rather invoked comparison to simple polytropic models. Here, we systematically examine the birth, evolution, and collapse of accreting, non-rotating supermassive stars under accretion rates of 0.01-10 M ⊙ yr-1 using the stellar evolution code Kepler. Our approach includes post-Newtonian corrections to the stellar structure and an adaptive nuclear network and can transition to following the hydrodynamic evolution of supermassive stars after they encounter the general relativistic instability. We find that this instability triggers the collapse of the star at masses of 150,000-330,000 M ⊙ for accretion rates of 0.1-10 M ⊙ yr-1, and that the final mass of the star scales roughly logarithmically with the rate. The structure of the star, and thus its stability against collapse, is sensitive to the treatment of convection and the heat content of the outer accreted envelope. Comparison with other codes suggests differences here may lead to small deviations in the evolutionary state of the star as a function of time, that worsen with accretion rate. Since the general relativistic instability leads to the immediate death of these stars, our models place an upper limit on the masses of the first quasars at birth.

Component masses of young, wide, non-magnetic white dwarf binaries in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baxter, R. B.; Dobbie, P. D.; Parker, Q. A.; Casewell, S. L.; Lodieu, N.; Burleigh, M. R.; Lawrie, K. A.; Külebi, B.; Koester, D.; Holland, B. R.

2014-06-01

We present a spectroscopic component analysis of 18 candidate young, wide, non-magnetic, double-degenerate binaries identified from a search of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (DR7). All but two pairings are likely to be physical systems. We show SDSS J084952.47+471247.7 + SDSS J084952.87+471249.4 to be a wide DA + DB binary, only the second identified to date. Combining our measurements for the components of 16 new binaries with results for three similar, previously known systems within the DR7, we have constructed a mass distribution for the largest sample to date (38) of white dwarfs in young, wide, non-magnetic, double-degenerate pairings. This is broadly similar in form to that of the isolated field population with a substantial peak around M ˜ 0.6 M⊙. We identify an excess of ultramassive white dwarfs and attribute this to the primordial separation distribution of their progenitor systems peaking at relatively larger values and the greater expansion of their binary orbits during the final stages of stellar evolution. We exploit this mass distribution to probe the origins of unusual types of degenerates, confirming a mild preference for the progenitor systems of high-field-magnetic white dwarfs, at least within these binaries, to be associated with early-type stars. Additionally, we consider the 19 systems in the context of the stellar initial mass-final mass relation. None appear to be strongly discordant with current understanding of this relationship.

Kinematic scaling relations of CALIFA galaxies: A dynamical mass proxy for galaxies across the Hubble sequence.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aquino-Ortíz, E.; Valenzuela, O.; Sánchez, S. F.; Hernández-Toledo, H.; Ávila-Reese, V.; van de Ven, G.; Rodríguez-Puebla, A.; Zhu, L.; Mancillas, B.; Cano-Díaz, M.; García-Benito, R.

2018-06-01

We used ionized gas and stellar kinematics for 667 spatially resolved galaxies publicly available from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey (CALIFA) 3rd Data Release with the aim of studying kinematic scaling relations as the Tully & Fisher (TF) relation using rotation velocity, Vrot, the Faber & Jackson (FJ) relation using velocity dispersion, σ, and also a combination of Vrot and σ through the SK parameter defined as SK^2 = KV_{rot}^2 + σ ^2 with constant K. Late-type and early-type galaxies reproduce the TF and FJ relations. Some early-type galaxies also follow the TF relation and some late-type galaxies the FJ relation, but always with larger scatter. On the contrary, when we use the SK parameter, all galaxies, regardless of the morphological type, lie on the same scaling relation, showing a tight correlation with the total stellar mass, M⋆. Indeed, we find that the scatter in this relation is smaller or equal to that of the TF and FJ relations. We explore different values of the K parameter without significant differences (slope and scatter) in our final results with respect the case K = 0.5 besides than a small change in the zero point. We calibrate the kinematic SK^2 dynamical mass proxy in order to make it consistent with sophisticated published dynamical models within 0.15 dex. We show that the SK proxy is able to reproduce the relation between the dynamical mass and the stellar mass in the inner regions of galaxies. Our result may be useful in order to produce fast estimations of the central dynamical mass in galaxies and to study correlations in large galaxy surveys.

NoSOCS in SDSS - VI. The environmental dependence of AGN in clusters and field in the local Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopes, P. A. A.; Ribeiro, A. L. B.; Rembold, S. B.

2017-11-01

We investigated the variation in the fraction of optical active galactic nuclei (AGNs) hosts with stellar mass, as well as their local and global environments. Our sample is composed of cluster members and field galaxies at z ≤ 0.1 and we consider only strong AGN. We find a strong variation in the AGN fraction (FAGN) with stellar mass. The field population comprises a higher AGN fraction compared to the global cluster population, especially for objects with log M* > 10.6. Hence, we restricted our analysis to more massive objects. We detected a smooth variation in the FAGN with local stellar mass density for cluster objects, reaching a plateau in the field environment. As a function of cluster-centric distance we verify that FAGN is roughly constant for R > R200, but show a steep decline inwards. We have also verified the dependence of the AGN population on cluster velocity dispersion, finding a constant behaviour for low mass systems (σP ≲ 650-700 km s-1). However, there is a strong decline in FAGN for higher mass clusters (>700 km s-1). When comparing the FAGN in clusters with or without substructure, we only find different results for objects at large radii (R > R200), in the sense that clusters with substructure present some excess in the AGN fraction. Finally, we have found that the phase-space distribution of AGN cluster members is significantly different than other populations. Due to the environmental dependence of FAGN and their phase-space distribution, we interpret AGN to be the result of galaxy interactions, favoured in environments where the relative velocities are low, typical of the field, low mass groups or cluster outskirts.

High-Resolution Infrared Imaging and Polarimetry plus Spectroscopy of Evolved Red and Yellow Supergiants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, Michael Scott; Humphreys, Roberta; Jones, Terry J.; Gehrz, Robert D.

2018-01-01

To what extent mass loss and periods of enhanced stellar outflow can influence the terminal state of the most massive stars remains an outstanding question in the fields of stellar physics, chemical enrichment of the Local Universe, andsupernova research. For my dissertation, I focus on characterizing the stellar ejecta around supergiants through a combination of observing techniques. Using the LBT, MMT, IRTF, VLT, and SOFIA observatories, I have performed high-resolution imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry—methods that provide us with keen insight on mass-loss histories and 3D morphology of the Local Group's most fascinating stars.Based on spectroscopic evidence for mass loss in the optical and the presence ofcircumstellar (CS) dust in infrared SEDs, we find that 30%–40% of observed yellow supergiants in M31 and M33 are likely in a post-RSG state. We also presentnear-IR spectra from IRTF/SPeX of optically-obscured RSGs in M33. These IR-bright sources likely have some of the highest mass-loss rates and are self-obscured in the optical by their own CS ejecta. For Galactic red supergiants (RSGs), we are able to observe the gas and CS dust ejecta both close in to the central star and at larger distances. The resulting radial profiles are valuable probes on timescale for the ejecta when combined with radiative-transfer models. We find evidence for both variable/high mass-loss events and constant mass loss over the last few thousand years. Finally, we discuss the use of high-resolution imaging polarimetry with VLT/NACO of two co-eval RSG clusters toward the Galactic center. The resulting polarized intensity images in the near-infrared provide unprecedented spatial and contrast resolution of the scattered light from extended nebular material.

The dependence of galaxy clustering on stellar mass, star-formation rate and redshift at z = 0.8-2.2, with HiZELS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cochrane, R. K.; Best, P. N.; Sobral, D.; Smail, I.; Geach, J. E.; Stott, J. P.; Wake, D. A.

2018-04-01

The deep, near-infrared narrow-band survey HiZELS has yielded robust samples of H α-emitting star-forming galaxies within narrow redshift slices at z = 0.8, 1.47 and 2.23. In this paper, we distinguish the stellar mass and star-formation rate (SFR) dependence of the clustering of these galaxies. At high stellar masses (M*/M⊙ ≳ 2 × 1010), where HiZELS selects galaxies close to the so-called star-forming main sequence, the clustering strength is observed to increase strongly with stellar mass (in line with the results of previous studies of mass-selected galaxy samples) and also with SFR. These two dependencies are shown to hold independently. At lower stellar masses, however, where HiZELS probes high specific SFR galaxies, there is little or no dependence of the clustering strength on stellar mass, but the dependence on SFR remains: high-SFR low-mass galaxies are found in more massive dark matter haloes than their lower SFR counterparts. We argue that this is due to environmentally driven star formation in these systems. We apply the same selection criteria to the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. We find that, in EAGLE, the high-SFR low-mass galaxies are central galaxies in more massive dark matter haloes, in which the high SFRs are driven by a (halo-driven) increased gas content.

Testing fundamental physics with distant star clusters: theoretical models for pressure-supported stellar systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haghi, Hosein; Baumgardt, Holger; Kroupa, Pavel; Grebel, Eva K.; Hilker, Michael; Jordi, Katrin

2009-05-01

We investigate the mean velocity dispersion and the velocity dispersion profile of stellar systems in modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), using the N-body code N-MODY, which is a particle-mesh-based code with a numerical MOND potential solver developed by Ciotti, Londrillo & Nipoti. We have calculated mean velocity dispersions for stellar systems following Plummer density distributions with masses in the range of 104 to 109Msolar and which are either isolated or immersed in an external field. Our integrations reproduce previous analytic estimates for stellar velocities in systems in the deep MOND regime (ai, ae << a0), where the motion of stars is either dominated by internal accelerations (ai >> ae) or constant external accelerations (ae >> ai). In addition, we derive for the first time analytic formulae for the line-of-sight velocity dispersion in the intermediate regime (ai ~ ae ~ a0). This allows for a much-improved comparison of MOND with observed velocity dispersions of stellar systems. We finally derive the velocity dispersion of the globular cluster Pal14 as one of the outer Milky Way halo globular clusters that have recently been proposed as a differentiator between Newtonian and MONDian dynamics.

The Magnetic Field of the Class I Protostar WL 17

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johns-Krull, Christopher M.; Greene, T. P.; Doppmann, G.; Covey, K. R.

2007-12-01

Strong stellar magnetic fields are believed to truncate the inner accretion disks around young stars, redirecting the accreting material to the high latitude regions of the stellar surface. In the past few years, observations of strong stellar fields on Classical T Tauri stars [class II young stellar objects (YSOs)] with field strengths in general agreement with the predictions of magnetopsheric accretion theory have bolstered this picture. Currently, nothing is known about the magnetic field properties of younger, more embedded class I YSOs. It is during this protostellar evolutionary phase that stars accrete most of their final mass, but the physics governing this process remains poorly understood. Here, we use high resolution near infrared spectra obtained with NIRSPEC on Keck and with PHOENIX on Gemini South to measure the magnetic field properties of the class I protostar WL 17. We find clear signatures of a strong stellar magnetic field. Initial analysis of this data suggests a surface average field strength of 3.6 kG on the surface of WL 17. This is the highest mean surface field detected to date on any YSO. We present our field measurements and discuss how they fit with the general model of magnetospheric accretion in young stars.

Formation of intermediate-mass black holes through runaway collisions in the first star clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakurai, Yuya; Yoshida, Naoki; Fujii, Michiko S.; Hirano, Shingo

2017-12-01

We study the formation of massive black holes in the first star clusters. We first locate star-forming gas clouds in protogalactic haloes of ≳107 M⊙ in cosmological hydrodynamics simulations and use them to generate the initial conditions for star clusters with masses of ∼105 M⊙. We then perform a series of direct-tree hybrid N-body simulations to follow runaway stellar collisions in the dense star clusters. In all the cluster models except one, runaway collisions occur within a few million years, and the mass of the central, most massive star reaches ∼400-1900 M⊙. Such very massive stars collapse to leave intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). The diversity of the final masses may be attributed to the differences in a few basic properties of the host haloes such as mass, central gas velocity dispersion and mean gas density of the central core. Finally, we derive the IMBH mass to cluster mass ratios, and compare them with the observed black hole to bulge mass ratios in the present-day Universe.

Post Common Envelope Binaries as probes of M dwarf stellar wind and habitable zone radiation environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, David

2017-08-01

M dwarf stars are promising targets in the search for extrasolar habitable planets, as their small size and close-in habitable zones make the detection of Earth-analog planets easier than at Solar-type stars. However, the effects of the high stellar activity of M dwarf hosts has uncertain effects on such planets, and may render them uninhabitable. Studying stellar activity at M dwarfs is hindered by a lack of measurements of high-energy radiation, flare activity and, in particular, stellar wind rates. We propose to rectify this by observing a sample of Post Common Envelope Binaries (PCEBs) with HST and XMM-Newton. PCEBs consist of an M dwarf with a white dwarf companion, which experiences the same stellar wind and radiation environment as a close-in planet. The stellar wind of the M dwarf accretes onto the otherwise pure hydrogen atmosphere white dwarf, producing metal lines detectable with ultraviolet spectroscopy. The metal lines can be used to measure accretion rates onto the white dwarf, from with we can accurately infer the stellar wind mass loss rate of the M dwarf, along with abundances of key elements. Simultaneous observations with XMM-Newton will probe X-ray flare occurrence rate and strength, in addition to coronal temperatures. Performing these measurements over twelve PCEBs will provide a sample of M dwarf stellar wind strengths, flare occurrence and X-ray/UV activity that will finally shed light on the true habitability of planets around small stars.

Galactic Bulge Giants: Probing Stellar and Galactic Evolution. 1. Catalogue of Spitzer IRAC and MIPS Sources (PREPRINT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Uttenthaler, Stefan; Stute, Matthias; Sahai, Raghvendra; Blommaert, Joris A.; Schultheis, Mathias; Kraemer, Kathleen E.; Groenewegen, Martin A.; Price, Stephan D.

2010-01-01

Aims. We aim at measuring mass-loss rates and the luminosities of a statistically large sample of Galactic bulge stars at several galactocentric radii. The sensitivity of previous infrared surveys of the bulge has been rather limited, thus fundamental questions for late stellar evolution, such as the stage at which substantial mass-loss begins on the red giant branch and its dependence on fundamental stellar properties, remain unanswered. We aim at providing evidence and answers to these questions. Methods. To this end, we observed seven 15 15 arcmin2 fields in the nuclear bulge and its vicinity with unprecedented sensitivity using the IRAC and MIPS imaging instruments on-board the Spitzer Space Telescope. In each of the fields, tens of thousands of point sources were detected. Results. In the first paper based on this data set, we present the observations, data reduction, the final catalogue of sources, and a detailed comparison to previous mid-IR surveys of the Galactic bulge, as well as to theoretical isochrones. We find in general good agreement with other surveys and the isochrones, supporting the high quality of our catalogue.

When galaxies collide: understanding the broad absorption-line radio galaxy 4C +72.26

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, D. J. B.; Simpson, C.; Swinbank, A. M.; Rawlings, S.; Jarvis, M. J.

2010-05-01

We present a range of new observations of the `broad absorption-line radio galaxy' 4C +72.26 (z ~ 3.5), including sensitive rest-frame ultraviolet integral field spectroscopy using the Gemini/GMOS-N instrument and Subaru/CISCO K-band imaging and spectroscopy. We show that 4C +72.26 is a system of two vigorously star-forming galaxies superimposed along the line of sight separated by ~1300 +/- 200 km s-1 in velocity, with each demonstrating spectroscopically resolved absorption lines. The most active star-forming galaxy also hosts the accreting supermassive black hole which powers the extended radio source. We conclude that the star formation is unlikely to have been induced by a shock caused by the passage of the radio jet, and instead propose that a collision is a more probable trigger for the star formation. Despite the massive starburst, the ultraviolet-mid-infrared spectral energy distribution suggests that the pre-existing stellar population comprises ~1012Msolar of stellar mass, with the current burst only contributing a further ~2 per cent, suggesting that 4C +72.26 has already assembled most of its final stellar mass.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ballard, Sarah; Charbonneau, David; Fressin, Francois

We present the validation and characterization of Kepler-61b: a 2.15 R{sub Circled-Plus} planet orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of a low-mass star. Our characterization of the host star Kepler-61 is based upon a comparison with a set of spectroscopically similar stars with directly measured radii and temperatures. We apply a stellar prior drawn from the weighted mean of these properties, in tandem with the Kepler photometry, to infer a planetary radius for Kepler-61b of 2.15 {+-} 0.13 R{sub Circled-Plus} and an equilibrium temperature of 273 {+-} 13 K (given its period of 59.87756 {+-} 0.00020 daysmore » and assuming a planetary albedo of 0.3). The technique of leveraging the physical properties of nearby ''proxy'' stars allows for an independent check on stellar characterization via the traditional measurements with stellar spectra and evolutionary models. In this case, such a check had implications for the putative habitability of Kepler-61b: the planet is 10% warmer and larger than inferred from K-band spectral characterization. From the Kepler photometry, we estimate a stellar rotation period of 36 days, which implies a stellar age of >1 Gyr. We summarize the evidence for the planetary nature of the Kepler-61 transit signal, which we conclude is 30,000 times more likely to be due to a planet than a blend scenario. Finally, we discuss possible compositions for Kepler-61b with a comparison to theoretical models as well as to known exoplanets with similar radii and dynamically measured masses.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

MacLeod, Morgan; Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico; Trenti, Michele

When embedded in dense cluster cores, intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) acquire close stellar or stellar-remnant companions. These companions are not only gravitationally bound, but also tend to hierarchically isolate from other cluster stars through series of multibody encounters. In this paper we study the demographics of IMBH companions in compact star clusters through direct N-body simulations. We study clusters initially composed of 10{sup 5} or 2 × 10{sup 5} stars with IMBHs of 75 and 150 solar masses, and we follow their evolution for 6–10 Gyr. A tight, innermost binary pair of IMBH and stellar object rapidly forms. The IMBH has amore » companion with an orbital semimajor axis at least three times tighter than the second-most-bound object over 90% of the time. These companionships have typical periods on the order of years and are subject to cycles of exchange and destruction. The most frequently observed, long-lived pairings persist for ∼10{sup 7} years. The demographics of IMBH companions in clusters are diverse: they include both main-sequence, giant stars and stellar remnants. Companion objects may reveal the presence of an IMBH in a cluster in one of several ways. The most-bound companion stars routinely suffer grazing tidal interactions with the IMBH, offering a dynamical mechanism to produce repeated flaring episodes like those seen in the IMBH candidate HLX-1. The stellar winds of companion stars provide a minimum quiescent accretion rate for IMBHs, with implications for radio searches for IMBH accretion in globular clusters. Finally, gravitational wave inspirals of compact objects occur with promising frequency.« less

Merger-driven evolution of the effective stellar initial mass function of massive early-type galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sonnenfeld, Alessandro; Nipoti, Carlo; Treu, Tommaso

2017-02-01

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) of early-type galaxies is the combination of the IMF of the stellar population formed in situ and that of accreted stellar populations. Using as an observable the effective IMF αIMF, defined as the ratio between the true stellar mass of a galaxy and the stellar mass inferred assuming a Salpeter IMF, we present a theoretical model for its evolution as a result of dry mergers. We use a simple dry-merger evolution model, based on cosmological N-body simulations, together with empirically motivated prescriptions for the IMF to make predictions on how the effective IMF of massive early-type galaxies changes from z = 2 to z = 0. We find that the IMF normalization of individual galaxies becomes lighter with time. At fixed velocity dispersion, αIMF is predicted to be constant with redshift. Current dynamical constraints on the evolution of the IMF are in slight tension with this prediction, even though systematic uncertainties, including the effect of radial gradients in the IMF, prevent a conclusive statement. The correlation of αIMF with stellar mass becomes shallower with time, while the correlation between αIMF and velocity dispersion is mostly preserved by dry mergers. We also find that dry mergers can mix the dependence of the IMF on stellar mass and velocity dispersion, making it challenging to infer, from z = 0 observations of global galactic properties, what is the quantity that is originally coupled with the IMF.

Confronting Models of Massive Star Evolution and Explosions with Remnant Mass Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raithel, Carolyn A.; Sukhbold, Tuguldur; Özel, Feryal

2018-03-01

The mass distribution of compact objects provides a fossil record that can be studied to uncover information on the late stages of massive star evolution, the supernova explosion mechanism, and the dense matter equation of state. Observations of neutron star masses indicate a bimodal Gaussian distribution, while the observed black hole mass distribution decays exponentially for stellar-mass black holes. We use these observed distributions to directly confront the predictions of stellar evolution models and the neutrino-driven supernova simulations of Sukhbold et al. We find strong agreement between the black hole and low-mass neutron star distributions created by these simulations and the observations. We show that a large fraction of the stellar envelope must be ejected, either during the formation of stellar-mass black holes or prior to the implosion through tidal stripping due to a binary companion, in order to reproduce the observed black hole mass distribution. We also determine the origins of the bimodal peaks of the neutron star mass distribution, finding that the low-mass peak (centered at ∼1.4 M ⊙) originates from progenitors with M ZAMS ≈ 9–18 M ⊙. The simulations fail to reproduce the observed peak of high-mass neutron stars (centered at ∼1.8 M ⊙) and we explore several possible explanations. We argue that the close agreement between the observed and predicted black hole and low-mass neutron star mass distributions provides new, promising evidence that these stellar evolution and explosion models capture the majority of relevant stellar, nuclear, and explosion physics involved in the formation of compact objects.

Nebular and Stellar Dust Extinction Across the Disk of Emission-line Galaxies on Kiloparsec Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hemmati, Shoubaneh; Mobasher, Bahram; Darvish, Behnam; Nayyeri, Hooshang; Sobral, David; Miller, Sarah

2015-11-01

We investigate the resolved kiloparsec-scale stellar and nebular dust distribution in eight star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 0.4 in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey fields. This is to get a better understanding of the effect of dust attenuation on measurements of physical properties and its variation with redshift. Constructing the observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) per pixel, based on seven bands of photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys and WFC3, we performed pixel-by-pixel SED fits to population synthesis models and estimated the small-scale distribution of stellar dust extinction. We use Hα/Hβ nebular emission line ratios from Keck/DEIMOS high-resolution spectra at each spatial resolution element to measure the amount of attenuation faced by ionized gas at different radii from the centers of galaxies. We find a good agreement between the integrated and median of resolved color excess measurements in our galaxies. The ratio of integrated nebular to stellar dust extinction is always greater than unity, but does not show any trend with stellar mass or star formation rate (SFR). We find that inclination plays an important role in the variation of the nebular to stellar excess ratio. The stellar color excess profiles are found to have higher values at the center compared to outer parts of the disk. However, for lower mass galaxies, a similar trend is not found for the nebular color excess. We find that the nebular color excess increases with stellar mass surface density. This explains the absence of radial trend in the nebular color excess in lower mass galaxies which lack a large radial variation of stellar mass surface density. Using standard conversions of SFR surface density to gas mass surface density, and the relation between dust mass surface density and color excess, we find no significant variation in the dust-to-gas ratio in regions with high gas mass surface densities over the scales probed in this study.

Stellar populations dominated by massive stars in dusty starburst galaxies across cosmic time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhi-Yu; Romano, D.; Ivison, R. J.; Papadopoulos, Padelis P.; Matteucci, F.

2018-06-01

All measurements of cosmic star formation must assume an initial distribution of stellar masses—the stellar initial mass function—in order to extrapolate from the star-formation rate measured for typically rare, massive stars (of more than eight solar masses) to the total star-formation rate across the full stellar mass spectrum1. The shape of the stellar initial mass function in various galaxy populations underpins our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time2. Classical determinations of the stellar initial mass function in local galaxies are traditionally made at ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared wavelengths, which cannot be probed in dust-obscured galaxies2,3, especially distant starbursts, whose apparent star-formation rates are hundreds to thousands of times higher than in the Milky Way, selected at submillimetre (rest-frame far-infrared) wavelengths4,5. The 13C/18O isotope abundance ratio in the cold molecular gas—which can be probed via the rotational transitions of the 13CO and C18O isotopologues—is a very sensitive index of the stellar initial mass function, with its determination immune to the pernicious effects of dust. Here we report observations of 13CO and C18O emission for a sample of four dust-enshrouded starbursts at redshifts of approximately two to three, and find unambiguous evidence for a top-heavy stellar initial mass function in all of them. A low 13CO/C18O ratio for all our targets—alongside a well tested, detailed chemical evolution model benchmarked on the Milky Way6—implies that there are considerably more massive stars in starburst events than in ordinary star-forming spiral galaxies. This can bring these extraordinary starbursts closer to the `main sequence' of star-forming galaxies7, although such main-sequence galaxies may not be immune to changes in initial stellar mass function, depending on their star-formation densities.

Testing galaxy quenching theories with scatter in the stellar-to-halo mass relation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tinker, Jeremy L.

2017-05-01

We use the scatter in the stellar-to-halo mass relation to constrain galaxy evolution models. If the efficiency of converting accreted baryons into stars varies with time, haloes of the same present-day mass but different formation histories will have different z = 0 galaxy stellar mass. This is one of the sources of scatter in stellar mass at fixed halo mass, σlog M*. For massive haloes that undergo rapid quenching of star formation at z ˜ 2, different mechanisms that trigger this quenching yield different values of σlog M*. We use this framework to test various models in which quenching begins after a galaxy crosses a threshold in one of the following physical quantities: redshift, halo mass, stellar mass and stellar-to-halo mass ratio. Our model is highly idealized, with other sources of scatter likely to arise as more physics is included. Thus, our test is whether a model can produce scatter lower than observational bounds, leaving room for other sources. Recent measurements find σlog M* = 0.16 dex for 1011 M⊙ galaxies. Under the assumption that the threshold is constant with time, such a low value of σlog M* rules out all of these models with the exception of quenching by a stellar mass threshold. Most physical quantities, such as metallicity, will increase scatter if they are uncorrelated with halo formation history. Thus, to decrease the scatter of a given model, galaxy properties would correlate tightly with formation history, creating testable predictions for their clustering. Understanding why σlog M* is so small may be key to understanding the physics of galaxy formation.

The Structural Evolution of Milky-Way-Like Star-Forming Galaxies zeta is approximately 1.3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patel, Shannon G.; Fumagalli, Mattia; Franx, Marun; VanDokkum, Pieter G.; VanDerWel, Arjen; Leja, Joel; Labbe, Ivo; Brammr, Gabriel; Whitaker, Katherine E.; Skelton, Rosalind E.;

Determining the Stellar Initial Mass by Means of the 17O/18O Ratio on the AGB

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Nutte, Rutger; Decin, Leen; Olofsson, Hans; de Koter, Alex; Karakas, Amanda; Lombaert, Robin; Milam, Stefanie; Ramstedt, Sofia; Stancliffe, Richard; Homan, Ward; Van de Sande, Marie

2016-07-01

This poster presentsnewly obtainedcircumstellar 12C17O and 12C18O line observations, from which theline intensity are then related directly tothe 17O/18O surface abundance ratiofor a sample of nine AGB stars covering the three spectral types ().These ratios are evaluated in relation to a fundamental stellar evolution parameters: the stellar initial mass. The17O/18O ratio is shown to function as an effective method of determining the initial stellar mass. Through comparison with predictions bystellar evolution models, accurate initial mass estimates are calculated for all nine sources.

STELLAR, GAS, AND DARK MATTER CONTENT OF BARRED GALAXIES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cervantes Sodi, Bernardo, E-mail: b.cervantes@crya.unam.mx

We select a sample of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS-DR7) where galaxies are classified, through visual inspection, as hosting strong bars, weak bars, or as unbarred galaxies, and make use of H i mass and kinematic information from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey catalog, to study the stellar, atomic gas, and dark matter content of barred disk galaxies. We find, in agreement with previous studies, that the bar fraction increases with increasing stellar mass. A similar trend is found with total baryonic mass, although the dependence is not as strong as with stellarmore » mass, due to the contribution of gas. The bar fraction shows a decrease with increasing gas mass fraction. This anticorrelation between the likelihood of a galaxy hosting a bar with the gas richness of the galaxy results from the inhibiting effect the gas has in the formation of bars. We also find that for massive galaxies with stellar masses larger than 10{sup 10} M {sub ⊙}, at fixed stellar mass, the bar fraction decreases with increasing global halo mass (i.e., halo mass measured up to a radius of the order of the H i disk extent).« less

Galaxy masses in large surveys: Connecting luminous and dark matter with weak lensing and kinematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reyes, Reinabelle

2011-01-01

Galaxy masses are difficult to determine because light traces stars and gas in a non-trivial way, and does not trace dark matter, which extends well beyond the luminous regions of galaxies. In this thesis, I use the most direct probes of dark matter available---weak gravitational lensing and galaxy kinematics---to trace the total mass in galaxies (and galaxy clusters) in large surveys. In particular, I use the large, homogeneous dataset from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which provides spectroscopic redshifts for a large sample of galaxies at z ≲ 0.2 and imaging data to a depth of r < 22. By combining complementary probes, I am able to obtain robust observational constraints that cannot be obtained from any single technique alone. First, I use weak lensing of galaxy clusters to derive an optimal optical tracer of cluster mass, which was found to be a combination of cluster richness and the luminosity of the brightest cluster galaxy. Next, I combine weak lensing of luminous red galaxies with redshift distortions and clustering measurements to derive a robust probe of gravity on cosmological scales. Finally, I combine weak lensing with the kinematics of disk galaxies to constrain the total mass profile over several orders of magnitude. I derive a minimal-scatter relation between disk velocity and stellar mass (also known as the Tully-Fisher relation) that can be used, by construction, on a similarly-selected lens sample. Then, I combine this relation with halo mass measurements from weak lensing to place constraints on the ratio of the optical to virial velocities, as well as the ratio of halo to stellar masses, both as a function of stellar mass. These results will serve as inputs to and constraints on disk galaxy formation models, which will be explored in future work.

A calibration of the stellar mass fundamental plane at z ∼ 0.5 using the micro-lensing-induced flux ratio anomalies of macro-lensed quasars {sup ,} {sup ,}

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schechter, Paul L.; Pooley, David; Blackburne, Jeffrey A.

2014-10-01

We measure the stellar mass surface densities of early-type galaxies by observing the micro-lensing of macro-lensed quasars caused by individual stars, including stellar remnants, brown dwarfs, and red dwarfs too faint to produce photometric or spectroscopic signatures. Instead of observing multiple micro-lensing events in a single system, we combine single-epoch X-ray snapshots of 10 quadruple systems, and compare the measured relative magnifications for the images with those computed from macro-models. We use these to normalize a stellar mass fundamental plane constructed using a Salpeter initial mass function with a low-mass cutoff of 0.1 M {sub ☉} and treat the zeropointmore » of the surface mass density as a free parameter. Our method measures the graininess of the gravitational potential produced by individual stars, in contrast to methods that decompose a smooth total gravitational potential into two smooth components, one stellar and one dark. We find the median likelihood value for the normalization factor F by which the Salpeter stellar masses must be multiplied is 1.23, with a one sigma confidence range, dominated by small number statistics, of 0.77« less

Marvel-ous Dwarfs: Results from Four Heroically Large Simulated Volumes of Dwarf Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munshi, Ferah; Brooks, Alyson; Weisz, Daniel; Bellovary, Jillian; Christensen, Charlotte

2018-01-01

We present results from high resolution, fully cosmological simulations of cosmic sheets that contain many dwarf galaxies. Together, they create the largest collection of simulated dwarf galaxies to date, with z=0 stellar masses comparable to the LMC or smaller. In total, we have simulated almost 100 luminous dwarf galaxies, forming a sample of simulated dwarfs which span a wide range of physical (stellar and halo mass) and evolutionary properties (merger history). We show how they can be calibrated against a wealth of observations of nearby galaxies including star formation histories, HI masses and kinematics, as well as stellar metallicities. We present preliminary results answering the following key questions: What is the slope of the stellar mass function at extremely low masses? Do halos with HI and no stars exist? What is the scatter in the stellar to halo mass relationship as a function of dwarf mass? What drives the scatter? With this large suite, we are beginning to statistically characterize dwarf galaxies and identify the types and numbers of outliers to expect.

Binaries, cluster dynamics and population studies of stars and stellar phenomena

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanbeveren, Dany

2005-10-01

The effects of binaries on population studies of stars and stellar phenomena have been investigated over the past 3 decades by many research groups. Here we will focus mainly on the work that has been done recently in Brussels and we will consider the following topics: the effect of binaries on overall galactic chemical evolutionary models and on the rates of different types of supernova, the population of point-like X-ray sources where we distinguish the standard high mass X-ray binaries and the ULXs, a UFO-scenario for the formation of WR+OB binaries in dense star systems. Finally we critically discuss the possible effect of rotation on population studies.

Star-disc interaction in galactic nuclei: formation of a central stellar disc

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panamarev, Taras; Shukirgaliyev, Bekdaulet; Meiron, Yohai; Berczik, Peter; Just, Andreas; Spurzem, Rainer; Omarov, Chingis; Vilkoviskij, Emmanuil

2018-05-01

We perform high-resolution direct N-body simulations to study the effect of an accretion disc on stellar dynamics in an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We show that the interaction of the nuclear stellar cluster (NSC) with the gaseous accretion disc (AD) leads to formation of a stellar disc in the central part of the NSC. The accretion of stars from the stellar disc on to the super-massive black hole is balanced by the capture of stars from the NSC into the stellar disc, yielding a stationary density profile. We derive the migration time through the AD to be 3 per cent of the half-mass relaxation time of the NSC. The mass and size of the stellar disc are 0.7 per cent of the mass and 5 per cent of the influence radius of the super-massive black hole. An AD lifetime shorter than the migration time would result in a less massive nuclear stellar disc. The detection of such a stellar disc could point to past activity of the hosting galactic nucleus.

A circumstellar disk associated with a massive protostellar object.

PubMed

Jiang, Zhibo; Tamura, Motohide; Fukagawa, Misato; Hough, Jim; Lucas, Phil; Suto, Hiroshi; Ishii, Miki; Yang, Ji

2005-09-01

The formation process for stars with masses several times that of the Sun is still unclear. The two main theories are mergers of several low-mass young stellar objects, which requires a high stellar density, or mass accretion from circumstellar disks in the same way as low-mass stars are formed, accompanied by outflows during the process of gravitational infall. Although a number of disks have been discovered around low- and intermediate-mass young stellar objects, the presence of disks around massive young stellar objects is still uncertain and the mass of the disk system detected around one such object, M17, is disputed. Here we report near-infrared imaging polarimetry that reveals an outflow/disk system around the Becklin-Neugebauer protostellar object, which has a mass of at least seven solar masses (M(o)). This strongly supports the theory that stars with masses of at least 7M(o) form in the same way as lower mass stars.

THE STRUCTURE AND STELLAR CONTENT OF THE OUTER DISKS OF GALAXIES: A NEW VIEW FROM THE Pan-STARRS1 MEDIUM DEEP SURVEY

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zheng, Zheng; Thilker, David A.; Heckman, Timothy M.

2015-02-20

We present the results of an analysis of Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey multi-band (grizy) images of a sample of 698 low-redshift disk galaxies that span broad ranges in stellar mass, star-formation rate, and bulge/disk ratio. We use population synthesis spectral energy distribution fitting techniques to explore the radial distribution of the light, color, surface mass density, mass/light ratio, and age of the stellar populations. We characterize the structure and stellar content of the galaxy disks out to radii of about twice Petrosian r {sub 90}, beyond which the halo light becomes significant. We measure normalized radial profiles for sub-samples ofmore » galaxies in three bins each of stellar mass and concentration. We also fit radial profiles to each galaxy. The majority of galaxies have down-bending radial surface brightness profiles in the bluer bands with a break radius at roughly r {sub 90}. However, they typically show single unbroken exponentials in the reddest bands and in the stellar surface mass density. We find that the mass/light ratio and stellar age radial profiles have a characteristic 'U' shape. There is a good correlation between the amplitude of the down-bend in the surface brightness profile and the rate of the increase in the M/L ratio in the outer disk. As we move from late- to early-type galaxies, the amplitude of the down-bend and the radial gradient in M/L both decrease. Our results imply a combination of stellar radial migration and suppression of recent star formation can account for the stellar populations of the outer disk.« less

The stellar masses of ˜ 40 000 UV selected Galaxies from the WiggleZ survey at 0.3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerji, Manda; Glazebrook, Karl; Blake, Chris; Brough, Sarah; Colless, Matthew; Contreras, Carlos; Couch, Warrick; Croton, Darren J.; Croom, Scott; Davis, Tamara M.; Drinkwater, Michael J.; Forster, Karl; Gilbank, David; Gladders, Mike; Jelliffe, Ben; Jurek, Russell J.; Li, I.-hui; Madore, Barry; Martin, D. Christopher; Pimbblet, Kevin; Poole, Gregory B.; Pracy, Michael; Sharp, Rob; Wisnioski, Emily; Woods, David; Wyder, Ted K.; Yee, H. K. C.

2013-05-01

We characterize the stellar masses and star formation rates in a sample of ˜40 000 spectroscopically confirmed UV-luminous galaxies at 0.3 < z < 1.0 selected from within the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. In particular, we match this UV bright population to wide-field infrared surveys such as the near-infrared (NIR) UKIDSS Large Area Survey (LAS) and the mid-infrared Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) All-Sky Survey. We find that ˜30 per cent of the UV-luminous WiggleZ galaxies, corresponding to the brightest and reddest subset, are detected at >5σ in the UKIDSS-LAS at all redshifts. An even more luminous subset of 15 per cent are also detected in the WISE 3.4 and 4.6 μm bands. In addition, 22 of the WiggleZ galaxies are extremely luminous at 12 and 22 μm and have colours consistent with being star formation dominated. We compute stellar masses for this very large sample of extremely blue galaxies and quantify the sensitivity of the stellar mass estimates to various assumptions made during the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. The median stellar masses are log10(M*/M⊙) = 9.6 ± 0.7, 10.2 ± 0.5 and 10.4 ± 0.4 for the IR undetected, UKIDSS detected and UKIDSS+WISE detected galaxies, respectively. We demonstrate that the inclusion of NIR photometry can lead to tighter constraints on the stellar masses by bringing down the upper bound on the stellar mass estimate. The mass estimates are found to be most sensitive to the inclusion of secondary bursts of star formation as well as changes in the stellar population synthesis models, both of which can lead to median discrepancies of the order of 0.3 dex in the stellar masses. We conclude that even for these extremely blue galaxies, different SED fitting codes therefore produce extremely robust stellar mass estimates. We find, however, that the best-fitting M/LK is significantly lower than that predicted by simple optical colour-based estimators for many of the WiggleZ galaxies. The simple colour-based estimator overpredicts M/LK by ˜0.4 dex on average. The effect is more pronounced for bluer galaxies with younger best-fitting ages. The WiggleZ galaxies have star formation rates of 3-10 M⊙ yr-1 and mostly lie at the upper end of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies at these redshifts. Their rest-frame UV luminosities and stellar masses are comparable to both local compact UV-luminous galaxies as well as Lyman break galaxies at z ˜ 2-3. The stellar masses from this paper will be made publicly available with the next WiggleZ data release.

Direct Measurement of Dust Attenuation in z approx. 1.5 Star-Forming Galaxies from 3D-HST: Implications for Dust Geometry and Star Formation Rates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Price, Sedona H.; Kriek, Mariska; Brammer, Gabriel B; Conroy, Charlie; Schreiber, Natascha M. Foerster; Franx, Marijn; Fumagalli, Mattia; Lundren, Britt; Momcheva, Ivelina; Nelson, Erica J.;

Black holes in binary stellar systems and galactic nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cherepashchuk, A. M.

2014-04-01

In the last 40 years, following pioneering papers by Ya B Zeldovich and E E Salpeter, in which a powerful energy release from nonspherical accretion of matter onto a black hole (BH) was predicted, many observational studies of black holes in the Universe have been carried out. To date, the masses of several dozen stellar-mass black holes (M_BH = (4{-}20) M_\\odot) in X-ray binary systems and of several hundred supermassive black holes (M_BH = (10^{6}{-}10^{10}) M_\\odot) in galactic nuclei have been measured. The estimated radii of these massive and compact objects do not exceed several gravitational radii. For about ten stellar-mass black holes and several dozen supermassive black holes, the values of the dimensionless angular momentum a_* have been estimated, which, in agreement with theoretical predictions, do not exceed the limiting value a_* = 0.998. A new field of astrophysics, so-called black hole demography, which studies the birth and growth of black holes and their evolutionary connection to other objects in the Universe, namely stars, galaxies, etc., is rapidly developing. In addition to supermassive black holes, massive stellar clusters are observed in galactic nuclei, and their evolution is distinct from that of supermassive black holes. The evolutionary relations between supermassive black holes in galactic centers and spheroidal stellar components (bulges) of galaxies, as well as dark-matter galactic haloes are brought out. The launch into Earth's orbit of the space radio interferometer RadioAstron opened up the real possibility of finally proving that numerous discovered massive and highly compact objects with properties very similar to those of black holes make up real black holes in the sense of Albert Einstein's General Relativity. Similar proofs of the existence of black holes in the Universe can be obtained by intercontinental radio interferometry at short wavelengths \\lambda \\lesssim 1 mm (the international program, Event Horizon Telescope).

Star formation in simulated galaxies: understanding the transition to quiescence at 3 × 1010 M⊙

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, Philip; Federrath, Christoph; Kobayashi, Chiaki

2017-08-01

Star formation in galaxies relies on the availability of cold, dense gas, which, in turn, relies on factors internal and external to the galaxies. In order to provide a simple model for how star formation is regulated by various physical processes in galaxies, we analyse data at redshift z = 0 from a hydrodynamical cosmological simulation that includes prescriptions for star formation and stellar evolution, active galactic nuclei, and their associated feedback processes. This model can determine the star formation rate (SFR) as a function of galaxy stellar mass, gas mass, black hole mass, and environment. We find that gas mass is the most important quantity controlling star formation in low-mass galaxies, and star-forming galaxies in dense environments have higher SFR than their counterparts in the field. In high-mass galaxies, we find that black holes more massive than ˜ 107.5 M⊙ can be triggered to quench star formation in their host; this mass scale is emergent in our simulations. Furthermore, this black hole mass corresponds to a galaxy bulge mass ˜ 2 × 1010 M⊙, consistent with the mass at which galaxies start to become dominated by early types ( ˜ 3 × 1010 M⊙, as previously shown in observations by Kauffmann et al.). Finally, we demonstrate that our model can reproduce well the SFR measured from observations of galaxies in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly and Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA surveys.

Metal-Poor, Strongly Star-Forming Galaxies in the DEEP2 Survey: The Relationship Between Stellar Mass, Temperature-Based Metallicity, and Star Formation Rate

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ly, Chun; Rigby, Jane R.; Cooper, Michael; Yan, Renbin

2015-01-01

We report on the discovery of 28 redshift (z) approximately 0.8 metal-poor galaxies in DEEP2. These galaxies were selected for their detection of the weak [O (sub III)] lambda 4363 emission line, which provides a "direct" measure of the gas-phase metallicity. A primary goal for identifying these rare galaxies is to examine whether the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) between stellar mass, gas metallicity, and star formation rate (SFR) extends to low stellar mass and high SFR. The FMR suggests that higher SFR galaxies have lower metallicity (at fixed stellar mass). To test this trend, we combine spectroscopic measurements of metallicity and dust-corrected SFRs, with stellar mass estimates from modeling the optical photometry. We find that these galaxies are 1.05 plus or minus 0.61 decimal exponent (dex) above the redshift (z) approximately equal to 1 stellar mass-SFR relation, and 0.23 plus or minus 0.23 decimal exponent (dex) below the local mass-metallicity relation. Relative to the FMR, the latter offset is reduced to 0.01 decimal exponent (dex), but significant dispersion remains (0.29 decimal exponent (dex) with 0.16 decimal exponent (dex) due to measurement uncertainties). This dispersion suggests that gas accretion, star formation and chemical enrichment have not reached equilibrium in these galaxies. This is evident by their short stellar mass doubling timescale of approximately 100 (sup plus 310) (sub minus 75) million years that suggests stochastic star formation. Combining our sample with other redshift (z) of approximately 1 metal-poor galaxies, we find a weak positive SFR-metallicity dependence (at fixed stellar mass) that is significant at 97.3 percent confidence. We interpret this positive correlation as recent star formation that has enriched the gas, but has not had time to drive the metal-enriched gas out with feedback mechanisms.

Metal-Poor, Strongly Star-Forming Galaxies in the DEEP2 Survey: The Relationship Between Stellar Mass, Temperature-Based Metallicity, and Star Formation Rate

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ly, Chun; Rigby, Jane R.; Cooper, Michael; Yan, Renbin

2015-01-01

We report on the discovery of 28 redshift (z) approximately equal to 0.8 metal-poor galaxies in DEEP2. These galaxies were selected for their detection of the weak [O (sub III)] lambda 4363 emission line, which provides a "direct" measure of the gas-phase metallicity. A primary goal for identifying these rare galaxies is to examine whether the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) between stellar mass, gas metallicity, and star formation rate (SFR) holds for low stellar mass and high SFR galaxies. The FMR suggests that higher SFR galaxies have lower metallicity (at fixed stellar mass). To test this trend, we combine spectroscopic measurements of metallicity and dust-corrected SFR with stellar mass estimates from modeling the optical photometry. We find that these galaxies are 1.05 plus or minus 0.61 dex above the redshift (z) approximately 1 stellar mass-SFR relation and 0.23 plus or minus 0.23 dex below the local mass-metallicity relation. Relative to the FMR, the latter offset is reduced to 0.01 dex, but significant dispersion remains dex with 0.16 dex due to measurement uncertainties). This dispersion suggests that gas accretion, star formation, and chemical enrichment have not reached equilibrium in these galaxies. This is evident by their short stellar mass doubling timescale of approximately equal to 100 (sup plus 310) (sub minus 75) million years which suggests stochastic star formation. Combining our sample with other redshift (z) of approximately 1 metal-poor galaxies, we find a weak positive SFR-metallicity dependence (at fixed stellar mass) that is significant at 94.4 percent confidence. We interpret this positive correlation as recent star formation that has enriched the gas but has not had time to drive the metal-enriched gas out with feedback mechanisms.

The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. XII. Stellar Populations and Kinematics of Compact, Low-mass Early-type Galaxies from Gemini GMOS-IFU Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guérou, Adrien; Emsellem, Eric; McDermid, Richard M.; Côté, Patrick; Ferrarese, Laura; Blakeslee, John P.; Durrell, Patrick R.; MacArthur, Lauren A.; Peng, Eric W.; Cuillandre, Jean-Charles; Gwyn, Stephen

2015-05-01

We present Gemini Multi Object Spectrograph integral-field unit (GMOS-IFU) data of eight compact, low-mass early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the Virgo cluster. We analyze their stellar kinematics and stellar population and present two-dimensional maps of these properties covering the central 5″ × 7″ region. We find a large variety of kinematics, from nonrotating to highly rotating objects, often associated with underlying disky isophotes revealed by deep images from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey. In half of our objects, we find a centrally concentrated younger and more metal-rich stellar population. We analyze the specific stellar angular momentum through the λR parameter and find six fast rotators and two slow rotators, one having a thin counterrotating disk. We compare the local galaxy density and stellar populations of our objects with those of 39 more extended low-mass Virgo ETGs from the SMAKCED survey and 260 massive (M > 1010 {{M}⊙ }) ETGs from the ATLAS3D sample. The compact low-mass ETGs in our sample are located in high-density regions, often close to a massive galaxy, and have, on average, older and more metal-rich stellar populations than less compact low-mass galaxies. We find that the stellar population parameters follow lines of constant velocity dispersion in the mass-size plane, smoothly extending the comparable trends found for massive ETGs. Our study supports a scenario where low-mass compact ETGs have experienced long-lived interactions with their environment, including ram-pressure stripping and gravitational tidal forces, that may be responsible for their compact nature.

The EB Factory: Fundamental Stellar Astrophysics with Eclipsing Binary Stars Discovered by Kepler

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stassun, Keivan

Eclipsing binaries (EBs) are key laboratories for determining the fundamental properties of stars. EBs are therefore foundational objects for constraining stellar evolution models, which in turn are central to determinations of stellar mass functions, of exoplanet properties, and many other areas. The primary goal of this proposal is to mine the Kepler mission light curves for: (1) EBs that include a subgiant star, from which precise ages can be derived and which can thus serve as critically needed age benchmarks; and within these, (2) long-period EBs that include low-mass M stars or brown dwarfs, which are increa-singly becoming the focus of exoplanet searches, but for which there are the fewest available fundamental mass- radius-age benchmarks. A secondary goal of this proposal is to develop an end-to-end computational pipeline -- the Kepler EB Factory -- that allows automatic processing of Kepler light curves for EBs, from period finding, to object classification, to determination of EB physical properties for the most scientifically interesting EBs, and finally to accurate modeling of these EBs for detailed tests and benchmarking of theoretical stellar evolution models. We will integrate the most successful algorithms into a single, cohesive workflow environment, and apply this 'Kepler EB Factory' to the full public Kepler dataset to find and characterize new "benchmark grade" EBs, and will disseminate both the enhanced data products from this pipeline and the pipeline itself to the broader NASA science community. The proposed work responds directly to two of the defined Research Areas of the NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program (ADAP), specifically Research Area #2 (Stellar Astrophysics) and Research Area #9 (Astrophysical Databases). To be clear, our primary goal is the fundamental stellar astrophysics that will be enabled by the discovery and analysis of relatively rare, benchmark-grade EBs in the Kepler dataset. At the same time, to enable this goal will require bringing a suite of extant and new custom algorithms to bear on the Kepler data, and thus our development of the Kepler EB Factory represents a value-added product that will allow the widest scientific impact of the in-formation locked within the vast reservoir of the Kepler light curves.

HerMES: dust attenuation and star formation activity in ultraviolet-selected samples from z˜ 4 to ˜ 1.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heinis, S.; Buat, V.; Béthermin, M.; Bock, J.; Burgarella, D.; Conley, A.; Cooray, A.; Farrah, D.; Ilbert, O.; Magdis, G.; Marsden, G.; Oliver, S. J.; Rigopoulou, D.; Roehlly, Y.; Schulz, B.; Symeonidis, M.; Viero, M.; Xu, C. K.; Zemcov, M.

2014-01-01

We study the link between observed ultraviolet (UV) luminosity, stellar mass and dust attenuation within rest-frame UV-selected samples at z ˜ 4, ˜ 3 and ˜1.5. We measure by stacking at 250, 350 and 500 μm in the Herschel/Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver images from the Herschel Multi-Tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) program the average infrared luminosity as a function of stellar mass and UV luminosity. We find that dust attenuation is mostly correlated with stellar mass. There is also a secondary dependence with UV luminosity: at a given UV luminosity, dust attenuation increases with stellar mass, while at a given stellar mass it decreases with UV luminosity. We provide new empirical recipes to correct for dust attenuation given the observed UV luminosity and the stellar mass. Our results also enable us to put new constraints on the average relation between star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass at z ˜ 4, ˜3 and ˜1.5. The SFR-stellar mass relations are well described by power laws (SFR∝ M_*^{0.7}), with the amplitudes being similar at z ˜ 4 and ˜3, and decreasing by a factor of 4 at z ˜ 1.5 at a given stellar mass. We further investigate the evolution with redshift of the specific SFR. Our results are in the upper range of previous measurements, in particular at z ˜ 3, and are consistent with a plateau at 3 < z < 4. Current model predictions (either analytic, semi-analytic or hydrodynamic) are inconsistent with these values, as they yield lower predictions than the observations in the redshift range we explore. We use these results to discuss the star formation histories of galaxies in the framework of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies. Our results suggest that galaxies at high redshift (2.5 < z < 4) stay around 1 Gyr on the main sequence. With decreasing redshift, this time increases such that z = 1 main-sequence galaxies with 108

Case A and B evolution towards electron capture supernova

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siess, L.; Lebreuilly, U.

2018-06-01

Context. Most super-asymptotic giant branch (SAGB) stars are expected to end their life as oxygen-neon white dwarfs rather than electron capture supernovae (ECSN). The reason is ascribed to the ability of the second dredge-up to significantly reduce the mass of the He core and of the efficient AGB winds to remove the stellar envelope before the degenerate core reaches the critical mass for the activation of electron capture reactions. Aims: In this study, we investigate the formation of ECSN through case A and case B mass transfer. In these scenarios, when Roche lobe overflow stops, the primary has become a helium star. With a small envelope left, the second dredge-up is prevented, potentially opening new paths to ECSN. Methods: We compute binary models using our stellar evolution code BINSTAR. We consider three different secondary masses of 8, 9, and 10 M⊙ and explore the parameter space, varying the companion mass, orbital period, and input physics. Results: Assuming conservative mass transfer, with our choice of secondary masses all case A systems enter contact either during the main sequence or as a consequence of reversed mass transfer when the secondary overtakes its companion during core helium burning. Case B systems are able to produce ECSN progenitors in a relatively small range of periods (3 ≲ P(d) ≤ 30) and primary masses (10.9 ≤ M/M⊙≤ 11.5). Changing the companion mass has little impact on the primary's fate as long as the mass ratio M1/M2 remains less than 1.4-1.5, above which evolution to contact becomes unavoidable. We also find that allowing for systemic mass loss substantially increases the period interval over which ECSN can occur. This change in the binary physics does not however affect the primary mass range. We finally stress that the formation of ECSN progenitors through case A and B mass transfer is very sensitive to adopted binary and stellar physics. Conclusions: Close binaries provide additional channels for ECSN but the parameter space is rather constrained likely making ECSN a rare event.

The Low-Mass Stellar Initial Mass Function: Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies Revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Platais, Imants

2017-08-01

The stellar Initial Mass Function plays a critical role in the evolution of the baryonic content of the Universe. The form of the low-mass IMF - stars of mass less than the solar mass - determines the fraction of baryons locked up for a Hubble time, and thus indicates how gas and metals are cycled through galaxies. Inferences from resolved stellar populations, where the low-mass luminosity function and associated IMF can be derived from direct star counts, generally favor an invariant and universal IMF. However, a recent study of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies Hercules and Leo IV indicates a bottom-lite IMF, over a narrow range of stellar mass (only 0.55-0.75 M_sun), correlated with the internal velocity dispersion and/or metallicity. We propose to obtain ultra-deep imaging for a significantly closer ultra-faint dwarf, Bootes I, which will allow us to construct the luminosity function down to M_v=+10 (equivalent to 0.35 solar mass). We will also re-analyze the HST archival observations for the Hercules and Leo IV dwarfs using the same updated techniques as for Bootes I. The combined datasets should provide a reliable answer to the question of how variable is the low-mass stellar IMF.

Interactions in Massive Colliding Wind Binaries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Corcoran, M.

2012-01-01

The most massive stars (M> 60 Solar Mass) play crucial roles in altering the chemical and thermodynamic properties of their host galaxies. Stellar mass is the fundamental stellar parameter that determines their ancillary properties and which ultimately determines the fate of these stars and their influence on their galactic environs. Unfortunately, stellar mass becomes observationally and theoretically less well constrained as it increases. Theory becomes uncertain mostly because very massive stars are prone to strong, variable mass loss which is difficult to model. Observational constraints are uncertain too. Massive stars are rare, and massive binary stars (needed for dynamical determination of mass) are rarer still: and of these systems only a fraction have suitably high orbital inclinations for direct photometric and spectroscopic radial-velocity analysis. Even in the small number of cases in which a high-inclination binary near the upper mass limit can be identified, rotational broadening and contamination of spectral line features from thick circumstellar material (either natal clouds or produced by strong stellar wind driven mass loss from one or both of he stellar components) biases the analysis. In the wilds of the upper HR diagram, we're often left with indirect and circumstantial means of determining mass, a rather unsatisfactory state of affairs.

The importance of satellite quenching for the build-up of the red sequence of present-day galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van den Bosch, Frank C.; Aquino, Daniel; Yang, Xiaohu; Mo, H. J.; Pasquali, Anna; McIntosh, Daniel H.; Weinmann, Simone M.; Kang, Xi

2008-06-01

According to the current paradigm, galaxies initially form as disc galaxies at the centres of their own dark matter haloes. During their subsequent evolution, they may undergo a transformation to a red, early-type galaxy, thus giving rise to the build-up of the red sequence. Two important, outstanding questions are (i) which transformation mechanisms are most important and (ii) in what environment do they occur. In this paper, we study the impact of transformation mechanisms that operate only on satellite galaxies, such as strangulation, ram-pressure stripping and galaxy harassment. Using a large galaxy group catalogue constructed from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we compare the colours and concentrations of satellites galaxies to those of central galaxies of the same stellar mass, adopting the hypothesis that the latter are the progenitors of the former. On average, satellite galaxies are redder and more concentrated than central galaxies of the same stellar mass, indicating that satellite-specific transformation processes do indeed operate. Central-satellite pairs that are matched in both stellar mass and colour, however, show no average concentration difference, indicating that the transformation mechanisms operating on satellites affect colour more than morphology. We also find that the colour and concentration differences of matched central-satellite pairs are completely independent of the mass of the host halo (not to be confused with the subhalo) of the satellite galaxy, indicating that satellite-specific transformation mechanisms are equally efficient in host haloes of all masses. This strongly rules against mechanisms that are thought to operate only in very massive haloes, such as ram-pressure stripping or harassment. Instead, we argue that strangulation is the main transformation mechanism for satellite galaxies. Finally, we determine the relative importance of satellite quenching for the build-up of the red sequence. We find that roughly 70 per cent of red-sequence satellite galaxies with M* ~ 109h-2Msolar had their star formation quenched as satellites. This drops rapidly with increasing stellar mass, reaching virtually zero at M* ~ 1011h-2Msolar. Therefore, a very significant fraction of red satellite galaxies were already quenched before they became a satellite.

GAMA/G10-COSMOS/3D-HST: the 0 < z < 5 cosmic star formation history, stellar-mass, and dust-mass densities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Driver, Simon P.; Andrews, Stephen K.; da Cunha, Elisabete; Davies, Luke J.; Lagos, Claudia; Robotham, Aaron S. G.; Vinsen, Kevin; Wright, Angus H.; Alpaslan, Mehmet; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Bourne, Nathan; Brough, Sarah; Bremer, Malcolm N.; Cluver, Michelle; Colless, Matthew; Conselice, Christopher J.; Dunne, Loretta; Eales, Steve A.; Gomez, Haley; Holwerda, Benne; Hopkins, Andrew M.; Kafle, Prajwal R.; Kelvin, Lee S.; Loveday, Jon; Liske, Jochen; Maddox, Steve J.; Phillipps, Steven; Pimbblet, Kevin; Rowlands, Kate; Sansom, Anne E.; Taylor, Edward; Wang, Lingyu; Wilkins, Stephen M.

2018-04-01

We use the energy-balance code MAGPHYS to determine stellar and dust masses, and dust corrected star formation rates for over 200 000 GAMA galaxies, 170 000 G10-COSMOS galaxies, and 200 000 3D-HST galaxies. Our values agree well with previously reported measurements and constitute a representative and homogeneous data set spanning a broad range in stellar-mass (108-1012 M⊙), dust-mass (106-109 M⊙), and star formation rates (0.01-100 M⊙yr-1), and over a broad redshift range (0.0 < z < 5.0). We combine these data to measure the cosmic star formation history (CSFH), the stellar-mass density (SMD), and the dust-mass density (DMD) over a 12 Gyr timeline. The data mostly agree with previous estimates, where they exist, and provide a quasi-homogeneous data set using consistent mass and star formation estimators with consistent underlying assumptions over the full time range. As a consequence our formal errors are significantly reduced when compared to the historic literature. Integrating our CSFH we precisely reproduce the SMD with an interstellar medium replenishment factor of 0.50 ± 0.07, consistent with our choice of Chabrier initial mass function plus some modest amount of stripped stellar mass. Exploring the cosmic dust density evolution, we find a gradual increase in dust density with lookback time. We build a simple phenomenological model from the CSFH to account for the dust-mass evolution, and infer two key conclusions: (1) For every unit of stellar mass which is formed 0.0065-0.004 units of dust mass is also formed. (2) Over the history of the Universe approximately 90-95 per cent of all dust formed has been destroyed and/or ejected.

Gravitational lens recovery with GLASS: measuring the mass profile and shape of a lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coles, Jonathan P.; Read, Justin I.; Saha, Prasenjit

2014-12-01

We use a new non-parametric gravitational modelling tool - GLASS - to determine what quality of data (strong lensing, stellar kinematics, and/or stellar masses) are required to measure the circularly averaged mass profile of a lens and its shape. GLASS uses an underconstrained adaptive grid of mass pixels to model the lens, searching through thousands of models to marginalize over model uncertainties. Our key findings are as follows: (i) for pure lens data, multiple sources with wide redshift separation give the strongest constraints as this breaks the well-known mass-sheet or steepness degeneracy; (ii) a single quad with time delays also performs well, giving a good recovery of both the mass profile and its shape; (iii) stellar masses - for lenses where the stars dominate the central potential - can also break the steepness degeneracy, giving a recovery for doubles almost as good as having a quad with time-delay data, or multiple source redshifts; (iv) stellar kinematics provide a robust measure of the mass at the half-light radius of the stars r1/2 that can also break the steepness degeneracy if the Einstein radius rE ≠ r1/2; and (v) if rE ˜ r1/2, then stellar kinematic data can be used to probe the stellar velocity anisotropy β - an interesting quantity in its own right. Where information on the mass distribution from lensing and/or other probes becomes redundant, this opens up the possibility of using strong lensing to constrain cosmological models.

Imaging Red Supergiants with VLT/SPHERE/ZIMPOL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cannon, Emily

2018-04-01

In the red supergiant (RSG) phase of evolution massive stars show powerful stellar winds, which strongly influence the supernova (progenitor) properties and control the nature of the compact object that is left behind. Material that is lost in the stellar wind, together with that ejected in the final core collapse, contributes to the chemical enrichment of the local interstellar medium. The mass-loss properties of RSGs are however poorly constrained. Moreover, little is known about the wind driving mechanism. To provide better constraints on both mass-loss rates and physics, high angular resolution observations are needed to unveil the inner regions of the circumstellar environment, where the mass loss is triggered. Using the VLT-SPHERE/ZIMPOL adaptive optics imaging polarimeter, spatially resolved images of four nearby RSGs were obtained in four filters. From these data, we obtain information on geometrical structures in the inner wind, the onset radius and spatial distribution of dust grains, and dust properties such as grain size. As dust grains may play a role in initiating and/or driving the outflow, this could provide us with clues as to the wind driving mechanism.

The Pan-STARRS1 medium-deep survey: The role of galaxy group environment in the star formation rate versus stellar mass relation and quiescent fraction out to z ∼ 0.8

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lin, Lihwai; Chen, Chin-Wei; Coupon, Jean

2014-02-10

Using a large optically selected sample of field and group galaxies drawn from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium-Deep Survey (PS1/MDS), we present a detailed analysis of the specific star formation rate (SSFR)—stellar mass (M {sub *}) relation, as well as the quiescent fraction versus M {sub *} relation in different environments. While both the SSFR and the quiescent fraction depend strongly on stellar mass, the environment also plays an important role. Using this large galaxy sample, we confirm that the fraction of quiescent galaxies is strongly dependent on environment at a fixed stellar mass, but that the amplitude and the slope ofmore » the star-forming sequence is similar between the field and groups: in other words, the SSFR-density relation at a fixed stellar mass is primarily driven by the change in the star-forming and quiescent fractions between different environments rather than a global suppression in the star formation rate for the star-forming population. However, when we restrict our sample to the cluster-scale environments (M > 10{sup 14} M {sub ☉}), we find a global reduction in the SSFR of the star-forming sequence of 17% at 4σ confidence as opposed to its field counterpart. After removing the stellar mass dependence of the quiescent fraction seen in field galaxies, the excess in the quiescent fraction due to the environment quenching in groups and clusters is found to increase with stellar mass, although deeper and larger data from the full PS1/MDS will be required to draw firm conclusions. We argue that these results are in favor of galaxy mergers to be the primary environment quenching mechanism operating in galaxy groups whereas strangulation is able to reproduce the observed trend in the environment quenching efficiency and stellar mass relation seen in clusters. Our results also suggest that the relative importance between mass quenching and environment quenching depends on stellar mass—the mass quenching plays a dominant role in producing quiescent galaxies for more massive galaxies, while less massive galaxies are quenched mostly through the environmental effect, with the transition mass around 1-2 × 10{sup 10} M {sub ☉} in the group/cluster environment.« less

The low-metallicity starburst NGC346: massive-star population and feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oskinova, Lida

2017-08-01

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is ideal to study young, massive stars at low metallicity. The compact cluster NGC346 contains about half of all O-type stars in the entire SMC. The massive-star population of this cluster powers N66, the brightest and largest HII region in the SMC. We propose to use HST-STIS to slice NGC346 with 20 long-slit exposures, in order to obtain the UV spectra of most of the massive early-type stars of this cluster. Archival data of 13 exposures that cover already a minor part of this cluster will be included in our analyses. Our aim is to quantitatively analyze virtually the whole massive-star population of NGC346. We have already secured the optical spectra of all massive stars in the field with the integral-field spectrograph MUSE at the ESO-VLT. However, for the determination of the stellar-wind parameters, i.e. the mass-loss rates and the wind velocities, ultraviolet spectra are indispensable. Our advanced Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) code will be used for modeling the stellar and wind spectra in the course of the analysis. Finally, we will obtain:(a) the fundamental stellar and wind parameters of all stars brighter than spectral type B2V in the field, which, e,g,, will constrain the initial mass function in this young low-metallicity starburst;(b) mass-loss rates of many more OB-type stars at SMC metallicity than hitherto known, allowing to better constrain their metallicity dependence;(c) the integrated feedback by ionizing radiation and stellar winds of the whole massive-star population of NGC346, which will be used as input to model the ecology of the giant HII region N66.These HST UV data will be of high legacy value.

Sizing up the stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyajian, Tabetha S.

For the main part of this dissertation, I have executed a survey of nearby, main sequence A, F, and G-type stars with the CHARA Array, successfully measuring the angular diameters of forty-four stars to better than 4% accuracy. The results of these observations also yield empirical determinations of stellar linear radii and effective temperatures for the stars observed. In addition, these CHARA-determined temperatures, radii, and luminosities are fit to Yonsei-Yale isochrones to constrain the masses and ages of the stars. These quantities are compared to the results found in Allende Prieto & Lambert (1999), Holmberg et al. (2007), and Takeda (2007), who indirectly determine these same properties by fitting models to observed photometry. I find that for most cases, the models underestimate the radius of the star by ~ 12%, while in turn they overestimate the effective temperature by ~ 1.5-4%, when compared to my directly measured values, with no apparent correlation to the star's metallicity or color index. These overestimated temperatures and underestimated radii in these works appear to cause an additional offset in the star's surface gravity measurements, which consequently yield higher masses and younger ages, in particular for stars with masses greater than ~ 1.3 [Special characters omitted.] . Alternatively, these quantities I measure are also compared to direct measurements from a large sample of eclipsing binary stars in Andersen (1991), and excellent agreement is seen within both data sets. Finally, a multi-parameter solution is found to fit color-temperature-metallicity values of the stars in this sample to provide a new calibration of the effective temperature scale for these types of stars. Published work in the field of stellar interferometry and optical spectroscopy of early-type stars are presented in Appendix D and E, respectively. INDEX WORDS: Interferometry, Infrared, Stellar Astronomy, Fundamental Properties, Effective Temperatures, Stellar Radii

Spatially unresolved SED fitting can underestimate galaxy masses: a solution to the missing mass problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sorba, Robert; Sawicki, Marcin

2018-05-01

We perform spatially resolved, pixel-by-pixel Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting on galaxies up to z ˜ 2.5 in the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF). Comparing stellar mass estimates from spatially resolved and spatially unresolved photometry we find that unresolved masses can be systematically underestimated by factors of up to 5. The ratio of the unresolved to resolved mass measurement depends on the galaxy's specific star formation rate (sSFR): at low sSFRs the bias is small, but above sSFR ˜ 10-9.5 yr-1 the discrepancy increases rapidly such that galaxies with sSFRs ˜ 10-8 yr-1 have unresolved mass estimates of only one-half to one-fifth of the resolved value. This result indicates that stellar masses estimated from spatially unresolved data sets need to be systematically corrected, in some cases by large amounts, and we provide an analytic prescription for applying this correction. We show that correcting stellar mass measurements for this bias changes the normalization and slope of the star-forming main sequence and reduces its intrinsic width; most dramatically, correcting for the mass bias increases the stellar mass density of the Universe at high redshift and can resolve the long-standing discrepancy between the directly measured cosmic SFR density at z ≳ 1 and that inferred from stellar mass densities (`the missing mass problem').

Inferring the Growth of Massive Galaxies Using Bayesian Spectral Synthesis Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stillman, Coley Michael; Poremba, Megan R.; Moustakas, John

2018-01-01

The most massive galaxies in the universe are typically found at the centers of massive galaxy clusters. Studying these galaxies can provide valuable insight into the hierarchical growth of massive dark matter halos. One of the key challenges of measuring the stellar mass growth of massive galaxies is converting the measured light profiles into stellar mass. We use Prospector, a state-of-the-art Bayesian spectral synthesis modeling code, to infer the total stellar masses of a pilot sample of massive central galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We compare our stellar mass estimates to previous measurements, and present some of the quantitative diagnostics provided by Prospector.

SDSS-IV MaNGA: modelling the metallicity gradients of gas and stars - radially dependent metal outflow versus IMF

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lian, Jianhui; Thomas, Daniel; Maraston, Claudia; Goddard, Daniel; Parikh, Taniya; Fernández-Trincado, J. G.; Roman-Lopes, Alexandre; Rong, Yu; Tang, Baitian; Yan, Renbin

2018-05-01

In our previous work, we found that only two scenarios are capable of reproducing the observed integrated mass-metallicity relations for the gas and stellar components of local star-forming galaxies simultaneously. One scenario invokes a time-dependent metal outflow loading factor with stronger outflows at early times. The other scenario uses a time-dependent initial mass function (IMF) slope with a steeper IMF at early times. In this work, we extend our study to investigate the radial profile of gas and stellar metallicity in local star-forming galaxies using spatially resolved spectroscopic data from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. We find that most galaxies show negative gradients in both gas and stellar metallicity with steeper gradients in stellar metallicity. The stellar metallicity gradients tend to be mass dependent with steeper gradients in more massive galaxies while no clear mass dependence is found for the gas metallicity gradient. Then we compare the observations with the predictions from a chemical evolution model of the radial profiles of gas and stellar metallicities. We confirm that the two scenarios proposed in our previous work are also required to explain the metallicity gradients. Based on these two scenarios, we successfully reproduce the radial profiles of gas metallicity, stellar metallicity, stellar mass surface density, and star formation rate surface density simultaneously. The origin of the negative gradient in stellar metallicity turns out to be driven by either radially dependent metal outflow or IMF slope. In contrast, the radial dependence of the gas metallicity is less constrained because of the degeneracy in model parameters.

The Secrets of the Nearest Starburst Cluster. II. The Present-Day Mass Function in NGC 3603

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stolte, Andrea; Brandner, Wolfgang; Brandl, Bernhard; Zinnecker, Hans

2006-07-01

Based on deep Very Large Telescope Infrared Spectrometer and Array Camera JHK photometry, we have derived the present-day mass function (MF) of the central starburst cluster NGC 3603 YC (Young Cluster) in the giant H II region NGC 3603. The effects of field contamination, individual reddening, and a possible binary contribution are investigated. The MF slopes resulting from the different methods are compared and lead to a surprisingly consistent cluster MF with a slope of Γ=-0.9+/-0.15. Analyzing different radial annuli around the cluster core, no significant change in the slope of the MF is observed. However, mass segregation in the cluster is evidenced by the increasing depletion of the high-mass tail of the stellar mass distribution with increasing radius. We discuss the indications of mass segregation with respect to the changes observed in the binned and cumulative stellar MFs and argue that the cumulative function, as well as the fraction of high- to low-mass stars, provides better indicators for mass segregation than the MF slope alone. Finally, the observed MF and starburst morphology of NGC 3603 YC are discussed in the context of massive local star-forming regions such as the Galactic center Arches cluster, R136/30 Dor in the LMC, and the Orion Trapezium cluster, all providing resolved templates for extragalactic star formation. Despite the similarity in the observed MF slopes, dynamical considerations suggest that the starburst clusters do not form gravitationally bound systems over a Hubble time. Both the environment (gravitational potential of the Milky Way) and the concentration of stars in the cluster core determine the dynamical stability of a dense star cluster, such that the long-term evolution of a starburst is not exclusively determined by the stellar evolution of its members, as frequently assumed for globular cluster systems. Based on observations obtained at the ESO Very Large Telescope on Paranal, Chile, under programs 63.I-0015 and 65.I-0135.

The Dependence of Galaxy Clustering on Stellar-mass Assembly History for LRGs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montero-Dorta, Antonio D.; Pérez, Enrique; Prada, Francisco; Rodríguez-Torres, Sergio; Favole, Ginevra; Klypin, Anatoly; Cid Fernandes, Roberto; González Delgado, Rosa M.; Domínguez, Alberto; Bolton, Adam S.; García-Benito, Rubén; Jullo, Eric; Niemiec, Anna

2017-10-01

We analyze the spectra of 300,000 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) with stellar masses {M}* ≳ {10}11 {M}⊙ from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). By studying their star formation histories, we find two main evolutionary paths converging into the same quiescent galaxy population at z˜ 0.55. Fast-growing LRGs assemble 80% of their stellar mass very early on (z˜ 5), whereas slow-growing LRGs reach the same evolutionary state at z˜ 1.5. Further investigation reveals that their clustering properties on scales of ˜1-30 Mpc are, at a high level of significance, also different. Fast-growing LRGs are found to be more strongly clustered and reside in overall denser large-scale structure environments than slow-growing systems, for a given stellar-mass threshold. Our results show a dependence of clustering on a property that is directly related to the evolution of galaxies, I.e., the stellar-mass assembly history, for a homogeneous population of similar mass and color. In a forthcoming work, we will address the halo connection in the context of galaxy assembly bias.

The Spectroscopic Ages of Passive Galaxies in a z=1.62 Protocluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee-Brown, Donald

2017-07-01

IRC 0218 is a protocluster at z = 1.62 with a wealth of observations that make it an ideal target for resolving the interplay between galaxy properties and environment at high redshift. We have used extremely deep HST spectroscopic data to derive unambiguous membership and stellar ages via the 4000 angstrom break for 14 members with stellar masses log(M) > 10.2. We find that at high stellar masses, log(M) > 10.85, the fraction of quiescent galaxies in the cluster is 2× higher than the field value. At lower stellar masses, the protocluster and field have consistent quiescent fractions. Despite this mass trend, we see no comparable relation between galaxy stellar age and mass for the quiescent members. Taken together, these results may reflect the impact of dry mergers on the protocluster galaxies. Alternately, the results may imply that the mass trend we observe in the IRC 0218 quiescent fraction was imprinted over a short timescale. This talk will place our results in the context of studies of other high redshift clusters and likely descendent environments at z = 1.

New Pleiades Eclipsing Binaries and a Hyades Transiting System Identified by K2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

David, Trevor J.; Conroy, Kyle E.; Hillenbrand, Lynne A.; Stassun, Keivan G.; Stauffer, John; Rebull, Luisa M.; Cody, Ann Marie; Isaacson, Howard; Howard, Andrew W.; Aigrain, Suzanne

2016-05-01

We present the discovery in Kepler’s K2 mission observations and our follow-up radial velocity (RV) observations from Keck/HIRES for four eclipsing binary (EB) star systems in the young benchmark Pleiades and Hyades clusters. Based on our modeling results, we announce two new low mass ({M}{tot}\\lt 0.6 {M}⊙ ) EBs among Pleiades members (HCG 76 and MHO 9) and we report on two previously known Pleiades binaries that are also found to be EB systems (HII 2407 and HD 23642). We measured the masses of the binary HCG 76 to ≲2.5% precision, and the radii to ≲4.5% precision, which together with the precise effective temperatures yield an independent Pleiades distance of 132 ± 5 pc. We discuss another EB toward the Pleiades that is a possible but unlikely Pleiades cluster member (AK II 465). The two new confirmed Pleiades systems extend the mass range of Pleiades EB components to 0.2-2 {M}⊙ . Our initial measurements of the fundamental stellar parameters for the Pleiades EBs are discussed in the context of the current stellar models and the nominal cluster isochrone, finding good agreement with the stellar models of Baraffe et al. at the nominal Pleiades age of 120 Myr. Finally, in the Hyades, we report a new low mass eclipsing system (vA 50) that was concurrently discovered and studied by Mann et al. We confirm that the eclipse is likely caused by a Neptune-sized transiting planet, and with the additional RV constraints presented here we improve the constraint on the maximum mass of the planet to be ≲1.2 MJup.

A tale of two anomalies: Depletion, dispersion, and the connection between the stellar lithium spread and inflated radii on the pre-main sequence

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Somers, Garrett; Pinsonneault, Marc H., E-mail: somers@astronomy.ohio-state.edu, E-mail: pinsono@astronomy.ohio-state.edu

2014-07-20

We investigate lithium depletion in standard stellar models (SSMs) and main sequence (MS) open clusters, and explore the origin of the Li dispersion in young, cool stars of equal mass, age, and composition. We first demonstrate that SSMs accurately predict the Li abundances of solar analogs at the zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) within theoretical uncertainties. We then measure the rate of MS Li depletion by removing the [Fe/H]-dependent ZAMS Li pattern from three well-studied clusters, and comparing the detrended data. MS depletion is found to be mass-dependent, in the sense of more depletion at low mass. A dispersion in Limore » abundance at fixed T{sub eff} is nearly universal, and sets in by ∼200 Myr. We discuss mass and age dispersion trends, and the pattern is mixed. We argue that metallicity impacts the ZAMS Li pattern, in agreement with theoretical expectations but contrary to the findings of some previous studies, and suggest Li as a test of cluster metallicity. Finally, we argue that a radius dispersion in stars of fixed mass and age, during the epoch of pre-MS Li destruction, is responsible for the spread in Li abundances and the correlation between rotation and Li in young cool stars, most well known in the Pleiades. We calculate stellar models, inflated to match observed radius anomalies in magnetically active systems, and the resulting range of Li abundances reproduces the observed patterns of young clusters. We discuss ramifications for pre-MS evolutionary tracks and age measurements of young clusters, and suggest an observational test.« less

High-redshift Galaxies and Black Holes Detectable with the JWST: A Population Synthesis Model from Infrared to X-Rays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Volonteri, Marta; Reines, Amy E.; Atek, Hakim; Stark, Daniel P.; Trebitsch, Maxime

2017-11-01

The first billion years of the Universe has been a pivotal time: stars, black holes (BHs), and galaxies formed and assembled, sowing the seeds of galaxies as we know them today. Detecting, identifying, and understanding the first galaxies and BHs is one of the current observational and theoretical challenges in galaxy formation. In this paper we present a population synthesis model aimed at galaxies, BHs, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at high redshift. The model builds a population based on empirical relations. The spectral energy distribution of galaxies is determined by age and metallicity, and that of AGNs by BH mass and accretion rate. We validate the model against observations, and predict properties of galaxies and AGN in other wavelength and/or luminosity ranges, estimating the contamination of stellar populations (normal stars and high-mass X-ray binaries) for AGN searches from the infrared to X-rays, and vice versa for galaxy searches. For high-redshift galaxies with stellar ages < 1 {Gyr}, we find that disentangling stellar and AGN emission is challenging at restframe UV/optical wavelengths, while high-mass X-ray binaries become more important sources of confusion in X-rays. We propose a color-color selection in the James Webb Space Telescope bands to separate AGN versus star-dominated galaxies in photometric observations. We also estimate the AGN contribution, with respect to massive, hot, and metal-poor stars, at driving high-ionization lines, such as C IV and He II. Finally, we test the influence of the minimum BH mass and occupation fraction of BHs in low-mass galaxies on the restframe UV/near-IR and X-ray AGN luminosity function.

Gemini Observations of Galaxies in Rich Early Environments (GOGREEN) I: survey description

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balogh, Michael L.; Gilbank, David G.; Muzzin, Adam; Rudnick, Gregory; Cooper, Michael C.; Lidman, Chris; Biviano, Andrea; Demarco, Ricardo; McGee, Sean L.; Nantais, Julie B.; Noble, Allison; Old, Lyndsay; Wilson, Gillian; Yee, Howard K. C.; Bellhouse, Callum; Cerulo, Pierluigi; Chan, Jeffrey; Pintos-Castro, Irene; Simpson, Rane; van der Burg, Remco F. J.; Zaritsky, Dennis; Ziparo, Felicia; Alonso, María Victoria; Bower, Richard G.; De Lucia, Gabriella; Finoguenov, Alexis; Lambas, Diego Garcia; Muriel, Hernan; Parker, Laura C.; Rettura, Alessandro; Valotto, Carlos; Wetzel, Andrew

2017-10-01

We describe a new Large Program in progress on the Gemini North and South telescopes: Gemini Observations of Galaxies in Rich Early Environments (GOGREEN). This is an imaging and deep spectroscopic survey of 21 galaxy systems at 1 < z < 1.5, selected to span a factor >10 in halo mass. The scientific objectives include measuring the role of environment in the evolution of low-mass galaxies, and measuring the dynamics and stellar contents of their host haloes. The targets are selected from the SpARCS, SPT, COSMOS, and SXDS surveys, to be the evolutionary counterparts of today's clusters and groups. The new red-sensitive Hamamatsu detectors on GMOS, coupled with the nod-and-shuffle sky subtraction, allow simultaneous wavelength coverage over λ ˜ 0.6-1.05 μm, and this enables a homogeneous and statistically complete redshift survey of galaxies of all types. The spectroscopic sample targets galaxies with AB magnitudes z΄ < 24.25 and [3.6] μm < 22.5, and is therefore statistically complete for stellar masses M* ≳ 1010.3 M⊙, for all galaxy types and over the entire redshift range. Deep, multiwavelength imaging has been acquired over larger fields for most systems, spanning u through K, in addition to deep IRAC imaging at 3.6 μm. The spectroscopy is ˜50 per cent complete as of semester 17A, and we anticipate a final sample of ˜500 new cluster members. Combined with existing spectroscopy on the brighter galaxies from GCLASS, SPT, and other sources, GOGREEN will be a large legacy cluster and field galaxy sample at this redshift that spectroscopically covers a wide range in stellar mass, halo mass, and clustercentric radius.

Radiation-driven winds of hot stars. V - Wind models for central stars of planetary nebulae

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pauldrach, A.; Puls, J.; Kudritzki, R. P.; Mendez, R. H.; Heap, S. R.

1988-01-01

Wind models using the recent improvements of radiation driven wind theory by Pauldrach et al. (1986) and Pauldrach (1987) are presented for central stars of planetary nebulae. The models are computed along evolutionary tracks evolving with different stellar mass from the Asymptotic Giant Branch. We show that the calculated terminal wind velocities are in agreement with the observations and allow in principle an independent determination of stellar masses and radii. The computed mass-loss rates are in qualitative agreement with the occurrence of spectroscopic stellar wind features as a function of stellar effective temperature and gravity.

Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting of Hetdex Pilot Survey Ly-alpha Emitters in Cosmos and Goods-N

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hagen, Alex; Ciardullo, Robin; Cronwall, Caryl; Acquaviva, Viviana; Bridge, Joanna; Zeimann, Gregory R.; Blanc, Guillermo; Bond, Nicholas; Finkelstein, Steven L.; Song, Mimi;

Introducing galactic structure finder: the multiple stellar kinematic structures of a simulated Milky Way mass galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Obreja, Aura; Macciò, Andrea V.; Moster, Benjamin; Dutton, Aaron A.; Buck, Tobias; Wang, Gregory S. Stinson Liang

2018-04-01

We present the first results of applying Gaussian Mixture Models in the stellar kinematic space of normalized angular momentum and binding energy on NIHAO high resolution galaxies to separate the stars into multiple components. We exemplify this method using a simulated Milky Way analogue, whose stellar component hosts: thin and thick discs, classical and pseudo bulges, and a stellar halo. The properties of these stellar structures are in good agreement with observational expectations in terms of sizes, shapes and rotational support. Interestingly, the two kinematic discs show surface mass density profiles more centrally concentrated than exponentials, while the bulges and the stellar halo are purely exponential. We trace back in time the Lagrangian mass of each component separately to study their formation history. Between z ˜ 3 and the end of halo virialization, z ˜ 1.3, all components lose a fraction of their angular momentum. The classical bulge loses the most (˜95%) and the thin disc the least (˜60%). Both bulges formed their stars in-situ at high redshift, while the thin disc formed ˜98% in-situ, but with a constant SFR ˜ 1.5M⊙yr-1 over the last ˜ 11 Gyr. Accreted stars (6% of total stellar mass) are mainly incorporated to the thick disc or the stellar halo, which formed ex-situ 8% and 45% of their respective masses. Our analysis pipeline is freely available at https://github.com/aobr/gsf.

Constraints on the Evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function I: Role of Star Formation, Mergers, and Stellar Stripping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Contini, E.; Kang, Xi; Romeo, A. D.; Xia, Q.

2017-03-01

We study the connection between the observed star formation rate-stellar mass (SFR-M *) relation and the evolution of the stellar mass function (SMF) by means of a subhalo abundance matching technique coupled to merger trees extracted from an N-body simulation. Our approach, which considers both galaxy mergers and stellar stripping, is to force the model to match the observed SMF at redshift z> 2, and let it evolve down to the present time according to the observed SFR-M * relation. In this study, we use two different sets of SMFs and two SFR-M * relations: a simple power law and a relation with a mass-dependent slope. Our analysis shows that the evolution of the SMF is more consistent with an SFR-M * relation with a mass-dependent slope, in agreement with predictions from other models of galaxy evolution and recent observations. In order to fully and realistically describe the evolution of the SMF, both mergers and stellar stripping must be considered, and we find that both have almost equal effects on the evolution of SMF at the massive end. Taking into account the systematic uncertainties in the observed data, the high-mass end of the SMF obtained by considering stellar stripping results in good agreement with recent observational data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. At {log} {M}* < 11.2, our prediction at z = 0.1 is close to Li & White data, but the high-mass end ({log} {M}* > 11.2) is in better agreement with D’Souza et al. data which account for more massive galaxies.

The ATLAS3D Project - XXX. Star formation histories and stellar population scaling relations of early-type galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDermid, Richard M.; Alatalo, Katherine; Blitz, Leo; Bournaud, Frédéric; Bureau, Martin; Cappellari, Michele; Crocker, Alison F.; Davies, Roger L.; Davis, Timothy A.; de Zeeuw, P. T.; Duc, Pierre-Alain; Emsellem, Eric; Khochfar, Sadegh; Krajnović, Davor; Kuntschner, Harald; Morganti, Raffaella; Naab, Thorsten; Oosterloo, Tom; Sarzi, Marc; Scott, Nicholas; Serra, Paolo; Weijmans, Anne-Marie; Young, Lisa M.

2015-04-01

We present the stellar population content of early-type galaxies from the ATLAS3D survey. Using spectra integrated within apertures covering up to one effective radius, we apply two methods: one based on measuring line-strength indices and applying single stellar population (SSP) models to derive SSP-equivalent values of stellar age, metallicity, and alpha enhancement; and one based on spectral fitting to derive non-parametric star formation histories, mass-weighted average values of age, metallicity, and half-mass formation time-scales. Using homogeneously derived effective radii and dynamically determined galaxy masses, we present the distribution of stellar population parameters on the Mass Plane (MJAM, σe, R^maj_e), showing that at fixed mass, compact early-type galaxies are on average older, more metal-rich, and more alpha-enhanced than their larger counterparts. From non-parametric star formation histories, we find that the duration of star formation is systematically more extended in lower mass objects. Assuming that our sample represents most of the stellar content of today's local Universe, approximately 50 per cent of all stars formed within the first 2 Gyr following the big bang. Most of these stars reside today in the most massive galaxies (>1010.5 M⊙), which themselves formed 90 per cent of their stars by z ˜ 2. The lower mass objects, in contrast, have formed barely half their stars in this time interval. Stellar population properties are independent of environment over two orders of magnitude in local density, varying only with galaxy mass. In the highest density regions of our volume (dominated by the Virgo cluster), galaxies are older, alpha-enhanced, and have shorter star formation histories with respect to lower density regions.

Baryonic distributions in galaxy dark matter haloes - II. Final results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richards, Emily E.; van Zee, L.; Barnes, K. L.; Staudaher, S.; Dale, D. A.; Braun, T. T.; Wavle, D. C.; Dalcanton, J. J.; Bullock, J. S.; Chandar, R.

2018-06-01

Re-creating the observed diversity in the organization of baryonic mass within dark matter haloes represents a key challenge for galaxy formation models. To address the growth of galaxy discs in dark matter haloes, we have constrained the distribution of baryonic and non-baryonic matter in a statistically representative sample of 44 nearby galaxies defined from the Extended Disk Galaxy Exploration Science (EDGES) Survey. The gravitational potentials of each galaxy are traced using rotation curves derived from new and archival radio synthesis observations of neutral hydrogen (H I). The measured rotation curves are decomposed into baryonic and dark matter halo components using 3.6 μm images for the stellar content, the H I observations for the atomic gas component, and, when available, CO data from the literature for the molecular gas component. The H I kinematics are supplemented with optical integral field spectroscopic (IFS) observations to measure the central ionized gas kinematics in 26 galaxies, including 13 galaxies that are presented for the first time in this paper. Distributions of baryonic-to-total mass ratios are determined from the rotation curve decompositions under different assumptions about the contribution of the stellar component and are compared to global and radial properties of the dominant stellar populations extracted from optical and near-infrared photometry. Galaxies are grouped into clusters of similar baryonic-to-total mass distributions to examine whether they also exhibit similar star and gas properties. The radial distribution of baryonic-to-total mass in a galaxy does not appear to correlate with any characteristics of its star formation history.

Stellar mass and velocity functions of galaxies. Backward evolution and the fate of Milky Way siblings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boissier, S.; Buat, V.; Ilbert, O.

2010-11-01

Context. In recent years, stellar mass functions of both star-forming and quiescent galaxies have been observed at different redshifts in various fields. In addition, star formation rate (SFR) distributions (e.g. in the form of far infrared luminosity functions) were also obtained. Taken together, they offer complementary pieces of information concerning the evolution of galaxies. Aims: We attempt in this paper to check the consistency of the observed stellar mass functions, SFR functions, and the cosmic SFR density with simple backward evolutionary models. Methods: Starting from observed stellar mass functions for star-forming galaxies, we use backwards models to predict the evolution of a number of quantities, such as the SFR function, the cosmic SFR density and the velocity function. Because the velocity is a parameter attached to a galaxy during its history (contrary to the stellar mass), this approach allows us to quantify the number density evolution of galaxies of a given velocity, e.g. of the Milky Way siblings. Results: Observations suggest that the stellar mass function of star-forming galaxies is constant between redshift 0 and 1. To reproduce this result, we must quench star formation in a number of star-forming galaxies. The stellar mass function of these “quenched” galaxies is consistent with available data concerning the increase in the population of quiescent galaxies in the same redshift interval. The stellar mass function of quiescent galaxies is then mainly determined by the distribution of active galaxies that must stop star formation, with a modest mass redistribution during mergers. The cosmic SFR density and the evolution of the SFR functions are recovered relatively well, although they provide some clues to a minor evolution of the stellar mass function of star forming galaxies at the lowest redshifts. We thus consider that we have obtained in a simple way a relatively consistent picture of the evolution of galaxies at intermediate redshifts. If this picture is correct, 50% of the Milky-Way sisters (galaxies with the same velocity as our Galaxy, i.e. 220 km s-1) have quenched their star formation since redshift 1 (and an even higher fraction for higher velocities). We discuss the processes that might be responsible for this transformation.

Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback and the Origin and Fate of the Hot Gas in Early-type Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pellegrini, Silvia; Ciotti, Luca; Negri, Andrea; Ostriker, Jeremiah P.

2018-04-01

A recent determination of the relationships between the X-ray luminosity of the ISM (L X) and the stellar and total mass for a sample of nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs) is used to investigate the origin of the hot gas, via a comparison with the results of hydrodynamical simulations of the ISM evolution for a large set of isolated ETGs. After the epoch of major galaxy formation (after z ≃ 2), the ISM is replenished by stellar mass losses and SN ejecta, at the rate predicted by stellar evolution, and is depleted by star formation; it is heated by the thermalization of stellar motions, SNe explosions, and the mechanical (from winds) and radiative AGN feedback. The models agree well with the observed relations, even for the largely different L X values at the same mass, thanks to the sensitivity of the gas flow to many galaxy properties; this holds for models including AGN feedback, and those without. Therefore, the mass input from the stellar population is able to account for a major part of the observed L X; and AGN feedback, while very important to maintain massive ETGs in a time-averaged quasi-steady state, keeping low star formation and the black hole mass, does not dramatically alter the gas content originating in stellar recycled material. These conclusions are based on theoretical predictions for the stellar population contributions in mass and energy, and on a self-consistent modeling of AGN feedback.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Auger, M. W.; Treu, T.; Marshall, P. J.

We present the current photometric data set for the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) Survey, including Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry from Advanced Camera for Surveys, WFPC2, and NICMOS. These data have enabled the confirmation of an additional 15 grade 'A' (certain) lens systems, bringing the number of SLACS grade 'A' lenses to 85; including 13 grade 'B' (likely) systems, SLACS has identified nearly 100 lenses and lens candidates. Approximately 80% of the grade 'A' systems have elliptical morphologies while approx10% show spiral structure; the remaining lenses have lenticular morphologies. Spectroscopic redshifts for the lens and source are available for everymore » system, making SLACS the largest homogeneous data set of galaxy-scale lenses to date. We have created lens models using singular isothermal ellipsoid mass distributions for the 11 new systems that are dominated by a single mass component and where the multiple images are detected with sufficient signal to noise; these models give a high precision measurement of the mass within the Einstein radius of each lens. We have developed a novel Bayesian stellar population analysis code to determine robust stellar masses with accurate error estimates. We apply this code to deep, high-resolution HST imaging and determine stellar masses with typical statistical errors of 0.1 dex; we find that these stellar masses are unbiased compared to estimates obtained using SDSS photometry, provided that informative priors are used. The stellar masses range from 10{sup 10.5} to 10{sup 11.8} M{sub sun} and the typical stellar mass fraction within the Einstein radius is 0.4, assuming a Chabrier initial mass function. The ensemble properties of the SLACS lens galaxies, e.g., stellar masses and projected ellipticities, appear to be indistinguishable from other SDSS galaxies with similar stellar velocity dispersions. This further supports that SLACS lenses are representative of the overall population of massive early-type galaxies with M{sub *} approx> 10{sup 11} M{sub sun}, and are therefore an ideal data set to investigate the kpc-scale distribution of luminous and dark matter in galaxies out to z approx 0.5.« less

NEBULAR AND STELLAR DUST EXTINCTION ACROSS THE DISK OF EMISSION-LINE GALAXIES ON KILOPARSEC SCALES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hemmati, Shoubaneh; Mobasher, Bahram; Darvish, Behnam

We investigate the resolved kiloparsec-scale stellar and nebular dust distribution in eight star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 0.4 in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey fields. This is to get a better understanding of the effect of dust attenuation on measurements of physical properties and its variation with redshift. Constructing the observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) per pixel, based on seven bands of photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys and WFC3, we performed pixel-by-pixel SED fits to population synthesis models and estimated the small-scale distribution of stellar dust extinction. We use Hα/Hβ nebular emission line ratios from Keck/DEIMOS high-resolutionmore » spectra at each spatial resolution element to measure the amount of attenuation faced by ionized gas at different radii from the centers of galaxies. We find a good agreement between the integrated and median of resolved color excess measurements in our galaxies. The ratio of integrated nebular to stellar dust extinction is always greater than unity, but does not show any trend with stellar mass or star formation rate (SFR). We find that inclination plays an important role in the variation of the nebular to stellar excess ratio. The stellar color excess profiles are found to have higher values at the center compared to outer parts of the disk. However, for lower mass galaxies, a similar trend is not found for the nebular color excess. We find that the nebular color excess increases with stellar mass surface density. This explains the absence of radial trend in the nebular color excess in lower mass galaxies which lack a large radial variation of stellar mass surface density. Using standard conversions of SFR surface density to gas mass surface density, and the relation between dust mass surface density and color excess, we find no significant variation in the dust-to-gas ratio in regions with high gas mass surface densities over the scales probed in this study.« less

Trapezium Systems and Stellar Jets in 30 Doradus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walborn, Nolan

1999-07-01

30 Doradus is the nearest and best resolved extragalactic starburst, hence a paradigm for the phenomenon. Recent NICMOS observations of the new stellar generation being triggered by the outflows from R136 establish 30 Dor as a prime region for investigation of massive-star formation as well. Since 1" already subtends 50, 000 AU at 50 kpc, HST makes unique contributions to the study of 30 Dor. A recent groundbased spectral-classification study has provided new insights into the stellar content of 30 Dor, but many of the targets are resolved into multiple systems in the available WFPC2 images. We propose to obtain spatially resolved STIS blue spectroscopy of some of the newly found multiple systems, which is essential to determine accurate stellar tempertures and masses. Several systems each in the new and previous stellar generations are included. The HST spatial resolution also reduces the contamination of t he stellar spectra by the nebula r emission lines, which is a critical advantage. We also propose dithered PC nebular-line images of the young Trapezium systems Knots 1-3, which interact strongly with the surrounding interstellar medium, forming several parsec-scale jets. Finally, we shall do two WFPC2 pointings with continuum filters, to complete the coverage of the field, which currently limits the search for multiple systems and the illuminating comparisons with IR and other data.

Galaxies in X-ray Selected Clusters and Groups in Dark Energy Survey Data: Stellar Mass Growth of Bright Central Galaxies Since z~1.2

DOE PAGES

Zhang, Y.; Miller, C.; McKay, T.; ...

2016-01-10

Using the science verification data of the Dark Energy Survey for a new sample of 106 X-ray selected clusters and groups, we study the stellar mass growth of bright central galaxies (BCGs) since redshift z ~ 1.2. Compared with the expectation in a semi-analytical model applied to the Millennium Simulation, the observed BCGs become under-massive/under-luminous with decreasing redshift. We incorporate the uncertainties associated with cluster mass, redshift, and BCG stellar mass measurements into analysis of a redshift-dependent BCG-cluster mass relation.

The Lyman-Continuum Fluxes and Stellar Parameters of O and Early B-Type Stars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vacca, William D.; Garmany, Catherine D.; Shull, J. Michael

1996-01-01

Using the results of the most recent stellar atmosphere models applied to a sample of hot stars, we construct calibrations of effective temperature (T(sub eff)), and gravity (log(sub g)) with a spectral type and luminosity class for Galactic 0-type and early B-type stars. From the model results we also derive an empirical relation between the bolometric correction and T(sub eff) and log g. Using a sample of stars with known distances located in OB associations in the Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud, we derive a new calibration of M(sub v) with spectral class. With these new calibrations and the stellar atmosphere models of Kurucz, we calculate the physical parameters and ionizing photon luminosities in the H(0) and He(0) continua for O and early B-type stars. We find substantial differences between our values of the Lyman- continuum luminosity and those reported in the literature. We also discuss the systematic discrepancy between O-type stellar masses derived from spectroscopic models and those derived from evolutionary tracks. Most likely, the cause of this 'mass discrepancy' lies primarily in the atmospheric models, which are plane parallel and hydrostatic and therefore do not account for an extended atmosphere and the velocity fields in a stellar wind. Finally, we present a new computation of the Lyman-continuum luminosity from 429 known O stars located within 2.5 kpc of the Sun. We find the total ionizing luminosity from this population ((Q(sub 0)(sup T(sub ot))) = 7.0 x 10(exp 51) photons/s) to be 47% larger than that determined using the Lyman continuum values tabulated by Panagia.

THE PANCHROMATIC HUBBLE ANDROMEDA TREASURY. II. TRACING THE INNER M31 HALO WITH BLUE HORIZONTAL BRANCH STARS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Williams, Benjamin F.; Dalcanton, Julianne J.; Gilbert, Karoline M.

We attempt to constrain the shape of M31's inner stellar halo by tracing the surface density of blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars at galactocentric distances ranging from 2 kpc to 35 kpc. Our measurements make use of resolved stellar photometry from a section of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury survey, supplemented by several archival Hubble Space Telescope observations. We find that the ratio of BHB to red giant stars is relatively constant outside of 10 kpc, suggesting that the BHB is as reliable a tracer of the halo population as the red giant branch. In the inner halo, we domore » not expect BHB stars to be produced by the high-metallicity bulge and disk, making BHB stars a good candidate to be a reliable tracer of the stellar halo to much smaller galactocentric distances. If we assume a power-law profile r {sup -{alpha}} for the two-dimensional (2D) projected surface density BHB distribution, we obtain a high-quality fit with a 2D power-law index of {alpha} = 2.6{sup +0.3} {sub -0.2} outside of 3 kpc, which flattens to {alpha} < 1.2 inside of 3 kpc. This slope is consistent with previous measurements but is anchored to a radial baseline that extends much farther inward. Finally, assuming azimuthal symmetry and a constant mass-to-light ratio, the best-fitting profile yields a total halo stellar mass of 2.1{sup +1.7} {sub -0.4} Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 9} M {sub Sun }. These properties are comparable with both simulations of stellar halo formation by satellite disruption alone and simulations that include some in situ formation of halo stars.« less

On the Maximum Mass of Accreting Primordial Supermassive Stars

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Woods, T. E.; Heger, Alexander; Whalen, Daniel J.

Supermassive primordial stars are suspected to be the progenitors of the most massive quasars at z ∼ 6. Previous studies of such stars were either unable to resolve hydrodynamical timescales or considered stars in isolation, not in the extreme accretion flows in which they actually form. Therefore, they could not self-consistently predict their final masses at collapse, or those of the resulting supermassive black hole seeds, but rather invoked comparison to simple polytropic models. Here, we systematically examine the birth, evolution, and collapse of accreting, non-rotating supermassive stars under accretion rates of 0.01–10 M {sub ⊙} yr{sup −1} using themore » stellar evolution code Kepler . Our approach includes post-Newtonian corrections to the stellar structure and an adaptive nuclear network and can transition to following the hydrodynamic evolution of supermassive stars after they encounter the general relativistic instability. We find that this instability triggers the collapse of the star at masses of 150,000–330,000 M {sub ⊙} for accretion rates of 0.1–10 M {sub ⊙} yr{sup −1}, and that the final mass of the star scales roughly logarithmically with the rate. The structure of the star, and thus its stability against collapse, is sensitive to the treatment of convection and the heat content of the outer accreted envelope. Comparison with other codes suggests differences here may lead to small deviations in the evolutionary state of the star as a function of time, that worsen with accretion rate. Since the general relativistic instability leads to the immediate death of these stars, our models place an upper limit on the masses of the first quasars at birth.« less

Stellar Mass and 3.4 μm M/L Ratio Evolution of Brightest Cluster Galaxies in COSMOS since z ∼ 1.0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cooke, Kevin C.; Fogarty, Kevin; Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.; Moustakas, John; O’Dea, Christopher P.; Postman, Marc

2018-04-01

We investigate the evolution of star formation rates (SFRs), stellar masses, and M/L 3.4 μm ratios of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the COSMOS survey since z ∼ 1 to determine the contribution of star formation to the growth-rate of BCG stellar mass over time. Through the spectral energy density (SED) fitting of the GALEX, CFHT, Subaru, Vista, Spitzer, and Herschel photometric data available in the COSMOS2015 catalog, we estimate the stellar mass and SFR of each BCG. We use a modified version of the iSEDfit package to fit the SEDs of our sample with both stellar and dust emission models, as well as constrain the impact of star formation history assumptions on our results. We find that in our sample of COSMOS BCGs, star formation evolves similarly to that in BCGs in samples of more massive galaxy clusters. However, compared to the latter, the magnitude of star formation in our sample is lower by ∼1 dex. Additionally, we find an evolution of BCG baryonic mass-to-light ratio (M/L 3.4 μm) with redshift which is consistent with a passively aging stellar population. We use this to build upon Wen et al.'s low-redshift νL 3.4 μm–M Stellar relation, quantifying a correlation between νL 3.4 μm and M Stellar to z ∼ 1. By comparing our results to BCGs in Sunyaev–Zel’dovich and X-ray-selected samples of galaxy clusters, we find evidence that the normalization of star formation evolution in a cluster sample is driven by the mass range of the sample and may be biased upwards by cool cores.

PULSATION-TRIGGERED MASS LOSS FROM AGB STARS: THE 60 DAY CRITICAL PERIOD

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McDonald, I.; Zijlstra, A. A., E-mail: iain.mcdonald-2@jb.man.ac.uk, E-mail: albert.zijlstra@manchester.ac.uk

2016-06-01

Low- and intermediate-mass stars eject much of their mass during the late, red giant branch (RGB) phase of evolution. The physics of their strong stellar winds is still poorly understood. In the standard model, stellar pulsations extend the atmosphere, allowing a wind to be driven through radiation pressure on condensing dust particles. Here, we investigate the onset of the wind, using nearby RGB stars drawn from the Hipparcos catalog. We find a sharp onset of dust production when the star first reaches a pulsation period of 60 days. This approximately coincides with the point where the star transitions to themore » first overtone pulsation mode. Models of the spectral energy distributions show stellar mass-loss rate suddenly increasing at this point, by a factor of ∼10 over the existing (chromospherically driven) wind. The dust emission is strongly correlated with both pulsation period and amplitude, indicating stellar pulsation is the main trigger for the strong mass loss, and determines the mass-loss rate. Dust emission does not strongly correlate with stellar luminosity, indicating radiation pressure on dust has little effect on the mass-loss rate. RGB stars do not normally appear to produce dust, whereas dust production by asymptotic giant branch stars appears commonplace, and is probably ubiquitous above the RGB-tip luminosity. We conclude that the strong wind begins with a step change in mass-loss rate and is triggered by stellar pulsations. A second rapid mass-loss-rate enhancement is suggested when the star transitions to the fundamental pulsation mode at a period of ∼300 days.« less

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the life and times of L★ galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robotham, A. S. G.; Liske, J.; Driver, S. P.; Sansom, A. E.; Baldry, I. K.; Bauer, A. E.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Brown, M. J. I.; Colless, M.; Christodoulou, L.; Drinkwater, M. J.; Grootes, M. W.; Hopkins, A. M.; Kelvin, L. S.; Norberg, P.; Loveday, J.; Phillipps, S.; Sharp, R.; Taylor, E. N.; Tuffs, R. J.

2013-05-01

In this work, we investigate in detail the effects the local environment (groups and pairs) has on galaxies with stellar mass similar to the Milky Way (L* galaxies). A volume limited sample of 6150 galaxies are visually classified to determine the emission features, morphological type and presence of a disc. This large sample allows for the significant characteristics of galaxies to be isolated (e.g. stellar mass and group halo mass), and their codependencies determined. We observe that galaxy-galaxy interactions play the most important role in shaping the evolution within a group halo; the main role of halo mass is in gathering the galaxies together to encourage such interactions. Dominant pair galaxies find their overall star formation enhanced when the pair's mass ratio is close to 1; otherwise, we observe the same galaxies as we would in an unpaired system. The minor galaxy in a pair is greatly affected by its companion galaxy, and while the star-forming fraction is always suppressed relative to equivalent stellar mass unpaired galaxies, it becomes lower still when the mass ratio of a pair system increases. We find that, in general, the close galaxy-galaxy interaction rate drops as a function of halo mass for a given amount of stellar mass. We find evidence of a local peak of interactions for Milky Way stellar mass galaxies in Milky Way halo mass groups. Low-mass haloes, and in particular Local Group mass haloes, are an important environment for understanding the typical evolutionary path of a unit of stellar mass. We find compelling evidence for galaxy conformity in both groups and pairs, where morphological type conformity is dominant in groups, and emission class conformity is dominant in pairs. This suggests that group scale conformity is the result of many galaxy encounters over an extended period of time, while pair conformity is a fairly instantaneous response to a transitory interaction.

Capturing Neutrinos from a Star's Final Hours

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hensley, Kerry

2018-04-01

What happens on the last day of a massive stars life? In the hours before the star collapses and explodes as a supernova, the rapid evolution of material in its core creates swarms of neutrinos. Observing these neutrinos may help us understand the final stages of a massive stars life but theyve never been detected.A view of some of the 1,520 phototubes within the MiniBooNE neutrino detector. Observations from this and other detectors are helping to illuminate the nature of the mysterious neutrino. [Fred Ullrich/FNAL]Silent Signposts of Stellar EvolutionThe nuclear fusion that powers stars generates tremendous amounts of energy. Much of this energy is emitted as photons, but a curious and elusive particle the neutrino carries away most of the energy in the late stages of stellar evolution.Stellar neutrinos can be created through two processes: thermal processesand beta processes. Thermal processes e.g.,pair production, in which a particle/antiparticle pair are created depend on the temperature and pressure of the stellar core. Beta processes i.e.,when a proton converts to a neutron, or vice versa are instead linked to the isotopic makeup of the stars core. This means that, if we can observe them, beta-process neutrinos may be able to tell us about the last steps of stellar nucleosynthesis in a dying star.But observing these neutrinos is not so easilydone. Neutrinos arenearly massless, neutral particles that interact only feebly with matter; out of the whopping 1060neutrinos released in a supernova explosion, even the most sensitive detectors only record the passage of just a few. Do we have a chance of detectingthe beta-process neutrinos that are released in the final few hours of a stars life, beforethe collapse?Neutrino luminosities leading up to core collapse. Shortly before collapse, the luminosity of beta-process neutrinos outshines that of any other neutrino flavor or origin. [Adapted from Patton et al. 2017]Modeling Stellar CoresTo answer this question, Kelly Patton (University of Washington) and collaborators first used a stellar evolution model to explore neutrino production in massive stars. They modeled the evolution of two massive stars 15 and 30 times the mass of our Sun from the onset of nuclear fusion to the moment of collapse.The authors found that in the last few hours before collapse, during which the material in the stars cores is rapidly upcycled into heavier elements, the flux from beta-process neutrinos rivals that of thermal neutrinos and even exceeds it at high energies. So now we know there are many beta-process neutrinos but can we spot them?Neutrino and antineutrino fluxes at Earth from the last 2 hours of a 30-solar-mass stars life compared to the flux from background sources. The rows represent calculations using two different neutrino mass hierarchies. Click to enlarge. [Patton et al. 2017]Observing Elusive NeutrinosFor an imminent supernova at a distance of 1 kiloparsec, the authors find that the presupernova electron neutrino flux rises above the background noise from the Sun, nuclear reactors, and radioactive decay within the Earth in the final two hours before collapse.Based on these calculations, current and future neutrino observatories should be able to detect tens of neutrinos from a supernova within 1 kiloparsec, about 30% of which would be beta-process neutrinos. As the distance to the star increases, the time and energy window within which neutrinos can be observed gradually narrows, until it closes for stars at a distance of about 30 kiloparsecs.Are there any nearby supergiants soon to go supernova so these predictions can be tested? At a distance of only 650 light-years, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse should produce detectable neutrinos when it explodes an exciting opportunity for astronomers in the far future!CitationKelly M. Patton et al 2017ApJ8516. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa95c4

Stellar Wakes from Dark Matter Subhalos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buschmann, Malte; Kopp, Joachim; Safdi, Benjamin R.; Wu, Chih-Liang

2018-05-01

We propose a novel method utilizing stellar kinematic data to detect low-mass substructure in the Milky Way's dark matter halo. By probing characteristic wakes that a passing dark matter subhalo leaves in the phase-space distribution of ambient halo stars, we estimate sensitivities down to subhalo masses of ˜107 M⊙ or below. The detection of such subhalos would have implications for dark matter and cosmological models that predict modifications to the halo-mass function at low halo masses. We develop an analytic formalism for describing the perturbed stellar phase-space distributions, and we demonstrate through idealized simulations the ability to detect subhalos using the phase-space model and a likelihood framework. Our method complements existing methods for low-mass subhalo searches, such as searches for gaps in stellar streams, in that we can localize the positions and velocities of the subhalos today.

Connection between Dynamically Derived Initial Mass Function Normalization and Stellar Population Parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDermid, Richard M.; Cappellari, Michele; Alatalo, Katherine; Bayet, Estelle; Blitz, Leo; Bois, Maxime; Bournaud, Frédéric; Bureau, Martin; Crocker, Alison F.; Davies, Roger L.; Davis, Timothy A.; de Zeeuw, P. T.; Duc, Pierre-Alain; Emsellem, Eric; Khochfar, Sadegh; Krajnović, Davor; Kuntschner, Harald; Morganti, Raffaella; Naab, Thorsten; Oosterloo, Tom; Sarzi, Marc; Scott, Nicholas; Serra, Paolo; Weijmans, Anne-Marie; Young, Lisa M.

2014-09-01

We report on empirical trends between the dynamically determined stellar initial mass function (IMF) and stellar population properties for a complete, volume-limited sample of 260 early-type galaxies from the ATLAS3D project. We study trends between our dynamically derived IMF normalization αdyn ≡ (M/L)stars/(M/L)Salp and absorption line strengths, and interpret these via single stellar population-equivalent ages, abundance ratios (measured as [α/Fe]), and total metallicity, [Z/H]. We find that old and alpha-enhanced galaxies tend to have on average heavier (Salpeter-like) mass normalization of the IMF, but stellar population does not appear to be a good predictor of the IMF, with a large range of αdyn at a given population parameter. As a result, we find weak αdyn-[α/Fe] and αdyn -Age correlations and no significant αdyn -[Z/H] correlation. The observed trends appear significantly weaker than those reported in studies that measure the IMF normalization via the low-mass star demographics inferred through stellar spectral analysis.

Stellar Feedback Up and Close

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gadotti, Dimitri; Timer Team

2017-07-01

We report the serendipitous discovery of ongoing stellar feedback in the star-bursting nuclear ring of a nearby spiral galaxy, as part of the TIMER survey with MUSE. Combining MUSE and ALMA data we show bubbles of ionised gas expanding from the ring and shocking with the cold ISM. We demonstrate how much energy is being released into the ISM corresponding to the star formation observed, how fast the heated ISM is expanding from the centre, and provide a physical description of the shocks happening at the interface between the heated and cold phases of the ISM. Further, we quantitatively show how the exchange of energy between the two phases impacts the dynamics of the cold ISM. Finally, applying a model to the spatially-resolved spectral properties of this system, we find that about 60% of the energy input into the ISM is produced via the direct transfer of momentum from photons scattering onto dust grains, and 27% produced by mass loss in supernova explosions. The remaining energy input is produced via photoionisation heating ( 12%) and stellar winds ( 1%). These analyses provide invaluable measurements against which our theoretical understanding of stellar feedback can be compared, particularly state-of-the-art simulations that aim at reproducing star formation and stellar feedback in galaxies.

The Cluster Environment of Two High-mass Protostars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montes, Virginie; Hofner, Peter

2017-06-01

Characterizing the environment and stellar population in which high-mass stars form is an important step to decide between the main massive star formation theories. In the monolithic collapse model, the mass of the core will determine the final stellar mass (e.g., McKee & Tan 2003). In contrast, in the competitive accretion model (e.g., Bonnell & Bate 2006), the mass of the high-mass star is related to the properties of the cluster. As dynamical processes substantially affect the appearance of a cluster, we study early stages of high-mass star formation. These regions often show extended emission from hot dust at infrared wavelengths, which can cause difficulties to define the cluster. We use a multi-wavelength technique to study nearby high-mass star clusters, based on X-ray observations with the Chandra X-Ray Telescope, in conjunction with infrared data and VLA data. The technique relies on the fact that YSOs are particularly bright in X-ray and that contamination is relatively small. X-ray observations allow us to determine the cluster size. The cluster membership and YSOs classification is established using infrared identification of the X-ray sources, and color-color and color-magnitude diagrams.In this talk, I will present our findings on the cluster study of two high-mass star forming regions: IRAS 20126+4104 and IRAS 16562-3959. While most massive stars appear to be formed in rich a cluster environment, those two sources are candidates for the formation of massive stars in a relatively poor cluster. In contrast to what was found in previous studies (Qiu et al. 2008), the dominant B0-type protostar in IRAS 20126+4104 is associated with a small cluster of low-mass stars. I will also show our current work on IRAS 16562-3959, which contains one of the most luminous O-type protostars in the Galaxy. In the vicinity of this particularly interesting region there is a multitude of small clusters, for which I will present how their stellar population differ from the high-mass star-forming cluster IRAS 16562-3959.

Progenitors of Core-Collapse Supernovae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirschi, R.; Arnett, D.; Cristini, A.; Georgy, C.; Meakin, C.; Walkington, I.

2017-02-01

Massive stars have a strong impact on their surroundings, in particular when they produce a core-collapse supernova at the end of their evolution. In these proceedings, we review the general evolution of massive stars and their properties at collapse as well as the transition between massive and intermediate-mass stars. We also summarise the effects of metallicity and rotation. We then discuss some of the major uncertainties in the modelling of massive stars, with a particular emphasis on the treatment of convection in 1D stellar evolution codes. Finally, we present new 3D hydrodynamic simulations of convection in carbon burning and list key points to take from 3D hydrodynamic studies for the development of new prescriptions for convective boundary mixing in 1D stellar evolution codes.

Stellar mass functions and implications for a variable IMF

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardi, M.; Sheth, R. K.; Fischer, J.-L.; Meert, A.; Chae, K.-H.; Dominguez-Sanchez, H.; Huertas-Company, M.; Shankar, F.; Vikram, V.

2018-03-01

Spatially resolved kinematics of nearby galaxies has shown that the ratio of dynamical to stellar population-based estimates of the mass of a galaxy (M_{*}^JAM/M_{*}) correlates with σe, the light-weighted velocity dispersion within its half-light radius, if M* is estimated using the same initial mass function (IMF) for all galaxies and the stellar mass-to-light ratio within each galaxy is constant. This correlation may indicate that, in fact, the IMF is more bottom-heavy or dwarf-rich for galaxies with large σ. We use this correlation to estimate a dynamical or IMF-corrected stellar mass, M_{*}^{α _{JAM}}, from M* and σe for a sample of 6 × 105 Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxies for which spatially resolved kinematics is not available. We also compute the `virial' mass estimate k(n,R) R_e σ _R^2/G, where n is the Sérsic index, in the SDSS and ATLAS3D samples. We show that an n-dependent correction must be applied to the k(n, R) values provided by Prugniel & Simien. Our analysis also shows that the shape of the velocity dispersion profile in the ATLAS3D sample varies weakly with n: (σR/σe) = (R/Re)-γ(n). The resulting stellar mass functions, based on M_*^{α _{JAM}} and the recalibrated virial mass, are in good agreement. Using a Fundamental Plane-based observational proxy for σe produces comparable results. The use of direct measurements for estimating the IMF-dependent stellar mass is prohibitively expensive for a large sample of galaxies. By demonstrating that cheaper proxies are sufficiently accurate, our analysis should enable a more reliable census of the mass in stars, especially at high redshift, at a fraction of the cost. Our results are provided in tabular form.

On the link between energy equipartition and radial variation in the stellar mass function of star clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Webb, Jeremy J.; Vesperini, Enrico

2017-01-01

We make use of N-body simulations to determine the relationship between two observable parameters that are used to quantify mass segregation and energy equipartition in star clusters. Mass segregation can be quantified by measuring how the slope of a cluster's stellar mass function α changes with clustercentric distance r, and then calculating δ _α = d α (r)/d ln(r/r_m), where rm is the cluster's half-mass radius. The degree of energy equipartition in a cluster is quantified by η, which is a measure of how stellar velocity dispersion σ depends on stellar mass m via σ(m) ∝ m-η. Through a suite of N-body star cluster simulations with a range of initial sizes, binary fractions, orbits, black hole retention fractions, and initial mass functions, we present the co-evolution of δα and η. We find that measurements of the global η are strongly affected by the radial dependence of σ and mean stellar mass and the relationship between η and δα depends mainly on the cluster's initial conditions and the tidal field. Within rm, where these effects are minimized, we find that η and δα initially share a linear relationship. However, once the degree of mass segregation increases such that the radial dependence of σ and mean stellar mass become a factor within rm, or the cluster undergoes core collapse, the relationship breaks down. We propose a method for determining η within rm from an observational measurement of δα. In cases where η and δα can be measured independently, this new method offers a way of measuring the cluster's dynamical state.

Luminosity and Stellar Mass Functions from the 6dF Galaxy Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colless, M.; Jones, D. H.; Peterson, B. A.; Campbell, L.; Saunders, W.; Lah, P.

2007-12-01

The completed 6dF Galaxy Survey includes redshifts for over 124,000 galaxies. We present luminosity functions in optical and near-infrared passbands that span a range of 10^4 in luminosity. These luminosity functions show systematic deviations from the Schechter form. The corresponding luminosity densities in the optical and near-infrared are consistent with an old stellar population and a moderately declining star formation rate. Stellar mass functions, derived from the K band luminosities and simple stellar population models selected by b_J-r_F colour, lead to an estimate of the present-day stellar mass density of ρ_* = (5.00 ± 0.11) × 10^8 h M_⊙ Mpc^{-3}, corresponding to Ω_* h = (1.80 ± 0.04) × 10^{-3}.

Reconstructing the Accretion History of the Galactic Stellar Halo from Chemical Abundance Ratio Distributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Duane M.; Johnston, Kathryn V.; Sen, Bodhisattva; Jessop, Will

2015-03-01

Observational studies of halo stars during the past two decades have placed some limits on the quantity and nature of accreted dwarf galaxy contributions to the Milky Way (MW) stellar halo by typically utilizing stellar phase-space information to identify the most recent halo accretion events. In this study we tested the prospects of using 2D chemical abundance ratio distributions (CARDs) found in stars of the stellar halo to determine its formation history. First, we used simulated data from 11 “MW-like” halos to generate satellite template sets (STSs) of 2D CARDs of accreted dwarf satellites, which are composed of accreted dwarfs from various mass regimes and epochs of accretion. Next, we randomly drew samples of ˜103-4 mock observations of stellar chemical abundance ratios ([α/Fe], [Fe/H]) from those 11 halos to generate samples of the underlying densities for our CARDs to be compared to our templates in our analysis. Finally, we used the expectation-maximization algorithm to derive accretion histories in relation to the STS used and the sample size. For certain STSs used we typically can identify the relative mass contributions of all accreted satellites to within a factor of two. We also find that this method is particularly sensitive to older accretion events involving low-luminosity dwarfs, e.g., ultra-faint dwarfs—precisely those events that are too ancient to be seen by phase-space studies of stars and too faint to be seen by high-z studies of the early universe. Since our results only exploit two chemical dimensions and near-future surveys promise to provide ˜6-9 dimensions, we conclude that these new high-resolution spectroscopic surveys of the stellar halo will allow us to recover its accretion history—and the luminosity function of infalling dwarf galaxies—across cosmic time.

RECONSTRUCTING THE ACCRETION HISTORY OF THE GALACTIC STELLAR HALO FROM CHEMICAL ABUNDANCE RATIO DISTRIBUTIONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Duane M.; Johnston, Kathryn V.; Sen, Bodhisattva

Observational studies of halo stars during the past two decades have placed some limits on the quantity and nature of accreted dwarf galaxy contributions to the Milky Way (MW) stellar halo by typically utilizing stellar phase-space information to identify the most recent halo accretion events. In this study we tested the prospects of using 2D chemical abundance ratio distributions (CARDs) found in stars of the stellar halo to determine its formation history. First, we used simulated data from 11 “MW-like” halos to generate satellite template sets (STSs) of 2D CARDs of accreted dwarf satellites, which are composed of accreted dwarfsmore » from various mass regimes and epochs of accretion. Next, we randomly drew samples of ∼10{sup 3–4} mock observations of stellar chemical abundance ratios ([α/Fe], [Fe/H]) from those 11 halos to generate samples of the underlying densities for our CARDs to be compared to our templates in our analysis. Finally, we used the expectation-maximization algorithm to derive accretion histories in relation to the STS used and the sample size. For certain STSs used we typically can identify the relative mass contributions of all accreted satellites to within a factor of two. We also find that this method is particularly sensitive to older accretion events involving low-luminosity dwarfs, e.g., ultra-faint dwarfs—precisely those events that are too ancient to be seen by phase-space studies of stars and too faint to be seen by high-z studies of the early universe. Since our results only exploit two chemical dimensions and near-future surveys promise to provide ∼6–9 dimensions, we conclude that these new high-resolution spectroscopic surveys of the stellar halo will allow us to recover its accretion history—and the luminosity function of infalling dwarf galaxies—across cosmic time.« less

The Star Formation History of read and dead galaxies at z=[1.0--1.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Domínguez Sánchez, H.; Pérez González, P.; Esquej, P.; Eliche Moral, C.; Alcalde Pampliega, B.; SHARDS Team

2015-05-01

We analyse the star formation histories (SFH) of M > 10^{10} M_⊙ read and dead galaxies at intermediate redshift (z=1.0-1.5). Current hierarchical models of galaxy formation predict many less massive high-z systems than observed. By combining SHARDS deep spectro-photometric optical data (25 contiguous OSIRIS/GTC medium band filters with R ˜ 50 at 4500-900 nm) with HST-WFC3 grism in the NIR (G141, 1.1-1.6 μm) and broad-band photometry (from FUV to FIR) we construct well-sampled optical SEDs with up to 150 photometric points and sufficient spectral resolution to obtain reliable stellar population parameters such as ages, star formation timescales, dust extinctions and metallicities. We define a complete and uncontaminated sample of red & dead galaxies by combining the color-color UVJ selection with a cut in sSFR (SFR/Mass). We check the robustness of the results depending on different stellar population models (Bruzual & Charlot 2003, Maraston 2005), SED fitting-codes (synthesizer, FAST) or star formation histories (exp{-t/τ}, t exp{-t/τ}). Finally, the dependence of the SFH with the galaxy stellar mass will be studied, to actually measure if more massive galaxies are formed earlier and more rapidly as downsizing suggests.

JUPITER WILL BECOME A HOT JUPITER: CONSEQUENCES OF POST-MAIN-SEQUENCE STELLAR EVOLUTION ON GAS GIANT PLANETS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spiegel, David S.; Madhusudhan, Nikku, E-mail: dave@ias.edu, E-mail: Nikku.Madhusudhan@yale.edu

When the Sun ascends the red giant branch (RGB), its luminosity will increase and all the planets will receive much greater irradiation than they do now. Jupiter, in particular, might end up more highly irradiated than the hot Neptune GJ 436b and, hence, could appropriately be termed a 'hot Jupiter'. When their stars go through the RGB or asymptotic giant branch stages, many of the currently known Jupiter-mass planets in several-AU orbits will receive levels of irradiation comparable to the hot Jupiters, which will transiently increase their atmospheric temperatures to {approx}1000 K or more. Furthermore, massive planets around post-main-sequence starsmore » could accrete a non-negligible amount of material from the enhanced stellar winds, thereby significantly altering their atmospheric chemistry as well as causing a significant accretion luminosity during the epochs of most intense stellar mass loss. Future generations of infrared observatories might be able to probe the thermal and chemical structure of such hot Jupiters' atmospheres. Finally, we argue that, unlike their main-sequence analogs (whose zonal winds are thought to be organized in only a few broad, planetary-scale jets), red-giant hot Jupiters should have multiple, narrow jets of zonal winds and efficient day-night redistribution.« less

X-RAY EMISSION FROM MAGNETIC MASSIVE STARS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nazé, Yaël; Petit, Véronique; Rinbrand, Melanie

2014-11-01

Magnetically confined winds of early-type stars are expected to be sources of bright and hard X-rays. To clarify the systematics of the observed X-ray properties, we have analyzed a large series of Chandra and XMM-Newton observations, corresponding to all available exposures of known massive magnetic stars (over 100 exposures covering ∼60% of stars compiled in the catalog of Petit et al.). We show that the X-ray luminosity is strongly correlated with the stellar wind mass-loss rate, with a power-law form that is slightly steeper than linear for the majority of the less luminous, lower- M-dot B stars and flattens formore » the more luminous, higher- M-dot O stars. As the winds are radiatively driven, these scalings can be equivalently written as relations with the bolometric luminosity. The observed X-ray luminosities, and their trend with mass-loss rates, are well reproduced by new MHD models, although a few overluminous stars (mostly rapidly rotating objects) exist. No relation is found between other X-ray properties (plasma temperature, absorption) and stellar or magnetic parameters, contrary to expectations (e.g., higher temperature for stronger mass-loss rate). This suggests that the main driver for the plasma properties is different from the main determinant of the X-ray luminosity. Finally, variations of the X-ray hardnesses and luminosities, in phase with the stellar rotation period, are detected for some objects and they suggest that some temperature stratification exists in massive stars' magnetospheres.« less

Two-component Jaffe models with a central black hole - I. The spherical case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciotti, Luca; Ziaee Lorzad, Azadeh

2018-02-01

Dynamical properties of spherically symmetric galaxy models where both the stellar and total mass density distributions are described by the Jaffe (1983) profile (with different scalelengths and masses) are presented. The orbital structure of the stellar component is described by Osipkov-Merritt anisotropy, and a black hole (BH) is added at the centre of the galaxy; the dark matter halo is isotropic. First, the conditions required to have a nowhere negative and monotonically decreasing dark matter halo density profile are derived. We then show that the phase-space distribution function can be recovered by using the Lambert-Euler W function, while in absence of the central BH only elementary functions appears in the integrand of the inversion formula. The minimum value of the anisotropy radius for consistency is derived in terms of the galaxy parameters. The Jeans equations for the stellar component are solved analytically, and the projected velocity dispersion at the centre and at large radii are also obtained analytically for generic values of the anisotropy radius. Finally, the relevant global quantities entering the Virial Theorem are computed analytically, and the fiducial anisotropy limit required to prevent the onset of Radial Orbit Instability is determined as a function of the galaxy parameters. The presented models, even though highly idealized, represent a substantial generalization of the models presented in Ciotti, and can be useful as starting point for more advanced modelling, the dynamics and the mass distribution of elliptical galaxies.

Organized chaos: scatter in the relation between stellar mass and halo mass in small galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garrison-Kimmel, Shea; Bullock, James S.; Boylan-Kolchin, Michael; Bardwell, Emma

2017-01-01

We use Local Group galaxy counts together with the ELVIS N-body simulations to explore the relationship between the scatter and slope in the stellar mass versus halo mass relation at low masses, M⋆ ≃ 105-108 M⊙. Assuming models with lognormal scatter about a median relation of the form M_star ∝ M_halo^α, the preferred log-slope steepens from α ≃ 1.8 in the limit of zero scatter to α ≃ 2.6 in the case of 2 dex of scatter in M⋆ at fixed halo mass. We provide fitting functions for the best-fitting relations as a function of scatter, including cases where the relation becomes increasingly stochastic with decreasing mass. We show that if the scatter at fixed halo mass is large enough (≳ 1 dex) and if the median relation is steep enough (α ≳ 2), then the `too-big-to-fail' problem seen in the Local Group can be self-consistently eliminated in about ˜5-10 per cent of realizations. This scenario requires that the most massive subhaloes host unobservable ultra-faint dwarfs fairly often; we discuss potentially observable signatures of these systems. Finally, we compare our derived constraints to recent high-resolution simulations of dwarf galaxy formation in the literature. Though simulation-to-simulation scatter in M⋆ at fixed Mhalo is large among different authors (˜2 dex), individual codes produce relations with much less scatter and usually give relations that would overproduce local galaxy counts.

Introducing galactic structure finder: the multiple stellar kinematic structures of a simulated Milky Way mass galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Obreja, Aura; Macciò, Andrea V.; Moster, Benjamin; Dutton, Aaron A.; Buck, Tobias; Stinson, Gregory S.; Wang, Liang

2018-07-01

We present the first results of applying Gaussian Mixture Models in the stellar kinematic space of normalized angular momentum and binding energy on NIHAO high-resolution galaxies to separate the stars into multiple components. We exemplify this method, using a simulated Milky Way analogue, whose stellar component hosts thin and thick discs, classical and pseudo bulges, and a stellar halo. The properties of these stellar structures are in good agreement with observational expectations in terms of sizes, shapes, and rotational support. Interestingly, the two kinematic discs show surface mass density profiles more centrally concentrated than exponentials, while the bulges and the stellar halo are purely exponential. We trace back in time the Lagrangian mass of each component separately to study their formation history. Between z ˜ 3 and the end of halo virialization, z ˜ 1.3, all components lose a fraction of their angular momentum. The classical bulge loses the most (˜ 95 per cent) and the thin disc the least (˜ 60 per cent). Both bulges formed their stars in situ at high redshift, while the thin disc formed ˜ 98 per cent in situ, but with a constant SFR ˜ 1.5 M⊙ yr-1 over the last ˜11 Gyr. Accreted stars (6 per cent of total stellar mass) are mainly incorporated to the thick disc or the stellar halo, which formed ex situ 8 per cent and 45 per cent of their respective masses. Our analysis pipeline is freely available at https://github.com/aobr/gsf.

The Diversity of Chemical Composition and the Effects on Stellar Evolution and Planetary Habitability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Truitt, Amanda R.

2017-08-01

I present a catalog of 1,794 stellar evolution models for solar-type and low-mass stars, which is intended to help characterize real host-stars of interest during the ongoing search for potentially habitable exoplanets. The main grid is composed of 904 tracks, for 0.5-1.2 M solar masses at scaled metallicity values of 0.1-1.5 Z solar masses and specific elemental abundance ratio values of 0.44-2.28 O/Fe solar masses, 0.58-1.72 C/Fe solar masses, 0.54-1.84 Mg/Fe solar masses, and 0.5-2.0 Ne/Fe solar masses. The catalog includes a small grid of late stage evolutionary tracks (25 models), as well as a grid of M-dwarf stars for 0.1-0.45 M solar masses (856 models). The time-dependent habitable zone evolution is calculated for each track, and is strongly dependent on stellar mass, effective temperature, and luminosity parameterizations. I have also developed a subroutine for the stellar evolution code TYCHO that implements a minimalist coupled model for estimating changes in the stellar X-ray luminosity, mass loss, rotational velocity, and magnetic activity over time; to test the utility of the updated code, I created a small grid (9 models) for solar-mass stars, with variations in rotational velocity and scaled metallicity. Including this kind of information in the catalog will ultimately allow for a more robust consideration of the long-term conditions that orbiting planets may experience. In order to gauge the true habitability potential of a given planetary system, it is extremely important to characterize the host-star's mass, specific chemical composition, and thus the timescale over which the star will evolve. It is also necessary to assess the likelihood that a planet found in the "instantaneous" habitable zone has actually had sufficient time to become "detectably" habitable. This catalog provides accurate stellar evolution predictions for a large collection of theoretical host-stars; the models are of particular utility in that they represent the real variation in stellar parameters that have been observed in nearby stars.

On the Stellar Population and Star-Forming History of the Orion Nebula Cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hillenbrand, Lynne A.

1997-05-01

We report on the first phase of a study of the stellar population comprising the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). Approximately 50% of the ~ 3500 stars identified to date within ~ 2.5 pc of the namesake Trapezium stars are optically visible, and in this paper we focus on that sample with I < 17.5 mag. The large number and number density (npeak > 10(4) pc(-3) ) of stars, the wide range in stellar mass ( ~ 0.1-50 M_⊙), and the extreme youth (< 1-2 Myr) of the stellar population, make the ONC the best site for investigating: 1) the detailed shape of a truly ``initial'' mass spectrum; 2) the apparent age spread in a region thought to have undergone triggered star formation; 3) the time sequence of star formation as a function of stellar mass; and 4) trends of all of the above with cluster radius. Nearly 60% of the ~ 1600 optical stars have sufficient data (spectroscopy and photometry) for placement on a theoretical HR diagram; this subsample is unbiased with respect to apparent brightness or cluster radius, complete down to ~ 1 M_⊙, and representative of the total optical sample below ~ 1 M_⊙ for the age and extinction ranges characteristic of the cluster. Comparison of the derived HR diagram with traditional pre-main sequence evolutionary calculations shows a trend of increasing stellar age with increasing stellar mass. To avoid the implication of earlier characteristic formation times for higher-mass stars than for lower-mass stars, refinement of early evolutionary theory in a manner similar to the birthline hypothesis of Palla & Stahler (1993), is required. Subject to uncertainties in the tracks and isochrones, we can still investigate stellar mass and age distributions in the ONC. We find the ONC as a whole to be characterized by a mass spectrum which is not grossly inconsistent with ``standard'' stellar mass spectra. In particular, although there are structural differences between the detailed ONC mass spectrum and various models constructed from solar neighborhood data, the observed mass spectrum appears to a peak at ~ 0.2 M_⊙ and to fall off rapidly towards lower masses; several substellar objects are present. The abundance of low-mass stars relative to high-mass stars suggests that there is no bi-modal star formation mode; somewhat ironically, the ONC probably contains fractionally more low-mass stars than the solar neighborhood since the population not yet located on the HR diagram is dominated by sub-solar-mass stars. Nonetheless, the ONC mass spectrum is biased towards higher-mass stars within the innermost cluster radii (rprojected < 0.3 pc). We find the ONC as a whole to be characterized by a mean age of < 1 Myr and an age spread which is probably less than 2 Myr, but also by a bias towards younger stars at smaller projected cluster radii. Although the most massive stars and the youngest stars are found preferentially towards the center of the ONC it does not follow that the most massive stars are the youngest stars. A lower limit to the total cluster mass in stars is Mstars ~ 900 M_⊙ (probably a factor of < 2 underestimate). A lower limit to the recent star formation rate is ~ 10(-4) M_⊙ yr(-1) . All observational data in this study as well as stellar parameters derived from them are available in electronic format.

Stellar-mass black holes and ultraluminous x-ray sources.

PubMed

Fender, Rob; Belloni, Tomaso

2012-08-03

We review the likely population, observational properties, and broad implications of stellar-mass black holes and ultraluminous x-ray sources. We focus on the clear empirical rules connecting accretion and outflow that have been established for stellar-mass black holes in binary systems in the past decade and a half. These patterns of behavior are probably the keys that will allow us to understand black hole feedback on the largest scales over cosmological time scales.

The Incomplete Conditional Stellar Mass Function: Unveiling the Stellar Mass Functions of Galaxies at 0.1 < Z < 0.8 from BOSS Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Hong; Yang, Xiaohu; Lu, Yi

2018-05-01

We propose a novel method to constrain the missing fraction of galaxies using galaxy clustering measurements in the galaxy conditional stellar mass function (CSMF) framework, which is applicable to surveys that suffer significantly from sample selection effects. The clustering measurements, which are not sensitive to the random sampling (missing fraction) of galaxies, are widely used to constrain the stellar–halo mass relation (SHMR). By incorporating a missing fraction (incompleteness) component into the CSMF model (ICSMF), we use the incomplete stellar mass function and galaxy clustering to simultaneously constrain the missing fractions and the SHMRs. Tests based on mock galaxy catalogs with a few typical missing fraction models show that this method can accurately recover the missing fraction and the galaxy SHMR, hence providing us with reliable measurements of the galaxy stellar mass functions. We then apply it to the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) over the redshift range of 0.1 < z < 0.8 for galaxies of M * > 1011 M ⊙. We find that the sample completeness for BOSS is over 80% at z < 0.6 but decreases at higher redshifts to about 30%. After taking these completeness factors into account, we provide accurate measurements of the stellar mass functions for galaxies with {10}11 {M}ȯ < {M}* < {10}12 {M}ȯ , as well as the SHMRs, over the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.8 in this largest galaxy redshift survey.

Mass-loss rates of cool stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katrien Els Decin, Leen

2015-08-01

Over much of the initial mass function, stars lose a significant fraction of their mass through a stellar wind during the late stages of their evolution when being a (super)giant star. As of today, we can not yet predict the mass-loss rate during the (super)giant phase for a given star with specific stellar parameters from first principles. This uncertainty directly impacts the accuracy of current stellar evolution and population synthesis models that predict the enrichment of the interstellar medium by these stellar winds. Efforts to establish the link between the initial physical and chemical conditions at stellar birth and the mass-loss rate during the (super)giant phase have proceeded on two separate tracks: (1) more detailed studies of the chemical and morpho-kinematical structure of the stellar winds of (super)giant stars in our own Milky Way by virtue of the proximity, and (2) large scale and statistical studies of a (large) sample of stars in other galaxies (such as the LMC and SMC) and globular clusters eliminating the uncertainty on the distance estimate and providing insight into the dependence of the mass-loss rate on the metallicity. In this review, I will present recent results of both tracks, will show how recent measurements confirm (some) theoretical predictions, but also how results from the first track admonish of common misconceptions inherent in the often more simplified analysis used to analyse the large samples from track 2.

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): probing the merger histories of massive galaxies via stellar populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferreras, I.; Hopkins, A. M.; Gunawardhana, M. L. P.; Sansom, A. E.; Owers, M. S.; Driver, S.; Davies, L.; Robotham, A.; Taylor, E. N.; Konstantopoulos, I.; Brough, S.; Norberg, P.; Croom, S.; Loveday, J.; Wang, L.; Bremer, M.

2017-06-01

The merging history of galaxies can be traced with studies of dynamically close pairs. These consist of a massive primary galaxy and a less massive secondary (or satellite) galaxy. The study of the stellar populations of secondary (lower mass) galaxies in close pairs provides a way to understand galaxy growth by mergers. Here we focus on systems involving at least one massive galaxy - with stellar mass above 1011M⊙ in the highly complete Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Our working sample comprises 2692 satellite galaxy spectra (0.1 ≤ z ≤ 0.3). These spectra are combined into high S/N stacks, and binned according to both an 'internal' parameter, the stellar mass of the satellite galaxy (I.e. the secondary), and an 'external' parameter, selecting either the mass of the primary in the pair, or the mass of the corresponding dark matter halo. We find significant variations in the age of the populations with respect to environment. At fixed mass, satellites around the most massive galaxies are older and possibly more metal-rich, with age differences ˜1-2 Gyr within the subset of lower mass satellites (˜1010 M⊙). These variations are similar when stacking with respect to the halo mass of the group where the pair is embedded. The population trends in the lower mass satellites are consistent with the old stellar ages found in the outer regions of massive galaxies.

Uncertainties in Galactic Chemical Evolution Models

DOE PAGES

Cote, Benoit; Ritter, Christian; Oshea, Brian W.; ...

2016-06-15

Here we use a simple one-zone galactic chemical evolution model to quantify the uncertainties generated by the input parameters in numerical predictions for a galaxy with properties similar to those of the Milky Way. We compiled several studies from the literature to gather the current constraints for our simulations regarding the typical value and uncertainty of the following seven basic parameters: the lower and upper mass limits of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), the slope of the high-mass end of the stellar IMF, the slope of the delay-time distribution function of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), the number ofmore » SNe Ia per M ⊙ formed, the total stellar mass formed, and the final mass of gas. We derived a probability distribution function to express the range of likely values for every parameter, which were then included in a Monte Carlo code to run several hundred simulations with randomly selected input parameters. This approach enables us to analyze the predicted chemical evolution of 16 elements in a statistical manner by identifying the most probable solutions along with their 68% and 95% confidence levels. Our results show that the overall uncertainties are shaped by several input parameters that individually contribute at different metallicities, and thus at different galactic ages. The level of uncertainty then depends on the metallicity and is different from one element to another. Among the seven input parameters considered in this work, the slope of the IMF and the number of SNe Ia are currently the two main sources of uncertainty. The thicknesses of the uncertainty bands bounded by the 68% and 95% confidence levels are generally within 0.3 and 0.6 dex, respectively. When looking at the evolution of individual elements as a function of galactic age instead of metallicity, those same thicknesses range from 0.1 to 0.6 dex for the 68% confidence levels and from 0.3 to 1.0 dex for the 95% confidence levels. The uncertainty in our chemical evolution model does not include uncertainties relating to stellar yields, star formation and merger histories, and modeling assumptions.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cote, Benoit; Ritter, Christian; Oshea, Brian W.

Here we use a simple one-zone galactic chemical evolution model to quantify the uncertainties generated by the input parameters in numerical predictions for a galaxy with properties similar to those of the Milky Way. We compiled several studies from the literature to gather the current constraints for our simulations regarding the typical value and uncertainty of the following seven basic parameters: the lower and upper mass limits of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), the slope of the high-mass end of the stellar IMF, the slope of the delay-time distribution function of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), the number ofmore » SNe Ia per M ⊙ formed, the total stellar mass formed, and the final mass of gas. We derived a probability distribution function to express the range of likely values for every parameter, which were then included in a Monte Carlo code to run several hundred simulations with randomly selected input parameters. This approach enables us to analyze the predicted chemical evolution of 16 elements in a statistical manner by identifying the most probable solutions along with their 68% and 95% confidence levels. Our results show that the overall uncertainties are shaped by several input parameters that individually contribute at different metallicities, and thus at different galactic ages. The level of uncertainty then depends on the metallicity and is different from one element to another. Among the seven input parameters considered in this work, the slope of the IMF and the number of SNe Ia are currently the two main sources of uncertainty. The thicknesses of the uncertainty bands bounded by the 68% and 95% confidence levels are generally within 0.3 and 0.6 dex, respectively. When looking at the evolution of individual elements as a function of galactic age instead of metallicity, those same thicknesses range from 0.1 to 0.6 dex for the 68% confidence levels and from 0.3 to 1.0 dex for the 95% confidence levels. The uncertainty in our chemical evolution model does not include uncertainties relating to stellar yields, star formation and merger histories, and modeling assumptions.« less

The First Stars: A Low-Mass Formation Mode

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stacy, Athena; Bromm, Volker

2014-01-01

We perform numerical simulations of the growth of a Population III stellar system under photodissociating feedback. We start from cosmological initial conditions at z = 100, self-consistently following the formation of a minihalo at z = 15 and the subsequent collapse of its central gas to high densities. The simulations resolve scales as small as approx. 1 AU, corresponding to gas densities of 10(exp 16)/cu cm. Using sink particles to represent the growing protostars, we evolve the stellar system for the next 5000 yr. We find that this emerging stellar group accretes at an unusually low rate compared with minihalos which form at earlier times (z = 20-30), or with lower baryonic angular momentum. The stars in this unusual system will likely reach masses ranging from <1Stellar Mass to approx. 5 Stellar Mass by the end of their main-sequence lifetimes, placing them in the mass range for which stars will undergo an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase. Based upon the simulation, we predict the rare existence of Population III stars that have survived to the present day and have been enriched by mass overflow from a previous AGB companion.

Transient Mass-loss Analysis of Solar Observations Using Stellar Methods

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Crosley, M. K.; Norman, C.; Osten, R. A.

Low-frequency dynamic spectra of radio bursts from nearby stars offer the best chance to directly detect the stellar signature of transient mass loss on low-mass stars. Crosley et al. (2016) proposes a multi-wavelength methodology to determine coronal mass ejection (CME) parameters, such as speed, mass, and kinetic energy. We test the validity and accuracy of the results derived from the methodology by using Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite X-ray observations and Bruny Island Radio Spectrometer radio observations. These are analogous observations to those that would be found in the stellar studies. Derived results from these observations are compared to direct whitemore » light measurements of the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph. We find that, when a pre-event temperature can be determined, the accuracy of CME speeds are within a few hundred km s{sup −1}, and are reliable when specific criteria has been met. CME mass and kinetic energies are only useful in determining the approximate order of magnitude measurements when considering the large errors associated to them. These results will be directly applicable to the interpretation of any detected stellar events and the derivation of stellar CME properties.« less

Exploring the cosmic evolution of habitability with galaxy merger trees

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanway, E. R.; Hoskin, M. J.; Lane, M. A.; Brown, G. C.; Childs, H. J. T.; Greis, S. M. L.; Levan, A. J.

2018-04-01

We combine inferred galaxy properties from a semi-analytic galaxy evolution model incorporating dark matter halo merger trees with new estimates of supernova and gamma-ray burst rates as a function of metallicity from stellar population synthesis models incorporating binary interactions. We use these to explore the stellar-mass fraction of galaxies irradiated by energetic astrophysical transients and its evolution over cosmic time, and thus the fraction which is potentially habitable by life like our own. We find that 18 per cent of the stellar mass in the Universe is likely to have been irradiated within the last 260 Myr, with GRBs dominating that fraction. We do not see a strong dependence of irradiated stellar-mass fraction on stellar mass or richness of the galaxy environment. We consider a representative merger tree as a Local Group analogue, and find that there are galaxies at all masses which have retained a high habitable fraction (>40 per cent) over the last 6 Gyr, but also that there are galaxies at all masses where the merger history and associated star formation have rendered galaxies effectively uninhabitable. This illustrates the need to consider detailed merger trees when evaluating the cosmic evolution of habitability.

The Fate of Super-AGB Stars at Low Metallicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Decressin, T.; Siess, L.; Charbonnel, C.; Leclair, G.

2005-11-01

Super-AGBs are stars massive enough to ignite carbon off center and to climb the asymptotic giant branch (where they undergo thermal pulses) after core carbon exhaustion. The destiny of these stars, ONe white dwarfs or neutron stars, depends essentially on the ability of the mass loss to peel the stellar envelope before the core reaches the critical mass for electron captures to occur. Here, we focus on a super-AGB stars of 8.5 Msolar at Z=0.0001 and investigate the effects of various mass loss prescriptions. We study the interplay between mass loss and diffusive overshooting below the convective envelope. The former determines the duration of the AGB phase and the final state of the star; the latter affects the increase of the core mass and the nucleosynthesis as well.

APOKASC 2.0: Asteroseismology and Spectroscopy for Cool Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pinsonneault, Marc H.; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; APOKASC

2017-01-01

The APOGEE survey has obtained and analyzed high resolution H band spectra of more than 10,000 cool dwarfs and giants in the original Kepler fields. The APOKASC effort combines this data with asteroseismology and star spot studies, resulting in more than 7,000 stellar mass estimates for dwarfs and giants with high quality abundances, temperatures, and surface gravities. We highlight the main results from this effort so far, which include a tight correlation between surface abundances in giants and stellar mass, precise absolute gravity calibrations, and the discovery of unexpected stellar populations, such as young alpha-enhanced stars. We discuss grid modeling estimates for stellar masses and compare the absolute asteroseismic mass scale to calibrators in star clusters and the halo Directions for future efforts are discussed.

THE DiskMass SURVEY. III. STELLAR KINEMATICS VIA CROSS-CORRELATION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Westfall, Kyle B.; Bershady, Matthew A.; Verheijen, Marc A. W., E-mail: westfall@astro.rug.nl, E-mail: mab@astro.wisc.edu, E-mail: verheyen@astro.rug.nl

2011-03-15

We describe a new cross-correlation (CC) approach used by our survey to derive stellar kinematics from galaxy-continuum spectroscopy. This approach adopts the formal error analysis derived by Statler, but properly handles spectral masks. Thus, we address the primary concerns regarding application of the CC method to censored data, while maintaining its primary advantage by consolidating kinematic and template-mismatch information toward different regions of the CC function. We identify a systematic error in the nominal CC method of approximately 10% in velocity dispersion incurred by a mistreatment of detector-censored data, which is eliminated by our new method. We derive our approachmore » from first principles, and we use Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate its efficacy. An identical set of Monte Carlo simulations performed using the well-established penalized-pixel-fitting code of Cappellari and Emsellem compares favorably with the results from our newly implemented software. Finally, we provide a practical demonstration of this software by extracting stellar kinematics from SparsePak spectra of UGC 6918.« less

Stellar Wakes from Dark Matter Subhalos.

PubMed

Buschmann, Malte; Kopp, Joachim; Safdi, Benjamin R; Wu, Chih-Liang

2018-05-25

We propose a novel method utilizing stellar kinematic data to detect low-mass substructure in the Milky Way's dark matter halo. By probing characteristic wakes that a passing dark matter subhalo leaves in the phase-space distribution of ambient halo stars, we estimate sensitivities down to subhalo masses of ∼10^{7}  M_{⊙} or below. The detection of such subhalos would have implications for dark matter and cosmological models that predict modifications to the halo-mass function at low halo masses. We develop an analytic formalism for describing the perturbed stellar phase-space distributions, and we demonstrate through idealized simulations the ability to detect subhalos using the phase-space model and a likelihood framework. Our method complements existing methods for low-mass subhalo searches, such as searches for gaps in stellar streams, in that we can localize the positions and velocities of the subhalos today.

ACCURATE LOW-MASS STELLAR MODELS OF KOI-126

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Feiden, Gregory A.; Chaboyer, Brian; Dotter, Aaron, E-mail: gregory.a.feiden@dartmouth.edu

2011-10-10

The recent discovery of an eclipsing hierarchical triple system with two low-mass stars in a close orbit (KOI-126) by Carter et al. appeared to reinforce the evidence that theoretical stellar evolution models are not able to reproduce the observational mass-radius relation for low-mass stars. We present a set of stellar models for the three stars in the KOI-126 system that show excellent agreement with the observed radii. This agreement appears to be due to the equation of state implemented by our code. A significant dispersion in the observed mass-radius relation for fully convective stars is demonstrated; indicative of the influencemore » of physics currently not incorporated in standard stellar evolution models. We also predict apsidal motion constants for the two M dwarf companions. These values should be observationally determined to within 1% by the end of the Kepler mission.« less

Estimating precise metallicity and stellar mass evolution of galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mosby, Gregory

2018-01-01

The evolution of galaxies can be conveniently broken down into the evolution of their contents. The changing dust, gas, and stellar content in addition to the changing dark matter potential and periodic feedback from a super-massive blackhole are some of the key ingredients. We focus on the stellar content that can be observed, as the stars reflect information about the galaxy when they were formed. We approximate the stellar content and star formation histories of unresolved galaxies using stellar population modeling. Though simplistic, this approach allows us to reconstruct the star formation histories of galaxies that can be used to test models of galaxy formation and evolution. These models, however, suffer from degeneracies at large lookback times (t > 1 Gyr) as red, low luminosity stars begin to dominate a galaxy’s spectrum. Additionally, degeneracies between stellar populations at different ages and metallicities often make stellar population modeling less precise. The machine learning technique diffusion k-means has been shown to increase the precision in stellar population modeling using a mono-metallicity basis set. However, as galaxies evolve, we expect the metallicity of stellar populations to vary. We use diffusion k-means to generate a multi-metallicity basis set to estimate the stellar mass and chemical evolution of unresolved galaxies. Two basis sets are formed from the Bruzual & Charlot 2003 and MILES stellar population models. We then compare the accuracy and precision of these models in recovering complete (stellar mass and metallicity) histories of mock data. Similarities in the groupings of stellar population spectra in the diffusion maps for each metallicity hint at fundamental age transitions common to both basis sets that can be used to identify stellar populations in a given age range.

A relation between the characteristic stellar ages of galaxies and their intrinsic shapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van de Sande, Jesse; Scott, Nicholas; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Brough, Sarah; Bryant, Julia J.; Colless, Matthew; Cortese, Luca; Croom, Scott M.; d'Eugenio, Francesco; Foster, Caroline; Goodwin, Michael; Konstantopoulos, Iraklis S.; Lawrence, Jon S.; McDermid, Richard M.; Medling, Anne M.; Owers, Matt S.; Richards, Samuel N.; Sharp, Rob

2018-06-01

Stellar population and stellar kinematic studies provide unique but complementary insights into how galaxies build-up their stellar mass and angular momentum1-3. A galaxy's mean stellar age reveals when stars were formed, but provides little constraint on how the galaxy's mass was assembled. Resolved stellar dynamics4 trace the change in angular momentum due to mergers, but major mergers tend to obscure the effect of earlier interactions5. With the rise of large multi-object integral field spectroscopic surveys, such as SAMI6 and MaNGA7, and single-object integral field spectroscopic surveys (for example, ATLAS3D (ref. 8), CALIFA9, MASSIVE10), it is now feasible to connect a galaxy's star formation and merger history on the same resolved physical scales, over a large range in galaxy mass, morphology and environment4,11,12. Using the SAMI Galaxy Survey, here we present a combined study of spatially resolved stellar kinematics and global stellar populations. We find a strong correlation of stellar population age with location in the (V/σ, ɛe) diagram that links the ratio of ordered rotation to random motions in a galaxy to its observed ellipticity. For the large majority of galaxies that are oblate rotating spheroids, we find that characteristic stellar age follows the intrinsic ellipticity of galaxies remarkably well.

A relation between the characteristic stellar ages of galaxies and their intrinsic shapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van de Sande, Jesse; Scott, Nicholas; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Brough, Sarah; Bryant, Julia J.; Colless, Matthew; Cortese, Luca; Croom, Scott M.; d'Eugenio, Francesco; Foster, Caroline; Goodwin, Michael; Konstantopoulos, Iraklis S.; Lawrence, Jon S.; McDermid, Richard M.; Medling, Anne M.; Owers, Matt S.; Richards, Samuel N.; Sharp, Rob

2018-04-01

Stellar population and stellar kinematic studies provide unique but complementary insights into how galaxies build-up their stellar mass and angular momentum1-3. A galaxy's mean stellar age reveals when stars were formed, but provides little constraint on how the galaxy's mass was assembled. Resolved stellar dynamics4 trace the change in angular momentum due to mergers, but major mergers tend to obscure the effect of earlier interactions5. With the rise of large multi-object integral field spectroscopic surveys, such as SAMI6 and MaNGA7, and single-object integral field spectroscopic surveys (for example, ATLAS3D (ref. 8), CALIFA9, MASSIVE10), it is now feasible to connect a galaxy's star formation and merger history on the same resolved physical scales, over a large range in galaxy mass, morphology and environment4,11,12. Using the SAMI Galaxy Survey, here we present a combined study of spatially resolved stellar kinematics and global stellar populations. We find a strong correlation of stellar population age with location in the (V/σ, ɛe) diagram that links the ratio of ordered rotation to random motions in a galaxy to its observed ellipticity. For the large majority of galaxies that are oblate rotating spheroids, we find that characteristic stellar age follows the intrinsic ellipticity of galaxies remarkably well.

Frontiers of stellar evolution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lambert, David L. (Editor)

1991-01-01

The present conference discusses theoretical and observational views of star formation, spectroscopic constraints on the evolution of massive stars, very low mass stars and brown dwarfs, asteroseismology, globular clusters as tests of stellar evolution, observational tests of stellar evolution, and mass loss from cool evolved giant stars. Also discussed are white dwarfs and hot subdwarfs, neutron stars and black holes, supernovae from single stars, close binaries with evolved components, accretion disks in interacting binaries, supernovae in binary systems, stellar evolution and galactic chemical evolution, and interacting binaries containing compact components.

CHARACTERIZING THE BROWN DWARF FORMATION CHANNELS FROM THE INITIAL MASS FUNCTION AND BINARY-STAR DYNAMICS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Thies, Ingo; Pflamm-Altenburg, Jan; Kroupa, Pavel

2015-02-10

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a key property of stellar populations. There is growing evidence that the classical star-formation mechanism by the direct cloud fragmentation process has difficulties reproducing the observed abundance and binary properties of brown dwarfs and very-low-mass stars. In particular, recent analytical derivations of the stellar IMF exhibit a deficit of brown dwarfs compared to observational data. Here we derive the residual mass function of brown dwarfs as an empirical measure of the brown dwarf deficiency in recent star-formation models with respect to observations and show that it is compatible with the substellar part ofmore » the Thies-Kroupa IMF and the mass function obtained by numerical simulations. We conclude that the existing models may be further improved by including a substellar correction term that accounts for additional formation channels like disk or filament fragmentation. The term ''peripheral fragmentation'' is introduced here for such additional formation channels. In addition, we present an updated analytical model of stellar and substellar binarity. The resulting binary fraction and the dynamically evolved companion mass-ratio distribution are in good agreement with observational data on stellar and very-low-mass binaries in the Galactic field, in clusters, and in dynamically unprocessed groups of stars if all stars form as binaries with stellar companions. Cautionary notes are given on the proper analysis of mass functions and the companion mass-ratio distribution and the interpretation of the results. The existence of accretion disks around young brown dwarfs does not imply that these form just like stars in direct fragmentation.« less

Galaxy and mass assembly (GAMA): the consistency of GAMA and WISE derived mass-to-light ratios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kettlety, T.; Hesling, J.; Phillipps, S.; Bremer, M. N.; Cluver, M. E.; Taylor, E. N.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; De Propris, R.; Driver, S. P.; Holwerda, B. W.; Kelvin, L. S.; Sutherland, W.; Wright, A. H.

2018-01-01

Recent work has suggested that mid-IR wavelengths are optimal for estimating the mass-to-light ratios of stellar populations and hence the stellar masses of galaxies. We compare stellar masses deduced from spectral energy distribution (SED) models, fitted to multiwavelength optical-NIR photometry, to luminosities derived from WISE photometry in the W1 and W2 bands at 3.6 and 4.5 μm for non-star forming galaxies. The SED-derived masses for a carefully selected sample of low-redshift (z ≤ 0.15) passive galaxies agree with the prediction from stellar population synthesis models such that M*/LW1 ≃ 0.6 for all such galaxies, independent of other stellar population parameters. The small scatter between masses predicted from the optical SED and from the WISE measurements implies that random errors (as opposed to systematic ones such as the use of different initial mass functions) are smaller than previous, deliberately conservative, estimates for the SED fits. This test is subtly different from simultaneously fitting at a wide range of optical and mid-IR wavelengths, which may just generate a compromised fit: we are directly checking that the best-fitting model to the optical data generates an SED whose M*/LW1 is also consistent with separate mid-IR data. We confirm that for passive low-redshift galaxies a fixed M*/LW1 = 0.65 can generate masses at least as accurate as those obtained from more complex methods. Going beyond the mean value, in agreement with expectations from the models, we see a modest change in M*/LW1 with SED fitted stellar population age but an insignificant one with metallicity.

Group quenching and galactic conformity at low redshift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Treyer, M.; Kraljic, K.; Arnouts, S.; de la Torre, S.; Pichon, C.; Dubois, Y.; Vibert, D.; Milliard, B.; Laigle, C.; Seibert, M.; Brown, M. J. I.; Grootes, M. W.; Wright, A. H.; Liske, J.; Lara-Lopez, M. A.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.

2018-06-01

We quantify the quenching impact of the group environment using the spectroscopic survey Galaxy and Mass Assembly to z ˜ 0.2. The fraction of red (quiescent) galaxies, whether in groups or isolated, increases with both stellar mass and large-scale (5 Mpc) density. At fixed stellar mass, the red fraction is on average higher for satellites of red centrals than of blue (star-forming) centrals, a galactic conformity effect that increases with density. Most of the signal originates from groups that have the highest stellar mass, reside in the densest environments, and have massive, red only centrals. Assuming a colour-dependent halo-to-stellar-mass ratio, whereby red central galaxies inhabit significantly more massive haloes than blue ones of the same stellar mass, two regimes emerge more distinctly: at log (Mhalo/M⊙) ≲ 13, central quenching is still ongoing, conformity is no longer existent, and satellites and group centrals exhibit the same quenching excess over field galaxies at all mass and density, in agreement with the concept of `group quenching'; at log (Mh/M⊙) ≳ 13, a cut-off that sets apart massive (log (M⋆/M⊙) > 11), fully quenched group centrals, conformity is meaningless, and satellites undergo significantly more quenching than their counterparts in smaller haloes. The latter effect strongly increases with density, giving rise to the density-dependent conformity signal when both regimes are mixed. The star formation of blue satellites in massive haloes is also suppressed compared to blue field galaxies, while blue group centrals and the majority of blue satellites, which reside in low-mass haloes, show no deviation from the colour-stellar mass relation of blue field galaxies.

MASSCLEANCOLORS-MASS-DEPENDENT INTEGRATED COLORS FOR STELLAR CLUSTERS DERIVED FROM 30 MILLION MONTE CARLO SIMULATIONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Popescu, Bogdan; Hanson, M. M.

2010-04-10

We present Monte Carlo models of open stellar clusters with the purpose of mapping out the behavior of integrated colors with mass and age. Our cluster simulation package allows for stochastic variations in the stellar mass function to evaluate variations in integrated cluster properties. We find that UBVK colors from our simulations are consistent with simple stellar population (SSP) models, provided the cluster mass is large, M {sub cluster} {>=} 10{sup 6} M {sub sun}. Below this mass, our simulations show two significant effects. First, the mean value of the distribution of integrated colors moves away from the SSP predictionsmore » and is less red, in the first 10{sup 7} to 10{sup 8} years in UBV colors, and for all ages in (V - K). Second, the 1{sigma} dispersion of observed colors increases significantly with lower cluster mass. We attribute the former to the reduced number of red luminous stars in most of the lower mass clusters and the latter to the increased stochastic effect of a few of these stars on lower mass clusters. This latter point was always assumed to occur, but we now provide the first public code able to quantify this effect. We are completing a more extensive database of magnitudes and colors as a function of stellar cluster age and mass that will allow the determination of the correlation coefficients among different bands, and improve estimates of cluster age and mass from integrated photometry.« less

Local starburst galaxies and their descendants. Statistics from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bergvall, Nils; Marquart, Thomas; Way, Michael J.; Blomqvist, Anna; Holst, Emma; Ostlin, Goran; Zackrisson, Erik

2016-01-01

Despite strong interest in the starburst phenomenon in extragalactic astronomy, the concept remains ill-defined. Here we use a strict definition of starburst to examine the statistical properties of starburst galaxies in the local universe. We also seek to establish links between starburst galaxies, post-starburst (hereafter postburst) galaxies, and active galaxies. Data were selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7. We applied a novel method of treating dust attenuation and derive star formation rates, ages, and stellar masses assuming a two-component stellar population model. Dynamical masses are calculated from the width of the H-alpha line. These masses agree excellently with the photometric masses. The mass (gas+stars) range is approximately 10( exp 9) - 10(exp 11.5) solar mass. As a selection criterion for starburst galaxies, we use, the birthrate parameter, b = SFR/SFR, requiring that b is greater than 3. For postburst galaxies, we use, the equivalent width of Hdelta in absorption with the criterion EW (sub Hdelta_abs) is greater than 6 A. Results. We find that only 1% of star-forming galaxies are starburst galaxies. They contribute 3-6% to the stellar production and are therefore unimportant for the local star formation activity. The median starburst age is 70 Myr roughly independent of mass, indicating that star formation is mainly regulated by local feedback processes. The b-parameter strongly depends on burst age. Values close to b = 60 are found at ages approximately 10 Myr, while almost no starbursts are found at ages greater than 1 Gyr. The median baryonic burst mass fraction of sub-L galaxies is 5% and decreases slowly towards high masses. The median mass fraction of the recent burst in the postburst sample is 5-10%. A smaller fraction of the postburst galaxies, however, originates in non-bursting galaxies. The age-mass distribution of the postburst progenitors (with mass fractions is greater than 3%) is bimodal with a break at logM(solar mass ) 10.6, above which the ages are doubled. The starburst and postburst luminosity functions (LFs) follow each other closely until M(sub r ) (is) approximately -21, when active galactic nuclei (AGNs) begin to dominate. The postburst LF continues to follow the AGN LF, while starbursts become less significant. This suggests that the number of luminous starbursts is underestimated by about one dex at high luminosities, because of having large amounts of dust and/or being outshone by an AGN. It also indicates that the starburst phase preceded the AGN phase. Finally, we look at the conditions for global gas outflow caused by stellar feedback and find that massive starburst galaxies are susceptible to such outflows.

Stellar Properties of Embedded Protostars: Progress and Prospects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greene, Thomas

2006-01-01

Until now, high extinctions have prevented direct observation of the central objects of self-embedded, accreting protostars. However, sensitive high dispersion spectrographs on large aperture telescopes have allowed us to begin studying the stellar astrophysical properties of dozens of embedded low mass protostars in the nearest regions of star formation. These high dispersion spectra allow, for the first time, direct measurements of their stellar effective temperatures, surface gravities, rotation velocities, radial velocities (and spectroscopic binarity), mass accretion properties, and mass outflow indicators. Comparisons of the stellar properties with evolutionary models also allow us to estimate masses and constrain ages. We find that these objects have masses similar to those of older, more evolved T Tauri stars, but protostars have higher mean rotation velocities and angular momenta. Most protostars indicate high mass accretion or outflow, but some in Taurus-Auriga appear to be relatively quiescent. These new results are testing, expanding, and refining the standard star formation paradigm, and we explore how to expand this work further.

Dynamical Mass Segregation Versus Disruption of Binary Stars in Dense Stellar Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Grijs, Richard; Li, C.; Deng, L.

2013-01-01

Upon their formation, dynamically cool (collapsing) star clusters will, within only a few million years, achieve stellar mass segregation for stars down to a few solar masses due to gravitational two-body encounters. Since binary systems are, on average, more massive than single stars, one would expect them to also rapidly mass segregate dynamically. Contrary to these expectations and based on high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations, we show that the compact, 15-30 Myr-old Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 1818 is characterized by an increasing fraction of F-star binary systems (with combined masses of 1.3-1.6 solar masses) with increasing distance from the cluster center. This offers unprecedented support of the theoretically predicted but thus far unobserved dynamical disruption processes of the significant population of "soft" binary systems (with relatively low binding energies compared to the kinetic energy of their stellar members) in star clusters, which we could unravel by virtue of the cluster's unique combination of youth and high stellar density.

The ALHAMBRA survey: 2D analysis of the stellar populations in massive early-type galaxies at z < 0.3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

San Roman, I.; Cenarro, A. J.; Díaz-García, L. A.; López-Sanjuan, C.; Varela, J.; González Delgado, R. M.; Sánchez-Blázquez, P.; Alfaro, E. J.; Ascaso, B.; Bonoli, S.; Borlaff, A.; Castander, F. J.; Cerviño, M.; Fernández-Soto, A.; Márquez, I.; Masegosa, J.; Muniesa, D.; Pović, M.; Viironen, K.; Aguerri, J. A. L.; Benítez, N.; Broadhurst, T.; Cabrera-Caño, J.; Cepa, J.; Cristóbal-Hornillos, D.; Infante, L.; Martínez, V. J.; Moles, M.; del Olmo, A.; Perea, J.; Prada, F.; Quintana, J. M.

2018-01-01

We present a technique that permits the analysis of stellar population gradients in a relatively low-cost way compared to integral field unit (IFU) surveys. We developed a technique to analyze unresolved stellar populations of spatially resolved galaxies based on photometric multi-filter surveys. This technique allows the analysis of vastly larger samples and out to larger galactic radii. We derived spatially resolved stellar population properties and radial gradients by applying a centroidal Voronoi tessellation and performing a multicolor photometry spectral energy distribution fitting. This technique has been successfully applied to a sample of 29 massive (M⋆ > 1010.5M⊙) early-type galaxies at z < 0.3 from the ALHAMBRA survey. We produced detailed 2D maps of stellar population properties (age, metallicity, and extinction), which allow us to identify galactic features. Radial structures were studied, and luminosity-weighted and mass-weighted gradients were derived out to 2-3.5 Reff. We find that the spatially resolved stellar population mass, age, and metallicity are well represented by their integrated values. We find the gradients of early-type galaxies to be on average flat in age (∇log AgeL = 0.02 ± 0.06 dex/Reff) and negative in metallicity (∇[Fe/H]L = -0.09 ± 0.06 dex/Reff). Overall,the extinction gradients are flat (∇Av = -0.03 ± 0.09 mag/Reff ) with a wide spread. These results are in agreement with previous studies that used standard long-slit spectroscopy, and with the most recent IFU studies. According to recent simulations, these results are consistent with a scenario where early-type galaxies were formed through major mergers and where their final gradients are driven by the older ages and higher metallicity of the accreted systems. We demonstrate the scientific potential of multi-filter photometry to explore the spatially resolved stellar populations of local galaxies and confirm previous spectroscopic trends from a complementary technique. Based on observations collected at the German-Spanish Astronomical Center, Calar Alto, jointly operated by the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA) at Heidelberg and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC).

Dynamics of Dwarf Galaxies Disfavor Stellar-Mass Black Holes as Dark Matter.

PubMed

Koushiappas, Savvas M; Loeb, Abraham

2017-07-28

We study the effects of black hole dark matter on the dynamical evolution of stars in dwarf galaxies. We find that mass segregation leads to a depletion of stars in the center of dwarf galaxies and the appearance of a ring in the projected stellar surface density profile. Using Segue 1 as an example we show that current observations of the projected surface stellar density rule out at the 99.9% confidence level the possibility that more than 6% of the dark matter is composed of black holes with a mass of few tens of solar masses.

Dark matter contraction and stellar-mass-to-light ratio gradients in massive early-type galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oldham, Lindsay J.; Auger, Matthew W.

2018-05-01

We present models for the dark and luminous mass structure of 12 strong lensing early-type galaxies. We combine pixel-based modelling of multiband Hubble Space Telescope imaging with Jeans modelling of kinematics obtained from Keck/ESI spectra to disentangle the dark and luminous contributions to the mass. Assuming a generalised NFW (gNFW) profile for the dark matter halo and a spatially constant stellar-mass-to-light ratio ϒ⋆ for the baryonic mass, we infer distributions for ϒ⋆ consistent with initial mass functions (IMFs) that are heavier than the Milky Way's (with a global mean mismatch parameter relative to a Chabrier IMF μαc = 1.80 ± 0.14) and halo inner density slopes that span a large range but are generally cuspier than the dark-matter-only prediction (μ _{γ ^' }} = 2.01_{-0.22}^{+0.19}). We investigate possible reasons for overestimating the halo slope, including the neglect of spatially varying stellar-mass-to-light ratios and/or stellar orbital anisotropy, and find that a quarter of the systems prefer radially declining stellar-mass-to-light ratio gradients, but that the overall effect on our inference on the halo slope is small. We suggest a coherent explanation of these results in the context of inside-out galaxy growth, and that the relative importance of different baryonic processes in shaping the dark halo may depend on halo environment.

The Multiplicity of Wolf-Rayet Stars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wallace, Debra J.

2004-01-01

The most massive stars drastically reconfigure their surroundings via their strong stellar winds and powerful ionizing radiation. With this mass fueling their large luminosities, these stars are frequently used as standard candles in distance determination, and as tracers of stellar evolution in different regions and epochs. In their dieing burst, some of the once massive stars will enter a Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase lasting approx.10% of the stellar lifetime. This phase is particularly useful for study because these stars have strong spectroscopic signatures that allow them to be easily identified at great distances. But how accurate are these identifications? Increasingly, the relatively nearby stars we once assumed to be single are revealing themselves to be binary or multiple. New techniques, such as high-resolution imaging and interferometry, are changing our knowledge of these objects. I will discuss recent results in the literature and how this affects the binary distribution of WR stars. I will also discuss the implications of binary vs. single star evolution on evolution through the WR phase. Finally, I will discuss the implications of these revised numbers on both massive stellar evolution itself, and the impact that this has on the role of WR stars as calibrators.

EMERGE - an empirical model for the formation of galaxies since z ˜ 10

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moster, Benjamin P.; Naab, Thorsten; White, Simon D. M.

2018-06-01

We present EMERGE, an Empirical ModEl for the foRmation of GalaxiEs, describing the evolution of individual galaxies in large volumes from z ˜ 10 to the present day. We assign a star formation rate to each dark matter halo based on its growth rate, which specifies how much baryonic material becomes available, and the instantaneous baryon conversion efficiency, which determines how efficiently this material is converted to stars, thereby capturing the baryonic physics. Satellites are quenched following the delayed-then-rapid model, and they are tidally disrupted once their subhalo has lost a significant fraction of its mass. The model is constrained with observed data extending out to high redshift. The empirical relations are very flexible, and the model complexity is increased only if required by the data, assessed by several model selection statistics. We find that for the same final halo mass galaxies can have very different star formation histories. Galaxies that are quenched at z = 0 typically have a higher peak star formation rate compared to their star-forming counterparts. EMERGE predicts stellar-to-halo mass ratios for individual galaxies and introduces scatter self-consistently. We find that at fixed halo mass, passive galaxies have a higher stellar mass on average. The intracluster mass in massive haloes can be up to eight times larger than the mass of the central galaxy. Clustering for star-forming and quenched galaxies is in good agreement with observational constraints, indicating a realistic assignment of galaxies to haloes.

An Era of Precision Astrophysics for Exoplanets, Stars, and the Milky Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stassun, Keivan G.; Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT); Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS); Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

2018-06-01

While observing stars teaches us about the physical properties of the stars themselves, that knowledge also is the key to measuring the properties of nearly all exoplanets, and also the history of the Galaxy. Combining data from current and upcoming all-sky surveys, including Gaia, TESS, and the fifth Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V), will enable accurate, empirical measurements of fundamental properties for millions of stars throughout the Milky Way—including an increase by four orders of magnitude in the number of stars with reliable parallaxes, two orders of magnitude in the number with ultraprecise light curves, and two orders of magnitude in the number with detailed chemical abundances. We demonstrate that stellar masses, radii, temperatures, distances, space motions, and detailed chemical abundances can now be measured with precisions of order 1%, and with systematics better than ∼5% in most cases. We discuss the transformational advances that such precise stellar measurements promise for exoplanet science, including studies of planetary system architectures, forensic analyses of planet evolution pathways, testing planet formation theories, and even efforts to infer the mineralogy of planets. We also discuss the similarly transformational advances at hand for Galactic archaeology, including studies of stellar micro-populations, testing theories of star formation and of galaxy assembly, and even efforts to trace the chemical "family tree" of the Galaxy through stellar phylogenics. Finally, we discuss the revolution in stellar astrophysics represented by ultraprecise light curves of stars, specifically as probes of stellar interiors and therefore as stress-tests of stellar theory across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.

Protomagnetar and black hole formation in high-mass stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Obergaulinger, M.; Aloy, M. Á.

2017-07-01

Using axisymmetric simulations coupling special relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), an approximate post-Newtonian gravitational potential and two-moment neutrino transport, we show different paths for the formation of either protomagnetars or stellar mass black holes. The fraction of prototypical stellar cores which should result in collapsars depends on a combination of several factors, among which the structure of the progenitor star and the profile of specific angular momentum are probably the foremost. Along with the implosion of the stellar core, we also obtain supernova-like explosions driven by neutrino heating and hydrodynamic instabilities or by magneto-rotational effects in cores of high-mass stars. In the latter case, highly collimated, mildly relativistic outflows are generated. We find that after a rather long post-collapse phase (lasting ≳1 s) black holes may form in cases both of successful and failed supernova-like explosions. A basic trend is that cores with a specific angular momentum smaller than that obtained by standard, one-dimensional stellar evolution calculations form black holes (and eventually collapsars). Complementary, protomagnetars result from stellar cores with the standard distribution of specific angular momentum obtained from prototypical stellar evolution calculations including magnetic torques and moderate to large mass-loss rates.

The California- Kepler Survey. II. Precise Physical Properties of 2025 Kepler Planets and Their Host Stars

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johnson, John Asher; Cargile, Phillip A.; Sinukoff, Evan

We present stellar and planetary properties for 1305 Kepler Objects of Interest hosting 2025 planet candidates observed as part of the California- Kepler Survey. We combine spectroscopic constraints, presented in Paper I, with stellar interior modeling to estimate stellar masses, radii, and ages. Stellar radii are typically constrained to 11%, compared to 40% when only photometric constraints are used. Stellar masses are constrained to 4%, and ages are constrained to 30%. We verify the integrity of the stellar parameters through comparisons with asteroseismic studies and Gaia parallaxes. We also recompute planetary radii for 2025 planet candidates. Because knowledge of planetarymore » radii is often limited by uncertainties in stellar size, we improve the uncertainties in planet radii from typically 42% to 12%. We also leverage improved knowledge of stellar effective temperature to recompute incident stellar fluxes for the planets, now precise to 21%, compared to a factor of two when derived from photometry.« less

Optical-to-virial velocity ratios of local disc galaxies from combined kinematics and galaxy-galaxy lensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reyes, R.; Mandelbaum, R.; Gunn, J. E.; Nakajima, R.; Seljak, U.; Hirata, C. M.

2012-10-01

In this paper, we measure the optical-to-virial velocity ratios Vopt/V200c of disc galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) at a mean redshift of = 0.07 and with stellar masses 109 < M* < 1011 M⊙. Vopt/V200c, the ratio of the circular velocity measured at the optical radius of the disc (˜10 kpc) to that at the virial radius of the dark matter halo (˜150 kpc), is a powerful observational constraint on disc galaxy formation. It links galaxies to their dark matter haloes dynamically and constrains the total mass profile of disc galaxies over an order of magnitude in length scale. For this measurement, we combine Vopt derived from the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR) from Reyes et al. with V200c derived from halo masses measured with galaxy-galaxy lensing. In anticipation of this combination, we use similarly selected galaxy samples for both the TFR and lensing analysis. For three M* bins with lensing-weighted mean stellar masses of 0.6, 2.7 and 6.5 × 1010 M⊙, we find halo-to-stellar mass ratios M200c/M* = 41, 23 and 26, with 1σ statistical uncertainties of around 0.1 dex, and Vopt/V200c = 1.27 ± 0.08, 1.39 ± 0.06 and 1.27 ± 0.08 (1σ), respectively. Our results suggest that the dark matter and baryonic contributions to the mass within the optical radius are comparable, if the dark matter halo profile has not been significantly modified by baryons. The results obtained in this work will serve as inputs to and constraints on disc galaxy formation models, which will be explored in future work. Finally, we note that this paper presents a new and improved galaxy shape catalogue for weak lensing that covers the full SDSS Data Release 7 footprint.

A supermassive black hole in an ultra-compact dwarf galaxy.

PubMed

Seth, Anil C; van den Bosch, Remco; Mieske, Steffen; Baumgardt, Holger; den Brok, Mark; Strader, Jay; Neumayer, Nadine; Chilingarian, Igor; Hilker, Michael; McDermid, Richard; Spitler, Lee; Brodie, Jean; Frank, Matthias J; Walsh, Jonelle L

2014-09-18

Ultra-compact dwarf galaxies are among the densest stellar systems in the Universe. These systems have masses of up to 2 × 10(8) solar masses, but half-light radii of just 3-50 parsecs. Dynamical mass estimates show that many such dwarfs are more massive than expected from their luminosity. It remains unclear whether these high dynamical mass estimates arise because of the presence of supermassive black holes or result from a non-standard stellar initial mass function that causes the average stellar mass to be higher than expected. Here we report adaptive optics kinematic data of the ultra-compact dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1 that show a central velocity dispersion peak exceeding 100 kilometres per second and modest rotation. Dynamical modelling of these data reveals the presence of a supermassive black hole with a mass of 2.1 × 10(7) solar masses. This is 15 per cent of the object's total mass. The high black hole mass and mass fraction suggest that M60-UCD1 is the stripped nucleus of a galaxy. Our analysis also shows that M60-UCD1's stellar mass is consistent with its luminosity, implying a large population of previously unrecognized supermassive black holes in other ultra-compact dwarf galaxies.

GALAXY ZOO: THE FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT CO-EVOLUTION OF SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES AND THEIR EARLY- AND LATE-TYPE HOST GALAXIES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schawinski, Kevin; Urry, C. Megan; Virani, Shanil

We use data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and visual classifications of morphology from the Galaxy Zoo project to study black hole growth in the nearby universe (z < 0.05) and to break down the active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxy population by color, stellar mass, and morphology. We find that the black hole growth at luminosities L[O{sub III}]>10{sup 40} erg s{sup -1} in early- and late-type galaxies is fundamentally different. AGN host galaxies as a population have a broad range of stellar masses (10{sup 10}-10{sup 11} M{sub sun}), reside in the green valley of the color-mass diagram andmore » their central black holes have median masses around 10{sup 6.5} M{sub sun}. However, by comparing early- and late-type AGN host galaxies to their non-active counterparts, we find several key differences: in early-type galaxies, it is preferentially the galaxies with the least massive black holes that are growing, while in late-type galaxies, it is preferentially the most massive black holes that are growing. The duty cycle of AGNs in early-type galaxies is strongly peaked in the green valley below the low-mass end (10{sup 10} M{sub sun}) of the red sequence at stellar masses where there is a steady supply of blue cloud progenitors. The duty cycle of AGNs in late-type galaxies on the other hand peaks in massive (10{sup 11} M{sub sun}) green and red late-types which generally do not have a corresponding blue cloud population of similar mass. At high-Eddington ratios (L/L{sub Edd}>0.1), the only population with a substantial fraction of AGNs are the low-mass green valley early-type galaxies. Finally, the Milky Way likely resides in the 'sweet spot' on the color-mass diagram where the AGN duty cycle of late-type galaxies is highest. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of the role of AGNs in the evolution of galaxies.« less

The Anemic Stellar Halo of M101

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holwerda, Benne

2014-10-01

Models of galaxy formation in a cosmological context predict that massive disk galaxies should have richly-structured extended stellar halos, containing ~10% of a galaxy's stars, originating in large part from the tidal disruption of dwarf galaxies. Observations of a number of nearby disk galaxies have generally agreed with these expectations. Recent new observations in integrated light with a novel array of low scattered-light telephoto lenses have failed to convincingly detect a stellar halo in the nearby massive face-on disk galaxy M101 (van Dokkum et al. 2014). They argue that any halo has to have <0.3% of the mass of the galaxy. This halo would be the least massive of any massive disk galaxy in the local Universe (by factors of several) -- such a halo is not predicted or naturally interpreted by the models, and would present a critical challenge to the picture of ubiquitous stellar halos formed from the debris of disrupting dwarf galaxies.We propose to resolve the stellar populations of this uniquely anemic stellar halo for 6 orbits with HST (ACS and WFC3), allowing us to reach surface brightness limits sufficient to clearly detect and characterize M101's stellar halo if it carries more than 0.1% of M101's mass. With resolved stellar populations, we can use the gradient of stellar populations as a function of radius to separate stellar halo from disk, which is impossible using integrated light observations. The resolved stellar populations will reveal the halo mass to much greater accuracy, measure the halo radial profile, constrain any halo lopsidedness, estimate the halo's stellar metallicity, and permit an analysis of outer disk stellar populations.

Identifying the progenitors of present-day early-type galaxies in observational surveys: correcting `progenitor bias' using the Horizon-AGN simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, G.; Kaviraj, S.; Devriendt, J. E. G.; Dubois, Y.; Pichon, C.; Laigle, C.

2018-03-01

As endpoints of the hierarchical mass-assembly process, the stellar populations of local early-type galaxies encode the assembly history of galaxies over cosmic time. We use Horizon-AGN, a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, to study the merger histories of local early-type galaxies and track how the morphological mix of their progenitors evolves over time. We provide a framework for alleviating `progenitor bias' - the bias that occurs if one uses only early-type galaxies to study the progenitor population. Early types attain their final morphology at relatively early epochs - by z ˜ 1, around 60 per cent of today's early types have had their last significant merger. At all redshifts, the majority of mergers have one late-type progenitor, with late-late mergers dominating at z > 1.5 and early-early mergers becoming significant only at z < 0.5. Progenitor bias is severe at all but the lowest redshifts - e.g. at z ˜ 0.6, less than 50 per cent of the stellar mass in today's early types is actually in progenitors with early-type morphology, while, at z ˜ 2, studying only early types misses almost all (80 per cent) of the stellar mass that eventually ends up in local early-type systems. At high redshift, almost all massive late-type galaxies, regardless of their local environment or star formation rate, are progenitors of local early-type galaxies, as are lower mass (M⋆ < 1010.5 M_{⊙}) late-types as long as they reside in high-density environments. In this new era of large observational surveys (e.g. LSST, JWST), this study provides a framework for studying how today's early-type galaxies have been built up over cosmic time.

Phase-space mass bound for fermionic dark matter from dwarf spheroidal galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Paolo, Chiara; Nesti, Fabrizio; Villante, Francesco L.

2018-04-01

We reconsider the lower bound on the mass of a fermionic dark matter (DM) candidate resulting from the existence of known small dwarf spheroidal galaxies, in the hypothesis that their DM halo is constituted by degenerate fermions, with phase-space density limited by the Pauli exclusion principle. By relaxing the common assumption that the DM halo scale radius is tied to that of the luminous stellar component and by marginalizing on the unknown stellar velocity dispersion anisotropy, we prove that observations lead to rather weak constraints on the DM mass, which could be as low as tens of eV. In this scenario, however, the DM haloes would be quite large and massive, so that a bound stems from the requirement that the time of orbital decay due to dynamical friction in the hosting Milky Way DM halo is longer than their lifetime. The smallest and nearest satellites Segue I and Willman I lead to a final lower bound of m ≳ 100 eV, still weaker than previous estimates but robust and independent on the model of DM formation and decoupling. We thus show that phase-space constraints do not rule out the possibility of sub-keV fermionic DM.

What Turns Galaxies Off? the Different Morphologies of Star-Forming and Quiescent Galaxies Since z Approximates 2 from CANDELS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bell, Eric F.; VanDerWel, Arjen; Papovich, Casey; Kocevski, Dale; Lotz, Jennifer; McIntosh, Daniel H.; Kartaltepe, Jeyhan; Faber, S. M.; Ferguson, Harry; Koekemoer, Anton;

The AIMSS Project - III. The stellar populations of compact stellar systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Janz, Joachim; Norris, Mark A.; Forbes, Duncan A.; Huxor, Avon; Romanowsky, Aaron J.; Frank, Matthias J.; Escudero, Carlos G.; Faifer, Favio R.; Forte, Juan Carlos; Kannappan, Sheila J.; Maraston, Claudia; Brodie, Jean P.; Strader, Jay; Thompson, Bradley R.

2016-02-01

In recent years, a growing zoo of compact stellar systems (CSSs) have been found whose physical properties (mass, size, velocity dispersion) place them between classical globular clusters (GCs) and true galaxies, leading to debates about their nature. Here we present results using a so far underutilized discriminant, their stellar population properties. Based on new spectroscopy from 8-10m telescopes, we derive ages, metallicities, and [α/Fe] of 29 CSSs. These range from GCs with sizes of merely a few parsec to compact ellipticals (cEs) larger than M32. Together with a literature compilation, this provides a panoramic view of the stellar population characteristics of early-type systems. We find that the CSSs are predominantly more metal rich than typical galaxies at the same stellar mass. At high mass, the cEs depart from the mass-metallicity relation of massive early-type galaxies, which forms a continuous sequence with dwarf galaxies. At lower mass, the metallicity distribution of ultracompact dwarfs (UCDs) changes at a few times 107 M⊙, which roughly coincides with the mass where luminosity function arguments previously suggested the GC population ends. The highest metallicities in CSSs are paralleled only by those of dwarf galaxy nuclei and the central parts of massive early types. These findings can be interpreted as CSSs previously being more massive and undergoing tidal interactions to obtain their current mass and compact size. Such an interpretation is supported by CSSs with direct evidence for tidal stripping, and by an examination of the CSS internal escape velocities.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS OF STAR-FORMING AND QUIESCENT GALAXIES TO z = 4 FROM THE COSMOS/UltraVISTA SURVEY

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Muzzin, Adam; Franx, Marijn; Labbé, Ivo

2013-11-01

We present measurements of the stellar mass functions (SMFs) of star-forming and quiescent galaxies to z = 4 using a sample of 95,675 K{sub s} -selected galaxies in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field. The SMFs of the combined population are in good agreement with previous measurements and show that the stellar mass density of the universe was only 50%, 10%, and 1% of its current value at z ∼ 0.75, 2.0, and 3.5, respectively. The quiescent population drives most of the overall growth, with the stellar mass density of these galaxies increasing as ρ{sub star}∝(1 + z){sup –4.7±0.4} since z = 3.5,more » whereas the mass density of star-forming galaxies increases as ρ{sub star}∝(1 + z){sup –2.3±0.2}. At z > 2.5, star-forming galaxies dominate the total SMF at all stellar masses, although a non-zero population of quiescent galaxies persists to z = 4. Comparisons of the K{sub s} -selected star-forming galaxy SMFs with UV-selected SMFs at 2.5 < z < 4 show reasonable agreement and suggest that UV-selected samples are representative of the majority of the stellar mass density at z > 3.5. We estimate the average mass growth of individual galaxies by selecting galaxies at fixed cumulative number density. The average galaxy with log(M{sub star}/M{sub ☉}) = 11.5 at z = 0.3 has grown in mass by only 0.2 dex (0.3 dex) since z = 2.0 (3.5), whereas those with log(M{sub star}/M{sub ☉}) = 10.5 have grown by >1.0 dex since z = 2. At z < 2, the time derivatives of the mass growth are always larger for lower-mass galaxies, which demonstrates that the mass growth in galaxies since that redshift is mass-dependent and primarily bottom-up. Lastly, we examine potential sources of systematic uncertainties in the SMFs and find that those from photo-z templates, stellar population synthesis modeling, and the definition of quiescent galaxies dominate the total error budget in the SMFs.« less

Star and Dust Formation Activities in AzTEC-3, a Starburst Galaxy at z = 5.3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dwek, Eli; Staguhn, Johannes G.; Arendt, Richard G.; Capak, Peter L.; Kovacs, Attila; Benford, Dominic J.; Fixsen, Dale; Karim, Alexander; Leclercq, Samuel; Maher, Stephen F.; Moseley, Samuel H.; Schinnerer, Eva; Sharp, Elmer H.

2011-09-01

Analyses of high-redshift ultraluminous infrared (IR) galaxies traditionally use the observed optical to submillimeter spectral energy distribution (SED) and estimates of the dynamical mass as observational constraints to derive the star formation rate (SFR), the stellar mass, and age of these objects. An important observational constraint neglected in the analysis is the mass of dust giving rise to the IR emission. In this paper we add this constraint to the analysis of AzTEC-3. Adopting an upper limit to the mass of stars and a bolometric luminosity for this object, we construct different stellar and chemical evolutionary scenarios, constrained to produce the inferred dust mass and observed luminosity before the associated stellar mass exceeds the observational limit. We use the PÉGASE population synthesis code and a chemical evolution model to follow the evolution of the galaxy's SED and its stellar and dust masses as a function of galactic age for seven different stellar initial mass functions (IMFs). We find that the model with a Top Heavy IMF provided the most plausible scenario consistent with the observational constraints. In this scenario the dust formed over a period of ~200 Myr, with an SFR of ~500 M sun yr-1. These values for the age and SFR in AzTEC-3 are significantly higher and lower, respectively, from those derived without the dust mass constraint. However, this scenario is not unique, and others cannot be completely ruled out because of the prevailing uncertainties in the age of the galaxy, its bolometric luminosity, and its stellar and dust masses. A robust result of our models is that all scenarios require most of the radiating dust mass to have been accreted in molecular clouds. Our new procedure highlights the importance of a multiwavelength approach, and of the use of dust evolution models in constraining the age and the star formation activity and history in galaxies.

STAR AND DUST FORMATION ACTIVITIES IN AzTEC-3, A STARBURST GALAXY AT z = 5.3

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dwek, Eli; Staguhn, Johannes G.; Arendt, Richard G.

2011-09-01

Analyses of high-redshift ultraluminous infrared (IR) galaxies traditionally use the observed optical to submillimeter spectral energy distribution (SED) and estimates of the dynamical mass as observational constraints to derive the star formation rate (SFR), the stellar mass, and age of these objects. An important observational constraint neglected in the analysis is the mass of dust giving rise to the IR emission. In this paper we add this constraint to the analysis of AzTEC-3. Adopting an upper limit to the mass of stars and a bolometric luminosity for this object, we construct different stellar and chemical evolutionary scenarios, constrained to producemore » the inferred dust mass and observed luminosity before the associated stellar mass exceeds the observational limit. We use the PEGASE population synthesis code and a chemical evolution model to follow the evolution of the galaxy's SED and its stellar and dust masses as a function of galactic age for seven different stellar initial mass functions (IMFs). We find that the model with a Top Heavy IMF provided the most plausible scenario consistent with the observational constraints. In this scenario the dust formed over a period of {approx}200 Myr, with an SFR of {approx}500 M{sub sun} yr{sup -1}. These values for the age and SFR in AzTEC-3 are significantly higher and lower, respectively, from those derived without the dust mass constraint. However, this scenario is not unique, and others cannot be completely ruled out because of the prevailing uncertainties in the age of the galaxy, its bolometric luminosity, and its stellar and dust masses. A robust result of our models is that all scenarios require most of the radiating dust mass to have been accreted in molecular clouds. Our new procedure highlights the importance of a multiwavelength approach, and of the use of dust evolution models in constraining the age and the star formation activity and history in galaxies.« less

BINARY ASTROMETRIC MICROLENSING WITH GAIA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sajadian, Sedighe, E-mail: sajadian@ipm.ir; Department of Physics, Sharif University of Technology, P.O. Box 11155-9161, Tehran

2015-04-15

We investigate whether or not Gaia can specify the binary fractions of massive stellar populations in the Galactic disk through astrometric microlensing. Furthermore, we study whether or not some information about their mass distributions can be inferred via this method. In this regard, we simulate the binary astrometric microlensing events due to massive stellar populations according to the Gaia observing strategy by considering (i) stellar-mass black holes, (ii) neutron stars, (iii) white dwarfs, and (iv) main-sequence stars as microlenses. The Gaia efficiency for detecting the binary signatures in binary astrometric microlensing events is ∼10%–20%. By calculating the optical depth duemore » to the mentioned stellar populations, the numbers of the binary astrometric microlensing events being observed with Gaia with detectable binary signatures, for the binary fraction of about 0.1, are estimated to be 6, 11, 77, and 1316, respectively. Consequently, Gaia can potentially specify the binary fractions of these massive stellar populations. However, the binary fraction of black holes measured with this method has a large uncertainty owing to a low number of the estimated events. Knowing the binary fractions in massive stellar populations helps with studying the gravitational waves. Moreover, we investigate the number of massive microlenses for which Gaia specifies masses through astrometric microlensing of single lenses toward the Galactic bulge. The resulting efficiencies of measuring the mass of mentioned populations are 9.8%, 2.9%, 1.2%, and 0.8%, respectively. The numbers of their astrometric microlensing events being observed in the Gaia era in which the lens mass can be inferred with the relative error less than 0.5 toward the Galactic bulge are estimated as 45, 34, 76, and 786, respectively. Hence, Gaia potentially gives us some information about the mass distribution of these massive stellar populations.« less

A grid of MHD models for stellar mass loss and spin-down rates of solar analogs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cohen, O.; Drake, J. J.

2014-03-01

Stellar winds are believed to be the dominant factor in the spin-down of stars over time. However, stellar winds of solar analogs are poorly constrained due to observational challenges. In this paper, we present a grid of magnetohydrodynamic models to study and quantify the values of stellar mass loss and angular momentum loss rates as a function of the stellar rotation period, magnetic dipole component, and coronal base density. We derive simple scaling laws for the loss rates as a function of these parameters, and constrain the possible mass loss rate of stars with thermally driven winds. Despite the successmore » of our scaling law in matching the results of the model, we find a deviation between the 'solar dipole' case and a real case based on solar observations that overestimates the actual solar mass loss rate by a factor of three. This implies that the model for stellar fields might require a further investigation with additional complexity. Mass loss rates in general are largely controlled by the magnetic field strength, with the wind density varying in proportion to the confining magnetic pressure B {sup 2}. We also find that the mass loss rates obtained using our grid models drop much faster with the increase in rotation period than scaling laws derived using observed stellar activity. For main-sequence solar-like stars, our scaling law for angular momentum loss versus poloidal magnetic field strength retrieves the well-known Skumanich decline of angular velocity with time, Ω{sub *}∝t {sup –1/2}, if the large-scale poloidal magnetic field scales with rotation rate as B{sub p}∝Ω{sub ⋆}{sup 2}.« less

A New Mass Criterium for Electron Capture Supernovae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poelarends, Arend

2016-06-01

Electron capture supernovae (ECSN) are thought to populate the mass range between massive white dwarf progenitors and core collapse supernovae. It is generally believed that the initial stellar mass range for ECSN from single stars is about 0.5-1.0 M⊙ wide and centered around a value of 8.5 or 9 M⊙, depending on the specifics of the physics of convection and mass loss one applies. Since mass loss in a binary system is able to delay or cancel the second dredge-up, it is also believed that the initial mass range for ECSN in binary systems is wider than in single stars, but an initial mass range has not been defined yet.The last phase of stars in this particular mass range, however, is challenging to compute, either due to recurring Helium shell flashes, or due to convectively bound flames in the degenerate interior of the star. It would be helpful, nevertheless, to know before we enter these computationally intensive phases whether a star will explode as an ECSN or not. The mass of the helium core after helium core burning is one such criterium (Nomoto, 1984), which predicts that ECSN will occur if the helium core mass is between 2.0 M⊙ and 2.5 M⊙. However, since helium cores can be subject to erosion due to mass loss — even during helium core burning, this criterium will not yield accurate predictions for stars in binary systems.We present a dense grid of stellar evolution models that allow us to put constraints on the final fate of their cores, based on a combination of Carbon/Oxygen core mass, the mass of the surrounding Helium layer and C/O abundance. We find that CO cores with masses between 1.365 and 1.420 M⊙ at the end of Carbon burning will result in ECSN, with some minor adjustments of these ranges due to the mass of the Helium layer and the C/O ratio. While detailed models of stars within the ECSN mass range remain necessary to understand the details of pre-ECSN evolution, our research refines the Helium core criterion and provides a useful way to determine the final fate of stars in this complicated mass range early on.

The connection between mass, environment, and slow rotation in simulated galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lagos, Claudia del P.; Schaye, Joop; Bahé, Yannick; Van de Sande, Jesse; Kay, Scott T.; Barnes, David; Davis, Timothy A.; Dalla Vecchia, Claudio

2018-06-01

Recent observations from integral field spectroscopy (IFS) indicate that the fraction of galaxies that are slow rotators (SRs), FSR, depends primarily on stellar mass, with no significant dependence on environment. We investigate these trends and the formation paths of SRs using the EAGLE and HYDRANGEA hydrodynamical simulations. EAGLE consists of several cosmological boxes of volumes up to (100 Mpc)^3, while HYDRANGEA consists of 24 cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters and their environment. Together they provide a statistically significant sample in the stellar mass range 10^{9.5}-10^{12.3} M_{⊙}, of 16 358 galaxies. We construct IFS-like cubes and measure stellar spin parameters, λR, and ellipticities, allowing us to classify galaxies into slow/fast rotators as in observations. The simulations display a primary dependence of FSR on stellar mass, with a weak dependence on environment. At fixed stellar mass, satellite galaxies are more likely to be SRs than centrals. FSR shows a dependence on halo mass at fixed stellar mass for central galaxies, while no such trend is seen for satellites. We find that ≈70 per cent of SRs at z = 0 have experienced at least one merger with mass ratio ≥0.1, with dry mergers being at least twice more common than wet mergers. Individual dry mergers tend to decrease λR, while wet mergers mostly increase it. However, 30 per cent of SRs at z = 0 have not experienced mergers, and those inhabit haloes with median spins twice smaller than the haloes hosting the rest of the SRs. Thus, although the formation paths of SRs can be varied, dry mergers and/or haloes with small spins dominate.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: ATLAS3D Project. XXX (McDermid+, 2015)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDermid, R. M.; Alatalo, K.; Blitz, L.; Bournaud, F.; Bureau, M.; Cappellari, M.; Crocker, A. F.; Davies, R. L.; Davis, T. A.; De Zeeuw, P. T.; Duc, P.-A.; Emsellem, E.; Khochfar, S.; Krajnovic, D.; Kuntschner, H.; Morganti, R.; Naab, T.; Oosterloo, T.; Sarzi, M.; Scott, N.; Serra, P.; Weijmans, A.-M.; Young, L. M.

2015-09-01

We present the stellar population content of early-type galaxies from the ATLAS3D survey. Using spectra integrated within apertures covering up to one effective radius, we apply two methods: one based on measuring line-strength indices and applying single stellar population (SSP) models to derive SSP-equivalent values of stellar age, metallicity, and alpha enhancement; and one based on spectral fitting to derive non-parametric star formation histories, mass-weighted average values of age, metallicity, and half-mass formation time-scales. Using homogeneously derived effective radii and dynamically determined galaxy masses, we present the distribution of stellar population parameters on the Mass Plane (MJAM, σe, Rmaje), showing that at fixed mass, compact early-type galaxies are on average older, more metal-rich, and more alpha-enhanced than their larger counterparts. From non-parametric star formation histories, we find that the duration of star formation is systematically more extended in lower mass objects. Assuming that our sample represents most of the stellar content of today's local Universe, approximately 50 percent of all stars formed within the first 2Gyr following the big bang. Most of these stars reside today in the most massive galaxies (>1010.5M⊙), which themselves formed 90 percent of their stars by z~2. The lower mass objects, in contrast, have formed barely half their stars in this time interval. Stellar population properties are independent of environment over two orders of magnitude in local density, varying only with galaxy mass. In the highest density regions of our volume (dominated by the Virgo cluster), galaxies are older, alpha-enhanced, and have shorter star formation histories with respect to lower density regions. (4 data files).

Mass loss in O-type stars - Parameters which affect it

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garmany, C. D.; Conti, P. S.

1984-01-01

Newly determined mass loss rates are presented for sixteen O-type stars in three open clusters. Combining the data with that already in the literature, no evidence is found that the rates are different in clusters with differing galactocentric distances and compositions, at least near the sun. There is still appreciable dispersion in the relationship between the mass loss rate and the stellar luminosity. It may be that the mass loss depends additionally on the stellar mass and/or radius, but these data cannot unequivocally indicate which physical dependence is correct. Evidence is found that a stellar wind increases as a massive star evolves from the zero-age main sequence.

Radiation pressure in super star cluster formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsang, Benny T.-H.; Milosavljević, Miloš

2018-05-01

The physics of star formation at its extreme, in the nuclei of the densest and the most massive star clusters in the universe—potential massive black hole nurseries—has for decades eluded scrutiny. Spectroscopy of these systems has been scarce, whereas theoretical arguments suggest that radiation pressure on dust grains somehow inhibits star formation. Here, we harness an accelerated Monte Carlo radiation transport scheme to report a radiation hydrodynamical simulation of super star cluster formation in turbulent clouds. We find that radiation pressure reduces the global star formation efficiency by 30-35%, and the star formation rate by 15-50%, both relative to a radiation-free control run. Overall, radiation pressure does not terminate the gas supply for star formation and the final stellar mass of the most massive cluster is ˜1.3 × 106 M⊙. The limited impact as compared to in idealized theoretical models is attributed to a radiation-matter anti-correlation in the supersonically turbulent, gravitationally collapsing medium. In isolated regions outside massive clusters, where the gas distribution is less disturbed, radiation pressure is more effective in limiting star formation. The resulting stellar density at the cluster core is ≥108 M⊙ pc-3, with stellar velocity dispersion ≳ 70 km s-1. We conclude that the super star cluster nucleus is propitious to the formation of very massive stars via dynamical core collapse and stellar merging. We speculate that the very massive star may avoid the claimed catastrophic mass loss by continuing to accrete dense gas condensing from a gravitationally-confined ionized phase.

Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paxton, Bill; Schwab, Josiah; Bauer, Evan B.; Bildsten, Lars; Blinnikov, Sergei; Duffell, Paul; Farmer, R.; Goldberg, Jared A.; Marchant, Pablo; Sorokina, Elena; Thoul, Anne; Townsend, Richard H. D.; Timmes, F. X.

2018-02-01

We update the capabilities of the software instrument Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) and enhance its ease of use and availability. Our new approach to locating convective boundaries is consistent with the physics of convection, and yields reliable values of the convective-core mass during both hydrogen- and helium-burning phases. Stars with M< 8 M⊙ become white dwarfs and cool to the point where the electrons are degenerate and the ions are strongly coupled, a realm now available to study with MESA due to improved treatments of element diffusion, latent heat release, and blending of equations of state. Studies of the final fates of massive stars are extended in MESA by our addition of an approximate Riemann solver that captures shocks and conserves energy to high accuracy during dynamic epochs. We also introduce a 1D capability for modeling the effects of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities that, in combination with the coupling to a public version of the STELLA radiation transfer instrument, creates new avenues for exploring Type II supernova properties. These capabilities are exhibited with exploratory models of pair-instability supernovae, pulsational pair-instability supernovae, and the formation of stellar-mass black holes. The applicability of MESA is now widened by the capability to import multidimensional hydrodynamic models into MESA. We close by introducing software modules for handling floating point exceptions and stellar model optimization, as well as four new software tools - MESA-Web, MESA-Docker, pyMESA, and mesastar.org - to enhance MESA's education and research impact.

Quenching of Star-formation Activity of High-redshift Galaxies in Clusters and Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Seong-Kook; Im, Myungshin; Kim, Jae-Woo; Lotz, Jennifer; McPartland, Conor; Peth, Michael; Koekemoer, Anton

At local, galaxy properties are well known to be clearly different in different environments. However, it is still an open question how this environment-dependent trend has been shaped. We present the results of our investigation about the evolution of star-formation properties of galaxies over a wide redshift range, from z ~ 2 to z ~ 0.5, focusing its dependence on their stellar mass and environment (Lee et al. 2015). In the UKIDSS/UDS region, covering ~2800 square arcmin, we estimated photometric redshifts and stellar population properties, such as stellar masses and star-formation rates, using the deep optical and near-infrared data available in this field. Then, we identified galaxy cluster candidates within the given redshift range. Through the analysis and comparison of star-formation (SF) properties of galaxies in clusters and in field, we found interesting results regarding the evolution of SF properties of galaxies: (1) regardless of redshifts, stellar mass is a key parameter controlling quenching of star formation in galaxies; (2) At z < 1, environmental effects become important at quenching star formation regardless of stellar mass of galaxies; and (3) However, the result of the environmental quenching is prominent only for low mass galaxies (M* < 1010 M⊙) since the star formation in most of high mass galaxies are already quenched at z > 1.

THE STELLAR MASS FUNDAMENTAL PLANE AND COMPACT QUIESCENT GALAXIES AT z < 0.6

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zahid, H. Jabran; Damjanov, Ivana; Geller, Margaret J.

2016-04-20

We examine the evolution of the relation between stellar mass surface density, velocity dispersion, and half-light radius—the stellar mass fundamental plane (MFP)—for quiescent galaxies at z < 0.6. We measure the local relation from galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the intermediate redshift relation from ∼500 quiescent galaxies with stellar masses 10 ≲ log( M {sub *}/ M {sub ⊙}) ≲ 11.5. Nearly half of the quiescent galaxies in our intermediate redshift sample are compact. After accounting for important selection and systematic effects, the velocity dispersion distribution of galaxies at intermediate redshifts is similar to that of galaxiesmore » in the local universe. Galaxies at z < 0.6 appear to be smaller (≲0.1 dex) than galaxies in the local sample. The orientation of the stellar MFP is independent of redshift for massive quiescent galaxies at z < 0.6 and the zero-point evolves by ∼0.04 dex. Compact quiescent galaxies fall on the same relation as the extended objects. We confirm that compact quiescent galaxies are the tail of the size and mass distribution of the normal quiescent galaxy population.« less

The galaxy-wide initial mass function of dwarf late-type to massive early-type galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weidner, C.; Kroupa, P.; Pflamm-Altenburg, J.; Vazdekis, A.

2013-12-01

Observational studies are showing that the galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function (IMF) is top-heavy in galaxies with high star formation rates (SFRs). Calculating the integrated galactic stellar initial mass function (IGIMF) as a function of the SFR of a galaxy, it follows that galaxies which have or which formed with SFRs >10 M⊙ yr-1 would have a top-heavy IGIMF in excellent consistency with the observations. Consequently and in agreement with observations, elliptical galaxies would have higher mass-to-light ratios as a result of the overabundance of stellar remnants compared to a stellar population that formed with an invariant canonical stellar IMF. For the Milky Way, the IGIMF yields very good agreement with the disc- and the bulge IMF determinations. Our conclusions are that purely stochastic descriptions of star formation on the scales of a parsec and above are falsified. Instead, star formation follows the laws, stated here as axioms, which define the IGIMF theory. We also find evidence that the power-law index β of the embedded cluster mass function decreases with increasing SFR. We propose further tests of the IGIMF theory through counting massive stars in dwarf galaxies.

The Effects of Stellar Dynamics on the Evolution of Young, Dense Stellar Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belkus, H.; van Bever, J.; Vanbeveren, D.

In this paper, we report on first results of a project in Brussels in which we study the effects of stellar dynamics on the evolution of young dense stellar systems using 3 decades of expertise in massive-star evolution and our population (number and spectral) synthesis code. We highlight an unconventionally formed object scenario (UFO-scenario) for Wolf Rayet binaries and study the effects of a luminous blue variable-type instability wind mass-loss formalism on the formation of intermediate-mass black holes.

Ensemble asteroseismology of solar-type stars with the NASA Kepler mission.

PubMed

Chaplin, W J; Kjeldsen, H; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J; Basu, S; Miglio, A; Appourchaux, T; Bedding, T R; Elsworth, Y; García, R A; Gilliland, R L; Girardi, L; Houdek, G; Karoff, C; Kawaler, S D; Metcalfe, T S; Molenda-Żakowicz, J; Monteiro, M J P F G; Thompson, M J; Verner, G A; Ballot, J; Bonanno, A; Brandão, I M; Broomhall, A-M; Bruntt, H; Campante, T L; Corsaro, E; Creevey, O L; Doğan, G; Esch, L; Gai, N; Gaulme, P; Hale, S J; Handberg, R; Hekker, S; Huber, D; Jiménez, A; Mathur, S; Mazumdar, A; Mosser, B; New, R; Pinsonneault, M H; Pricopi, D; Quirion, P-O; Régulo, C; Salabert, D; Serenelli, A M; Silva Aguirre, V; Sousa, S G; Stello, D; Stevens, I R; Suran, M D; Uytterhoeven, K; White, T R; Borucki, W J; Brown, T M; Jenkins, J M; Kinemuchi, K; Van Cleve, J; Klaus, T C

2011-04-08

In addition to its search for extrasolar planets, the NASA Kepler mission provides exquisite data on stellar oscillations. We report the detections of oscillations in 500 solar-type stars in the Kepler field of view, an ensemble that is large enough to allow statistical studies of intrinsic stellar properties (such as mass, radius, and age) and to test theories of stellar evolution. We find that the distribution of observed masses of these stars shows intriguing differences to predictions from models of synthetic stellar populations in the Galaxy.

Hierarchical Galaxy Growth and Scatter in the Stellar Mass-Halo Mass Relation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Meng; Conroy, Charlie; Behroozi, Peter

2016-12-01

The relation between galaxies and dark matter halos reflects the combined effects of many distinct physical processes. Observations indicate that the z = 0 stellar mass-halo mass (SMHM) relation has remarkably small scatter in stellar mass at fixed halo mass (≲0.2 dex), with little dependence on halo mass. We investigate the origins of this scatter by combining N-body simulations with observational constraints on the SMHM relation. We find that at the group and cluster scale ({M}{vir}\\gt {10}14 {M}⊙ ) the scatter due purely to hierarchical assembly is ≈ 0.16 dex, which is comparable to recent direct observational estimates. At lower masses, mass buildup since z≈ 2 is driven largely by in situ growth. We include a model for the in situ buildup of stellar mass and find that an intrinsic scatter in this growth channel of 0.2 dex produces a relation between scatter and halo mass that is consistent with observations from {10}12 {M}⊙ \\lt {M}{vir}\\lt {10}14.75 {M}⊙ . The approximately constant scatter across a wide range of halo masses at z = 0 thus appears to be a coincidence, as it is determined largely by in situ growth at low masses and by hierarchical assembly at high masses. These results indicate that the scatter in the SMHM relation can provide unique insight into the regularity of the galaxy formation process.

Extrasolar planetary systems.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, S.-S.

1973-01-01

The terms 'planet' and 'planet-like objects' are defined. The observational search for extrasolar planetary systems is described, as performable by earthbound optical telescopes, by space probes, by long baseline radio interferometry, and finally by inference from the reception of signals sent by intelligent beings in other worlds. It is shown that any planetary system must be preceded by a rotating disk of gas and dust around a central mass. A brief review of the theories of the formation of the solar system is given, along with a proposed scheme for classification of these theories. The evidence for magnetic activity in the early stages of stellar evolution is presented. The magnetic braking theories of solar and stellar rotation are discussed, and an estimate is made for the frequency of occurrence of planetary systems in the universe.

Baryon Content in a Sample of 91 Galaxy Clusters Selected by the South Pole Telescope at 0.2 < z < 1.25

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chiu, I.; et al.

2017-11-02

We estimate total mass (more » $$M_{500}$$), intracluster medium (ICM) mass ($$M_{\\mathrm{ICM}}$$) and stellar mass ($$M_{\\star}$$) in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected sample of 91 galaxy clusters with masses $$M_{500}\\gtrsim2.5\\times10^{14}M_{\\odot}$$ and redshift $0.2 < z < 1.25$ from the 2500 deg$^2$ South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. The total masses $$M_{500}$$ are estimated from the SZE observable, the ICM masses $$M_{\\mathrm{ICM}}$$ are obtained from the analysis of $Chandra$ X-ray observations, and the stellar masses $$M_{\\star}$$ are derived by fitting spectral energy distribution templates to Dark Energy Survey (DES) $griz$ optical photometry and $WISE$ or $Spitzer$ near-infrared photometry. We study trends in the stellar mass, the ICM mass, the total baryonic mass and the cold baryonic fraction with cluster mass and redshift. We find significant departures from self-similarity in the mass scaling for all quantities, while the redshift trends are all statistically consistent with zero, indicating that the baryon content of clusters at fixed mass has changed remarkably little over the past $$\\approx9$$ Gyr. We compare our results to the mean baryon fraction (and the stellar mass fraction) in the field, finding that these values lie above (below) those in cluster virial regions in all but the most massive clusters at low redshift. Using a simple model of the matter assembly of clusters from infalling groups with lower masses and from infalling material from the low density environment or field surrounding the parent halos, we show that the measured mass trends without strong redshift trends in the stellar mass scaling relation could be explained by a mass and redshift dependent fractional contribution from field material. Similar analyses of the ICM and baryon mass scaling relations provide evidence for the so-called "missing baryons" outside cluster virial regions.« less

Baryon Content in a Sample of 91 Galaxy Clusters Selected by the South Pole Telescope at 0.2 < z < 1.25

DOE PAGES

Chiu, I.; Mohr, J. J.; McDonald, M.; ...

2018-05-16

Here, we estimate total mass (more » $$M_{500}$$), intracluster medium (ICM) mass ($$M_{\\mathrm{ICM}}$$) and stellar mass ($$M_{\\star}$$) in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected sample of 91 galaxy clusters with masses $$M_{500}\\gtrsim2.5\\times10^{14}M_{\\odot}$$ and redshift $0.2 < z < 1.25$ from the 2500 deg$^2$ South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. The total masses $$M_{500}$$ are estimated from the SZE observable, the ICM masses $$M_{\\mathrm{ICM}}$$ are obtained from the analysis of $Chandra$ X-ray observations, and the stellar masses $$M_{\\star}$$ are derived by fitting spectral energy distribution templates to Dark Energy Survey (DES) $griz$ optical photometry and $WISE$ or $Spitzer$ near-infrared photometry. We study trends in the stellar mass, the ICM mass, the total baryonic mass and the cold baryonic fraction with cluster mass and redshift. We find significant departures from self-similarity in the mass scaling for all quantities, while the redshift trends are all statistically consistent with zero, indicating that the baryon content of clusters at fixed mass has changed remarkably little over the past $$\\approx9$$ Gyr. We compare our results to the mean baryon fraction (and the stellar mass fraction) in the field, finding that these values lie above (below) those in cluster virial regions in all but the most massive clusters at low redshift. Using a simple model of the matter assembly of clusters from infalling groups with lower masses and from infalling material from the low density environment or field surrounding the parent halos, we show that the measured mass trends without strong redshift trends in the stellar mass scaling relation could be explained by a mass and redshift dependent fractional contribution from field material. Similar analyses of the ICM and baryon mass scaling relations provide evidence for the so-called "missing baryons" outside cluster virial regions.« less

Baryon Content in a Sample of 91 Galaxy Clusters Selected by the South Pole Telescope at 0.2 < z < 1.25

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chiu, I.; et al.

2017-11-02

We estimate total mass (more » $$M_{500}$$), intracluster medium (ICM) mass ($$M_{\\mathrm{ICM}}$$) and stellar mass ($$M_{\\star}$$) in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected sample of 91 galaxy clusters with masses $$M_{500}\\gtrsim2.5\\times10^{14}M_{\\odot}$$ and redshift $0.2 < z < 1.25$ from the 2500 deg$^2$ South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. The total masses $$M_{500}$$ are estimated from the SZE observable, the ICM masses $$M_{\\mathrm{ICM}}$$ are obtained from the analysis of $Chandra$ X-ray observations, and the stellar masses $$M_{\\star}$$ are derived by fitting spectral energy distribution templates to Dark Energy Survey (DES) $griz$ optical photometry and $WISE$ or $Spitzer$ near-infrared photometry. We study trends in the stellar mass, the ICM mass, the total baryonic mass and the cold baryonic fraction with cluster mass and redshift. We find significant departures from self-similarity in the mass scaling for all quantities, while the redshift trends are all statistically consistent with zero, indicating that the baryon content of clusters at fixed mass has changed remarkably little over the past $$\\approx9$$ Gyr. We compare our results to the mean baryon fraction (and the stellar mass fraction) in the field, finding that these values lie above (below) those in cluster virial regions in all but the most massive clusters at low redshift. Using a simple model of the matter assembly of clusters from infalling groups with lower masses and from infalling material from the low density environment or field surrounding the parent halos, we show that the strong mass and weak redshift trends in the stellar mass scaling relation suggest a mass and redshift dependent fractional contribution from field material. Similar analyses of the ICM and baryon mass scaling relations provide evidence for the so-called 'missing baryons' outside cluster virial regions.« less

Baryon Content in a Sample of 91 Galaxy Clusters Selected by the South Pole Telescope at 0.2 < z < 1.25

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chiu, I.; Mohr, J. J.; McDonald, M.

Here, we estimate total mass (more » $$M_{500}$$), intracluster medium (ICM) mass ($$M_{\\mathrm{ICM}}$$) and stellar mass ($$M_{\\star}$$) in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected sample of 91 galaxy clusters with masses $$M_{500}\\gtrsim2.5\\times10^{14}M_{\\odot}$$ and redshift $0.2 < z < 1.25$ from the 2500 deg$^2$ South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. The total masses $$M_{500}$$ are estimated from the SZE observable, the ICM masses $$M_{\\mathrm{ICM}}$$ are obtained from the analysis of $Chandra$ X-ray observations, and the stellar masses $$M_{\\star}$$ are derived by fitting spectral energy distribution templates to Dark Energy Survey (DES) $griz$ optical photometry and $WISE$ or $Spitzer$ near-infrared photometry. We study trends in the stellar mass, the ICM mass, the total baryonic mass and the cold baryonic fraction with cluster mass and redshift. We find significant departures from self-similarity in the mass scaling for all quantities, while the redshift trends are all statistically consistent with zero, indicating that the baryon content of clusters at fixed mass has changed remarkably little over the past $$\\approx9$$ Gyr. We compare our results to the mean baryon fraction (and the stellar mass fraction) in the field, finding that these values lie above (below) those in cluster virial regions in all but the most massive clusters at low redshift. Using a simple model of the matter assembly of clusters from infalling groups with lower masses and from infalling material from the low density environment or field surrounding the parent halos, we show that the measured mass trends without strong redshift trends in the stellar mass scaling relation could be explained by a mass and redshift dependent fractional contribution from field material. Similar analyses of the ICM and baryon mass scaling relations provide evidence for the so-called "missing baryons" outside cluster virial regions.« less

Baryon Content in a Sample of 91 Galaxy Clusters Selected by the South Pole Telescope at 0.2 < z < 1.25

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiu, I.; Mohr, J. J.; McDonald, M.; Bocquet, S.; Desai, S.; Klein, M.; Israel, H.; Ashby, M. L. N.; Stanford, A.; Benson, B. A.; Brodwin, M.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Abdalla, F. B.; Allam, S.; Annis, J.; Bayliss, M.; Benoit-Lévy, A.; Bertin, E.; Bleem, L.; Brooks, D.; Buckley-Geer, E.; Bulbul, E.; Capasso, R.; Carlstrom, J. E.; Rosell, A. Carnero; Carretero, J.; Castander, F. J.; Cunha, C. E.; D'Andrea, C. B.; da Costa, L. N.; Davis, C.; Diehl, H. T.; Dietrich, J. P.; Doel, P.; Drlica-Wagner, A.; Eifler, T. F.; Evrard, A. E.; Flaugher, B.; García-Bellido, J.; Garmire, G.; Gaztanaga, E.; Gerdes, D. W.; Gonzalez, A.; Gruen, D.; Gruendl, R. A.; Gschwend, J.; Gupta, N.; Gutierrez, G.; Hlavacek-L, J.; Honscheid, K.; James, D. J.; Jeltema, T.; Kraft, R.; Krause, E.; Kuehn, K.; Kuhlmann, S.; Kuropatkin, N.; Lahav, O.; Lima, M.; Maia, M. A. G.; Marshall, J. L.; Melchior, P.; Menanteau, F.; Miquel, R.; Murray, S.; Nord, B.; Ogando, R. L. C.; Plazas, A. A.; Rapetti, D.; Reichardt, C. L.; Romer, A. K.; Roodman, A.; Sanchez, E.; Saro, A.; Scarpine, V.; Schindler, R.; Schubnell, M.; Sharon, K.; Smith, R. C.; Smith, M.; Soares-Santos, M.; Sobreira, F.; Stalder, B.; Stern, C.; Strazzullo, V.; Suchyta, E.; Swanson, M. E. C.; Tarle, G.; Vikram, V.; Walker, A. R.; Weller, J.; Zhang, Y.

2018-05-01

We estimate total mass (M500), intracluster medium (ICM) mass (MICM) and stellar mass (M⋆) in a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) selected sample of 91 galaxy clusters with masses M500 ≳ 2.5 × 1014M⊙ and redshift 0.2 < z < 1.25 from the 2500 ° ^2 South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey. The total masses M500 are estimated from the SZE observable, the ICM masses MICM are obtained from the analysis of Chandra X-ray observations, and the stellar masses M⋆ are derived by fitting spectral energy distribution templates to Dark Energy Survey (DES) griz optical photometry and WISE or Spitzer near-infrared photometry. We study trends in the stellar mass, the ICM mass, the total baryonic mass and the cold baryonic fraction with cluster halo mass and redshift. We find significant departures from self-similarity in the mass scaling for all quantities, while the redshift trends are all statistically consistent with zero, indicating that the baryon content of clusters at fixed mass has changed remarkably little over the past ≈9 Gyr. We compare our results to the mean baryon fraction (and the stellar mass fraction) in the field, finding that these values lie above (below) those in cluster virial regions in all but the most massive clusters at low redshift. Using a simple model of the matter assembly of clusters from infalling groups with lower masses and from infalling material from the low density environment or field surrounding the parent halos, we show that the measured mass trends without strong redshift trends in the stellar mass scaling relation could be explained by a mass and redshift dependent fractional contribution from field material. Similar analyses of the ICM and baryon mass scaling relations provide evidence for the so-called "missing baryons" outside cluster virial regions.

The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey. V. Spatially resolved stellar kinematics of galaxies at redshift 0.2 ≲ z ≲ 0.8

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guérou, Adrien; Krajnović, Davor; Epinat, Benoit; Contini, Thierry; Emsellem, Eric; Bouché, Nicolas; Bacon, Roland; Michel-Dansac, Leo; Richard, Johan; Weilbacher, Peter M.; Schaye, Joop; Marino, Raffaella Anna; den Brok, Mark; Erroz-Ferrer, Santiago

2017-11-01

We present spatially resolved stellar kinematic maps, for the first time, for a sample of 17 intermediate redshift galaxies (0.2 ≲ z ≲ 0.8). We used deep MUSE/VLT integral field spectroscopic observations in the Hubble Deep Field South (HDFS) and Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), resulting from ≈30 h integration time per field, each covering 1' × 1' field of view, with ≈ 0.̋65 spatial resolution. We selected all galaxies brighter than 25 mag in the I band and for which the stellar continuum is detected over an area that is at least two times larger than the spatial resolution. The resulting sample contains mostly late-type disk, main-sequence star-forming galaxies with 108.5 M⊙ ≲ M∗ ≲ 1010.5 M⊙. Using a full-spectrum fitting technique, we derive two-dimensional maps of the stellar and gas kinematics, including the radial velocity V and velocity dispersion σ. We find that most galaxies in the sample are consistent with having rotating stellar disks with roughly constant velocity dispersions and that the second order velocity moments Vrms = √V2+σ2 of the gas and stars, a scaling proxy for the galaxy gravitational potential, compare well to each other. These spatially resolved observations of the stellar kinematics of intermediate redshift galaxies suggest that the regular stellar kinematics of disk galaxies that is observed in the local Universe was already in place 4-7 Gyr ago and that their gas kinematics traces the gravitational potential of the galaxy, thus is not dominated by shocks and turbulent motions. Finally, we build dynamical axisymmetric Jeans models constrained by the derived stellar kinematics for two specific galaxies and derive their dynamical masses. These are in good agreement (within 25%) with those derived from simple exponential disk models based on the gas kinematics. The obtained mass-to-light ratios hint towards dark matter dominated systems within a few effective radii. Based on observations made with ESO telescopes at the La Silla-Paranal Observatory under programmes 094.A-0289(B), 095.A-0010(A), 096.A-0045(A) and 096.A-0045(B).

Compact Starburst Galaxies with Fast Outflows: Spatially Resolved Stellar Mass Profiles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gottlieb, Sophia; Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar; Lipscomb, Charles; Ohene, Senyo; Rines, Josh; Moustakas, John; Sell, Paul; Tremonti, Christy; Coil, Alison; Rudnick, Gregory; Hickox, Ryan C.; Geach, James; Kepley, Amanda

2018-01-01

Powerful galactic winds driven by stellar feedback and black hole accretion are thought to play an important role in regulating star formation in galaxies. In particular, strong stellar feedback from supernovae, stellar winds, radiation pressure, and cosmic rays is required by simulations of star-forming galaxies to prevent the vast majority of baryons from cooling and collapsing to form stars. However, it remains unclear whether these stellar processes play a significant role in expelling gas and shutting down star formation in massive progenitors of quiescent galaxies. What are the limits of stellar feedback? We present multi-band photometry with HST/WFC3 (F475W, F814W, F160W) for a dozen compact starburst galaxies at z~0.6 with half-light radii that suggest incredibly large central escape velocities. These massive galaxies are driving fast (>1000 km/s) outflows that have been previously attributed to stellar feedback associated with the compact (r~100 pc) starburst. But how compact is the stellar mass? In the context of the stellar feedback hypothesis, it is unclear whether these fast outflows are being driven at velocities comparable to the escape velocity of an incredibly dense stellar system (as predicted by some models of radiation-pressure winds) or at velocities that exceed the central escape velocity by large factor. Our spatially resolved measurements with HST show that the stellar mass is more extended than the light, and this requires that the physical mechanism responsible for driving the winds must be able to launch gas at velocities that are factors of 5-10 beyond the central escape velocity.

On the Formation of Massive Stars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yorke, Harold W.; Sonnhalter, Cordula

2002-01-01

We calculate numerically the collapse of slowly rotating, nonmagnetic, massive molecular clumps of masses 30,60, and 120 Stellar Mass, which conceivably could lead to the formation of massive stars. Because radiative acceleration on dust grains plays a critical role in the clump's dynamical evolution, we have improved the module for continuum radiation transfer in an existing two-dimensional (axial symmetry assumed) radiation hydrodynamic code. In particular, rather than using "gray" dust opacities and "gray" radiation transfer, we calculate the dust's wavelength-dependent absorption and emission simultaneously with the radiation density at each wavelength and the equilibrium temperatures of three grain components: amorphous carbon particles. silicates, and " dirty ice " -coated silicates. Because our simulations cannot spatially resolve the innermost regions of the molecular clump, however, we cannot distinguish between the formation of a dense central cluster or a single massive object. Furthermore, we cannot exclude significant mass loss from the central object(s) that may interact with the inflow into the central grid cell. Thus, with our basic assumption that all material in the innermost grid cell accretes onto a single object. we are able to provide only an upper limit to the mass of stars that could possibly be formed. We introduce a semianalytical scheme for augmenting existing evolutionary tracks of pre-main-sequence protostars by including the effects of accretion. By considering an open outermost boundary, an arbitrary amount of material could, in principal, be accreted onto this central star. However, for the three cases considered (30, 60, and 120 Stellar Mass originally within the computation grid), radiation acceleration limited the final masses to 3 1.6, 33.6, and 42.9 Stellar Mass, respectively, for wavelength-dependent radiation transfer and to 19.1, 20.1, and 22.9 Stellar Mass. for the corresponding simulations with gray radiation transfer. Our calculations demonstrate that massive stars can in principle be formed via accretion through a disk. The accretion rate onto the central source increases rapidly after one initial free-fall time and decreases monotonically afterward. By enhancing the nonisotropic character of the radiation field, the accretion disk reduces the effects of radiative acceleration in the radial direction - a process we call the "flashlight effect." The flashlight effect is further amplified in our case by including the effects of frequency-dependent radiation transfer. We conclude with the warning that a careful treatment of radiation transfer is a mandatory requirement for realistic simulations of the formation of massive stars.

The Effect of Halo Mass on the H I Content of Galaxies in Groups and Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoon, Ilsang; Rosenberg, Jessica L.

2015-10-01

We combine data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey (ALFALFA) to study the cold atomic gas content of galaxies in groups and clusters in the local universe. A careful cross-matching of galaxies in the SDSS, ALFALFA, and SDSS group catalogs provides a sample of group galaxies with stellar masses {10}8.4{M}⊙ ≤slant {M}*≤slant {10}10.6{M}⊙ and group halo masses {10}12.5{h}-1{M}⊙ ≤slant {M}h≤slant {10}15.0{h}-1{M}⊙ . Controlling our sample in stellar mass and redshift, we find no significant radial variation in the galaxy H i gas-to-stellar mass ratio for the halo mass range in our sample. However, the fraction of galaxies detected in ALFALFA declines steadily toward the centers of groups, with the effect being most prominent in the most massive halos. In the outskirts of massive halos a hint of a depressed detection fraction for low-mass galaxies suggests pre-processing that decreases the H i in these galaxies before they fall into massive clusters. We interpret the decline in the ALFALFA detection of galaxies in the context of a threshold halo mass for ram pressure stripping for a given galaxy stellar mass. The lack of an observable decrease in the galaxy H i gas-to-stellar mass ratio with the position of galaxies within groups and clusters highlights the difficulty of detecting the impact of environment on the galaxy H i content in a shallow H i survey.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE STELLAR MASS FUNCTION OF GALAXIES FROM z = 4.0 AND THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF ITS UNCERTAINTIES: EVIDENCE FOR MASS-DEPENDENT EVOLUTION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marchesini, Danilo; Van Dokkum, Pieter G.; Foerster Schreiber, Natascha M.

2009-08-20

We present the evolution of the stellar mass function (SMF) of galaxies from z = 4.0 to z = 1.3 measured from a sample constructed from the deep near-infrared Multi-wavelength Survey by Yale-Chile, the Faint Infrared Extragalactic Survey, and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-Chandra Deep Field South surveys, all having very high-quality optical to mid-infrared data. This sample, unique in that it combines data from surveys with a large range of depths and areas in a self-consistent way, allowed us to (1) minimize the uncertainty due to cosmic variance and empirically quantify its contribution to the total error budget;more » (2) simultaneously probe the high-mass end and the low-mass end (down to {approx}0.05 times the characteristic stellar mass) of the SMF with good statistics; and (3) empirically derive the redshift-dependent completeness limits in stellar mass. We provide, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of random and systematic uncertainties affecting the derived SMFs, including the effect of metallicity, extinction law, stellar population synthesis model, and initial mass function. We find that the mass density evolves by a factor of {approx}17{sup +7}{sub -10} since z = 4.0, mostly driven by a change in the normalization {phi}*. If only random errors are taken into account, we find evidence for mass-dependent evolution, with the low-mass end evolving more rapidly than the high-mass end. However, we show that this result is no longer robust when systematic uncertainties due to the SED-modeling assumptions are taken into account. Another significant uncertainty is the contribution to the overall stellar mass density of galaxies below our mass limit; future studies with WFC3 will provide better constraints on the SMF at masses below 10{sup 10} M{sub sun} at z>2. Taking our results at face value, we find that they are in conflict with semianalytic models of galaxy formation. The models predict SMFs that are in general too steep, with too many low-mass galaxies and too few high-mass galaxies. The discrepancy at the high-mass end is susceptible to uncertainties in the models and the data, but the discrepancy at the low-mass end may be more difficult to explain.« less

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Stellar yields and the initial mass function (Molla+, 2015)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molla, M.; Cavichia, O.; Gavilan, M.; Gibson, B. K.

2017-10-01

These tables give the theoretical chemical evolution models applied for the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG) from the cited paper. Basically give tables 2, 4 of stellar yields used and results of table 6 for the 144 models computed that work. Tables 2 and 4 give the stellar yields q_i(m) and remmnant mass for low and intermediate stars and massive stars, respectively, in a similar format for all authors. Table 6 gives the value of Chi2 for the 144 models computed for MWG using those stellar yields and different Initial Mass Function (see paper). Moreover, we give the table with results of the present time state of the Galactic disk for these 144 models. (12 data files).

Stellar and wind parameters of massive stars from spectral analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Araya, I.; Curé, M.

2017-07-01

The only way to deduce information from stars is to decode the radiation it emits in an appropriate way. Spectroscopy can solve this and derive many properties of stars. In this work we seek to derive simultaneously the stellar and wind characteristics of A and B supergiant stars. Our stellar properties encompass the effective temperature, the surface gravity, the stellar radius, the micro-turbulence velocity, the rotational velocity and, finally, the chemical composition. For wind properties we consider the mass-loss rate, the terminal velocity and the line-force parameters (α, k and δ) obtained from the standard line-driven wind theory. To model the data we use the radiative transport code Fastwind considering the newest hydrodynamical solutions derived with Hydwind code, which needs stellar and line-force parameters to obtain a wind solution. A grid of spectral models of massive stars is created and together with the observed spectra their physical properties are determined through spectral line fittings. These fittings provide an estimation about the line-force parameters, whose theoretical calculations are extremely complex. Furthermore, we expect to confirm that the hydrodynamical solutions obtained with a value of δ slightly larger than ˜ 0.25, called δ-slow solutions, describe quite reliable the radiation line-driven winds of A and late B supergiant stars and at the same time explain disagreements between observational data and theoretical models for the Wind-Momentum Luminosity Relationship (WLR).

An Independent Asteroseismic Analysis of the Fundamental Parameters and Internal Structure of the Solar-like Oscillator KIC 6225718

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Tao; Li, Yan

2017-09-01

Asteroseismology is a useful tool that is usually used to probe stellar interiors and to determine stellar fundamental parameters, such as stellar mass, radius, and surface gravity. In order to probe stellar interiors, making comparisons between observations and models is usually used with the {χ }2-minimization method. The work of Wu & Li reported that the best parameter determined by the {χ }2-matching process is the acoustic radius for pure p-mode oscillations. In the present work, based on the theoretical calculations of Wu & Li, we will independently analyze the seismic observations of KIC 6225718 to determine its fundamental parameters and to investigate its interior properties. First, in order to test the method, we use it in the Sun to determine its fundamental parameters and to investigate interiors. Second, we independently determine the fundamental parameters of KIC 6225718 without any other non-seismic constraint. Therefore, those determined fundamental parameters are independent of those determined by other methods. They can be regarded as independent references in other analyses. Finally, we analyze the stellar internal structure and find that KIC 6225718 has a convective core with the size of 0.078-0.092 {R}⊙ . Its overshooting parameter {f}{ov} in the core is around 0.010. In addition, its center hydrogen {X}{{c}} is about 0.264-0.355.

Models of gravitational lens candidates from Space Warps CFHTLS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Küng, Rafael; Saha, Prasenjit; Ferreras, Ignacio; Baeten, Elisabeth; Coles, Jonathan; Cornen, Claude; Macmillan, Christine; Marshall, Phil; More, Anupreeta; Oswald, Lucy; Verma, Aprajita; Wilcox, Julianne K.

2018-03-01

We report modelling follow-up of recently discovered gravitational-lens candidates in the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. Lens modelling was done by a small group of specially interested volunteers from the Space Warps citizen-science community who originally found the candidate lenses. Models are categorized according to seven diagnostics indicating (a) the image morphology and how clear or indistinct it is, (b) whether the mass map and synthetic lensed image appear to be plausible, and (c) how the lens-model mass compares with the stellar mass and the abundance-matched halo mass. The lensing masses range from ˜1011 to >1013 M⊙. Preliminary estimates of the stellar masses show a smaller spread in stellar mass (except for two lenses): a factor of a few below or above ˜1011 M⊙. Therefore, we expect the stellar-to-total mass fraction to decline sharply as lensing mass increases. The most massive system with a convincing model is J1434+522 (SW 05). The two low-mass outliers are J0206-095 (SW 19) and J2217+015 (SW 42); if these two are indeed lenses, they probe an interesting regime of very low star formation efficiency. Some improvements to the modelling software (SpaghettiLens), and discussion of strategies regarding scaling to future surveys with more and frequent discoveries, are included.

Turbulent Collapse of Gravitationally Bound Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, Daniel W.

In this dissertation, I explore the time-variable rate of star formation, using both numerical and analytic techniques. I discuss the dynamics of collapsing regions, the effect of protostellar jets, and development of software for use in the hydrodynamic code RAMSES. I perform high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement simulations of star formation in self-gravitating turbulently driven gas. I have run simulations including hydrodynamics (HD), and HD with protostellar jet feedback. Accretion begins when the turbulent fluctuations on largescales, near the driving scale, produce a converging flow. I find that the character of the collapse changes at two radii, the disk radius rd, and the radius r* where the enclosed gas mass exceeds the stellar mass. This is the first numerical work to show that the density evolves to a fixed attractor, rho(r, t) → rho( r), for rd < r < r*; mass flows through this structure onto a sporadically gravitationally unstable disk, and from thence onto the star. The total stellar mass M*(t) (t - t*)2, where (t - t *)2 is the time elapsed since the formation of the first star. This is in agreement with previous numerical and analytic work that suggests a linear rate of star formation. I show that protostellar jets change the normalization of the stellar mass accretion rate, but do not strongly affect the dynamics of star formation in hydrodynamics runs. In particular, M*(t) infinity (1 - f jet)2(t - t*) 2 is the fraction of mass accreted onto the protostar, where fjet is the fraction ejected by the jet. For typical values of fjet 0.1 - 0.3 the accretion rate onto the star can be reduced by a factor of two or three. However, I find that jets have only a small effect (of order 25%) on the accretion rate onto the protostellar disk (the "raw" accretion rate). In other words, jets do not affect the dynamics of the infall, but rather simply eject mass before it reaches the star. Finally, I show that the small scale structure--the radial density, velocity, and mass accretion profiles--are very similar in the jet and no-jet cases.

Redshift evolution of the dynamical properties of massive galaxies from SDSS-III/BOSS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Beifiori, Alessandra; Saglia, Roberto P.; Bender, Ralf

2014-07-10

We study the redshift evolution of the dynamical properties of ∼180, 000 massive galaxies from SDSS-III/BOSS combined with a local early-type galaxy sample from SDSS-II in the redshift range 0.1 ≤ z ≤ 0.6. The typical stellar mass of this sample is M{sub *} ∼2 × 10{sup 11} M{sub ☉}. We analyze the evolution of the galaxy parameters effective radius, stellar velocity dispersion, and the dynamical to stellar mass ratio with redshift. As the effective radii of BOSS galaxies at these redshifts are not well resolved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging we calibrate the SDSS size measurementsmore » with Hubble Space Telescope/COSMOS photometry for a sub-sample of galaxies. We further apply a correction for progenitor bias to build a sample which consists of a coeval, passively evolving population. Systematic errors due to size correction and the calculation of dynamical mass are assessed through Monte Carlo simulations. At fixed stellar or dynamical mass, we find moderate evolution in galaxy size and stellar velocity dispersion, in agreement with previous studies. We show that this results in a decrease of the dynamical to stellar mass ratio with redshift at >2σ significance. By combining our sample with high-redshift literature data, we find that this evolution of the dynamical to stellar mass ratio continues beyond z ∼ 0.7 up to z > 2 as M{sub dyn}/M{sub *} ∼(1 + z){sup –0.30±0.12}, further strengthening the evidence for an increase of M{sub dyn}/M{sub *} with cosmic time. This result is in line with recent predictions from galaxy formation simulations based on minor merger driven mass growth, in which the dark matter fraction within the half-light radius increases with cosmic time.« less

GAMA/H-ATLAS: The Dust Opacity-Stellar Mass Surface Density Relation for Spiral Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grootes, M. W.; Tuffs, R. J.; Popescu, C. C.; Pastrav, B.; Andrae, E.; Gunawardhana, M.; Kelvin, L. S.; Liske, J.; Seibert, M.; Taylor, E. N.; Graham, Alister W.; Baes, M.; Baldry, I. K.; Bourne, N.; Brough, S.; Cooray, A.; Dariush, A.; De Zotti, G.; Driver, S. P.; Dunne, L.; Gomez, H.; Hopkins, A. M.; Hopwood, R.; Jarvis, M.; Loveday, J.; Maddox, S.; Madore, B. F.; Michałowski, M. J.; Norberg, P.; Parkinson, H. R.; Prescott, M.; Robotham, A. S. G.; Smith, D. J. B.; Thomas, D.; Valiante, E.

2013-03-01

We report the discovery of a well-defined correlation between B-band face-on central optical depth due to dust, τ ^f_B, and the stellar mass surface density, μ*, of nearby (z <= 0.13) spiral galaxies: {log}(τ ^{f}_{B}) = 1.12(+/- 0.11) \\cdot {log}({μ _{*}}/{{M}_{⊙ } {kpc}^{-2}}) - 8.6(+/- 0.8). This relation was derived from a sample of spiral galaxies taken from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, which were detected in the FIR/submillimeter (submm) in the Herschel-ATLAS science demonstration phase field. Using a quantitative analysis of the NUV attenuation-inclination relation for complete samples of GAMA spirals categorized according to stellar mass surface density, we demonstrate that this correlation can be used to statistically correct for dust attenuation purely on the basis of optical photometry and Sérsic-profile morphological fits. Considered together with previously established empirical relationships of stellar mass to metallicity and gas mass, the near linearity and high constant of proportionality of the τ ^f_B - μ_{*} relation disfavors a stellar origin for the bulk of refractory grains in spiral galaxies, instead being consistent with the existence of a ubiquitous and very rapid mechanism for the growth of dust in the interstellar medium. We use the τ ^f_B - μ_{*} relation in conjunction with the radiation transfer model for spiral galaxies of Popescu & Tuffs to derive intrinsic scaling relations between specific star formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, and stellar surface density, in which attenuation of the UV light used for the measurement of SFR is corrected on an object-to-object basis. A marked reduction in scatter in these relations is achieved which we demonstrate is due to correction of both the inclination-dependent and face-on components of attenuation. Our results are consistent with a general picture of spiral galaxies in which most of the submm emission originates from grains residing in translucent structures, exposed to UV in the diffuse interstellar radiation field.

α Centauri A as a potential stellar model calibrator: establishing the nature of its core

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nsamba, B.; Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G.; Campante, T. L.; Cunha, M. S.; Sousa, S. G.

2018-05-01

Understanding the physical process responsible for the transport of energy in the core of α Centauri A is of the utmost importance if this star is to be used in the calibration of stellar model physics. Adoption of different parallax measurements available in the literature results in differences in the interferometric radius constraints used in stellar modelling. Further, this is at the origin of the different dynamical mass measurements reported for this star. With the goal of reproducing the revised dynamical mass derived by Pourbaix & Boffin, we modelled the star using two stellar grids varying in the adopted nuclear reaction rates. Asteroseismic and spectroscopic observables were complemented with different interferometric radius constraints during the optimisation procedure. Our findings show that best-fit models reproducing the revised dynamical mass favour the existence of a convective core (≳ 70% of best-fit models), a result that is robust against changes to the model physics. If this mass is accurate, then α Centauri A may be used to calibrate stellar model parameters in the presence of a convective core.

Stellar and Circumstellar Properties of Low-Mass, Young, Subarcsecond Binaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bruhns, Sara; Prato, L. A.

2014-01-01

We present a study of the stellar and circumstellar characteristics of close (< 1''), young (< 2 to 3 Myr), low-mass (<1 solar mass) binary stars in the Taurus star forming region. Low-resolution (R ~ 2000) spectra were taken in the K-band using adaptive optics to separate the observations for each component and identify the individual spectral types, extinction, and K-band excess. Combining these data with stellar luminosities allows us to estimate the stellar masses and ages. We also measured equivalent widths of the hydrogen Brackett gamma line in order to estimate the strength of gas accretion. We obtained spectra for six binary systems with separations from 1'' down to 0.3''. In the CZ Tau binary we found that the fainter secondary star spectrum appears to be of earlier spectral type than the primary; we speculate on the origin of this inversion.

The secular tidal disruption of stars by low-mass Super Massive Black Holes secondaries in galactic nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fragione, Giacomo; Leigh, Nathan

2018-06-01

Stars passing too close to a super massive black hole (SMBH) can produce tidal disruption events (TDEs). Since the resulting stellar debris can produce an electromagnetic flare, TDEs are believed to probe the presence of single SMBHs in galactic nuclei, which otherwise remain dark. In this paper, we show how stars orbiting an IMBH secondary are perturbed by an SMBH primary. We find that the evolution of the stellar orbits are severely affected by the primary SMBH due to secular effects and stars orbiting with high inclinations with respect to the SMBH-IMBH orbital plane end their lives as TDEs due to Kozai-Lidov oscillations, hence illuminating the secondary SMBH/IMBH. Above a critical SMBH mass of ≈1.15 × 108 M⊙, no TDE can occur for typical stars in an old stellar population since the Schwarzschild radius exceeds the tidal disruption radius. Consequently, any TDEs due to such massive SMBHs will remain dark. It follows that no TDEs should be observed in galaxies more massive than ≈4.15 × 1010 M⊙, unless a lower-mass secondary SMBH or IMBH is also present. The secular mechanism for producing TDEs considered here therefore offers a useful probe of SMBH-SMBH/IMBH binarity in the most massive galaxies. We further show that the TDE rate can be ≈10-4 - 10-3 yr-1, and that most TDEs occur on ≈0.5 Myr. Finally, we show that stars may be ejected with velocities up to thousands of km s-1, which could contribute to the observed population of Galactic hypervelocity stars.

Low-mass galaxy assembly in simulations: regulation of early star formation by radiation from massive stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trujillo-Gomez, Sebastian; Klypin, Anatoly; Colín, Pedro; Ceverino, Daniel; Arraki, Kenza S.; Primack, Joel

2015-01-01

Despite recent success in forming realistic present-day galaxies, simulations still form the bulk of their stars earlier than observations indicate. We investigate the process of stellar mass assembly in low-mass field galaxies, a dwarf and a typical spiral, focusing on the effects of radiation from young stellar clusters on the star formation (SF) histories. We implement a novel model of SF with a deterministic low efficiency per free-fall time, as observed in molecular clouds. Stellar feedback is based on observations of star-forming regions, and includes radiation pressure from massive stars, photoheating in H II regions, supernovae and stellar winds. We find that stellar radiation has a strong effect on the formation of low-mass galaxies, especially at z > 1, where it efficiently suppresses SF by dispersing cold and dense gas, preventing runaway growth of the stellar component. This behaviour is evident in a variety of observations but had so far eluded analytical and numerical models without radiation feedback. Compared to supernovae alone, radiation feedback reduces the SF rate by a factor of ˜100 at z ≲ 2, yielding rising SF histories which reproduce recent observations of Local Group dwarfs. Stellar radiation also produces bulgeless spiral galaxies and may be responsible for excess thickening of the stellar disc. The galaxies also feature rotation curves and baryon fractions in excellent agreement with current data. Lastly, the dwarf galaxy shows a very slow reduction of the central dark matter density caused by radiation feedback over the last ˜7 Gyr of cosmic evolution.

Connection between Stellar Mass Distributions within Galaxies and Quenching Since z = 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mosleh, Moein; Tacchella, Sandro; Renzini, Alvio; Carollo, C. Marcella; Molaeinezhad, Alireza; Onodera, Masato; Khosroshahi, Habib G.; Lilly, Simon

2017-03-01

We study the history from z˜ 2 to z˜ 0 of the stellar mass assembly of quiescent and star-forming galaxies in a spatially resolved fashion. For this purpose, we use multi-wavelength imaging data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) over the GOODS fields and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) for the local population. We present the radial stellar mass surface density profiles of galaxies with {M}* > {10}10 {M}⊙ , corrected for mass-to-light ratio ({M}* /L) variations, and derive the half-mass-radius (R m ), central stellar mass surface density within 1 kpc ({{{Σ }}}1) and surface density at R m ({{{Σ }}}m) for star-forming and quiescent galaxies and study their evolution with redshift. At fixed stellar mass, the half-mass sizes of quiescent galaxies increase from z˜ 2 to z˜ 0 by a factor of ˜ 3-5, whereas the half-mass sizes of star-forming galaxies increase only slightly, by a factor of ˜2. The central densities {{{Σ }}}1 of quiescent galaxies decline slightly (by a factor of ≲ 1.7) from z˜ 2 to z˜ 0, while for star-forming galaxies {{{Σ }}}1 increases with time, at fixed mass. We show that the central density {{{Σ }}}1 has a tighter correlation with specific star-formation rate (sSFR) than {{{Σ }}}m and for all masses and redshifts galaxies with higher central density are more prone to be quenched. Reaching a high central density ({{{Σ }}}1≳ {10}10 {M}⊙ {{kpc}}2) seems to be a prerequisite for the cessation of star formation, though a causal link between high {{{Σ }}}1 and quenching is difficult to prove and their correlation can have a different origin.

xGASS: total cold gas scaling relations and molecular-to-atomic gas ratios of galaxies in the local Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Catinella, Barbara; Saintonge, Amélie; Janowiecki, Steven; Cortese, Luca; Davé, Romeel; Lemonias, Jenna J.; Cooper, Andrew P.; Schiminovich, David; Hummels, Cameron B.; Fabello, Silvia; Geréb, Katinka; Kilborn, Virginia; Wang, Jing

2018-05-01

We present the extended GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey (xGASS), a gas fraction-limited census of the atomic hydrogen (H I) gas content of 1179 galaxies selected only by stellar mass (M⋆ = 109-1011.5 M⊙) and redshift (0.01 < z < 0.05). This includes new Arecibo observations of 208 galaxies, for which we release catalogues and H I spectra. In addition to extending the GASS H I scaling relations by one decade in stellar mass, we quantify total (atomic+molecular) cold gas fractions and molecular-to-atomic gas mass ratios, Rmol, for the subset of 477 galaxies observed with the IRAM 30 m telescope. We find that atomic gas fractions keep increasing with decreasing stellar mass, with no sign of a plateau down to log M⋆/M⊙ = 9. Total gas reservoirs remain H I-dominated across our full stellar mass range, hence total gas fraction scaling relations closely resemble atomic ones, but with a scatter that strongly correlates with Rmol, especially at fixed specific star formation rate. On average, Rmol weakly increases with stellar mass and stellar surface density μ⋆, but individual values vary by almost two orders of magnitude at fixed M⋆ or μ⋆. We show that, for galaxies on the star-forming sequence, variations of Rmol are mostly driven by changes of the H I reservoirs, with a clear dependence on μ⋆. Establishing if galaxy mass or structure plays the most important role in regulating the cold gas content of galaxies requires an accurate separation of bulge and disc components for the study of gas scaling relations.

Cosmic evolution of stellar quenching by AGN feedback: clues from the Horizon-AGN simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beckmann, R. S.; Devriendt, J.; Slyz, A.; Peirani, S.; Richardson, M. L. A.; Dubois, Y.; Pichon, C.; Chisari, N. E.; Kaviraj, S.; Laigle, C.; Volonteri, M.

2017-11-01

The observed massive end of the galaxy stellar mass function is steeper than its predicted dark matter halo counterpart in the standard Λ cold dark matter paradigm. In this paper, we investigate the impact of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback on star formation in massive galaxies. We isolate the impact of AGN by comparing two simulations from the HORIZON suite, which are identical except that one also includes supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and related feedback models. This allows us to cross-identify individual galaxies between simulations and quantify the effect of AGN feedback on their properties, including stellar mass and gas outflows. We find that massive galaxies (M* ≥ 1011 M⊙) are quenched by AGN feedback to the extent that their stellar masses decrease by up to 80 per cent at z = 0. SMBHs affect their host halo through a combination of outflows that reduce their baryonic mass, particularly for galaxies in the mass range 109 M⊙ ≤ M* ≤ 1011 M⊙, and a disruption of central gas inflows, which limits in situ star formation. As a result, net gas inflows on to massive galaxies, M* ≥ 1011 M⊙, drop by up to 70 per cent. We measure a redshift evolution in the stellar mass ratio of twin galaxies with and without AGN feedback, with galaxies of a given stellar mass showing stronger signs of quenching earlier on. This evolution is driven by a progressive flattening of the MSMBH-M* relation with redshift, particularly for galaxies with M* ≤ 1010 M⊙. MSMBH/M* ratios decrease over time, as falling average gas densities in galaxies curb SMBH growth.

Stellar Mass Function of Active and Quiescent Galaxies via the Continuity Equation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lapi, A.; Mancuso, C.; Bressan, A.; Danese, L.

2017-09-01

The continuity equation is developed for the stellar mass content of galaxies and exploited to derive the stellar mass function of active and quiescent galaxies over the redshift range z˜ 0{--}8. The continuity equation requires two specific inputs gauged from observations: (I) the star formation rate functions determined on the basis of the latest UV+far-IR/submillimeter/radio measurements and (II) average star formation histories for individual galaxies, with different prescriptions for disks and spheroids. The continuity equation also includes a source term taking into account (dry) mergers, based on recent numerical simulations and consistent with observations. The stellar mass function derived from the continuity equation is coupled with the halo mass function and with the SFR functions to derive the star formation efficiency and the main sequence of star-forming galaxies via the abundance-matching technique. A remarkable agreement of the resulting stellar mass functions for active and quiescent galaxies of the galaxy main sequence, and of the star formation efficiency with current observations is found; the comparison with data also allows the characteristic timescales for star formation and quiescence of massive galaxies, the star formation history of their progenitors, and the amount of stellar mass added by in situ star formation versus that contributed by external merger events to be robustly constrained. The continuity equation is shown to yield quantitative outcomes that detailed physical models must comply with, that can provide a basis for improving the (subgrid) physical recipes implemented in theoretical approaches and numerical simulations, and that can offer a benchmark for forecasts on future observations with multiband coverage, as will become routinely achievable in the era of JWST.

X-Ray Properties of K-Selected Galaxies at 0.5 Less than z Less than 2.0: Investigating Trends with Stellar Mass, Redshift and Spectral Type

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Therese M.; Kriek, Mariska; vanDokkum, Peter G.; Brammer, Gabriel; Franx, Marijn; Greene, Jenny E.; Labbe, Ivo; Whitaker, Katherine E.

2014-01-01

We examine how the total X-ray luminosity correlates with stellar mass, stellar population, and redshift for a K-band limited sample of approximately 3500 galaxies at 0.5 < z < 2.0 from the NEWFIRM Medium Band Survey in the COSMOS field. The galaxy sample is divided into 32 different galaxy types, based on similarities between the spectral energy distributions. For each galaxy type, we further divide the sample into bins of redshift and stellar mass, and perform an X-ray stacking analysis using the Chandra COSMOS data. We find that full band X-ray luminosity is primarily increasing with stellar mass, and at similar mass and spectral type is higher at larger redshifts. When comparing at the same stellar mass, we find that the X-ray luminosity is slightly higher for younger galaxies (i.e., weaker 4000 angstrom breaks), but the scatter in this relation is large. We compare the observed X-ray luminosities to those expected from low- and high-mass X-ray binaries (XRBs). For blue galaxies, XRBs can almost fully account for the observed emission, while for older galaxies with larger 4000 angstrom breaks, active galactic nuclei (AGN) or hot gas dominate the measured X-ray flux. After correcting for XRBs, the X-ray luminosity is still slightly higher in younger galaxies, although this correlation is not significant. AGN appear to be a larger component of galaxy X-ray luminosity at earlier times, as the hardness ratio increases with redshift. Together with the slight increase in X-ray luminosity this may indicate more obscured AGNs or higher accretion rates at earlier times.

The Intrinsic Characteristics of Galaxies on the SFR–M ∗ Plane at 1.2 < z < 4: I. The Correlation between Stellar Age, Central Density, and Position Relative to the Main Sequence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Bomee; Giavalisco, Mauro; Whitaker, Katherine; Williams, Christina C.; Ferguson, Henry C.; Acquaviva, Viviana; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Straughn, Amber N.; Guo, Yicheng; Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.; Lotz, Jennifer; Pacifici, Camilla; Croton, Darren J.; Somerville, Rachel S.; Lu, Yu

2018-02-01

We use the deep CANDELS observations in the GOODS North and South fields to revisit the correlations between stellar mass (M *), star formation rate (SFR) and morphology, and to introduce a fourth dimension, the mass-weighted stellar age, in galaxies at 1.2< z< 4. We do this by making new measures of M *, SFR, and stellar age thanks to an improved SED fitting procedure that allows various star formation history for each galaxy. Like others, we find that the slope of the main sequence (MS) of star formation in the ({M}* ;{SFR}) plane bends at high mass. We observe clear morphological differences among galaxies across the MS, which also correlate with stellar age. At all redshifts, galaxies that are quenching or quenched, and thus old, have high {{{Σ }}}1 (the projected density within the central 1 kpc), while younger, star-forming galaxies span a much broader range of {{{Σ }}}1, which includes the high values observed for quenched galaxies, but also extends to much lower values. As galaxies age and quench, the stellar age and the dispersion of {{{Σ }}}1 for fixed values of M * shows two different regimes: one at the low-mass end, where quenching might be driven by causes external to the galaxies; the other at the high-mass end, where quenching is driven by internal causes, very likely the mass given the low scatter of {{{Σ }}}1 (mass quenching). We suggest that the monotonic increase of central density as galaxies grow is one manifestation of a more general phenomenon of structural transformation that galaxies undergo as they evolve.

Revealing Companions to Nearby Stars with Astrometric Acceleration

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-07-01

objects, such as stellar -mass black holes or failed supernova (Gould & Salim 2002). Table 4 includes a sample of some of the most interesting dis...knowledge of binary and multiple star statistics is needed for the study of star formation, for stellar population synthesis, for predicting the...frequency of supernovae, blue stragglers, X-ray binaries, etc. The statistical properties of binaries strongly depend on stellar mass. Only for nearby solar

Mass and size growth of early-type galaxies by dry mergers in cluster environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oogi, Taira; Habe, Asao; Ishiyama, Tomoaki

2016-02-01

We perform dry merger simulations to investigate the role of dry mergers in the size growth of early-type galaxies in high-density environments. We replace the virialized dark matter haloes obtained by a large cosmological N-body simulation with N-body galaxy models consisting of two components, a stellar bulge and a dark matter halo, which have higher mass resolution than the cosmological simulation. We then resimulate nine cluster-forming regions, whose masses range from 1 × 1014 to 5 × 1014 M⊙. Masses and sizes of stellar bulges are also assumed to satisfy the stellar mass-size relation of high-z compact massive early-type galaxies. We find that dry major mergers considerably contribute to the mass and size growth of central massive galaxies. One or two dry major mergers double the average stellar mass and quadruple the average size between z = 2 and 0. These growths favourably agree with observations. Moreover, the density distributions of our simulated central massive galaxies grow from the inside-out, which is consistent with recent observations. The mass-size evolution is approximated as R∝ M_{{ast }}^{α }, with α ˜ 2.24. Most of our simulated galaxies are efficiently grown by dry mergers, and their stellar mass-size relations match the ones observed in the local Universe. Our results show that the central galaxies in the cluster haloes are potential descendants of high-z (z ˜ 2-3) compact massive early-type galaxies. This conclusion is consistent with previous numerical studies which investigate the formation and evolution of compact massive early-type galaxies.

Homogeneous spectroscopic parameters for bright planet host stars from the northern hemisphere . The impact on stellar and planetary mass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sousa, S. G.; Santos, N. C.; Mortier, A.; Tsantaki, M.; Adibekyan, V.; Delgado Mena, E.; Israelian, G.; Rojas-Ayala, B.; Neves, V.

2015-04-01

Aims: In this work we derive new precise and homogeneous parameters for 37 stars with planets. For this purpose, we analyze high resolution spectra obtained by the NARVAL spectrograph for a sample composed of bright planet host stars in the northern hemisphere. The new parameters are included in the SWEET-Cat online catalogue. Methods: To ensure that the catalogue is homogeneous, we use our standard spectroscopic analysis procedure, ARES+MOOG, to derive effective temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities. These spectroscopic stellar parameters are then used as input to compute the stellar mass and radius, which are fundamental for the derivation of the planetary mass and radius. Results: We show that the spectroscopic parameters, masses, and radii are generally in good agreement with the values available in online databases of exoplanets. There are some exceptions, especially for the evolved stars. These are analyzed in detail focusing on the effect of the stellar mass on the derived planetary mass. Conclusions: We conclude that the stellar mass estimations for giant stars should be managed with extreme caution when using them to compute the planetary masses. We report examples within this sample where the differences in planetary mass can be as high as 100% in the most extreme cases. Based on observations obtained at the Telescope Bernard Lyot (USR5026) operated by the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées and the Institut National des Science de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France (Run ID L131N11 - OPTICON_2013A_027).

The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). Star formation history of passive red galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siudek, M.; Małek, K.; Scodeggio, M.; Garilli, B.; Pollo, A.; Haines, C. P.; Fritz, A.; Bolzonella, M.; de la Torre, S.; Granett, B. R.; Guzzo, L.; Abbas, U.; Adami, C.; Bottini, D.; Cappi, A.; Cucciati, O.; De Lucia, G.; Davidzon, I.; Franzetti, P.; Iovino, A.; Krywult, J.; Le Brun, V.; Le Fèvre, O.; Maccagni, D.; Marchetti, A.; Marulli, F.; Polletta, M.; Tasca, L. A. M.; Tojeiro, R.; Vergani, D.; Zanichelli, A.; Arnouts, S.; Bel, J.; Branchini, E.; Ilbert, O.; Gargiulo, A.; Moscardini, L.; Takeuchi, T. T.; Zamorani, G.

2017-01-01

Aims: We trace the evolution and the star formation history of passive red galaxies, using a subset of the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). The detailed spectral analysis of stellar populations of intermediate-redshift passive red galaxies allows the build up of their stellar content to be followed over the last 8 billion years. Methods: We extracted a sample of passive red galaxies in the redshift range 0.4

CSI in Supernova Remnants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, You-Hua

2017-02-01

Supernovae (SNe) explode in environments that have been significantly modified by the SN progenitors. For core-collapse SNe, the massive progenitors ionize the ambient interstellar medium (ISM) via UV radiation and sweep the ambient ISM via fast stellar winds during the main sequence phase, replenish the surroundings with stellar material via slow winds during the luminous blue variable (LBV) or red supergiant (RSG) phase, and sweep up the circumstellar medium (CSM) via fast winds during the Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase. If a massive progenitor was in a close binary system, the binary interaction could have caused mass ejection in certain preferred directions, such as the orbital plane, and even bipolar outflow/jet. As a massive star finally explodes, the SN ejecta interacts first with the CSM that was ejected and shaped by the star itself. As the newly formed supernova remnant (SNR) expands further, it encounters interstellar structures that were shaped by the progenitor from earlier times. Therefore, the structure and evolution of a SNR is largely dependent on the initial mass and close binarity of the SN progenitor. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has an excellent sample of over 50 confirmed SNRs that are well resolved by Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope. These multi-wavelength observations allow us to conduct stellar forensics in SNRs and understand the wide variety of morphologies and physical properties of SNRs observed.

Comparative pulsation calculations with OP and OPAL opacities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kanbur, Shashi M.; Simon, Norman R.

1994-01-01

Comparative linear nonadiabatic pulsation calculations are presented using the OPAL and Opacity Project opacities. The two sets of opacities include effects due to intermediate coupling and fine structure as well as new abundances. We used two mass luminosity (M-L) relations, one standard (BIT), and one employing substantial convective core overshoot (COV). The two sets of opacities cannot be differentiated on the basis of the stellar pulsation calculations presented here. The BIT relation can model the beat and bump Cepheids with masses between 4 and 7 solar mass, while if the overshoot relation is used, masses between 2 and 6 solar mass are required. In the RR Lyrae regime, we find the inferred masses of globular cluster RRd stars to be little influenced by the choice of OPAL or OP. Finally, the limited modeling we have done is not able to constrain the Cepheid M-L relation based upon period ratios observed in the beat and bump stars.

Depleted cores, multicomponent fits, and structural parameter relations for luminous early-type galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dullo, Bililign T.; Graham, Alister W.

2014-11-01

New surface brightness profiles from 26 early-type galaxies with suspected partially depleted cores have been extracted from the full radial extent of Hubble Space Telescope images. We have carefully quantified the radial stellar distributions of the elliptical galaxies using the core-Sérsic model whereas for the lenticular galaxies a core-Sérsic bulge plus an exponential disc model gives the best representation. We additionally caution about the use of excessive multiple Sérsic functions for decomposing galaxies and compare with past fits in the literature. The structural parameters obtained from our fitted models are, in general, in good agreement with our initial study using radially limited (R ≲ 10 arcsec) profiles, and are used here to update several `central' as well as `global' galaxy scaling relations. We find near-linear relations between the break radius Rb and the spheroid luminosity L such that Rb ∝ L1.13±0.13, and with the supermassive black hole mass MBH such that R_b∝ M_BH^{0.83 ± 0.21}. This is internally consistent with the notion that major, dry mergers add the stellar and black hole mass in equal proportion, i.e. MBH ∝ L. In addition, we observe a linear relation R_b∝ R_e^{0.98 ± 0.15} for the core-Sérsic elliptical galaxies - where Re is the galaxies' effective half-light radii - which is collectively consistent with the approximately linear, bright-end of the curved L-Re relation. Finally, we measure accurate stellar mass deficits Mdef that are in general 0.5-4 MBH, and we identify two galaxies (NGC 1399, NGC 5061) that, due to their high Mdef/MBH ratio, may have experienced oscillatory core-passage by a (gravitational radiation)-kicked black hole. The galaxy scaling relations and stellar mass deficits favour core-Sérsic galaxy formation through a few `dry' major merger events involving supermassive black holes such that M_def ∝ M_BH^{3.70 ± 0.76}, for MBH ≳ 2 × 108 M⊙.

Modeling Nearly Spherical Pure-bulge Galaxies with a Stellar Mass-to-light Ratio Gradient under the ΛCDM and MOND Paradigms. I. Methodology, Dynamical Stellar Mass, and Fundamental Mass Plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chae, Kyu-Hyun; Bernardi, Mariangela; Sheth, Ravi K.

2018-06-01

We carry out spherical Jeans modeling of nearly round pure-bulge galaxies selected from the ATLAS3D sample. Our modeling allows for gradients in the stellar mass-to-light ratio (M ⋆/L) through analytic prescriptions parameterized with a “gradient strength” K introduced to accommodate any viable gradient. We use a generalized Osipkov–Merritt model for the velocity dispersion (VD) anisotropy. We produce Monte Carlo sets of models based on the stellar VD profiles under both the ΛCDM and MOND paradigms. Here, we describe the galaxy data, the empirical inputs, and the modeling procedures of obtaining the Monte Carlo sets. We then present the projected dynamical stellar mass, {M}\\star {{e}}, within the effective radius R e, and the fundamental mass plane (FMP) as a function of K. We find the scaling of the K-dependent mass with respect to the ATLAS3D reported mass as: {log}}10[{M}\\star {{e}}(K)/{M}\\star {{e}}{{A}3{{D}}}]=a\\prime +b\\prime K with a‧ = ‑0.019 ± 0.012 and b‧ = ‑0.18 ± 0.02 (ΛCDM), or a‧ = ‑0.023 ± 0.014 and b‧ = ‑0.23 ± 0.03 (MOND), for 0 ≤ K < 1.5. The FMP has coefficients consistent with the virial expectation and only the zero-point scales with K. The median value of K for the ATLAS3D galaxies is < K> ={0.53}-0.04+0.05. We perform a similar analysis of the much larger SDSS DR7 spectroscopic sample. In this case, only the VD within a single aperture is available, so we impose the additional requirement that the VD slope be similar to that in the ATLAS3D galaxies. Our analysis of the SDSS galaxies suggests a positive correlation of K with stellar mass.

Weighing in on the masses of retired A stars with asteroseismology: K2 observations of the exoplanet-host star HD 212771

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campante, Tiago L.; Veras, Dimitri; North, Thomas S. H.; Miglio, Andrea; Morel, Thierry; Johnson, John A.; Chaplin, William J.; Davies, Guy R.; Huber, Daniel; Kuszlewicz, James S.; Lund, Mikkel N.; Cooke, Benjamin F.; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; Rodrigues, Thaíse S.; Vanderburg, Andrew

2017-08-01

Doppler-based planet surveys point to an increasing occurrence rate of giant planets with stellar mass. Such surveys rely on evolved stars for a sample of intermediate-mass stars (so-called retired A stars), which are more amenable to Doppler observations than their main-sequence progenitors. However, it has been hypothesized that the masses of subgiant and low-luminosity red-giant stars targeted by these surveys - typically derived from a combination of spectroscopy and isochrone fitting - may be systematically overestimated. Here, we test this hypothesis for the particular case of the exoplanet-host star HD 212771 using K2 asteroseismology. The benchmark asteroseismic mass (1.45^{+0.10}_{-0.09} M_{⊙) is significantly higher than the value reported in the discovery paper (1.15 ± 0.08 M⊙), which has been used to inform the stellar mass-planet occurrence relation. This result, therefore, does not lend support to the above hypothesis. Implications for the fates of planetary systems are sensitively dependent on stellar mass. Based on the derived asteroseismic mass, we predict the post-main-sequence evolution of the Jovian planet orbiting HD 212771 under the effects of tidal forces and stellar mass-loss.

An Integrated Picture of Star Formation, Metallicity Evolution, and Galactic Stellar Mass Assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowie, L. L.; Barger, A. J.

2008-10-01

We present an integrated study of star formation and galactic stellar mass assembly from z = 0.05 to 1.5 and galactic metallicity evolution from z = 0.05 to 0.9 using a very large and highly spectroscopically complete sample selected by rest-frame NIR bolometric flux in the GOODS-N. We assume a Salpeter IMF and fit Bruzual & Charlot models to compute the galactic stellar masses and extinctions. We determine the expected formed stellar mass density growth rates produced by star formation and compare them with the growth rates measured from the formed stellar mass functions by mass interval. We show that the growth rates match if the IMF is slightly increased from the Salpeter IMF at intermediate masses (~10 M⊙). We investigate the evolution of galaxy color, spectral type, and morphology with mass and redshift and the evolution of mass with environment. We find that applying extinction corrections is critical when analyzing galaxy colors; e.g., nearly all of the galaxies in the green valley are 24 μm sources, but after correcting for extinction, the bulk of the 24 μm sources lie in the blue cloud. We find an evolution of the metallicity-mass relation corresponding to a decrease of 0.21 +/- 0.03 dex between the local value and the value at z = 0.77 in the 1010-1011 M⊙ range. We use the metallicity evolution to estimate the gas mass of the galaxies, which we compare with the galactic stellar mass assembly and star formation histories. Overall, our measurements are consistent with a galaxy evolution process dominated by episodic bursts of star formation and where star formation in the most massive galaxies (gtrsim1011 M⊙) ceases at z < 1.5 because of gas starvation. Based in part on data obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA and was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Waving goodbye

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-10-05

This planetary nebula is called PK 329-02.2 and is located in the constellation of Norma in the southern sky. It is also sometimes referred to as Menzel 2, or Mz 2, named after the astronomer Donald Menzel who discovered the nebula in 1922. When stars that are around the mass of the Sun reach their final stages of life, they shed their outer layers into space, which appear as glowing clouds of gas called planetary nebulae. The ejection of mass in stellar burnout is irregular and not symmetrical, so that planetary nebulae can have very complex shapes. In the case of Menzel 2 the nebula forms a winding blue cloud that perfectly aligns with two stars at its centre. In 1999 astronomers discovered that the star at the upper right is in fact the central star of the nebula, and the star to the lower left is probably a true physical companion of the central star. For tens of thousands of years the stellar core will be cocooned in spectacular clouds of gas and then, over a period of a few thousand years, the gas will fade away into the depths of the Universe. The curving structure of Menzel 2 resembles a last goodbye before the star reaches its final stage of retirement as a white dwarf. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Serge Meunier.

A Mass Census of the Nearby Universe with RESOLVE and ECO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eckert, Kathleen D.; Kannappan, Sheila; Stark, David; Moffett, Amanda J.; Norris, Mark A.; Berlind, Andreas A.; Hall, Kirsten; Baker, Ashley; Snyder, Elaine M.; Bittner, Ashley; Hoversten, Erik A.; Lagos, Claudia; Nasipak, Zachary; RESOVE Team

2017-01-01

The low-mass slope of the galaxy stellar mass function is significantly shallower than that of the theoretical dark matter halo mass function, leading to several possible interpretations including: 1) stellar mass does not fully represent galaxy mass, 2) galaxy formation becomes increasingly inefficient in lower mass halos, and 3) environmental effects, such as stripping and merging, may change the mass function. To investigate these possible scenarios, we present the census of stellar, baryonic (stars + cold gas), and dynamical masses of galaxies and galaxy groups for the RESOLVE and ECO surveys. RESOLVE is a highly complete volume-limited survey of ~1500 galaxies, enabling direct measurement of galaxy mass functions without statistical completeness corrections down to baryonic mass Mb ~ 10^9 Msun. ECO provides a larger data set (~10,000 galaxies) complete down to Mb ~ 10^9.4 Msun. We show that the baryonic mass function has a steeper low-mass slope than the stellar mass function due to the large population of low-mass, gas-rich galaxies. The baryonic mass function’s low-mass slope, however, is still significantly shallower than that of the dark matter halo mass function. A more direct probe of total galaxy mass is its characteristic velocity, and we present RESOLVE’s preliminary galaxy velocity function, which combines ionized-gas rotation curves, stellar velocity dispersions, and estimates from scaling relations. The velocity function also diverges from the dark matter halo velocity function at low masses. To study the effect of environment, we break the mass functions into different group halo mass bins, finding complex substructure, including a depressed and flat low-mass slope for groups with halo masses ~10^11.4-12 Msun, which we refer to as the nascent group regime, with typical membership of 2-4 galaxies. This substructure is suggestive of efficient merging or gas stripping in nascent groups, which we find also have large scatter in their cold-baryon fractions, possibly pointing to diversity in hot halo gas content in this regime. This work is supported by NSF grant AST-0955368, the NC Space Grant Graduate Research Fellowship Program, and a UNC Royster Society Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

The realistic models of relativistic stars in f (R) = R + αR 2 gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Astashenok, Artyom V.; Odintsov, Sergei D.; de la Cruz-Dombriz, Álvaro

2017-10-01

In the context of f(R)=R+α R2 gravity, we study the existence of neutron and quark stars for various α with no intermediate approximation in the system of equations. Analysis shows that for positive α the scalar curvature does not drop to zero at the star surface (as in general relativity) but exponentially decreases with distance. Also the stellar mass bounded by star surface decreases when the value α increases. Nonetheless distant observers would observe a gravitational mass due to appearance of a so-called gravitational sphere around the star. The non-zero curvature contribution to the gravitational mass eventually is shown to compensate the stellar mass decrease for growing α’s. We perform our analysis for several equations of state including purely hadronic configurations as well as hyperons and quark stars. In all cases, we assess that the relation between the parameter α and the gravitational mass weakly depends upon the chosen equation of state. Another interesting feature is the increase of the star radius in comparison with general relativity for stars with masses close to maximal, whereas for intermediate masses 1.4 -1.6 M_⊙ the radius of star depends upon α very weakly. Also the decrease in the mass bounded by star surface may cause the surface redshift to decrease in R 2-gravity when compared to Einsteinian predictions. This effect is shown to hardly depend upon the observed gravitational mass. Finally, for negative values of α our analysis shows that outside the star the scalar curvature has damped oscillations but the contribution of the gravitational sphere into the gravitational mass increases indefinitely with radial distance putting into question the very existence of such relativistic stars.

A 3D Search for Companions to 12 Nearby M Dwarfs

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-19

infrared radial velocities (RVs) and optical astrometric measurements in an effort to search for Jupiter -mass, brown dwarf, and stellar-mass companions. Our...around mid to late M dwarfs are still incomplete. Preliminary surveys show that Jupiter -mass companions are rare around M dwarfs. Using RV measurements...precise infrared radial velocities (RVs) and optical astrometric measurements in an effort to search for Jupiter -mass, brown dwarf, and stellar-mass

Very Massive Stars in the local Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vink, Jorick S.; Heger, Alexander; Krumholz, Mark R.; Puls, Joachim; Banerjee, S.; Castro, N.; Chen, K.-J.; Chenè, A.-N.; Crowther, P. A.; Daminelli, A.; Gräfener, G.; Groh, J. H.; Hamann, W.-R.; Heap, S.; Herrero, A.; Kaper, L.; Najarro, F.; Oskinova, L. M.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Rosen, A.; Sander, A.; Shirazi, M.; Sugawara, Y.; Tramper, F.; Vanbeveren, D.; Voss, R.; Wofford, A.; Zhang, Y.

2015-03-01

Recent studies have claimed the existence of very massive stars (VMS) up to 300 M ⊙ in the local Universe. As this finding may represent a paradigm shift for the canonical stellar upper-mass limit of 150 M ⊙, it is timely to discuss the status of the data, as well as the far-reaching implications of such objects. We held a Joint Discussion at the General Assembly in Beijing to discuss (i) the determination of the current masses of the most massive stars, (ii) the formation of VMS, (iii) their mass loss, and (iv) their evolution and final fate. The prime aim was to reach broad consensus between observers and theorists on how to identify and quantify the dominant physical processes.

The PyCASSO database: spatially resolved stellar population properties for CALIFA galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Amorim, A. L.; García-Benito, R.; Cid Fernandes, R.; Cortijo-Ferrero, C.; González Delgado, R. M.; Lacerda, E. A. D.; López Fernández, R.; Pérez, E.; Vale Asari, N.

2017-11-01

The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, a pioneer in integral field spectroscopy legacy projects, has fostered many studies exploring the information encoded on the spatially resolved data on gaseous and stellar features in the optical range of galaxies. We describe a value-added catalogue of stellar population properties for CALIFA galaxies analysed with the spectral synthesis code starlight and processed with the pycasso platform. Our public database (http://pycasso.ufsc.br/, mirror at http://pycasso.iaa.es/) comprises 445 galaxies from the CALIFA Data Release 3 with COMBO data. The catalogue provides maps for the stellar mass surface density, mean stellar ages and metallicities, stellar dust attenuation, star formation rates, and kinematics. Example applications both for individual galaxies and for statistical studies are presented to illustrate the power of this data set. We revisit and update a few of our own results on mass density radial profiles and on the local mass-metallicity relation. We also show how to employ the catalogue for new investigations, and show a pseudo Schmidt-Kennicutt relation entirely made with information extracted from the stellar continuum. Combinations to other databases are also illustrated. Among other results, we find a very good agreement between star formation rate surface densities derived from the stellar continuum and the H α emission. This public catalogue joins the scientific community's effort towards transparency and reproducibility, and will be useful for researchers focusing on (or complementing their studies with) stellar properties of CALIFA galaxies.

QUENCHING OF STAR FORMATION IN SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY GROUPS: CENTRALS, SATELLITES, AND GALACTIC CONFORMITY

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Knobel, Christian; Lilly, Simon J.; Woo, Joanna

2015-02-10

We re-examine the fraction of low-redshift Sloan Digital Sky Survey satellites and centrals in which star formation has been quenched, using the environment quenching efficiency formalism that separates out the dependence of stellar mass. We show that the centrals of the groups containing the satellites are responding to the environment in the same way as their satellites (at least for stellar masses above 10{sup 10.3} M {sub ☉}), and that the well-known differences between satellites and the general set of centrals arise because the latter are overwhelmingly dominated by isolated galaxies. The widespread concept of ''satellite quenching'' as the causemore » of environmental effects in the galaxy population can therefore be generalized to ''group quenching''. We then explore the dependence of the quenching efficiency of satellites on overdensity, group-centric distance, halo mass, the stellar mass of the satellite, and the stellar mass and specific star formation rate (sSFR) of its central, trying to isolate the effect of these often interdependent variables. We emphasize the importance of the central sSFR in the quenching efficiency of the associated satellites, and develop the meaning of this ''galactic conformity'' effect in a probabilistic description of the quenching of galaxies. We show that conformity is strong, and that it varies strongly across parameter space. Several arguments then suggest that environmental quenching and mass quenching may be different manifestations of the same underlying process. The marked difference in the apparent mass dependencies of environment quenching and mass quenching which produces distinctive signatures in the mass functions of centrals and satellites will arise naturally, since, for satellites at least, the distributions of the environmental variables that we investigate in this work are essentially independent of the stellar mass of the satellite.« less

The Global and Radial Stellar Mass Assembly of Milky Way-sized Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avila-Reese, Vladimir; González-Samaniego, Alejandro; Colín, Pedro; Ibarra-Medel, Héctor; Rodríguez-Puebla, Aldo

2018-02-01

We study the global and radial stellar mass assembly of eight zoomed-in Milky Way (MW)-sized galaxies produced in hydrodynamics cosmological simulations. The disk-dominated galaxies (four) show a fast initial stellar mass growth in the innermost parts, driven mostly by in situ star formation (SF), but since z ∼ 2‑1, the SF has entered a long-term quenching phase. The outer regions follow this trend but more gently, as they are more external. As a result, the radial stellar mass growth is highly inside-out due to both inside-out structural growth and inside-out SF quenching. The half-mass radius evolves fast; for instance, {R}0.5(z = 1) < 0.5 {R}0.5 (z = 0). Two other runs resemble lenticular galaxies. One also shows a pronounced inside-out growth, and the other one presents a nearly uniform radial mass assembly. The other two galaxies suffered late major mergers. Their normalized radial mass growth histories (MGHs) are very close, but with periods of outside-in assembly during or after the mergers. For all of the simulations, the archaeological radial MGHs calculated from the z = 0 stellar particle age distribution are similar to current MGHs, which shows that the mass assembly by ex situ stars and the radial mass transport do not significantly change their radial mass distributions. Our results agree qualitatively with observational inferences from the fossil record method applied to a survey of local galaxies and from look-back observations of progenitors of MW-sized galaxies. However, the inside-out growth mode is more pronounced, and the {R}0.5 growth is faster in simulations than in observational inferences.

The stellar mass, star formation rate and dark matter halo properties of LAEs at z ˜ 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kusakabe, Haruka; Shimasaku, Kazuhiro; Ouchi, Masami; Nakajima, Kimihiko; Goto, Ryosuke; Hashimoto, Takuya; Konno, Akira; Harikane, Yuichi; Silverman, John D.; Capak, Peter L.

2018-01-01

We present average stellar population properties and dark matter halo masses of z ˜ 2 Lyα emitters (LAEs) from spectral energy distribution fitting and clustering analysis, respectively, using ≃ 1250 objects (NB387≤25.5) in four separate fields of ≃ 1 deg2 in total. With an average stellar mass of 10.2 ± 1.8 × 108 M⊙ and star formation rate of 3.4 ± 0.4 M⊙ yr-1, the LAEs lie on an extrapolation of the star-formation main sequence (MS) to low stellar mass. Their effective dark matter halo mass is estimated to be 4.0_{-2.9}^{+5.1} × 10^{10}{ }M_{⊙} with an effective bias of 1.22^{+0.16}_{-0.18}, which is lower than that of z ˜ 2 LAEs (1.8 ± 0.3) obtained by a previous study based on a three times smaller survey area, with a probability of 96%. However, the difference in the bias values can be explained if cosmic variance is taken into account. If such a low halo mass implies a low H I gas mass, this result appears to be consistent with the observations of a high Lyα escape fraction. With the low halo masses and ongoing star formation, our LAEs have a relatively high stellar-to-halo mass ratio (SHMR) and a high efficiency of converting baryons into stars. The extended Press-Schechter formalism predicts that at z = 0 our LAEs are typically embedded in halos with masses similar to that of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC); they will also have similar SHMRs to the LMC, if their star formation rates are largely suppressed after z ˜ 2 as some previous studies have reported for the LMC itself.

The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). VI. Comparing the Mass and Light in MACS J0416.1-2403 Using Frontier Field Imaging and GLASS Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoag, A.; Huang, K.-H.; Treu, T.; Bradač, M.; Schmidt, K. B.; Wang, X.; Brammer, G. B.; Broussard, A.; Amorin, R.; Castellano, M.; Fontana, A.; Merlin, E.; Schrabback, T.; Trenti, M.; Vulcani, B.

2016-11-01

We present a model using both strong and weak gravitational lensing of the galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1-2403, constrained using spectroscopy from the Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS) and Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) imaging data. We search for emission lines in known multiply imaged sources in the GLASS spectra, obtaining secure spectroscopic redshifts of 30 multiple images belonging to 15 distinct source galaxies. The GLASS spectra provide the first spectroscopic measurements for five of the source galaxies. The weak lensing signal is acquired from 884 galaxies in the F606W HFF image. By combining the weak lensing constraints with 15 multiple image systems with spectroscopic redshifts and nine multiple image systems with photometric redshifts, we reconstruct the gravitational potential of the cluster on an adaptive grid. The resulting map of total mass density is compared with a map of stellar mass density obtained from the deep Spitzer Frontier Fields imaging data to study the relative distribution of stellar and total mass in the cluster. We find that the projected stellar mass to total mass ratio, f ⋆, varies considerably with the stellar surface mass density. The mean projected stellar mass to total mass ratio is < {f}\\star > =0.009+/- 0.003 (stat.), but with a systematic error as large as 0.004-0.005, dominated by the choice of the initial mass function. We find agreement with several recent measurements of f ⋆ in massive cluster environments. The lensing maps of convergence, shear, and magnification are made available to the broader community in the standard HFF format.

The evolution in the stellar mass of brightest cluster galaxies over the past 10 billion years

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellstedt, Sabine; Lidman, Chris; Muzzin, Adam; Franx, Marijn; Guatelli, Susanna; Hill, Allison R.; Hoekstra, Henk; Kurinsky, Noah; Labbe, Ivo; Marchesini, Danilo; Marsan, Z. Cemile; Safavi-Naeini, Mitra; Sifón, Cristóbal; Stefanon, Mauro; van de Sande, Jesse; van Dokkum, Pieter; Weigel, Catherine

2016-08-01

Using a sample of 98 galaxy clusters recently imaged in the near-infrared with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) New Technology Telescope, WIYN telescope and William Herschel Telescope, supplemented with 33 clusters from the ESO archive, we measure how the stellar mass of the most massive galaxies in the universe, namely brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), increases with time. Most of the BCGs in this new sample lie in the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.6, which has been noted in recent works to mark an epoch over which the growth in the stellar mass of BCGs stalls. From this sample of 132 clusters, we create a subsample of 102 systems that includes only those clusters that have estimates of the cluster mass. We combine the BCGs in this subsample with BCGs from the literature, and find that the growth in stellar mass of BCGs from 10 billion years ago to the present epoch is broadly consistent with recent semi-analytic and semi-empirical models. As in other recent studies, tentative evidence indicates that the stellar mass growth rate of BCGs may be slowing in the past 3.5 billion years. Further work in collecting larger samples, and in better comparing observations with theory using mock images, is required if a more detailed comparison between the models and the data is to be made.

M*/L gradients driven by IMF variation: large impact on dynamical stellar mass estimates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardi, M.; Sheth, R. K.; Dominguez-Sanchez, H.; Fischer, J.-L.; Chae, K.-H.; Huertas-Company, M.; Shankar, F.

2018-06-01

Within a galaxy the stellar mass-to-light ratio ϒ* is not constant. Recent studies of spatially resolved kinematics of nearby early-type galaxies suggest that allowing for a variable initial mass function (IMF) returns significantly larger ϒ* gradients than if the IMF is held fixed. We show that ignoring such IMF-driven ϒ* gradients can have dramatic effect on dynamical (M_*^dyn), though stellar population (M_*^SP) based estimates of early-type galaxy stellar masses are also affected. This is because M_*^dyn is usually calibrated using the velocity dispersion measured in the central regions (e.g. Re/8) where stars are expected to dominate the mass (i.e. the dark matter fraction is small). On the other hand, M_*^SP is often computed from larger apertures (e.g. using a mean ϒ* estimated from colours). If ϒ* is greater in the central regions, then ignoring the gradient can overestimate M_*^dyn by as much as a factor of two for the most massive galaxies. Large ϒ*-gradients have four main consequences: First, M_*^dyn cannot be estimated independently of stellar population synthesis models. Secondly, if there is a lower limit to ϒ* and gradients are unknown, then requiring M_*^dyn=M_*^SP constrains them. Thirdly, if gradients are stronger in more massive galaxies, then accounting for this reduces the slope of the correlation between M_*^dyn/M_*^SP of a galaxy with its velocity dispersion. In particular, IMF-driven gradients bring M_*^dyn and M_*^SP into agreement, not by shifting M_*^SP upwards by invoking constant bottom-heavy IMFs, as advocated by a number of recent studies, but by revising M_*^dyn estimates in the literature downwards. Fourthly, accounting for ϒ* gradients changes the high-mass slope of the stellar mass function φ (M_*^dyn), and reduces the associated stellar mass density. These conclusions potentially impact estimates of the need for feedback and adiabatic contraction, so our results highlight the importance of measuring ϒ* gradients in larger samples.

More missing stellar opacity?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stothers, Richard B.; Chin, Chao-Wen

1994-01-01

Observational data for Population I stars have shown that blue loops on the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram form for stellar masses as low as approximately 4 solar mass. However, current state-of-the-art stellar models, unlike the older ones that were based on smaller opacities, fail to loop out of the red-giant region during core helium burning for masses less than 7 solar mass. A possible explanation is that the currently used Livermore opacities need to be further increased, by at least 70%, at temperatures characteristic of the base of the outer convection zone, around 1 x 10(exp 6) K. Indeed, no other suggested remedy seems to yield a blue loop at the lowest observed loop luminosities.

Radio emission from an ultraluminous x-ray source.

PubMed

Kaaret, Philip; Corbel, Stephane; Prestwich, Andrea H; Zezas, Andreas

2003-01-17

The physical nature of ultraluminous x-ray sources is uncertain. Stellar-mass black holes with beamed radiation and intermediate black holes with isotropic radiation are two plausible explanations. We discovered radio emission from an ultraluminous x-ray source in the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5408. The x-ray, radio, and optical fluxes as well as the x-ray spectral shape are consistent with beamed relativistic jet emission from an accreting stellar black hole. If confirmed, this would suggest that the ultraluminous x-ray sources may be stellar-mass rather than intermediate-mass black holes. However, interpretation of the source as a jet-producing intermediate-mass black hole cannot be ruled out at this time.

AR Scorpii and possible gravitational wave radiation from pulsar white dwarfs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franzon, B.; Schramm, S.

2017-06-01

In view of the new recent observation and measurement of the rotating and highly magnetized white dwarf AR Scorpii, we determine bounds of its moment of inertia, magnetic fields and radius. Moreover, we investigate the possibility of fast rotating and/or magnetized white dwarfs to be sources of detectable gravitational wave (GW) emission. Numerical stellar models at different baryon masses are constructed. For each star configuration, we compute self-consistent relativistic solutions for white dwarfs endowed with poloidal magnetic fields by solving the Einstein-Maxwell field equations in a self-consistent way. The magnetic field supplies an anisotropic pressure, leading to the braking of the spherical symmetry of the star. In this case, we compute the quadrupole moment of the mass distribution. Next, we perform an estimate of the GW of such objects. Finally, we show that the new recent observation and measurement pulsar white dwarf AR Scorpii, as well as other stellar models, might generate GW radiation that lies in the bandwidth of the discussed next generation of space-based GW detectors DECI-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO) and Big Bang Observer (BBO).

Galaxy spin as a formation probe: the stellar-to-halo specific angular momentum relation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Posti, Lorenzo; Pezzulli, Gabriele; Fraternali, Filippo; Di Teodoro, Enrico M.

2018-03-01

We derive the stellar-to-halo specific angular momentum relation (SHSAMR) of galaxies at z = 0 by combining (i) the standard Λcold dark matter tidal torque theory, (ii) the observed relation between stellar mass and specific angular momentum (the Fall relation), and (iii) various determinations of the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR). We find that the ratio fj = j*/jh of the specific angular momentum of stars to that of the dark matter (i) varies with mass as a double power law, (ii) always has a peak in the mass range explored and iii) is three to five times larger for spirals than for ellipticals. The results have some dependence on the adopted SHMR and we provide fitting formulae in each case. For any choice of the SHMR, the peak of fj occurs at the same mass where the stellar-to-halo mass ratio f* = M*/Mh has a maximum. This is mostly driven by the straightness and tightness of the Fall relation, which requires fj and f* to be correlated with each other roughly as f_j∝ f_\\ast ^{2/3}, as expected if the outer and more angular momentum rich parts of a halo failed to accrete on to the central galaxy and form stars (biased collapse). We also confirm that the difference in the angular momentum of spirals and ellipticals at a given mass is too large to be ascribed only to different spins of the parent dark-matter haloes (spin bias).

On the optically thick winds of Wolf-Rayet stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gräfener, G.; Owocki, S. P.; Grassitelli, L.; Langer, N.

2017-12-01

Context. The classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase is believed to mark the end stage of the evolution of massive stars with initial masses higher than 25M⊙. Stars in this phase expose their stripped cores with the products of H- or He-burning at their surface. They develop strong, optically thick stellar winds that are important for the mechanical and chemical feedback of massive stars, and that determine whether the most massive stars end their lives as neutron stars or black holes. The winds of WR stars are currently not well understood, and their inclusion in stellar evolution models relies on uncertain empirical mass-loss relations. Aims: We investigate theoretically the mass-loss properties of H-free WR stars of the nitrogen sequence (WN stars). Methods: We connected stellar structure models for He stars with wind models for optically thick winds and assessed the degree to which these two types of models can simultaneously fulfil their respective sonic-point conditions. Results: Fixing the outer wind law and terminal wind velocity ν∞, we obtain unique solutions for the mass-loss rates of optically thick, radiation-driven winds of WR stars in the phase of core He-burning. The resulting mass-loss relations as a function of stellar parameters agree well with previous empirical relations. Furthermore, we encounter stellar mass limits below which no continuous solutions exist. While these mass limits agree with observations of WR stars in the Galaxy, they contradict observations in the LMC. Conclusions: While our results in particular confirm the slope of often-used empirical mass-loss relations, they imply that only part of the observed WN population can be understood in the framework of the standard assumptions of a smooth transonic flow and compact stellar core. This means that alternative approaches such as a clumped and inflated wind structure or deviations from the diffusion limit at the sonic point may have to be invoked. Qualitatively, the existence of mass limits for the formation of WR-type winds may be relevant for the non-detection of low-mass WR stars in binary systems, which are believed to be progenitors of Type Ib/c supernovae. The sonic-point conditions derived in this work may provide a possibility to include optically thick winds in stellar evolution models in a more physically motivated form than in current models.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: GAMA. Stellar mass budget (Moffett+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moffett, A. J.; Lange, R.; Driver, S. P.; Robotham, A. S. G.; Kelvin, L. S.; Alpaslan, M.; Andrews, S. K.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Cluver, M. E.; Colless, M.; Davies, L. J. M.; Holwerda, B. W.; Hopkins, A. M.; Kafle, P. R.; Liske, J.; Meyer, M.

2018-04-01

Using the recently expanded Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey phase II visual morphology sample and the large-scale bulge and disc decomposition analysis of Lange et al. (2016MNRAS.462.1470L), we derive new stellar mass function fits to galaxy spheroid and disc populations down to log(M*/Mȯ)=8. (1 data file).

Ages of young star clusters, massive blue stragglers, and the upper mass limit of stars: Analyzing age-dependent stellar mass functions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schneider, F. R. N.; Izzard, R. G.; Langer, N.

2014-01-10

Massive stars rapidly change their masses through strong stellar winds and mass transfer in binary systems. The latter aspect is important for populations of massive stars as more than 70% of all O stars are expected to interact with a binary companion during their lifetime. We show that such mass changes leave characteristic signatures in stellar mass functions of young star clusters that can be used to infer their ages and to identify products of binary evolution. We model the observed present-day mass functions of the young Galactic Arches and Quintuplet star clusters using our rapid binary evolution code. Wemore » find that the shaping of the mass function by stellar wind mass loss allows us to determine the cluster ages as 3.5 ± 0.7 Myr and 4.8 ± 1.1 Myr, respectively. Exploiting the effects of binary mass exchange on the cluster mass function, we find that the most massive stars in both clusters are rejuvenated products of binary mass transfer, i.e., the massive counterpart of classical blue straggler stars. This resolves the problem of an apparent age spread among the most luminous stars exceeding the expected duration of star formation in these clusters. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to probe stochastic sampling, which support the idea of the most massive stars being rejuvenated binary products. We find that the most massive star is expected to be a binary product after 1.0 ± 0.7 Myr in Arches and after 1.7 ± 1.0 Myr in Quintuplet. Today, the most massive 9 ± 3 stars in Arches and 8 ± 3 in Quintuplet are expected to be such objects. Our findings have strong implications for the stellar upper mass limit and solve the discrepancy between the claimed 150 M {sub ☉} limit and observations of four stars with initial masses of 165-320 M {sub ☉} in R136 and of supernova 2007bi, which is thought to be a pair-instability supernova from an initial 250 M {sub ☉} star. Using the stellar population of R136, we revise the upper mass limit to values in the range 200-500 M {sub ☉}.« less

Ages of Young Star Clusters, Massive Blue Stragglers, and the Upper Mass Limit of Stars: Analyzing Age-dependent Stellar Mass Functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schneider, F. R. N.; Izzard, R. G.; de Mink, S. E.; Langer, N.; Stolte, A.; de Koter, A.; Gvaramadze, V. V.; Hußmann, B.; Liermann, A.; Sana, H.

2014-01-01

Massive stars rapidly change their masses through strong stellar winds and mass transfer in binary systems. The latter aspect is important for populations of massive stars as more than 70% of all O stars are expected to interact with a binary companion during their lifetime. We show that such mass changes leave characteristic signatures in stellar mass functions of young star clusters that can be used to infer their ages and to identify products of binary evolution. We model the observed present-day mass functions of the young Galactic Arches and Quintuplet star clusters using our rapid binary evolution code. We find that the shaping of the mass function by stellar wind mass loss allows us to determine the cluster ages as 3.5 ± 0.7 Myr and 4.8 ± 1.1 Myr, respectively. Exploiting the effects of binary mass exchange on the cluster mass function, we find that the most massive stars in both clusters are rejuvenated products of binary mass transfer, i.e., the massive counterpart of classical blue straggler stars. This resolves the problem of an apparent age spread among the most luminous stars exceeding the expected duration of star formation in these clusters. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to probe stochastic sampling, which support the idea of the most massive stars being rejuvenated binary products. We find that the most massive star is expected to be a binary product after 1.0 ± 0.7 Myr in Arches and after 1.7 ± 1.0 Myr in Quintuplet. Today, the most massive 9 ± 3 stars in Arches and 8 ± 3 in Quintuplet are expected to be such objects. Our findings have strong implications for the stellar upper mass limit and solve the discrepancy between the claimed 150 M ⊙ limit and observations of four stars with initial masses of 165-320 M ⊙ in R136 and of supernova 2007bi, which is thought to be a pair-instability supernova from an initial 250 M ⊙ star. Using the stellar population of R136, we revise the upper mass limit to values in the range 200-500 M ⊙.

Roles of nuclear weak rates on the evolution of degenerate cores in stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Toshio; Tsunodaa, Naofumi; Tsunoda, Yuhsuke; Shimizu, Noritaka; Otsuka, Takaharu

2018-01-01

Electron-capture and β-decay rates in stellar environments are evaluated with the use of new shell-model Hamiltonians for sd-shell and pf-shell nuclei as well as for nuclei belonging to the island of inversion. Important role of the nuclear weak rates on the final evolution of stellar degenerate cores is presented. The weak interaction rates for sd-shell nuclei are calculated to study nuclear Urca processes in O-Ne-Mg cores of stars with 8-10 M⊙ (solar mass) and their effects on the final fate of the stars. Nucleosynthesis of iron-group elements in Type Ia supernova explosions are studied with the weak rates for pf-shell nuclei. The problem of the neutron-rich iron-group isotope over-production compared to the solar abundances is shown to be nearly solved with the use of the new rates and explosion model of slow defraglation with delayed detonation. Evaluation of the weak rates is extended to the island of inversion and the region of neutron-rich nuclei near 78Ni, where two major shells contribute to their configurations.

The galaxy-subhalo connection in low-redshift galaxy clusters from weak gravitational lensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sifón, Cristóbal; Herbonnet, Ricardo; Hoekstra, Henk; van der Burg, Remco F. J.; Viola, Massimo

2018-07-01

We measure the gravitational lensing signal around satellite galaxies in a sample of galaxy clusters at z < 0.15 by combining high-quality imaging data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope with a large sample of spectroscopically confirmed cluster members. We use extensive image simulations to assess the accuracy of shape measurements of faint, background sources in the vicinity of bright satellite galaxies. We find a small but significant bias, as light from the lenses makes the shapes of background galaxies appear radially aligned with the lens. We account for this bias by applying a correction that depends on both lens size and magnitude. We also correct for contamination of the source sample by cluster members. We use a physically motivated definition of subhalo mass, namely the mass bound to the subhalo, mbg, similar to definitions used by common subhalo finders in numerical simulations. Binning the satellites by stellar mass we provide a direct measurement of the subhalo-to-stellar-mass relation, log mbg/M⊙ = (11.54 ± 0.05) + (0.95 ± 0.10)log [m⋆/(2 × 1010 M⊙)]. This best-fitting relation implies that, at a stellar mass m⋆ ˜ 3 × 1010 M⊙, subhalo masses are roughly 50 per cent of those of central galaxies, and this fraction decreases at higher stellar masses. We find some evidence for a sharp change in the total-to-stellar mass ratio around the clusters' scale radius, which could be interpreted as galaxies within the scale radius having suffered more strongly from tidal stripping, but remain cautious regarding this interpretation.

The galaxy-subhalo connection in low-redshift galaxy clusters from weak gravitational lensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sifón, Cristóbal; Herbonnet, Ricardo; Hoekstra, Henk; van der Burg, Remco F. J.; Viola, Massimo

2018-05-01

We measure the gravitational lensing signal around satellite galaxies in a sample of galaxy clusters at z < 0.15 by combining high-quality imaging data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope with a large sample of spectroscopically-confirmed cluster members. We use extensive image simulations to assess the accuracy of shape measurements of faint, background sources in the vicinity of bright satellite galaxies. We find a small but significant bias, as light from the lenses makes the shapes of background galaxies appear radially aligned with the lens. We account for this bias by applying a correction that depends on both lens size and magnitude. We also correct for contamination of the source sample by cluster members. We use a physically-motivated definition of subhalo mass, namely the mass bound to the subhalo, mbg, similar to definitions used by common subhalo finders in numerical simulations. Binning the satellites by stellar mass we provide a direct measurement of the subhalo-to-stellar-mass relation, log mbg/M⊙ = (11.54 ± 0.05) + (0.95 ± 0.10)log [m⋆/(2 × 1010M⊙)]. This best-fitting relation implies that, at a stellar mass m⋆ ˜ 3 × 1010 M⊙, subhalo masses are roughly 50 per cent of those of central galaxies, and this fraction decreases at higher stellar masses. We find some evidence for a sharp change in the total-to-stellar mass ratio around the clusters' scale radius, which could be interpreted as galaxies within the scale radius having suffered more strongly from tidal stripping, but remain cautious regarding this interpretation.

Stellar Streams in the Andromeda Halo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fardal, Mark A.; PAndAS Collaboration

2011-05-01

The PAndAS survey detects RGB and AGB stars in our neighbor galaxy M31, out to 150 kpc from the galaxy center with an extension to M33. Maps of this survey display a spectacular collection of stellar streams extending tens to hundreds of kpc in length. Many of these streams overlap with each other or with M31's central regions, making it difficult to disentangle the different streams. I discuss what is currently known about the nature, origin, significance, and eventual fate of these stellar streams. Photometric observations from the PAndAS survey and follow-up work constrain the metallicity, age, luminosity, and stellar mass of the stellar population. I discuss scenarios for how some of these streams formed, while for others their origin remains a mystery. I present observationally constrained numerical simulations for the formation of some of the streams. The streams also are probes of the mass profile and lumpiness of M31's dark matter halo. Spectroscopic samples are used to constrain M31's halo mass at large radius.

Featured Image: A Looping Stellar Stream

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2016-11-01

This negative image of NGC 5907 (originally published inMartinez-Delgadoet al. 2008; click for the full view!) reveals the faint stellar stream that encircles the galaxy, forming loops around it a fossil of a recent merger. Mergers between galaxies come in several different flavors: major mergers, in which the merging galaxies are within a 1:5 ratio in stellar mass; satellite cannibalism, in which a large galaxy destroys a small satellite less than a 50th of its size; and the in-between case of minor mergers, in which the merging galaxieshave stellar mass ratios between 1:5 and 1:50. These minor mergers are thought to be relatively common, and they can have a significant effect on the dynamics and structure of the primary galaxy. A team of scientists led by Seppo Laine (Spitzer Science Center Caltech) has recently analyzed the metallicity and age of the stellar population in the stream around NGC 5907. By fitting these observations with a stellar population synthesis model, they conclude that this stream is an example of a massive minor merger, with a stellar mass ratio of at least 1:8. For more information, check out the paper below!CitationSeppo Laine et al 2016 AJ 152 72. doi:10.3847/0004-6256/152/3/72

The Evolution and Stability of Massive Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shiode, Joshua Hajime

Massive stars are the ultimate source for nearly all the elements necessary for life. The first stars forge these elements from the sparse set of ingredients supplied by the Big Bang, and distribute enriched ashes throughout their galactic homes via their winds and explosive deaths. Subsequent generations follow suit, assembling from the enriched ashes of their predecessors. Over the last several decades, the astrophysics community has developed a sophisticated theoretical picture of the evolution of these stars, but it remains an incomplete accounting of the rich set of observations. Using state of the art models of massive stars, I have investigated the internal processes taking place throughout the life-cycles of stars spanning those from the first generation ("Population III") to the present-day ("Population I"). I will argue that early-generation stars were not highly unstable to perturbations, contrary to a host of past investigations, if a correct accounting is made for the viscous effect of convection. For later generations, those with near solar metallicity, I find that this very same convection may excite gravity-mode oscillations that produce observable brightness variations at the stellar surface when the stars are near the main sequence. If confirmed with modern high-precision monitoring experiments, like Kepler and CoRoT, the properties of observed gravity modes in massive stars could provide a direct probe of the poorly constrained physics of gravity mode excitation by convection. Finally, jumping forward in stellar evolutionary time, I propose and explore an entirely new mechanism to explain the giant eruptions observed and inferred to occur during the final phases of massive stellar evolution. This mechanism taps into the vast nuclear fusion luminosity, and accompanying convective luminosity, in the stellar core to excite waves capable of carrying a super-Eddington luminosity out to the stellar envelope. This energy transfer from the core to the envelope has the potential to unbind a significant amount of mass in close proximity to a star's eventual explosion as a core collapse supernova.

Outburst Cycle of the Dwarf Nova SS Cygni

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voikhanskaya, N. F.

2018-01-01

Extensive observational data obtained to date is analyzed with special attention given to space observations. The spectral type of the white dwarf is estimated and it is concluded that accretion of matter on it is the only source of the x-ray flux in the system. The rotation of the secondary is shown to be synchronous and therefore its illumination by hard x-rays results in the formation of stellar wind. This is the main mechanism of mass transfer onto the white dwarf. The geometry of the system prevents the formation of the disk by stellar wind. Instead, stellar wind forms a quasispherical envelope whose variability influences the outburst process. Based on these conclusions, the properties of the system are interpreted, which so far have remained unexplained: short-term appearance of peculiar spectrum during the rising phase of the outburst, rather constant width of absorption lines during the outburst, decrease of the width of emission lines during the outburst, variation of the x-ray and ultraviolet fluxes during ordinary and low-amplitude anomalous outbursts, and, finally, the quasiperiodicity of the outbursts.

A STELLAR-MASS-DEPENDENT DROP IN PLANET OCCURRENCE RATES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mulders, Gijs D.; Pascucci, Ilaria; Apai, Dániel

2015-01-10

The Kepler spacecraft has discovered a large number of planets with up to one-year periods and down to terrestrial sizes. While the majority of the target stars are main-sequence dwarfs of spectral type F, G, and K, Kepler covers stars with effective temperatures as low as 2500 K, which corresponds to M stars. These cooler stars allow characterization of small planets near the habitable zone, yet it is not clear if this population is representative of that around FGK stars. In this paper, we calculate the occurrence of planets around stars of different spectral types as a function of planetmore » radius and distance from the star and show that they are significantly different from each other. We further identify two trends. First, the occurrence of Earth- to Neptune-sized planets (1-4 R {sub ⊕}) is successively higher toward later spectral types at all orbital periods probed by Kepler; planets around M stars occur twice as frequently as around G stars, and thrice as frequently as around F stars. Second, a drop in planet occurrence is evident at all spectral types inward of a ∼10 day orbital period, with a plateau further out. By assigning to each spectral type a median stellar mass, we show that the distance from the star where this drop occurs is stellar mass dependent, and scales with semi-major axis as the cube root of stellar mass. By comparing different mechanisms of planet formation, trapping, and destruction, we find that this scaling best matches the location of the pre-main-sequence co-rotation radius, indicating efficient trapping of migrating planets or planetary building blocks close to the star. These results demonstrate the stellar-mass dependence of the planet population, both in terms of occurrence rate and of orbital distribution. The prominent stellar-mass dependence of the inner boundary of the planet population shows that the formation or migration of planets is sensitive to the stellar parameters.« less

VERY LOW MASS STELLAR AND SUBSTELLAR COMPANIONS TO SOLAR-LIKE STARS FROM MARVELS. I. A LOW-MASS RATIO STELLAR COMPANION TO TYC 4110-01037-1 IN A 79 DAY ORBIT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wisniewski, John P.; Agol, Eric; Barnes, Rory

TYC 4110-01037-1 has a low-mass stellar companion, whose small mass ratio and short orbital period are atypical among binary systems with solar-like (T{sub eff} {approx}< 6000 K) primary stars. Our analysis of TYC 4110-01037-1 reveals it to be a moderately aged ({approx}<5 Gyr) solar-like star having a mass of 1.07 {+-} 0.08 M{sub Sun} and radius of 0.99 {+-} 0.18 R{sub Sun }. We analyze 32 radial velocity (RV) measurements from the SDSS-III MARVELS survey as well as 6 supporting RV measurements from the SARG spectrograph on the 3.6 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo telescope obtained over a period of {approx}2more » years. The best Keplerian orbital fit parameters were found to have a period of 78.994 {+-} 0.012 days, an eccentricity of 0.1095 {+-} 0.0023, and a semi-amplitude of 4199 {+-} 11 m s{sup -1}. We determine the minimum companion mass (if sin i = 1) to be 97.7 {+-} 5.8 M{sub Jup}. The system's companion to host star mass ratio, {>=}0.087 {+-} 0.003, places it at the lowest end of observed values for short period stellar companions to solar-like (T{sub eff} {approx}< 6000 K) stars. One possible way to create such a system would be if a triple-component stellar multiple broke up into a short period, low q binary during the cluster dispersal phase of its lifetime. A candidate tertiary body has been identified in the system via single-epoch, high contrast imagery. If this object is confirmed to be comoving, we estimate it would be a dM4 star. We present these results in the context of our larger-scale effort to constrain the statistics of low-mass stellar and brown dwarf companions to FGK-type stars via the MARVELS survey.« less

ZFOURGE/CANDELS: On the Evolution of M* Galaxy Progenitors from z = 3 to 0.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papovich, C.; Labbé, I.; Quadri, R.; Tilvi, V.; Behroozi, P.; Bell, E. F.; Glazebrook, K.; Spitler, L.; Straatman, C. M. S.; Tran, K.-V.; Cowley, M.; Davé, R.; Dekel, A.; Dickinson, M.; Ferguson, H. C.; Finkelstein, S. L.; Gawiser, E.; Inami, H.; Faber, S. M.; Kacprzak, G. G.; Kawinwanichakij, L.; Kocevski, D.; Koekemoer, A.; Koo, D. C.; Kurczynski, P.; Lotz, J. M.; Lu, Y.; Lucas, R. A.; McIntosh, D.; Mehrtens, N.; Mobasher, B.; Monson, A.; Morrison, G.; Nanayakkara, T.; Persson, S. E.; Salmon, B.; Simons, R.; Tomczak, A.; van Dokkum, P.; Weiner, B.; Willner, S. P.

2015-04-01

Galaxies with stellar masses near M* contain the majority of stellar mass in the universe, and are therefore of special interest in the study of galaxy evolution. The Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) have present-day stellar masses near M*, at 5 × 1010 M ⊙ (defined here to be MW-mass) and 1011 M ⊙ (defined to be M31-mass). We study the typical progenitors of these galaxies using the FOURSTAR Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE). ZFOURGE is a deep medium-band near-IR imaging survey, which is sensitive to the progenitors of these galaxies out to z ~ 3. We use abundance-matching techniques to identify the main progenitors of these galaxies at higher redshifts. We measure the evolution in the stellar mass, rest-frame colors, morphologies, far-IR luminosities, and star formation rates, combining our deep multiwavelength imaging with near-IR Hubble Space Telescope imaging from Cosmic Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS), and Spitzer and Herschel far-IR imaging from Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-Herschel and CANDELS-Herschel. The typical MW-mass and M31-mass progenitors passed through the same evolution stages, evolving from blue, star-forming disk galaxies at the earliest stages to redder dust-obscured IR-luminous galaxies in intermediate stages and to red, more quiescent galaxies at their latest stages. The progenitors of the MW-mass galaxies reached each evolutionary stage at later times (lower redshifts) and with stellar masses that are a factor of two to three lower than the progenitors of the M31-mass galaxies. The process driving this evolution, including the suppression of star formation in present-day M* galaxies, requires an evolving stellar-mass/halo-mass ratio and/or evolving halo-mass threshold for quiescent galaxies. The effective size and SFRs imply that the baryonic cold-gas fractions drop as galaxies evolve from high redshift to z ~ 0 and are strongly anticorrelated with an increase in the Sérsic index. Therefore, the growth of galaxy bulges in M* galaxies corresponds to a rapid decline in the galaxy gas fractions and/or a decrease in the star formation efficiency. This paper contains data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.

The first all-sky view of the Milky Way stellar halo with Gaia+2MASS RR Lyrae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iorio, G.; Belokurov, V.; Erkal, D.; Koposov, S. E.; Nipoti, C.; Fraternali, F.

2018-02-01

We exploit the first Gaia data release to study the properties of the Galactic stellar halo as traced by RR Lyrae. We demonstrate that it is possible to select a pure sample of RR Lyrae using only photometric information available in the Gaia+2MASS catalogue. The final sample contains about 21 600 RR Lyrae covering an unprecedented fraction ( ˜ 60 per cent) of the volume of the Galactic inner halo (R < 28 kpc). We study the morphology of the stellar halo by analysing the RR Lyrae distribution with parametric and non-parametric techniques. Taking advantage of the uniform all-sky coverage, we test halo models more sophisticated than usually considered in the literature, such as those with varying flattening, tilts and/or offset of the halo with respect to the Galactic disc. A consistent picture emerges: the inner halo is well reproduced by a smooth distribution of stars settled on triaxial density ellipsoids. The shortest axis is perpendicular to the Milky Way's disc, while the longest axis forms an angle of ˜70° with the axis connecting the Sun and the Galactic Centre. The elongation along the major axis is mild (p = 1.27), and the vertical flattening is shown to evolve from a squashed state with q ≈ 0.57 in the centre to a more spherical q ≈ 0.75 at the outer edge of our data set. Within the radial range probed, the density profile of the stellar halo is well approximated by a single power law with exponent α = -2.96. We do not find evidence of tilt or offset of the halo with respect to the Galaxy's disc.

Reconstructing the Accretion History of the Galactic Halo Using Stellar Chemical Abundance Ratio Distributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Duane M.; Johnston, Kathryn V.; Sen, Bodhisattva; Jessop, Will

2016-08-01

In this study we tested the prospects of using 2D chemical abundance ratio distributions (CARDs) found in stars of the stellar halo to determine its formation history. First, we used simulated data from eleven ``MW-like'' halos to generate satellite template sets of 2D CARDs of accreted dwarf satellites which are comprised of accreted dwarfs from various mass regimes and epochs of accretion. Next, we randomly drew samples of ~ 103-4 mock observations of stellar chemical abundance ratios ([α/Fe], [Fe/H]) from those eleven halos to generate samples of the underlying densities for our CARDs to be compared to our templates in our analysis. Finally, we used the expectation-maximization algorithm to derive accretion histories in relation to the satellite template set (STS) used and the sample size. For certain STS used we typically can identify the relative mass contributions of all accreted satellites to within a factor of 2. We also find that this method is particularly sensitive to older accretion events involving low-luminous dwarfs e.g. ultra-faint dwarfs - precisely those events that are too ancient to be seen by phase-space studies of stars and too faint to be seen by high-z studies of the early Universe. Since our results only exploit two chemical dimensions and near-future surveys promise to provide ~ 6-9 dimensions, we conclude that these new high-resolution spectroscopic surveys of the stellar halo will allow us (given the development of new CARD-generating dwarf models) to recover the luminosity function of infalling dwarf galaxies - and the detailed accretion history of the halo - across cosmic time.

Reconstructing the Accretion History of the Galactic Halo Using Stellar Chemical Abundance Ratio Distributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Duane Morris; Johnston, Kathryn V.; Sen, Bodhisattva; Jessop, Will

2015-08-01

In this study we tested the prospects of using 2D chemical abundance ratio distributions (CARDs) found in stars of the stellar halo to determine its formation history. First, we used simulated data from eleven ``MW-like'' halos to generate satellite template sets of 2D CARDs of accreted dwarf satellites which are comprised of accreted dwarfs from various mass regimes and epochs of accretion. Next, we randomly drew samples of ~103-4 mock observations of stellar chemical abundance ratios ([α/Fe], [Fe/H]) from those eleven halos to generate samples of the underlying densities for our CARDs to be compared to our templates in our analysis. Finally, we used the expectation-maximization algorithm to derive accretion histories in relation to the satellite template set (STS) used and the sample size. For certain STS used we typically can identify the relative mass contributions of all accreted satellites to within a factor of 2. We also find that this method is particularly sensitive to older accretion events involving low-luminous dwarfs e.g. ultra-faint dwarfs --- precisely those events that are too ancient to be seen by phase-space studies of stars and too faint to be seen by high-z studies of the early Universe. Since our results only exploit two chemical dimensions and near-future surveys promise to provide ~6-9 dimensions, we conclude that these new high-resolution spectroscopic surveys of the stellar halo will allow us (given the development of new CARD-generating dwarf models) to recover the luminosity function of infalling dwarf galaxies --- and the detailed accretion history of the halo --- across cosmic time.

Impact of an AGN featureless continuum on estimation of stellar population properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardoso, Leandro S. M.; Gomes, Jean Michel; Papaderos, Polychronis

2017-08-01

The effect of the featureless power-law (PL) continuum of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) on the estimation of physical properties of galaxies with optical population spectral synthesis (PSS) remains largely unknown. With the goal of a quantitative examination of this issue, we fit synthetic galaxy spectra representing a wide range of galaxy star formation histories (SFHs) and including distinct PL contributions of the form Fν ∝ ν- α with the PSS code Starlight to study to which extent various inferred quantities (e.g. stellar mass, mean age, and mean metallicity) match the input. The synthetic spectral energy distributions (SEDs) computed with our evolutionary spectral synthesis code include an AGN PL component with 0.5 ≤ α ≤ 2 and a fractional contribution 0.2 ≤ xAGN ≤ 0.8 to the monochromatic flux at 4020 Å. At the empirical AGN detection threshold xAGN ≃ 0.26 that we previously inferred in a pilot study on this subject, our results show that the neglect of a PL component in spectral fitting can lead to an overestimation by 2 dex in stellar mass and by up to 1 and 4 dex in the light- and mass-weighted mean stellar age, respectively, whereas the light- and mass-weighted mean stellar metallicity are underestimated by up to 0.3 and 0.6 dex, respectively. These biases, which become more severe with increasing xAGN, are essentially independent of the adopted SFH and show a complex behaviour with evolutionary time and α. Other fitting set-ups including either a single PL or multiple PLs in the base reveal, on average, much lower unsystematic uncertainties of the order of those typically found when fitting purely stellar SEDs with stellar templates, however, reaching locally up to 1, 3 and 0.4 dex in mass, age and metallicity, respectively. Our results underscore the importance of an accurate modelling of the AGN spectral contribution in PSS fits as a minimum requirement for the recovery of the physical and evolutionary properties of stellar populations in active galaxies. In particular, this study draws attention to the fact that the neglect of a PL in spectral modelling of these systems may lead to substantial overestimates in stellar mass and age, thereby leading to potentially significant biases in our understanding of the co-evolution of AGN with their galaxy hosts.

Towards a Unified View of Inhomogeneous Stellar Winds in Isolated Supergiant Stars and Supergiant High Mass X-Ray Binaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martínez-Núñez, Silvia; Kretschmar, Peter; Bozzo, Enrico; Oskinova, Lidia M.; Puls, Joachim; Sidoli, Lara; Sundqvist, Jon Olof; Blay, Pere; Falanga, Maurizio; Fürst, Felix; Gímenez-García, Angel; Kreykenbohm, Ingo; Kühnel, Matthias; Sander, Andreas; Torrejón, José Miguel; Wilms, Jörn

2017-10-01

Massive stars, at least ˜10 times more massive than the Sun, have two key properties that make them the main drivers of evolution of star clusters, galaxies, and the Universe as a whole. On the one hand, the outer layers of massive stars are so hot that they produce most of the ionizing ultraviolet radiation of galaxies; in fact, the first massive stars helped to re-ionize the Universe after its Dark Ages. Another important property of massive stars are the strong stellar winds and outflows they produce. This mass loss, and finally the explosion of a massive star as a supernova or a gamma-ray burst, provide a significant input of mechanical and radiative energy into the interstellar space. These two properties together make massive stars one of the most important cosmic engines: they trigger the star formation and enrich the interstellar medium with heavy elements, that ultimately leads to formation of Earth-like rocky planets and the development of complex life. The study of massive star winds is thus a truly multidisciplinary field and has a wide impact on different areas of astronomy. In recent years observational and theoretical evidences have been growing that these winds are not smooth and homogeneous as previously assumed, but rather populated by dense "clumps". The presence of these structures dramatically affects the mass loss rates derived from the study of stellar winds. Clump properties in isolated stars are nowadays inferred mostly through indirect methods (i.e., spectroscopic observations of line profiles in various wavelength regimes, and their analysis based on tailored, inhomogeneous wind models). The limited characterization of the clump physical properties (mass, size) obtained so far have led to large uncertainties in the mass loss rates from massive stars. Such uncertainties limit our understanding of the role of massive star winds in galactic and cosmic evolution. Supergiant high mass X-ray binaries (SgXBs) are among the brightest X-ray sources in the sky. A large number of them consist of a neutron star accreting from the wind of a massive companion and producing a powerful X-ray source. The characteristics of the stellar wind together with the complex interactions between the compact object and the donor star determine the observed X-ray output from all these systems. Consequently, the use of SgXBs for studies of massive stars is only possible when the physics of the stellar winds, the compact objects, and accretion mechanisms are combined together and confronted with observations. This detailed review summarises the current knowledge on the theory and observations of winds from massive stars, as well as on observations and accretion processes in wind-fed high mass X-ray binaries. The aim is to combine in the near future all available theoretical diagnostics and observational measurements to achieve a unified picture of massive star winds in isolated objects and in binary systems.

The distribution of stars most likely to harbor intelligent life.

PubMed

Whitmire, Daniel P; Matese, John J

2009-09-01

Simple heuristic models and recent numerical simulations show that the probability of habitable planet formation increases with stellar mass. We combine those results with the distribution of main-sequence stellar masses to obtain the distribution of stars most likely to possess habitable planets as a function of stellar lifetime. We then impose the self-selection condition that intelligent observers can only find themselves around a star with a lifetime greater than the time required for that observer to have evolved, T(i). This allows us to obtain the stellar timescale number distribution for a given value of T(i). Our results show that for habitable planets with a civilization that evolved at time T(i) = 4.5 Gyr the median stellar lifetime is 13 Gyr, corresponding approximately to a stellar type of G5, with two-thirds of the stars having lifetimes between 7 and 30 Gyr, corresponding approximately to spectral types G0-K5. For other values of T(i) the median stellar lifetime changes by less than 50%.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): galaxy close pairs, mergers and the future fate of stellar mass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robotham, A. S. G.; Driver, S. P.; Davies, L. J. M.; Hopkins, A. M.; Baldry, I. K.; Agius, N. K.; Bauer, A. E.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Brown, M. J. I.; Cluver, M.; De Propris, R.; Drinkwater, M. J.; Holwerda, B. W.; Kelvin, L. S.; Lara-Lopez, M. A.; Liske, J.; López-Sánchez, Á. R.; Loveday, J.; Mahajan, S.; McNaught-Roberts, T.; Moffett, A.; Norberg, P.; Obreschkow, D.; Owers, M. S.; Penny, S. J.; Pimbblet, K.; Prescott, M.; Taylor, E. N.; van Kampen, E.; Wilkins, S. M.

2014-11-01

We use a highly complete subset of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly II (GAMA-II) redshift sample to fully describe the stellar mass dependence of close pairs and mergers between 108 and 1012 M⊙. Using the analytic form of this fit we investigate the total stellar mass accreting on to more massive galaxies across all mass ratios. Depending on how conservatively we select our robust merging systems, the fraction of mass merging on to more massive companions is 2.0-5.6 per cent. Using the GAMA-II data we see no significant evidence for a change in the close pair fraction between redshift z = 0.05 and 0.2. However, we find a systematically higher fraction of galaxies in similar mass close pairs compared to published results over a similar redshift baseline. Using a compendium of data and the function γM = A(1 + z)m to predict the major close pair fraction, we find fitting parameters of A = 0.021 ± 0.001 and m = 1.53 ± 0.08, which represents a higher low-redshift normalization and shallower power-law slope than recent literature values. We find that the relative importance of in situ star formation versus galaxy merging is inversely correlated, with star formation dominating the addition of stellar material below M^* and merger accretion events dominating beyond M^*. We find mergers have a measurable impact on the whole extent of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF), manifest as a deepening of the `dip' in the GSMF over the next ˜Gyr and an increase in M^* by as much as 0.01-0.05 dex.

COS Spectroscopy of White Dwarf Companions to Blue Stragglers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gosnell, Natalie M.; Geller, Aaron M.; Knigge, Christian; Mathieu, Robert D.; Sills, Alison; Leiner, Emily; Leigh, Nathan

2017-01-01

Complete membership studies of open stellar clusters reveal that 25% of the evolved stars follow alternative pathways in stellar evolution, meaning something in the history of these stars changed their composition or mass (or both). In order to draw a complete picture of stellar evolution we must include these canonically "strange" stars in our definition of standard stellar populations. The formation mechanism of blue straggler stars, traditionally defined to be brighter and bluer than the main sequence turnoff in a star cluster, has been an outstanding question for almost six decades. Recent Hubble Space Telescope (HST) far-ultraviolet (far-UV) observations directly reveal that the blue straggler stars in the old (7 Gyr) open cluster NGC 188 are predominantly formed through mass transfer. We will present HST far-UV COS spectroscopy of white dwarf companions to blue stragglers. These white dwarfs are the remnants of the mass transfer formation process. The effective temperatures and surface gravities of the white dwarfs delineate the timeline of blue straggler formation in this cluster. The existence of these binaries in a well-studied cluster environment provides an unprecedented opportunity to observationally constrain mass transfer models and inform our understanding of many other alternative pathway stellar products.

The Initial Mass Function in the Nearest Strong Lenses from SNELLS: Assessing the Consistency of Lensing, Dynamical, and Spectroscopic Constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newman, Andrew B.; Smith, Russell J.; Conroy, Charlie; Villaume, Alexa; van Dokkum, Pieter

2017-08-01

We present new observations of the three nearest early-type galaxy (ETG) strong lenses discovered in the SINFONI Nearby Elliptical Lens Locator Survey (SNELLS). Based on their lensing masses, these ETGs were inferred to have a stellar initial mass function (IMF) consistent with that of the Milky Way, not the bottom-heavy IMF that has been reported as typical for high-σ ETGs based on lensing, dynamical, and stellar population synthesis techniques. We use these unique systems to test the consistency of IMF estimates derived from different methods. We first estimate the stellar M */L using lensing and stellar dynamics. We then fit high-quality optical spectra of the lenses using an updated version of the stellar population synthesis models developed by Conroy & van Dokkum. When examined individually, we find good agreement among these methods for one galaxy. The other two galaxies show 2-3σ tension with lensing estimates, depending on the dark matter contribution, when considering IMFs that extend to 0.08 M ⊙. Allowing a variable low-mass cutoff or a nonparametric form of the IMF reduces the tension among the IMF estimates to <2σ. There is moderate evidence for a reduced number of low-mass stars in the SNELLS spectra, but no such evidence in a composite spectrum of matched-σ ETGs drawn from the SDSS. Such variation in the form of the IMF at low stellar masses (m ≲ 0.3 M ⊙), if present, could reconcile lensing/dynamical and spectroscopic IMF estimates for the SNELLS lenses and account for their lighter M */L relative to the mean matched-σ ETG. We provide the spectra used in this study to facilitate future comparisons.

Demonstration of a Novel Method for Measuring Mass-loss Rates for Massive Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobulnicky, Henry A.; Chick, William T.; Povich, Matthew S.

2018-03-01

The rate at which massive stars eject mass in stellar winds significantly influences their evolutionary path. Cosmic rates of nucleosynthesis, explosive stellar phenomena, and compact object genesis depend on this poorly known facet of stellar evolution. We employ an unexploited observational technique for measuring the mass-loss rates of O and early-B stars. Our approach, which has no adjustable parameters, uses the principle of pressure equilibrium between the stellar wind and the ambient interstellar medium for a high-velocity star generating an infrared bow shock nebula. Results for 20 bow-shock-generating stars show good agreement with two sets of theoretical predictions for O5–O9.5 main-sequence stars, yielding \\dot{M} = 1.3 × 10‑6 to 2 × 10‑9 {M}ȯ {yr}}-1. Although \\dot{M} values derived for this sample are smaller than theoretical expectations by a factor of about two, this discrepancy is greatly reduced compared to canonical mass-loss methods. Bow-shock-derived mass-loss rates are factors of 10 smaller than Hα-based measurements (uncorrected for clumping) for similar stellar types and are nearly an order of magnitude larger than P4+ and some other diagnostics based on UV absorption lines. Ambient interstellar densities of at least several cm‑3 appear to be required for formation of a prominent infrared bow shock nebula. Measurements of \\dot{M} for early-B stars are not yet compelling owing to the small number in our sample and the lack of clear theoretical predictions in the regime of lower stellar luminosities. These results may constitute a partial resolution of the extant “weak-wind problem” for late-O stars. The technique shows promise for determining mass-loss rates in the weak-wind regime.

Simulating galaxies in the reionization era with FIRE-2: morphologies and sizes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Xiangcheng; Hopkins, Philip F.; Boylan-Kolchin, Michael; Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André; Quataert, Eliot; Feldmann, Robert; Garrison-Kimmel, Shea; Hayward, Christopher C.; Kereš, Dušan; Wetzel, Andrew

2018-06-01

We study the morphologies and sizes of galaxies at z ≥ 5 using high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations from the Feedback In Realistic Environments project. The galaxies show a variety of morphologies, from compact to clumpy to irregular. The simulated galaxies have more extended morphologies and larger sizes when measured using rest-frame optical B-band light than rest-frame UV light; sizes measured from stellar mass surface density are even larger. The UV morphologies are usually dominated by several small, bright young stellar clumps that are not always associated with significant stellar mass. The B-band light traces stellar mass better than the UV, but it can also be biased by the bright clumps. At all redshifts, galaxy size correlates with stellar mass/luminosity with large scatter. The half-light radii range from 0.01 to 0.2 arcsec (0.05-1 kpc physical) at fixed magnitude. At z ≥ 5, the size of galaxies at fixed stellar mass/luminosity evolves as (1 + z)-m, with m ˜ 1-2. For galaxies less massive than M* ˜ 108 M⊙, the ratio of the half-mass radius to the halo virial radius is ˜ 10 per cent and does not evolve significantly at z = 5-10; this ratio is typically 1-5 per cent for more massive galaxies. A galaxy's `observed' size decreases dramatically at shallower surface brightness limits. This effect may account for the extremely small sizes of z ≥ 5 galaxies measured in the Hubble Frontier Fields. We provide predictions for the cumulative light distribution as a function of surface brightness for typical galaxies at z = 6.

The Initial Mass Function in the Nearest Strong Lenses from SNELLS: Assessing the Consistency of Lensing, Dynamical, and Spectroscopic Constraints

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Newman, Andrew B.; Smith, Russell J.; Conroy, Charlie

2017-08-20

We present new observations of the three nearest early-type galaxy (ETG) strong lenses discovered in the SINFONI Nearby Elliptical Lens Locator Survey (SNELLS). Based on their lensing masses, these ETGs were inferred to have a stellar initial mass function (IMF) consistent with that of the Milky Way, not the bottom-heavy IMF that has been reported as typical for high- σ ETGs based on lensing, dynamical, and stellar population synthesis techniques. We use these unique systems to test the consistency of IMF estimates derived from different methods. We first estimate the stellar M {sub *}/ L using lensing and stellar dynamics.more » We then fit high-quality optical spectra of the lenses using an updated version of the stellar population synthesis models developed by Conroy and van Dokkum. When examined individually, we find good agreement among these methods for one galaxy. The other two galaxies show 2–3 σ tension with lensing estimates, depending on the dark matter contribution, when considering IMFs that extend to 0.08 M {sub ⊙}. Allowing a variable low-mass cutoff or a nonparametric form of the IMF reduces the tension among the IMF estimates to <2 σ . There is moderate evidence for a reduced number of low-mass stars in the SNELLS spectra, but no such evidence in a composite spectrum of matched- σ ETGs drawn from the SDSS. Such variation in the form of the IMF at low stellar masses ( m ≲ 0.3 M {sub ⊙}), if present, could reconcile lensing/dynamical and spectroscopic IMF estimates for the SNELLS lenses and account for their lighter M {sub *}/ L relative to the mean matched- σ ETG. We provide the spectra used in this study to facilitate future comparisons.« less

Surface density: a new parameter in the fundamental metallicity relation of star-forming galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hashimoto, Tetsuya; Goto, Tomotsugu; Momose, Rieko

2018-04-01

Star-forming galaxies display a close relation among stellar mass, metallicity, and star formation rate (or molecular-gas mass). This is known as the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) (or molecular-gas FMR), and it has a profound implication on models of galaxy evolution. However, there still remains a significant residual scatter around the FMR. We show here that a fourth parameter, the surface density of stellar mass, reduces the dispersion around the molecular-gas FMR. In a principal component analysis of 29 physical parameters of 41 338 star-forming galaxies, the surface density of stellar mass is found to be the fourth most important parameter. The new 4D fundamental relation forms a tighter hypersurface that reduces the metallicity dispersion to 50 per cent of that of the molecular-gas FMR. We suggest that future analyses and models of galaxy evolution should consider the FMR in a 4D space that includes surface density. The dilution time-scale of gas inflow and the star-formation efficiency could explain the observational dependence on surface density of stellar mass.

Giant Planet Occurrence Rate as a Function of Stellar Mass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reffert, Sabine; Bergmann, Christoph; Quirrenbach, Andreas; Trifonov, Trifon; Künstler, Andreas

2013-07-01

For over 12 years we have carried out a Doppler survey at Lick Observatory, identifying 15 planets and 20 candidate planets in a sample of 373 G and K giant stars. We investigate giant planet occurrence rate as a function of stellar mass and metallicity in this sample, which covers the mass range from about 1 to 3.5-5.0 solar masses. We confirm the presence of a strong planet-metallicity correlation in our giant star sample, which is fully consistent with the well-known planet-metallicity correlation for main-sequence stars. Furthermore, we find a very strong dependence of the giant planet occurrence rate on stellar mass, which we fit with a gaussian distribution. Stars with masses of about 1.9 solar masses have the highest probability of hosting a giant planet, whereas the planet occurrence rate drops rapidly for masses larger than 2.5 to 3.0 solar masses. We do not find any planets around stars more massive than 2.7 solar masses, although we have 113 stars with masses between 2.7 and 5.0 solar masses in our sample (planet occurrence rate in that mass range: 0% +1.6% at 68.3% confidence). This result is not due to a bias related to planet detectability as a function of stellar mass. We conclude that larger mass stars do not form giant planets which are observable at orbital distances of a few AU today. Possible reasons include slower growth rate due to the snow-line being located further out, longer migration timescale and faster disk depletion.

Cosmic CARNage I: on the calibration of galaxy formation models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knebe, Alexander; Pearce, Frazer R.; Gonzalez-Perez, Violeta; Thomas, Peter A.; Benson, Andrew; Asquith, Rachel; Blaizot, Jeremy; Bower, Richard; Carretero, Jorge; Castander, Francisco J.; Cattaneo, Andrea; Cora, Sofía A.; Croton, Darren J.; Cui, Weiguang; Cunnama, Daniel; Devriendt, Julien E.; Elahi, Pascal J.; Font, Andreea; Fontanot, Fabio; Gargiulo, Ignacio D.; Helly, John; Henriques, Bruno; Lee, Jaehyun; Mamon, Gary A.; Onions, Julian; Padilla, Nelson D.; Power, Chris; Pujol, Arnau; Ruiz, Andrés N.; Srisawat, Chaichalit; Stevens, Adam R. H.; Tollet, Edouard; Vega-Martínez, Cristian A.; Yi, Sukyoung K.

2018-04-01

We present a comparison of nine galaxy formation models, eight semi-analytical, and one halo occupation distribution model, run on the same underlying cold dark matter simulation (cosmological box of comoving width 125h-1 Mpc, with a dark-matter particle mass of 1.24 × 109h-1M⊙) and the same merger trees. While their free parameters have been calibrated to the same observational data sets using two approaches, they nevertheless retain some `memory' of any previous calibration that served as the starting point (especially for the manually tuned models). For the first calibration, models reproduce the observed z = 0 galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) within 3σ. The second calibration extended the observational data to include the z = 2 SMF alongside the z ˜ 0 star formation rate function, cold gas mass, and the black hole-bulge mass relation. Encapsulating the observed evolution of the SMF from z = 2 to 0 is found to be very hard within the context of the physics currently included in the models. We finally use our calibrated models to study the evolution of the stellar-to-halo mass (SHM) ratio. For all models, we find that the peak value of the SHM relation decreases with redshift. However, the trends seen for the evolution of the peak position as well as the mean scatter in the SHM relation are rather weak and strongly model dependent. Both the calibration data sets and model results are publicly available.

Stellar Wind Retention and Expulsion in Massive Star Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naiman, J. P.; Ramirez-Ruiz, E.; Lin, D. N. C.

2018-05-01

Mass and energy injection throughout the lifetime of a star cluster contributes to the gas reservoir available for subsequent episodes of star formation and the feedback energy budget responsible for ejecting material from the cluster. In addition, mass processed in stellar interiors and ejected as winds has the potential to augment the abundance ratios of currently forming stars, or stars which form at a later time from a retained gas reservoir. Here we present hydrodynamical simulations that explore a wide range of cluster masses, compactnesses, metallicities and stellar population age combinations in order to determine the range of parameter space conducive to stellar wind retention or wind powered gas expulsion in star clusters. We discuss the effects of the stellar wind prescription on retention and expulsion effectiveness, using MESA stellar evolutionary models as a test bed for exploring how the amounts of wind retention/expulsion depend upon the amount of mixing between the winds from stars of different masses and ages. We conclude by summarizing some implications for gas retention and expulsion in a variety of compact (σv ≳ 20 kms-1) star clusters including young massive star clusters (105 ≲ M/M⊙ ≲ 107, age ≲ 500 Myrs), intermediate age clusters (105 ≲ M/M⊙ ≲ 107, age ≈ 1 - 4 Gyrs), and globular clusters (105 ≲ M/M⊙ ≲ 107, age ≳ 10 Gyrs).

The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS). II. The Central Dwarf Galaxy Population

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eigenthaler, Paul; Puzia, Thomas H.; Taylor, Matthew A.; Ordenes-Briceño, Yasna; Muñoz, Roberto P.; Ribbeck, Karen X.; Alamo-Martínez, Karla A.; Zhang, Hongxin; Ángel, Simón; Capaccioli, Massimo; Côté, Patrick; Ferrarese, Laura; Galaz, Gaspar; Grebel, Eva K.; Hempel, Maren; Hilker, Michael; Lançon, Ariane; Mieske, Steffen; Miller, Bryan; Paolillo, Maurizio; Powalka, Mathieu; Richtler, Tom; Roediger, Joel; Rong, Yu; Sánchez-Janssen, Ruben; Spengler, Chelsea

2018-03-01

We present a photometric study of the dwarf galaxy population in the core region (≲r vir/4) of the Fornax galaxy cluster based on deep u‧g‧i‧ photometry from the Next Generation Fornax Cluster Survey. All imaging data were obtained with the Dark Energy Camera mounted on the 4 m Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. We identify 258 dwarf galaxy candidates with luminosities ‑17 ≲ M g‧ ≲ ‑8 mag, corresponding to typical stellar masses of 9.5≳ {log}{{ \\mathcal M }}\\star /{M}ȯ ≳ 5.5, reaching ∼3 mag deeper in point-source luminosity and ∼4 mag deeper in surface brightness sensitivity compared to the classic Fornax Cluster Catalog. Morphological analysis shows that the dwarf galaxy surface-brightness profiles are well represented by single-component Sérsic models with average Sérsic indices of < n{> }u\\prime ,g\\prime ,i\\prime =(0.78{--}0.83)+/- 0.02 and average effective radii of < {r}e{> }u\\prime ,g\\prime ,i\\prime =(0.67{--}0.70)+/- 0.02 {kpc}. Color–magnitude relations indicate a flattening of the galaxy red sequence at faint galaxy luminosities, similar to the one recently discovered in the Virgo cluster. A comparison with population synthesis models and the galaxy mass–metallicity relation reveals that the average faint dwarf galaxy is likely older than ∼5 Gyr. We study galaxy scaling relations between stellar mass, effective radius, and stellar mass surface density over a stellar mass range covering six orders of magnitude. We find that over the sampled stellar mass range several distinct mechanisms of galaxy mass assembly can be identified: (1) dwarf galaxies assemble mass inside the half-mass radius up to {log}{{ \\mathcal M }}\\star ≈ 8.0, (2) isometric mass assembly occurs in the range 8.0 ≲ {log}{{ \\mathcal M }}\\star /{M}ȯ ≲ 10.5, and (3) massive galaxies assemble stellar mass predominantly in their halos at {log}{{ \\mathcal M }}\\star ≈ 10.5 and above.

The Impact of Environment on the Stellar Mass–Halo Mass Relation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Golden-Marx, Jesse B.; Miller, Christopher J.

2018-06-01

A large variance exists in the amplitude of the stellar mass–halo mass (SMHM) relation for group- and cluster-size halos. Using a sample of 254 clusters, we show that the magnitude gap between the brightest central galaxy (BCG) and its second or fourth brightest neighbor accounts for a significant portion of this variance. We find that at fixed halo mass, galaxy clusters with a larger magnitude gap have a higher BCG stellar mass. This relationship is also observed in semi-analytic representations of low-redshift galaxy clusters in simulations. This SMHM–magnitude gap stratification likely results from BCG growth via hierarchical mergers and may link the assembly of the halo with the growth of the BCG. Using a Bayesian model, we quantify the importance of the magnitude gap in the SMHM relation using a multiplicative stretch factor, which we find to be significantly non-zero. The inclusion of the magnitude gap in the SMHM relation results in a large reduction in the inferred intrinsic scatter in the BCG stellar mass at fixed halo mass. We discuss the ramifications of this result in the context of galaxy formation models of centrals in group- and cluster-size halos.

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Variation of the Stellar Initial Mass Function in Spiral and Early-type Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Hongyu; Ge, Junqiang; Mao, Shude; Cappellari, Michele; Long, R. J.; Li, Ran; Emsellem, Eric; Dutton, Aaron A.; Li, Cheng; Bundy, Kevin; Thomas, Daniel; Drory, Niv; Lopes, Alexandre Roman

2017-04-01

We perform Jeans anisotropic modeling (JAM) on elliptical and spiral galaxies from the MaNGA DR13 sample. By comparing the stellar mass-to-light ratios estimated from stellar population synthesis and from JAM, we find a systematic variation of the initial mass function (IMF) similar to that in the earlier {{ATLAS}}3{{D}} results. Early-type galaxies (elliptical and lenticular) with lower velocity dispersions within one effective radius are consistent with a Chabrier-like IMF, while galaxies with higher velocity dispersions are consistent with a more bottom-heavy IMF such as the Salpeter IMF. Spiral galaxies have similar systematic IMF variations, but with slightly different slopes and larger scatters, due to the uncertainties caused by the higher gas fractions and extinctions for these galaxies. Furthermore, we examine the effects of stellar mass-to-light ratio gradients on our JAM modeling, and we find that the trends become stronger after considering the gradients.

Mass and metallicity scaling relations of high-redshift star-forming galaxies selected by GRBs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arabsalmani, M.; Møller, P.; Perley, D. A.; Freudling, W.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Le Floc'h, E.; Zwaan, M. A.; Schulze, S.; Tanvir, N. R.; Christensen, L.; Levan, A. J.; Jakobsson, P.; Malesani, D.; Cano, Z.; Covino, S.; D'Elia, V.; Goldoni, P.; Gomboc, A.; Heintz, K. E.; Sparre, M.; de Ugarte Postigo, A.; Vergani, S. D.

2018-01-01

We present a comprehensive study of the relations between gas kinematics, metallicity and stellar mass in a sample of 82 gamma-ray burst (GRB)-selected galaxies using absorption and emission methods. We find the velocity widths of both emission and absorption profiles to be a proxy of stellar mass. We also investigate the velocity-metallicity correlation and its evolution with redshift. Using 33 GRB hosts with measured stellar mass and metallicity, we study the mass-metallicity relation for GRB host galaxies in a stellar mass range of 108.2-1011.1 M⊙ and a redshift range of z ∼ 0.3-3.4. The GRB-selected galaxies appear to track the mass-metallicity relation of star-forming galaxies but with an offset of 0.15 towards lower metallicities. This offset is comparable with the average error bar on the metallicity measurements of the GRB sample and also the scatter on the mass-metallicity relation of the general population. It is hard to decide whether this relatively small offset is due to systematic effects or the intrinsic nature of GRB hosts. We also investigate the possibility of using absorption-line metallicity measurements of GRB hosts to study the mass-metallicity relation at high redshifts. Our analysis shows that the metallicity measurements from absorption methods can significantly differ from emission metallicities and assuming identical measurements from the two methods may result in erroneous conclusions.

First constraints on the stellar mass function of star-forming clumps at the peak of cosmic star formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dessauges-Zavadsky, Miroslava; Adamo, Angela

2018-06-01

Star-forming clumps dominate the rest-frame ultraviolet morphology of galaxies at the peak of cosmic star formation. If turbulence driven fragmentation is the mechanism responsible for their formation, we expect their stellar mass function to follow a power-law of slope close to -2. We test this hypothesis performing the first analysis of the stellar mass function of clumps hosted in galaxies at z ˜ 1 - 3.5. The sample is gathered from the literature with similar detection thresholds and stellar masses determined in a homogeneous way. To overcome the small number statistics per galaxy (each galaxy hosts up to a few tens of clumps only), we combine all high-redshift clumps. The resulting clump mass function follows a power-law of slope ˜-1.7 and flattens at masses below 2 × 107 M⊙. By means of randomly sampled clump populations, drawn out of a power-law mass function of slope -2, we test the effect of combining small clump populations, detection limits of the surveys, and blending on the mass function. Our numerical exercise reproduces all the features observed in the real clump mass function confirming that it is consistent with a power-law of slope ≃ -2. This result supports the high-redshift clump formation through fragmentation in a similar fashion as in local galaxies, but under different gas conditions.

Dynamical equivalence, the origin of the Galactic field stellar and binary population, and the initial radius-mass relation of embedded clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belloni, Diogo; Kroupa, Pavel; Rocha-Pinto, Helio J.; Giersz, Mirek

2018-03-01

In order to allow a better understanding of the origin of Galactic field populations, dynamical equivalence of stellar-dynamical systems has been postulated by Kroupa and Belloni et al. to allow mapping of solutions of the initial conditions of embedded clusters such that they yield, after a period of dynamical processing, the Galactic field population. Dynamically equivalent systems are defined to initially and finally have the same distribution functions of periods, mass ratios and eccentricities of binary stars. Here, we search for dynamically equivalent clusters using the MOCCA code. The simulations confirm that dynamically equivalent solutions indeed exist. The result is that the solution space is next to identical to the radius-mass relation of Marks & Kroupa, ( r_h/pc )= 0.1^{+0.07}_{-0.04} ( M_ecl/M_{⊙} )^{0.13± 0.04}. This relation is in good agreement with the oIMF. This is achieved by applying a similar procedurebserved density of molecular cloud clumps. According to the solutions, the time-scale to reach dynamical equivalence is about 0.5 Myr which is, interestingly, consistent with the lifetime of ultra-compact H II regions and the time-scale needed for gas expulsion to be active in observed very young clusters as based on their dynamical modelling.

Central stellar mass deficits of early-type galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsige Dullo, Bililign; Graham, Alister

2016-01-01

The centers of giant galaxies display stellar mass deficits (Mdef) which are thought to be a signature left by inspiraling supermassive black holes (SMBHs) from pre-merged galaxies. We quantify these deficits using the core-Sérsic model for the largest ever sample of early-type galaxies and find Mdef ˜ 0.5 to 4 MBH (SMBH mass). We find that lenticular disc galaxies with bulge magnitudes MV ≤ -21.0 mag also have central stellar deficits, suggesting that their bulges may have formed from major merger events while their surroundingdisc was subsequently built up, perhaps via cold gas accretion scenarios. Interestingly, these bulges have sizes and mass densities comparable to the compact galaxies found at z ˜ 1.5 to 2.

Precision Astrometry of the Exoplanet Host Candidate GD 66

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

companions, including very low mass stars, neutron stars and black holes , for orbital pe- riods p > 4 yr. Remarkably, a period-dependent range of...trend in the pulsation arrival times cannot be due to stellar -mass secondaries, which include low-mass stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars and black ... holes with periods longer than 4 yr. The USNO relative astrometric monitoring of just over a decade rules out stellar -mass, dark companions with periods

The Stellar to Halo Mass Relation of X-ray Groups at 0.5

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patel, Shannon

2014-08-01

Combining the deepest X-ray imaging to date in the CDFS with the Carnegie-Spitzer-IMACS (CSI) spectroscopic redshift survey, we study the aggregate stellar mass content in bonafide low mass group halos (down to M_h~10^13 Msun) at 0.5

Reevaluating the Mass-Radius Relation for Low-mass, Main-sequence Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feiden, Gregory A.; Chaboyer, Brian

2012-09-01

We examine the agreement between the observed and theoretical low-mass (<0.8 M ⊙) stellar main-sequence mass-radius relationship by comparing detached eclipsing binary (DEB) data with a new, large grid of stellar evolution models. The new grid allows for a realistic variation in the age and metallicity of the DEB population, characteristic of the local galactic neighborhood. Overall, our models do a reasonable job of reproducing the observational data. A large majority of the models match the observed stellar radii to within 4%, with a mean absolute error of 2.3%. These results represent a factor of two improvement compared to previous examinations of the low-mass mass-radius relationship. The improved agreement between models and observations brings the radius deviations within the limits imposed by potential starspot-related uncertainties for 92% of the stars in our DEB sample.

The evolution of magnetic hot massive stars: Implementation of the quantitative influence of surface magnetic fields in modern models of stellar evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keszthelyi, Zsolt; Wade, Gregg A.; Petit, Veronique

2017-11-01

Large-scale dipolar surface magnetic fields have been detected in a fraction of OB stars, however only few stellar evolution models of massive stars have considered the impact of these fossil fields. We are performing 1D hydrodynamical model calculations taking into account evolutionary consequences of the magnetospheric-wind interactions in a simplified parametric way. Two effects are considered: i) the global mass-loss rates are reduced due to mass-loss quenching, and ii) the surface angular momentum loss is enhanced due to magnetic braking. As a result of the magnetic mass-loss quenching, the mass of magnetic massive stars remains close to their initial masses. Thus magnetic massive stars - even at Galactic metallicity - have the potential to be progenitors of "heavy" stellar mass black holes. Similarly, at Galactic metallicity, the formation of pair instability supernovae is plausible with a magnetic progenitor.

The VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey. Luminosity and stellar mass dependence of galaxy clustering at z 3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durkalec, A.; Le Fèvre, O.; Pollo, A.; Zamorani, G.; Lemaux, B. C.; Garilli, B.; Bardelli, S.; Hathi, N.; Koekemoer, A.; Pforr, J.; Zucca, E.

2018-04-01

We present a study of the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and stellar mass in the redshift range 2 < z < 3.5 using 3236 galaxies with robust spectroscopic redshifts from the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey (VUDS), covering a total area of 0.92 deg2. We measured the two-point real-space correlation function wp(rp) for four volume-limited subsamples selected by stellar mass and four volume-limited subsamples selected by MUV absolute magnitude. We find that the scale-dependent clustering amplitude r0 significantly increases with increasing luminosity and stellar mass. For the least luminous galaxies (MUV < -19.0), we measured a correlation length r0 = 2.87 ± 0.22 h-1 Mpc and slope γ = 1.59 ± 0.07, while for the most luminous (MUV < -20.2) r0 = 5.35 ± 0.50 h-1 Mpc and γ = 1.92 ± 0.25. These measurements correspond to a strong relative bias between these two subsamples of Δb/b* = 0.43. Fitting a five-parameter halo occupation distribution (HOD) model, we find that the most luminous (MUV < -20.2) and massive (M⋆ > 1010 h-1 M⊙) galaxies occupy the most massive dark matter haloes with ⟨Mh⟩ = 1012.30 h-1 M⊙. Similar to the trends observed at lower redshift, the minimum halo mass Mmin depends on the luminosity and stellar mass of galaxies and grows from Mmin = 109.73 h-1 M⊙ to Mmin = 1011.58 h-1 M⊙ from the faintest to the brightest among our galaxy sample, respectively. We find the difference between these halo masses to be much more pronounced than is observed for local galaxies of similar properties. Moreover, at z 3, we observe that the masses at which a halo hosts, on average, one satellite and one central galaxy is M1 ≈ 4Mmin over all luminosity ranges, which is significantly lower than observed at z 0; this indicates that the halo satellite occupation increases with redshift. The luminosity and stellar mass dependence is also reflected in the measurements of the large-scale galaxy bias, which we model as bg,HOD (>L) = 1.92 + 25.36(L/L*)7.01. We conclude our study with measurements of the stellar-to-halo mass ratio (SHMR). We observe a significant model-observation discrepancy for low-mass galaxies, suggesting a higher than expected star formation efficiency of these galaxies. Based on data obtained with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, Paranal, Chile, under Large Programme 185.A-0791.

The Stellar IMF from Isothermal MHD Turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haugbølle, Troels; Padoan, Paolo; Nordlund, Åke

2018-02-01

We address the turbulent fragmentation scenario for the origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), using a large set of numerical simulations of randomly driven supersonic MHD turbulence. The turbulent fragmentation model successfully predicts the main features of the observed stellar IMF assuming an isothermal equation of state without any stellar feedback. As a test of the model, we focus on the case of a magnetized isothermal gas, neglecting stellar feedback, while pursuing a large dynamic range in both space and timescales covering the full spectrum of stellar masses from brown dwarfs to massive stars. Our simulations represent a generic 4 pc region within a typical Galactic molecular cloud, with a mass of 3000 M ⊙ and an rms velocity 10 times the isothermal sound speed and 5 times the average Alfvén velocity, in agreement with observations. We achieve a maximum resolution of 50 au and a maximum duration of star formation of 4.0 Myr, forming up to a thousand sink particles whose mass distribution closely matches the observed stellar IMF. A large set of medium-size simulations is used to test the sink particle algorithm, while larger simulations are used to test the numerical convergence of the IMF and the dependence of the IMF turnover on physical parameters predicted by the turbulent fragmentation model. We find a clear trend toward numerical convergence and strong support for the model predictions, including the initial time evolution of the IMF. We conclude that the physics of isothermal MHD turbulence is sufficient to explain the origin of the IMF.

ARE SOME MILKY WAY GLOBULAR CLUSTERS HOSTED BY UNDISCOVERED GALAXIES?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zaritsky, Dennis; Crnojević, Denija; Sand, David J., E-mail: dennis.zaritsky@gmail.com

2016-07-20

The confirmation of a globular cluster (GC) in the recently discovered ultrafaint galaxy Eridanus II (Eri II) motivated us to examine the question posed in the title. After estimating the halo mass of Eri II using a published stellar mass—halo mass relation, the one GC in this galaxy supports extending the relationship between the number of GCs hosted by a galaxy and the galaxy’s total mass about two orders of magnitude in stellar mass below the previous limit. For this empirically determined specific frequency of between 0.06 and 0.39 GCs per 10{sup 9} M {sub ⊙} of total mass, themore » surviving Milky Way (MW) subhalos with masses smaller than 10{sup 10} M {sub ⊙} could host as many as 5–31 GCs, broadly consistent with the actual population of outer halo MW GCs, although matching the radial distribution in detail remains a challenge. Using a subhalo mass function from published high-resolution numerical simulations and a Poissonian model for populating those halos with the aforementioned empirically constrained frequency, we find that about 90% of these GCs lie in lower-mass subhalos than that of Eri II. From what we know about the stellar mass–halo mass function, the subhalo mass function, and the mass-normalized GC specific frequency, we conclude that some of the MW’s outer halo GCs are likely to be hosted by undetected subhalos with extremely modest stellar populations.« less

The IMF in extreme star-forming environments: Searching for variations vs. initial conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andersen, Morten; Meyer, M. R.; Greissl, J.; Oppenheimer, B. D.; Kenworthy, M. A.; McCarthy, D. W.; Zinnecker, H.

Any predictive theory of star formation must explain observed variations (or lack thereof) in the initial mass function. Recent work suggests that we might expect quantitative variations in the IMF as a function of metallicity (Larson 2005) or magnetic field strength (Shu et al. 2004). We summarize results from several on-going studies attempting to constrain the ratio of high to low mass stars, as well as stars to sub- stellar objects, in a variety of different environments, all containing high mass stars.First, we examine the ratio of stars to sub-stellar objects in the nearby Mon R2 region utilizing NICMOS/HST data. We compare our results to the IMF by Kroupa (2002) and to the observed ratios for IC 348 and Orion. Second, we present preliminary results for the ratio of high to low mass stars in W51, the most luminous HII region in the galaxy. Based on ground-based multi-colour images of the cluster obtained with the MMT adaptive optics system, we derive a lower limit to the ratio of high-mass to low-mass stars and compare it to the ratios for nearby clusters. Finally, we present the derived IMF for the R136 region in the LMC where the metallicity is 1/4 solar using HST/NICMOS data. We find that the IMF is consistent with that characterizing the field (Chabrier 2003), as well as nearby star-forming regions, down to 1.0 M_⊙ outside 2 pc. Whereas the results for both Mon R2 and R136 are consistent with the nearby clusters, the ratio of high to low mass stars in W51 tentatively indicates a lack of low-mass objects.

The mass dependence of satellite quenching in Milky Way-like haloes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, John I.; Wheeler, Coral; Cooper, Michael C.; Boylan-Kolchin, Michael; Bullock, James S.; Tollerud, Erik

2015-02-01

Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we examine the quenching of satellite galaxies around isolated Milky Way-like hosts in the local Universe. We find that the efficiency of satellite quenching around isolated galaxies is low and roughly constant over two orders of magnitude in satellite stellar mass (M⋆ = 108.5-1010.5 M⊙), with only ˜20 per cent of systems quenched as a result of environmental processes. While largely independent of satellite stellar mass, satellite quenching does exhibit clear dependence on the properties of the host. We show that satellites of passive hosts are substantially more likely to be quenched than those of star-forming hosts, and we present evidence that more massive haloes quench their satellites more efficiently. These results extend trends seen previously in more massive host haloes and for higher satellite masses. Taken together, it appears that galaxies with stellar masses larger than about 108 M⊙ are uniformly resistant to environmental quenching, with the relative harshness of the host environment likely serving as the primary driver of satellite quenching. At lower stellar masses (<108 M⊙), however, observations of the Local Group suggest that the vast majority of satellite galaxies are quenched, potentially pointing towards a characteristic satellite mass scale below which quenching efficiency increases dramatically.

Galaxy formation in the Planck cosmology - IV. Mass and environmental quenching, conformity and clustering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henriques, Bruno M. B.; White, Simon D. M.; Thomas, Peter A.; Angulo, Raul E.; Guo, Qi; Lemson, Gerard; Wang, Wenting

2017-08-01

We study the quenching of star formation as a function of redshift, environment and stellar mass in the galaxy formation simulations of Henriques et al. (2015), which implement an updated version of the Munich semi-analytic model (L-GALAXIES) on the two Millennium Simulations after scaling to a Planck cosmology. In this model, massive galaxies are quenched by active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback depending on both black hole and hot gas mass, and hence indirectly on stellar mass. In addition, satellite galaxies of any mass can be quenched by ram-pressure or tidal stripping of gas and through the suppression of gaseous infall. This combination of processes produces quenching efficiencies which depend on stellar mass, host halo mass, environment density, distance to group centre and group central galaxy properties in ways which agree qualitatively with observation. Some discrepancies remain in dense regions and close to group centres, where quenching still seems too efficient. In addition, although the mean stellar age of massive galaxies agrees with observation, the assumed AGN feedback model allows too much ongoing star formation at late times. The fact that both AGN feedback and environmental effects are stronger in higher density environments leads to a correlation between the quenching of central and satellite galaxies which roughly reproduces observed conformity trends inside haloes.

The edge of galaxy formation - I. Formation and evolution of MW-satellite analogues before accretion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macciò, Andrea V.; Frings, Jonas; Buck, Tobias; Penzo, Camilla; Dutton, Aaron A.; Blank, Marvin; Obreja, Aura

2017-12-01

The satellites of the Milky Way and Andromeda represent the smallest galaxies we can observe in our Universe. In this series of papers, we aim to shed light on their formation and evolution using cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. In this first paper, we focus on the galaxy properties before accretion, by simulating 27 haloes with masses between 5 × 108 and 1010 M⊙. Out of this set 19 haloes successfully form stars, while 8 remain dark. The simulated galaxies match quite well present day observed scaling relations between stellar mass, size and metallicity, showing that such relations are in place before accretion. Our galaxies show a large variety of star formation histories, from extended star formation periods to single bursts. As in more massive galaxies, large star formation bursts are connected with major mergers events, which greatly contribute to the overall stellar mass build up. The intrinsic stochasticity of mergers induces a large scatter in the stellar mass-halo mass relation, up to two orders of magnitude. Despite the bursty star formation history, on these mass scales baryons are very ineffective in modifying the dark matter profiles, and galaxies with a stellar mass below ≈106 M⊙ retain their cuspy central dark matter distribution, very similar to results from pure N-body simulations.

A large difference in the progenitor masses of active and passive galaxies in the EAGLE simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clauwens, Bart; Franx, Marijn; Schaye, Joop

2016-11-01

Cumulative number density matching of galaxies is a method to observationally connect descendent galaxies to their typical main progenitors at higher redshifts and thereby to assess the evolution of galaxy properties. The accuracy of this method is limited due to galaxy merging and scatter in the stellar mass growth history of individual galaxies. Behroozi et al. have introduced a refinement of the method, based on abundance matching of observed galaxies to the Bolshoi dark matter-only simulation. The EAGLE cosmological hydrosimulation is well suited to test this method, because it reproduces the observed evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function and the passive fraction. We find agreement with the Behroozi et al. method for the complete sample of main progenitors of z = 0 galaxies, but we also find a strong dependence on the current star formation rate. Passive galaxies with a stellar mass up to 1010.75 M⊙ have a completely different median mass history than active galaxies of the same mass. This difference persists if we only select central galaxies. This means that the cumulative number density method should be applied separately to active and passive galaxies. Even then, the typical main progenitor of a z = 0 galaxy already spans two orders of magnitude in stellar mass at z = 2.

Gravitational Conundrum? Dynamical Mass Segregation versus Disruption of Binary Stars in Dense Stellar Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Grijs, Richard; Li, Chengyuan; Zheng, Yong; Deng, Licai; Hu, Yi; Kouwenhoven, M. B. N.; Wicker, James E.

2013-03-01

Upon their formation, dynamically cool (collapsing) star clusters will, within only a few million years, achieve stellar mass segregation for stars down to a few solar masses, simply because of gravitational two-body encounters. Since binary systems are, on average, more massive than single stars, one would expect them to also rapidly mass segregate dynamically. Contrary to these expectations and based on high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations, we show that the compact, 15-30 Myr old Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 1818 exhibits tantalizing hints at the >~ 2σ level of significance (>3σ if we assume a power-law secondary-to-primary mass-ratio distribution) of an increasing fraction of F-star binary systems (with combined masses of 1.3-1.6 M ⊙) with increasing distance from the cluster center, specifically between the inner 10''-20'' (approximately equivalent to the cluster's core and half-mass radii) and the outer 60''-80''. If confirmed, then this will offer support for the theoretically predicted but thus far unobserved dynamical disruption processes of the significant population of "soft" binary systems—with relatively low binding energies compared to the kinetic energy of their stellar members—in star clusters, which we have access to here by virtue of the cluster's unique combination of youth and high stellar density.

Quenching of Star-formation Activity of High-redshift Galaxies in Cluster and Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Seong-Kook; Im, Myungshin; Kim, Jae-Woo; Lotz, Jennifer; McPartland, Conor; Peth, Michael; Koekemoer, Anton M.

2015-08-01

How the galaxy evolution differs at different environment is one of intriguing questions in the study of structure formation. At local, galaxy properties are well known to be clearly different in different environments. However, it is still an open question how this environment-dependent trend has been shaped.In this presentation, we will present the results of our investigation about the evolution of star-formation properties of galaxies over a wide redshift range, from z~ 2 to z~0.5, focusing its dependence on their stellar mass and environment. In the UKIDSS/UDS region, covering ~2800 arcmin2, we estimated photometric redshifts and stellar population properties, such as stellar masses and star-formation rates, using the deep optical and near-infrared data available in this field. Then, we identified galaxy cluster candidates within the given redshift range.Through the analysis and comparison of star-formation (SF) properties of galaxies in clusters and in field, we found interesting results regarding the evolution of SF properties of galaxies: (1) regardless of redshifts, stellar mass is a key parameter controlling quenching of star formation in galaxies; (2) At z<1, environmental effects become important at quenching star formation regardless of stellar mass of galaxies; and (3) However, the result of the environmental quenching is prominent only for low mass galaxies (M* < 1010 M⊙) since the star formation in most of high mass galaxies are already quenched at z > 1.

DEMOGRAPHICS OF BULGE TYPES WITHIN 11 Mpc AND IMPLICATIONS FOR GALAXY EVOLUTION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fisher, David B.; Drory, Niv, E-mail: dbfisher@astro.umd.edu

2011-06-01

We present an inventory of galaxy bulge types (elliptical galaxy, classical bulge, pseudobulge, and bulgeless galaxy) in a volume-limited sample within the local 11 Mpc sphere using Spitzer 3.6 {mu}m and Hubble Space Telescope data. We find that whether counting by number, star formation rate, or stellar mass, the dominant galaxy type in the local universe has pure disk characteristics (either hosting a pseudobulge or being bulgeless). Galaxies that contain either a pseudobulge or no bulge combine to account for over 80% of the number of galaxies above a stellar mass of 10{sup 9} M{sub sun}. Classical bulges and ellipticalmore » galaxies account for {approx}1/4, and disks for {approx}3/4 of the stellar mass in the local 11 Mpc. About 2/3 of all star formation in the local volume takes place in galaxies with pseudobulges. Looking at the fraction of galaxies with different bulge types as a function of stellar mass, we find that the frequency of classical bulges strongly increases with stellar mass, and comes to dominate above 10{sup 10.5} M{sub sun}. Galaxies with pseudobulges dominate at 10{sup 9.5}-10{sup 10.5} M{sub sun}. Yet lower-mass galaxies are most likely to be bulgeless. If pseudobulges are not a product of mergers, then the frequency of pseudobulges in the local universe poses a challenge for galaxy evolution models.« less

The massive end of the luminosity and stellar mass functions and clustering from CMASS to SDSS: evidence for and against passive evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardi, M.; Meert, A.; Sheth, R. K.; Huertas-Company, M.; Maraston, C.; Shankar, F.; Vikram, V.

2016-02-01

We describe the luminosity function, based on Sérsic fits to the light profiles, of CMASS galaxies at z ˜ 0.55. Compared to previous estimates, our Sérsic-based reductions imply more luminous, massive galaxies, consistent with the effects of Sérsic- rather than Petrosian or de Vaucouleur-based photometry on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) main galaxy sample at z ˜ 0.1. This implies a significant revision of the high-mass end of the correlation between stellar and halo mass. Inferences about the evolution of the luminosity and stellar mass functions depend strongly on the assumed, and uncertain, k + e corrections. In turn, these depend on the assumed age of the population. Applying k + e corrections taken from fitting the models of Maraston et al. to the colours of both SDSS and CMASS galaxies, the evolution of the luminosity and stellar mass functions appears impressively passive, provided that the fits are required to return old ages. However, when matched in comoving number- or luminosity-density, the SDSS galaxies are less strongly clustered compared to their counterparts in CMASS. This rules out the passive evolution scenario, and, indeed, any minor merger scenarios which preserve the rank ordering in stellar mass of the population. Potential incompletenesses in the CMASS sample would further enhance this mismatch. Our analysis highlights the virtue of combining clustering measurements with number counts.

Rotation curves of galaxies and the stellar mass-to-light ratio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haghi, Hosein; Khodadadi, Aziz; Ghari, Amir; Zonoozi, Akram Hasani; Kroupa, Pavel

2018-03-01

Mass models of a sample of 171 low- and high-surface brightness galaxies are presented in the context of the cold dark matter (CDM) theory using the NFW dark matter halo density distribution to extract a new concentration-viral mass relation (c - Mvir). The rotation curves (RCs) are calculated from the total baryonic matter based on the 3.6 μm-band surface photometry, the observed distribution of neutral hydrogen, and the dark halo, in which the three adjustable parameters are the stellar mass-to-light ratio, halo concentration and virial mass. Although accounting for a NFW dark halo profile can explain rotation curve observations, the implied c - Mvir relation from RC analysis strongly disagrees with that resulting from different cosmological simulations. Also, the M/L -color correlation of the studied galaxies is inconsistent with that expected from stellar population synthesis models with different stellar initial mass functions. Moreover, we show that the best-fitting stellar M/L - ratios of 51 galaxies (30% of our sample) have unphysically negative values in the framework of the ΛCDM theory. This can be interpreted as a serious crisis for this theory. This suggests either that the commonly used NFW halo profile, which is a natural result of ΛCDM cosmological structure formation, is not an appropriate profile for the dark halos of galaxies, or, new dark matter physics or alternative gravity models are needed to explain the rotational velocities of disk galaxies.

Rotation curves of galaxies and the stellar mass-to-light ratio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haghi, Hosein; Khodadadi, Aziz; Ghari, Amir; Zonoozi, Akram Hasani; Kroupa, Pavel

2018-07-01

Mass models of a sample of 171 low- and high-surface brightness galaxies are presented in the context of the cold dark matter (CDM) theory using the NFW dark matter halo density distribution to extract a new concentration-viral mass relation (c-Mvir). The rotation curves (RCs) are calculated from the total baryonic matter based on the 3.6 μm-band surface photometry, the observed distribution of neutral hydrogen, and the dark halo, in which the three adjustable parameters are the stellar mass-to-light ratio, halo concentration, and virial mass. Although accounting for a NFW dark halo profile can explain RC observations, the implied c-Mvir relation from RC analysis strongly disagrees with that resulting from different cosmological simulations. Also, the M/L-colour correlation of the studied galaxies is inconsistent with that expected from stellar population synthesis models with different stellar initial mass functions. Moreover, we show that the best-fitting stellar M/L ratios of 51 galaxies (30 per cent of our sample) have unphysically negative values in the framework of the ΛCDM theory. This can be interpreted as a serious crisis for this theory. This suggests either that the commonly used NFW halo profile, which is a natural result of ΛCDM cosmological structure formation, is not an appropriate profile for the dark haloes of galaxies, or, new dark matter physics or alternative gravity models are needed to explain the rotational velocities of disc galaxies.

SDSS-IV MaNGA: stellar population gradients as a function of galaxy environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goddard, D.; Thomas, D.; Maraston, C.; Westfall, K.; Etherington, J.; Riffel, R.; Mallmann, N. D.; Zheng, Z.; Argudo-Fernández, M.; Bershady, M.; Bundy, K.; Drory, N.; Law, D.; Yan, R.; Wake, D.; Weijmans, A.; Bizyaev, D.; Brownstein, J.; Lane, R. R.; Maiolino, R.; Masters, K.; Merrifield, M.; Nitschelm, C.; Pan, K.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Storchi-Bergmann, T.

2017-02-01

We study the internal radial gradients of stellar population properties within 1.5 Re and analyse the impact of galaxy environment. We use a representative sample of 721 galaxies with masses ranging between 109 M⊙ and 1011.5 M⊙ from the SDSS-IV survey MaNGA. We split this sample by morphology into early-type and late-type galaxies. Using the full spectral fitting code FIREFLY, we derive the light and mass-weighted stellar population properties, age and metallicity, and calculate the gradients of these properties. We use three independent methods to quantify galaxy environment, namely the Nth nearest neighbour, the tidal strength parameter Q and distinguish between central and satellite galaxies. In our analysis, we find that early-type galaxies generally exhibit shallow light-weighted age gradients in agreement with the literature and mass-weighted median age gradients tend to be slightly positive. Late-type galaxies, instead, have negative light-weighted age gradients. We detect negative metallicity gradients in both early- and late-type galaxies that correlate with galaxy mass, with the gradients being steeper and the correlation with mass being stronger in late-types. We find, however, that stellar population gradients, for both morphological classifications, have no significant correlation with galaxy environment for all three characterizations of environment. Our results suggest that galaxy mass is the main driver of stellar population gradients in both early and late-type galaxies, and any environmental dependence, if present at all, must be very subtle.

Ghostly Halos in Dwarf Galaxies: a probe of star formation in the Early Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Hoyoung; Ricotti, Massimo

2016-01-01

We carry out numerical simulations to characterize the size, stellar mass, and stellar mass surface density of extended stellar halos in dwarf galaxies as a function of dark matter halo mass. We expect that for galaxies smaller than a critical value, these ghostly halos will not exist because the smaller galactic subunits that build it up, do not form any stars. The detection of ghostly halos around isolated dwarf galaxies is a sensitive test of the efficiency of star formation in the first galaxies and of whether ultra-faint dwarf satellites of the Milky Way are fossils of the first galaxies.

The relationship between galaxy and dark matter halo size from z ˜ 3 to the present

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Somerville, Rachel S.; Behroozi, Peter; Pandya, Viraj; Dekel, Avishai; Faber, S. M.; Fontana, Adriano; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Koo, David C.; Pérez-González, P. G.; Primack, Joel R.; Santini, Paola; Taylor, Edward N.; van der Wel, Arjen

2018-01-01

We explore empirical constraints on the statistical relationship between the radial size of galaxies and the radius of their host dark matter haloes from z ∼ 0.1-3 using the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) and Cosmic Assembly Near Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) surveys. We map dark matter halo mass to galaxy stellar mass using relationships from abundance matching, applied to the Bolshoi-Planck dissipationless N-body simulation. We define SRHR ≡ re/Rh as the ratio of galaxy radius to halo virial radius, and SRHRλ ≡ re/(λRh) as the ratio of galaxy radius to halo spin parameter times halo radius. At z ∼ 0.1, we find an average value of SRHR ≃ 0.018 and SRHRλ ≃ 0.5 with very little dependence on stellar mass. Stellar radius-halo radius (SRHR) and SRHRλ have a weak dependence on cosmic time since z ∼ 3. SRHR shows a mild decrease over cosmic time for low-mass galaxies, but increases slightly or does not evolve for more massive galaxies. We find hints that at high redshift (z ∼ 2-3), SRHRλ is lower for more massive galaxies, while it shows no significant dependence on stellar mass at z ≲ 0.5. We find that for both the GAMA and CANDELS samples, at all redshifts from z ∼ 0.1-3, the observed conditional size distribution in stellar mass bins is remarkably similar to the conditional distribution of λRh. We discuss the physical interpretation and implications of these results.

Proto-planetary disc evolution and dispersal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosotti, Giovanni Pietro

2015-05-01

Planets form from gas and dust discs in orbit around young stars. The timescale for planet formation is constrained by the lifetime of these discs. The properties of the formed planetary systems depend thus on the evolution and final dispersal of the discs, which is the main topic of this thesis. Observations reveal the existence of a class of discs called "transitional", which lack dust in their inner regions. They are thought to be the last stage before the complete disc dispersal, and hence they may provide the key to understanding the mechanisms behind disc evolution. X-ray photoevaporation and planet formation have been studied as possible physical mechanisms responsible for the final dispersal of discs. However up to now, these two phenomena have been studied separately, neglecting any possible feedback or interaction. In this thesis we have investigated what is the interplay between these two processes. We show that the presence of a giant planet in a photo-evaporating disc can significantly shorten its lifetime, by cutting the inner regions from the mass reservoir in the exterior of the disc. This mechanism produces transition discs that for a given mass accretion rate have larger holes than in models considering only X-ray photo-evaporation, constituting a possible route to the formation of accreting transition discs with large holes. These discs are found in observations and still constitute a puzzle for the theory. Inclusion of the phenomenon called "thermal sweeping", a violent instability that can destroy a whole disc in as little as 10 4 years, shows that the outer disc left can be very short-lived (depending on the X-ray luminosity of the star), possibly explaining why very few non accreting transition discs are observed. However the mechanism does not seem to be efficient enough to reconcile with observations. In this thesis we also show that X-ray photo-evaporation naturally explains the observed correlation between stellar masses and accretion rates and is therefore the ideal candidate for driving disc evolution. Another process that can influence discs is a close encounter with another star. In this thesis we develop a model to study the effect of stellar dynamics in the natal stellar cluster on the discs, following for the first time at the same time the stellar dynamics together with the evolution of the discs. We find that, although close encounters with stars are unlikely to change significantly the mass of a disc, they can change substantially its size, hence imposing an upper limit on the observed disc radii. Finally, we investigated in this thesis whether discs can be reformed after their dispersal. If a star happens to be in a region that is currently forming stars, it can accrete material from the interstellar medium. This mechanism may result in the production of "second generation" discs such that in a given star forming region a few percent of stars may still possess a disc, in tentative agreement with observations of so called "old accretors", which are difficult to explain within the current paradigm of disc evolution and dispersal.

The nature of very low luminosity objects (VeLLOs)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vorobyov, Eduard I.; Elbakyan, Vardan; Dunham, Michael M.; Guedel, Manuel

2017-04-01

Aims: The nature of very low luminosity objects (VeLLOs) with the internal luminosity Lobj ≤ 0.1 L⊙ is investigated by means of numerical modeling coupling the core collapse simulations with the stellar evolution calculations. Methods: The gravitational collapse of a large sample of model cores in the mass range 0.1-2.0 M⊙ is investigated. Numerical simulations were started at the pre-stellar phase and terminated at the end of the embedded phase when 90% of the initial core mass had been accreted onto the forming protostar plus disk system. The disk formation and evolution was studied using numerical hydrodynamics simulations, while the formation and evolution of the central star was calculated using a stellar evolution code. Three scenarios for mass accretion from the disk onto the star were considered: hybrid accretion in which a fraction of accreted energy absorbed by the protostar depends on the accretion rate, hot accretion wherein a fraction of accreted energy is constant, and cold accretion wherein all accretion energy is radiated away. Results: Our conclusions on the nature of VeLLOs depend crucially on the character of protostellar accretion. In the hybrid accretion scenario, most VeLLOs (90.6%) are expected to be the first hydrostatic cores (FHSCs) and only a small fraction (9.4%) are true protostars. In the hot accretion scenario, all VeLLOs are FHSCs due to overly high photospheric luminosity of protostars. In the cold accretion scenario, on the contrary, the majority of VeLLOs belong to the Class I phase of stellar evolution. The reason is that the stellar photospheric luminosity, which sets the floor for the total internal luminosity of a young star, is lower in cold accretion, thus enabling more VeLLOs in the protostellar stage. VeLLOs are relatively rare objects occupying 7%-11% of the total duration of the embedded phase and their masses do not exceed 0.3 M⊙. When compared with published observations inferring a fraction of VeLLOs in the protostellar stage of 6.25%, we find that cold accretion provides a much better fit to observations than hybrid accretion (5.7% for cold accretion vs. 0.7% for hybrid accretion). Both accretion scenarios predict more VeLLOs in the Class I phase than in the Class 0 phase, in contrast to observations. Finally, when accretion variability with episodic bursts is artificially filtered out from our numerically derived accretion rates, the fraction of VeLLOs in the protostellar stage drops significantly, suggesting a causal link between the two phenomena.

The definition of environment and its relation to the quenching of galaxies at z = 1-2 in a hierarchical Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fossati, M.; Wilman, D. J.; Fontanot, F.; De Lucia, G.; Monaco, P.; Hirschmann, M.; Mendel, J. T.; Beifiori, A.; Contini, E.

2015-01-01

A well-calibrated method to describe the environment of galaxies at all redshifts is essential for the study of structure formation. Such a calibration should include well-understood correlations with halo mass, and the possibility to identify galaxies which dominate their potential well (centrals), and their satellites. Focusing on z ˜ 1 and 2, we propose a method of environmental calibration which can be applied to the next generation of low- to medium-resolution spectroscopic surveys. Using an up-to-date semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, we measure the local density of galaxies in fixed apertures on different scales. There is a clear correlation of density with halo mass for satellite galaxies, while a significant population of low-mass centrals is found at high densities in the neighbourhood of massive haloes. In this case, the density simply traces the mass of the most massive halo within the aperture. To identify central and satellite galaxies, we apply an observationally motivated stellar mass rank method which is both highly pure and complete, especially in the more massive haloes where such a division is most meaningful. Finally, we examine a test case for the recovery of environmental trends: the passive fraction of galaxies and its dependence on stellar and halo mass for centrals and satellites. With careful calibration, observationally defined quantities do a good job of recovering known trends in the model. This result stands even with reduced redshift accuracy, provided the sample is deep enough to preserve a wide dynamic range of density.

CO-SPATIAL LONG-SLIT UV/OPTICAL SPECTRA OF TEN GALACTIC PLANETARY NEBULAE WITH HST/STIS. II. NEBULAR MODELS, CENTRAL STAR PROPERTIES, AND He+CNO SYNTHESIS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Henry, R. B. C.; Miller, T. R.; Balick, B.

The goal of the present study is twofold. First, we employ new HST/STIS spectra and photoionization modeling techniques to determine the progenitor masses of eight planetary nebulae (IC 2165, IC 3568, NGC 2440, NGC 3242, NGC 5315, NGC 5882, NGC 7662, and PB 6). Second, for the first time we are able to compare each object’s observed nebular abundances of helium, carbon, and nitrogen with abundance predictions of these same elements by a stellar model that is consistent with each object’s progenitor mass. Important results include the following: (1) the mass range of our objects’ central stars matches well withmore » the mass distribution of other central stars of planetary nebulae and white dwarfs; (2) He/H is above solar in all of our objects, in most cases likely due to the predicted effects of first dredge-up; (3) most of our objects show negligible C enrichment, probably because their low masses preclude third dredge-up; (4) C/O versus O/H for our objects appears to be inversely correlated, which is perhaps consistent with the conclusion of theorists that the extent of atmospheric carbon enrichment from first dredge-up is sensitive to a parameter whose value increases as metallicity declines; (5) stellar model predictions of nebular C and N enrichment are consistent with observed abundances for progenitor star masses ≤1.5 M{sub ⊙}. Finally, we present the first published photoionization models of NGC 5315 and NGC 5882.« less

The applicability of the viscous α-parameterization of gravitational instability in circumstellar disks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vorobyov, E. I.

2010-01-01

We study numerically the applicability of the effective-viscosity approach for simulating the effect of gravitational instability (GI) in disks of young stellar objects with different disk-to-star mass ratios ξ . We adopt two α-parameterizations for the effective viscosity based on Lin and Pringle [Lin, D.N.C., Pringle, J.E., 1990. ApJ 358, 515] and Kratter et al. [Kratter, K.M., Matzner, Ch.D., Krumholz, M.R., 2008. ApJ 681, 375] and compare the resultant disk structure, disk and stellar masses, and mass accretion rates with those obtained directly from numerical simulations of self-gravitating disks around low-mass (M∗ ∼ 1.0M⊙) protostars. We find that the effective viscosity can, in principle, simulate the effect of GI in stellar systems with ξ≲ 0.2- 0.3 , thus corroborating a similar conclusion by Lodato and Rice [Lodato, G., Rice, W.K.M., 2004. MNRAS 351, 630] that was based on a different α-parameterization. In particular, the Kratter et al.'s α-parameterization has proven superior to that of Lin and Pringle's, because the success of the latter depends crucially on the proper choice of the α-parameter. However, the α-parameterization generally fails in stellar systems with ξ≳ 0.3 , particularly in the Classes 0 and I phases of stellar evolution, yielding too small stellar masses and too large disk-to-star mass ratios. In addition, the time-averaged mass accretion rates onto the star are underestimated in the early disk evolution and greatly overestimated in the late evolution. The failure of the α-parameterization in the case of large ξ is caused by a growing strength of low-order spiral modes in massive disks. Only in the late Class II phase, when the magnitude of spiral modes diminishes and the mode-to-mode interaction ensues, may the effective viscosity be used to simulate the effect of GI in stellar systems with ξ≳ 0.3 . A simple modification of the effective viscosity that takes into account disk fragmentation can somewhat improve the performance of α-models in the case of large ξ and even approximately reproduce the mass accretion burst phenomenon, the latter being a signature of the early gravitationally unstable stage of stellar evolution [Vorobyov, E.I., Basu, S., 2006. ApJ 650, 956]. However, further numerical experiments are needed to explore this issue.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Evolution of rotating very massive LC stars (Kohler, 2015)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, K.; Langer, N.; de Koter, A.; de Mink, S. E.; Crowther, P. A.; Evans, C. J.; Grafener, G.; Sana, H.; Sanyal, D.; Schneider, F. R. N.; Vink, J. S.

2014-11-01

A dense model grid with chemical composition appropriate for the Large Magellanic Cloud is presented. A one-dimensional hydrodynamic stellar evolution code was used to compute our models on the main sequence, taking into account rotation, transport of angular momentum by magnetic fields and stellar wind mass loss. We present stellar evolution models with initial masses of 70-500M⊙ and with initial surface rotational velocities of 0-550km/s. (2 data files).

Retired A Stars Revisited: An Updated Giant Planet Occurrence Rate as a Function of Stellar Metallicity and Mass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghezzi, Luan; Montet, Benjamin T.; Johnson, John Asher

2018-06-01

Exoplanet surveys of evolved stars have provided increasing evidence that the formation of giant planets depends not only on stellar metallicity ([Fe/H]) but also on the mass ({M}\\star ). However, measuring accurate masses for subgiants and giants is far more challenging than it is for their main-sequence counterparts, which has led to recent concerns regarding the veracity of the correlation between stellar mass and planet occurrence. In order to address these concerns, we use HIRES spectra to perform a spectroscopic analysis on a sample of 245 subgiants and derive new atmospheric and physical parameters. We also calculate the space velocities of this sample in a homogeneous manner for the first time. When reddening corrections are considered in the calculations of stellar masses and a ‑0.12 {M}ȯ offset is applied to the results, the masses of the subgiants are consistent with their space velocity distributions, contrary to claims in the literature. Similarly, our measurements of their rotational velocities provide additional confirmation that the masses of subgiants with {M}\\star ≥slant 1.6 M ⊙ (the “retired A stars”) have not been overestimated in previous analyses. Using these new results for our sample of evolved stars, together with an updated sample of FGKM dwarfs, we confirm that giant planet occurrence increases with both stellar mass and metallicity up to 2.0 M ⊙. We show that the probability of formation of a giant planet is approximately a one-to-one function of the total amount of metals in the protoplanetary disk {M}\\star {10}[{Fe/{{H}}]}. This correlation provides additional support for the core accretion mechanism of planet formation.

Measuring the total and baryonic mass profiles of the very massive CASSOWARY 31 strong lens. A fossil system at z ≃ 0.7?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grillo, C.; Christensen, L.; Gallazzi, A.; Rasmussen, J.

2013-08-01

We investigate the total and baryonic mass distributions in deflector number 31 (CSWA 31) of the Cambridge And Sloan Survey Of Wide ARcs in the skY (CASSOWARY). We confirm spectroscopically a four-image lensing system at redshift 1.4870 with Very Large Telescope/X-shooter observations. The lensed images are distributed around a bright early-type galaxy at redshift 0.683, surrounded by several smaller galaxies at similar photometric redshifts. We use available optical and X-ray data to constrain the deflector total, stellar and hot gas mass through, respectively, strong lensing, stellar population analysis and plasma modelling. We derive a total mass projected within the Einstein radius REin = 70 kpc of (40 ± 1) × 1012 M⊙, and a central logarithmic slope of -1.7 ± 0.2 for the total mass density. Despite a very high stellar mass and velocity dispersion of the central galaxy of (3 ± 1) × 1012 M⊙ and (450 ± 80) km s-1, respectively, the cumulative stellar-to-total mass profile of the deflector implies a remarkably low stellar mass fraction of 20 per cent (3-6 per cent) in projection within the central galaxy effective radius Re = 25 kpc (R = 100 kpc). We also find that the CSWA 31 deflector has properties suggesting it to be among the most distant and massive fossil systems studied so far. The unusually strong central dark matter dominance and the possible fossil nature of this system render it an interesting target for detailed tests of cosmological models and structure formation scenarios.

Energy Feedback from X-ray Binaries in the Early Universe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fragos, T.; Lehmer, B..; Naoz, S.; Zezas, A.; Basu-Zych, A.

2013-01-01

X-ray photons, because of their long mean-free paths, can easily escape the galactic environments where they are produced, and interact at long distances with the intergalactic medium, potentially having a significant contribution to the heating and reionization of the early universe. The two most important sources of X-ray photons in the universe are active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and X-ray binaries (XRBs). In this Letter we use results from detailed, large scale population synthesis simulations to study the energy feedback of XRBs, from the first galaxies (z (redshift) approximately equal to 20) until today.We estimate that X-ray emission from XRBs dominates over AGN at z (redshift) greater than or approximately equal to 6-8. The shape of the spectral energy distribution of the emission from XRBs shows little change with redshift, in contrast to its normalization which evolves by approximately 4 orders of magnitude, primarily due to the evolution of the cosmic star-formation rate. However, the metallicity and the mean stellar age of a given XRB population affect significantly its X-ray output. Specifically, the X-ray luminosity from high-mass XRBs per unit of star-formation rate varies an order of magnitude going from solar metallicity to less than 10% solar, and the X-ray luminosity from low-mass XRBs per unit of stellar mass peaks at an age of approximately 300 Myr (million years) and then decreases gradually at later times, showing little variation for mean stellar ages 3 Gyr (Giga years, or billion years). Finally, we provide analytical and tabulated prescriptions for the energy output of XRBs, that can be directly incorporated in cosmological simulations.

On the importance of using appropriate spectral models to derive physical properties of galaxies at 0.7 < z < 2.8

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pacifici, Camilla; da Cunha, Elisabete; Charlot, Stéphane; Rix, Hans-Walter; Fumagalli, Mattia; Wel, Arjen van der; Franx, Marijn; Maseda, Michael V.; van Dokkum, Pieter G.; Brammer, Gabriel B.; Momcheva, Ivelina; Skelton, Rosalind E.; Whitaker, Katherine; Leja, Joel; Lundgren, Britt; Kassin, Susan A.; Yi, Sukyoung K.

2015-02-01

Interpreting observations of distant galaxies in terms of constraints on physical parameters - such as stellar mass (M★), star formation rate (SFR) and dust optical depth ({hat{τ}V}) - requires spectral synthesis modelling. We analyse the reliability of these physical parameters as determined under commonly adopted `classical' assumptions: star formation histories assumed to be exponentially declining functions of time, a simple dust law and no emission-line contribution. Improved modelling techniques and data quality now allow us to use a more sophisticated approach, including realistic star formation histories, combined with modern prescriptions for dust attenuation and nebular emission. We present a Bayesian analysis of the spectra and multiwavelength photometry of 1048 galaxies from the 3D-HST survey in the redshift range 0.7 < z < 2.8 and in the stellar mass range 9 ≲ log (M★/M⊙) ≲ 12. We find that, using the classical spectral library, stellar masses are systematically overestimated (˜0.1 dex) and SFRs are systematically underestimated (˜0.6 dex) relative to our more sophisticated approach. We also find that the simultaneous fit of photometric fluxes and emission-line equivalent widths helps break a degeneracy between SFR and {hat{τ}V}, reducing the uncertainties on these parameters. Finally, we show how the biases of classical approaches can affect the correlation between M★ and SFR for star-forming galaxies (the `star-formation main sequence'). We conclude that the normalization, slope and scatter of this relation strongly depend on the adopted approach and demonstrate that the classical, oversimplified approach cannot recover the true distribution of M★ and SFR.

Gravitational wave sources from inspiralling globular clusters in the Galactic Centre and similar environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arca-Sedda, Manuel; Gualandris, Alessia

2018-07-01

We model the inspiral of globular clusters (GCs) towards a galactic nucleus harbouring a supermassive black hole (SMBH), a leading scenario for the formation of nuclear star clusters. We consider the case of GCs containing either an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) or a population of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), and study the formation of gravitational wave (GW) sources. We perform direct summation N-body simulations of the infall of GCs with different orbital eccentricities in the live background of a galaxy with either a shallow or steep density profile. We find that the GC acts as an efficient carrier for the IMBH, facilitating the formation of a bound pair. The hardening and evolution of the binary depends sensitively on the galaxy's density profile. If the host galaxy has a shallow profile, the hardening is too slow to allow for coalescence within a Hubble time, unless the initial cluster orbit is highly eccentric. If the galaxy hosts a nuclear star cluster, the hardening leads to coalescence by emission of GWs within 3-4 Gyr. In this case, we find an IMBH-SMBH merger rate of ΓIMBH-SMBH = 2.8 × 10-3 yr-1 Gpc3. If the GC hosts a population of stellar BHs, these are deposited close enough to the SMBH to form extreme mass ratio inspirals with a merger rate of ΓEMRI = 0.25 yr-1 Gpc3. Finally, the SMBH tidal field can boost the coalescence of stellar black hole binaries delivered from the infalling GCs. The merger rate for this merging channel is ΓBHB = 0.4-4 yr-1 Gpc3.

Tidal Dissipation In Rotating Low Mass Stars: Implications For The Orbital Evolution Of Close In Planets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gallet, Florian; Bolmont, Emeline; Mathis, Stéphane; Charbonnel, Corinne; Amard, Louis; Alibert, Yann

2017-10-01

Close-in planets represent a large fraction of the population of confirmed exoplanets. To understand the dynamical evolution of these planets, star-planet interactions must be taken into account. In particular, the dependence of the tidal interactions on the structural parameters of the star, its rotation, and its metallicity should be treated in the models. We quantify how the tidal dissipation in the convective envelope of rotating low-mass stars evolves in time. We also investigate the possible consequences of this evolution on planetary orbital evolution. In Gallet et al. (2017) and Bolmont et al. (2017) we generalized the work of Bolmont & Mathis (2016) by following the orbital evolution of close-in planets using the new tidal dissipation predictions for advanced phases of stellar evolution and non-solar metallicity. We find that during the pre-main sequence the evolution of tidal dissipation is controlled by the evolution of the internal structure of the star through the stellar contraction. On the main-sequence tidal dissipation is strongly driven by the evolution of the surface rotation that is impacted by magnetized stellar winds braking. Finally, during the more evolved phases, the tidal dissipation sharply decreases as radiative core retreats in mass and radius towards the red-giant branch. Using an orbital evolution model, we also show that changing the metallicity leads to diUerent orbital evolutions (e.g., planets migrate farther out from an initially fast rotating metal rich star). By using this model, we qualitatively reproduced the observational trends of the population of hot Jupiters with the metallicity of their host stars. However, more work still remain to be do so as to be able to quantitatively fit our results to the observations.

The Stability of Galaxy Disks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Westfall, Kyle B.; Andersen, D. R.; Bershady, M. A.; Martinsson, T.; Swaters, R. A.; Verheijen, M. A.

2013-01-01

Using measurements of velocity dispersion and mass surface density for both the gas and stellar components, we calculate the multi-component stability (Q) for 30 galaxy disks observed by the DiskMass Survey. Despite their sub-maximality (Bershady et al. 2011, ApJL, 739, 47), we find all disks to be stable with roughly 85% falling in the range 1

Radiation hydrodynamics of super star cluster formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsang, Benny Tsz Ho; Milos Milosavljevic

2018-01-01

Throughout the history of the Universe, the nuclei of super star clusters represent the most active sites for star formation. The high densities of massive stars within the clusters produce intense radiation that imparts both energy and momentum on the surrounding star-forming gas. Theoretical claims based on idealized geometries have claimed the dominant role of radiation pressure in controlling the star formation activity within the clusters. In order for cluster formation simulations to be reliable, numerical schemes have to be able to model accurately the radiation flows through the gas clumps at the cluster nuclei with high density contrasts. With a hybrid Monte Carlo radiation transport module we developed, we performed 3D radiation hydrodynamical simulations of super star cluster formation in turbulent clouds. Furthermore, our Monte Carlo radiation treatment provides a native capability to produce synthetic observations, which allows us to predict observational indicators and to inform future observations. We found that radiation pressure has definite, but minor effects on limiting the gas supply for star formation, and the final mass of the most massive cluster is about one million solar masses. The ineffective forcing was due to the density variations inside the clusters, i.e. radiation takes the paths of low densities and avoids forcing on dense clumps. Compared to a radiation-free control run, we further found that the presence of radiation amplifies the density variations. The core of the resulting cluster has a high stellar density, about the threshold required for stellar collisions and merging. The very massive star that form from the stellar merging could continue to gain mass from the surrounding gas reservoir that is gravitationally confined by the deep potential of the cluster, seeding the potential formation of a massive black hole.

STELLAR PARAMETERS FOR HD 69830, A NEARBY STAR WITH THREE NEPTUNE MASS PLANETS AND AN ASTEROID BELT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tanner, Angelle; Boyajian, Tabetha S.; Brewer, John M.

We used the CHARA Array to directly measure the angular diameter of HD 69830, home to three Neptune mass planets and an asteroid belt. Our measurement of 0.674 ± 0.014 mas for the limb-darkened angular diameter of this star leads to a physical radius of R {sub *} = 0.9058 ± 0.0190 R {sub ☉} and luminosity of L {sub *} = 0.622 ± 0.014 L {sub ☉} when combined with a fit to the spectral energy distribution of the star. Placing these observed values on an Hertzsprung-Russel diagram along with stellar evolution isochrones produces an age of 10.6 ± 4 Gyr and mass of 0.863 ± 0.043 M {sub ☉}. We usemore » archival optical echelle spectra of HD 69830 along with an iterative spectral fitting technique to measure the iron abundance ([Fe/H] = –0.04 ± 0.03), effective temperature (5385 ± 44 K), and surface gravity (log g = 4.49 ± 0.06). We use these new values for the temperature and luminosity to calculate a more precise age of 7.5 ± 3 Gyr. Applying the values of stellar luminosity and radius to recent models on the optimistic location of the habitable zone produces a range of 0.61-1.44 AU; partially outside the orbit of the furthest known planet (d) around HD 69830. Finally, we estimate the snow line at a distance of 1.95 ± 0.19 AU, which is outside the orbit of all three planets and its asteroid belt.« less

The very young resolved stellar populations around stripped-envelope supernovae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maund, Justyn R.

2018-05-01

The massive star origins for Type IIP supernovae (SNe) have been established through direct detection of their red supergiants progenitors in pre-explosion observations; however, there has been limited success in the detection of the progenitors of H-deficient SNe. The final fate of more massive stars, capable of undergoing a Wolf-Rayet phase, and the origins of Type Ibc SNe remain debated, including the relative importance of single massive star progenitors or lower mass stars stripped in binaries. We present an analysis of the ages and spatial distributions of massive stars around the sites of 23 stripped-envelope SNe, as observed with the Hubble Space Telescope, to probe the possible origins of the progenitors of these events. Using a Bayesian stellar populations analysis scheme, we find characteristic ages for the populations observed within 150 pc of the target Type IIb, Ib, and Ic SNe to be log (t) = 7.20, 7.05, and 6.57, respectively. The Type Ic SNe in the sample are nearly all observed within 100 pc of young, dense stellar populations. The environment around SN 2002ap is an important exception both in terms of age and spatial properties. These findings may support the hypothesis that stars with Minit > 30 M⊙ produce a relatively large proportion of Type Ibc SNe, and that these SN subtypes arise from progressively more massive progenitors. Significantly higher extinctions are derived towards the populations hosting these SNe than previously used in analysis of constraints from pre-explosion observations. The large initial masses inferred for the progenitors are in stark contrast with the low ejecta masses estimated from SN light curves.

THE XMM CLUSTER SURVEY: THE STELLAR MASS ASSEMBLY OF FOSSIL GALAXIES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harrison, Craig D.; Miller, Christopher J.; Richards, Joseph W.

This paper presents both the result of a search for fossil systems (FSs) within the XMM Cluster Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the results of a study of the stellar mass assembly and stellar populations of their fossil galaxies. In total, 17 groups and clusters are identified at z < 0.25 with large magnitude gaps between the first and fourth brightest galaxies. All the information necessary to classify these systems as fossils is provided. For both groups and clusters, the total and fractional luminosity of the brightest galaxy is positively correlated with the magnitude gap. The brightestmore » galaxies in FSs (called fossil galaxies) have stellar populations and star formation histories which are similar to normal brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). However, at fixed group/cluster mass, the stellar masses of the fossil galaxies are larger compared to normal BCGs, a fact that holds true over a wide range of group/cluster masses. Moreover, the fossil galaxies are found to contain a significant fraction of the total optical luminosity of the group/cluster within 0.5 R{sub 200}, as much as 85%, compared to the non-fossils, which can have as little as 10%. Our results suggest that FSs formed early and in the highest density regions of the universe and that fossil galaxies represent the end products of galaxy mergers in groups and clusters.« less

A physical model of mass ejection in failed supernovae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coughlin, Eric R.; Quataert, Eliot; Fernández, Rodrigo; Kasen, Daniel

2018-06-01

During the core collapse of massive stars, the formation of the proto-neutron star is accompanied by the emission of a significant amount of mass energy (˜0.3 M⊙) in the form of neutrinos. This mass-energy loss generates an outward-propagating pressure wave that steepens into a shock near the stellar surface, potentially powering a weak transient associated with an otherwise-failed supernova. We analytically investigate this mass-loss-induced wave generation and propagation. Heuristic arguments provide an accurate estimate of the amount of energy contained in the outgoing sound pulse. We then develop a general formalism for analysing the response of the star to centrally concentrated mass loss in linear perturbation theory. To build intuition, we apply this formalism to polytropic stellar models, finding qualitative and quantitative agreement with simulations and heuristic arguments. We also apply our results to realistic pre-collapse massive star progenitors (both giants and compact stars). Our analytic results for the sound pulse energy, excitation radius, and steepening in the stellar envelope are in good agreement with full time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations. We show that prior to the sound pulses arrival at the stellar photosphere, the photosphere has already reached velocities ˜ 20-100 per cent of the local sound speed, thus likely modestly decreasing the stellar effective temperature prior to the star disappearing. Our results provide important constraints on the physical properties and observational appearance of failed supernovae.

Nearby groups of galaxies in the Hercules-Bootes constellations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karachentsev, I. D.; Kashibadze, O. G.; Karachentseva, V. E.

2017-04-01

We consider a sample of 412 galaxies with radial velocities $V_{\\rm LG} < 2500$ km s$^{-1}$ situated in the sky region of ${\\rm RA}=13^h\\hspace{-0.4em}.\\,0$ ... $19^h\\hspace{-0.4em}.\\,0$, ${\\rm Dec}=+10^{\\circ}$ ... $+40^{\\circ}$ between the Local Void and the Supergalactic plane. One hundred and eighty-one of them have individual distance estimates. Peculiar velocities of the galaxies as a function of Supergalactic latitude SGB show signs of Virgocentric infall at $SGB < 10^{\\circ}$ and motion from the Local Void at $SGB > 60^{\\circ}$. A half of the Hercules-Bootes galaxies belong to 17 groups and 29 pairs, with the richest group around NGC5353. A typical group is characterized by the velocity dispersion of $67$ km s$^{-1}$, the harmonic radius of $182$ kpc, the stellar mass of $4.3 \\times10^{10} M_{\\odot}$ and the virial-to-stellar mass ratio of $32$. The binary galaxies have the mean radial velocity difference of $37$ km s$^{-1}$, the projected separation of $96$ kpc, the mean integral stellar mass of $2.6\\times 10^9 M_{\\odot}$ and the mean virial-to-stellar mass ratio of about $8$. The total dark-matter-to-stellar mass ratio in the considered sky region amounts to $37$ being almost the same as that in the Local Volume.

Mass Profile Decomposition of the Frontier Fields Cluster MACS J0416-2403: Insights on the Dark-matter Inner Profile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Annunziatella, M.; Bonamigo, M.; Grillo, C.; Mercurio, A.; Rosati, P.; Caminha, G.; Biviano, A.; Girardi, M.; Gobat, R.; Lombardi, M.; Munari, E.

2017-12-01

We present a high-resolution dissection of the two-dimensional total mass distribution in the core of the Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1‑2403, at z = 0.396. We exploit HST/WFC3 near-IR (F160W) imaging, VLT/Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer spectroscopy, and Chandra data to separate the stellar, hot gas, and dark-matter mass components in the inner 300 kpc of the cluster. We combine the recent results of our refined strong lensing analysis, which includes the contribution of the intracluster gas, with the modeling of the surface brightness and stellar mass distributions of 193 cluster members, of which 144 are spectroscopically confirmed. We find that, moving from 10 to 300 kpc from the cluster center, the stellar to total mass fraction decreases from 12% to 1% and the hot gas to total mass fraction increases from 3% to 9%, resulting in a baryon fraction of approximatively 10% at the outermost radius. We measure that the stellar component represents ∼30%, near the cluster center, and 15%, at larger clustercentric distances, of the total mass in the cluster substructures. We subtract the baryonic mass component from the total mass distribution and conclude that within 30 kpc (∼3 times the effective radius of the brightest cluster galaxy) from the cluster center the surface mass density profile of the total mass and global (cluster plus substructures) dark-matter are steeper and that of the diffuse (cluster) dark-matter is shallower than an NFW profile. Our current analysis does not point to a significant offset between the cluster stellar and dark-matter components. This detailed and robust reconstruction of the inner dark-matter distribution in a larger sample of galaxy clusters will set a new benchmark for different structure formation scenarios.

The β Pictoris association low-mass members: Membership assessment, rotation period distribution, and dependence on multiplicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Messina, S.; Lanzafame, A. C.; Malo, L.; Desidera, S.; Buccino, A.; Zhang, L.; Artemenko, S.; Millward, M.; Hambsch, F.-J.

2017-10-01

Context. Low-mass members of young loose stellar associations and open clusters exhibit a wide spread of rotation periods. Such a spread originates from the distributions of masses and initial rotation periods. However, multiplicity can also play a significant role. Aims: We aim to investigate the role played by physical companions in multiple systems in shortening the primordial disk lifetime, anticipating the rotation spin up with respect to single stars. Methods: We have compiled the most extensive list to date of low-mass bona fide and candidate members of the young 25-Myr β Pictoris association. We have measured from our own photometric time series or from archival time series the rotation periods of almost all members. In a few cases the rotation periods were retrieved from the literature. We used updated UVWXYZ components to assess the membership of the whole stellar sample. Thanks to the known basic properties of most members we built the rotation period distribution distinguishing between bona fide members and candidate members and according to their multiplicity status. Results: We find that single stars and components of multiple systems in wide orbits (>80 AU) have rotation periods that exhibit a well defined sequence arising from mass distribution with some level of spread likely arising from initial rotation period distribution. All components of multiple systems in close orbits (<80 AU) have rotation periods that are significantly shorter than their equal-mass single counterparts. For these close components of multiple systems a linear dependence of rotation rate on separation is only barely detected. A comparison with the younger 13 Myr h Per cluster and with the older 40-Myr open clusters and stellar associations NGC 2547, IC 2391, Argus, and IC 2602 and the 130-Myr Pleiades shows that whereas the evolution of F-G stars is well reproduced by angular momentum evolution models, this is not the case for the slow K and early-M stars. Finally, we find that the amplitude of their light curves is correlated neither with rotation nor with mass. Conclusions: Once single stars and wide components of multiple systems are separated from close components of multiple systems, the rotation period distributions exhibit a well defined dependence on mass that allows us to make a meaningful comparison with similar distributions of either younger or older associations and clusters. Such cleaned distributions allow us to use the stellar rotation period meaningfully as an age indicator for F and G type stars. Tables 2 and 3 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/607/A3

Compact stars in the braneworld: A new branch of stellar configurations with arbitrarily large mass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lugones, Germán; Arbañil, José D. V.

2017-03-01

We study the properties of compact stars in the Randall-Sundrum type-II braneworld (BW) model. To this end, we solve the braneworld generalization of the stellar structure equations for a static fluid distribution with spherical symmetry considering that the spacetime outside the star is described by a Schwarzschild metric. First, the stellar structure equations are integrated employing the so-called causal limit equation of state (EOS), which is constructed using a well-established EOS at densities below a fiducial density, and the causal EOS P =ρ above it. It is a standard procedure in general relativistic stellar structure calculations to use such EOSs for obtaining a limit in the mass radius diagram, known as the causal limit, above which no stellar configurations are possible if the EOS fulfills the condition that the sound velocity is smaller than the speed of light. We find that the equilibrium solutions in the braneworld model can violate the general relativistic causal limit, and for sufficiently large mass they approach asymptotically to the Schwarzschild limit M =2 R . Then, we investigate the properties of hadronic and strange quark stars using two typical EOSs: a nonlinear relativistic mean-field model for hadronic matter and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) bag model for quark matter. For masses below ˜1.5 M⊙- 2 M⊙ , the mass versus radius curves show the typical behavior found within the frame of general relativity. However, we also find a new branch of stellar configurations that can violate the general relativistic causal limit and that, in principle, may have an arbitrarily large mass. The stars belonging to this new branch are supported against collapse by the nonlocal effects of the bulk on the brane. We also show that these stars are always stable under small radial perturbations. These results support the idea that traces of extra dimensions might be found in astrophysics, specifically through the analysis of masses and radii of compact objects.

NGC 307 and the effects of dark-matter haloes on measuring supermassive black holes in disc galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erwin, Peter; Thomas, Jens; Saglia, Roberto P.; Fabricius, Maximilian; Rusli, Stephanie P.; Seitz, Stella; Bender, Ralf

2018-01-01

We present stellar-dynamical measurements of the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the S0 galaxy NGC 307, using adaptive-optics IFU data from VLT-SINFONI. We investigate the effects of including dark-matter haloes as well as multiple stellar components with different mass-to-light (M/L) ratios in the dynamical modelling. Models with no halo and a single stellar component yield a relatively poor fit with a low value for the SMBH mass [(7.0 ± 1.0) × 107 M⊙] and a high stellar M/L ratio (ϒK = 1.3 ± 0.1). Adding a halo produces a much better fit, with a significantly larger SMBH mass [(2.0 ± 0.5) × 108 M⊙] and a lower M/L ratio (ϒK = 1.1 ± 0.1). A model with no halo but with separate bulge and disc components produces a similarly good fit, with a slightly larger SMBH mass [(3.0 ± 0.5) × 108 M⊙] and an identical M/L ratio for the bulge component, though the disc M/L ratio is biased high (ϒK, disc = 1.9 ± 0.1). Adding a halo to the two-stellar-component model results in a much more plausible disc M/L ratio of 1.0 ± 0.1, but has only a modest effect on the SMBH mass [(2.2 ± 0.6) × 108 M⊙] and leaves the bulge M/L ratio unchanged. This suggests that measuring SMBH masses in disc galaxies using just a single stellar component and no halo has the same drawbacks as it does for elliptical galaxies, but also that reasonably accurate SMBH masses and bulge M/L ratios can be recovered (without the added computational expense of modelling haloes) by using separate bulge and disc components.