Stellar Populations In Nearby Galaxies Research Articles

Extremely Metal-Poor Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars

Little is known about the first stars, but hints on this stellar population can be derived from the peculiar chemical composition of the most metal-poor objects in the Milky Way and in resolved stellar populations of nearby galaxies. In this paper, we review the evolution and nucleosynthesis of metal-poor and extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars with low and intermediate masses. In particular, new models of 6 M⊙ with three different levels of metallicity, namely Z=10−4, 10−6 and 10−10, are presented. In addition, we illustrate the results obtained for a 2 M⊙, Z=10−5 model. All these models have been computed by means of the latest version of the FuNS code. We adopted a fully coupled scheme of solutions for the complete set of differential equations describing the evolution of the physical structure and the chemical abundances, as modified by nuclear processes and convective mixing. The scarcity of CNO in the material from which these stars formed significantly affects their evolution, their final fate and their contribution to the chemical pollution of the ISM in primordial galaxies. We show the potential of these models for the interpretation of the composition of EMP stars, with particular emphasis on CEMP stars.

The miniJPAS survey: A preview of the Universe in 56 colors

The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) will scan thousands of square degrees of the northern sky with a unique set of 56 filters using the dedicated 2.55 m Javalambre Survey Telescope (JST) at the Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory. Prior to the installation of the main camera (4.2 deg2field-of-view with 1.2 Gpixels), the JST was equipped with the JPAS-Pathfinder, a one CCD camera with a 0.3 deg2field-of-view and plate scale of 0.23 arcsec pixel−1. To demonstrate the scientific potential of J-PAS, the JPAS-Pathfinder camera was used to perform miniJPAS, a ∼1 deg2survey of the AEGIS field (along the Extended Groth Strip). The field was observed with the 56 J-PAS filters, which include 54 narrow band (FWHM ∼ 145 Å) and two broader filters extending to the UV and the near-infrared, complemented by theu, g, r, iSDSS broad band filters. In this miniJPAS survey overview paper, we present the miniJPAS data set (images and catalogs), as we highlight key aspects and applications of these unique spectro-photometric data and describe how to access the public data products. The data parameters reach depths of magAB ≃ 22−23.5 in the 54 narrow band filters and up to 24 in the broader filters (5σin a 3″ aperture). The miniJPAS primary catalog contains more than 64 000 sources detected in therband and with matched photometry in all other bands. This catalog is 99% complete atr = 23.6 (r = 22.7) mag for point-like (extended) sources. We show that our photometric redshifts have an accuracy better than 1% for all sources up tor = 22.5, and a precision of ≤0.3% for a subset consisting of about half of the sample. On this basis, we outline several scientific applications of our data, including the study of spatially-resolved stellar populations of nearby galaxies, the analysis of the large scale structure up toz ∼ 0.9, and the detection of large numbers of clusters and groups. Sub-percent redshift precision can also be reached for quasars, allowing for the study of the large-scale structure to be pushed toz > 2. The miniJPAS survey demonstrates the capability of the J-PAS filter system to accurately characterize a broad variety of sources and paves the way for the upcoming arrival of J-PAS, which will multiply this data by three orders of magnitude.

MUSE crowded field 3D spectroscopy in NGC 300

Aims. As a new approach to the study of resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies, our goal is to demonstrate with a pilot study in NGC 300 that integral field spectroscopy with high spatial resolution and excellent seeing conditions reaches an unprecedented depth in severely crowded fields. Methods. Observations by MUSE with seven pointings in NGC 300 have resulted in data cubes that are analyzed in four ways: (1) Point spread function-fitting 3D spectroscopy with PampelMUSE, as already successfully pioneered in globular clusters, yields de-blended spectra of individually distinguishable stars, thus providing a complete inventory of blue and red supergiants, and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars of type M and C. The technique is also applicable to emission line point sources and provides samples of planetary nebulae (PNe) that are complete down to m5007 = 28. (2) Pseudo-monochromatic images, created at the wavelengths of the most important emission lines and corrected for continuum light with the P3D visualization tool, provide maps of H II regions, supernova remnants (SNR), and the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) at a high level of sensitivity, where also faint point sources stand out and allow for the discovery of PNe, Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars, etc. (3) The use of the P3D line-fitting tool yields emission line fluxes, surface brightness, and kinematic information for gaseous objects, corrected for absorption line profiles of the underlying stellar population in the case of Hα. (4) Visual inspection of the data cubes by browsing through the row-stacked spectra image in P3D is demonstrated to be efficient for data mining and the discovery of background galaxies and unusual objects. Results. We present a catalog of luminous stars, rare stars such as WR, and other emission line stars, carbon stars, symbiotic star candidates, PNe, H II regions, SNR, giant shells, peculiar diffuse and filamentary emission line objects, and background galaxies, along with their spectra. Conclusions. The technique of crowded-field 3D spectroscopy, using the PampelMUSE code, is capable of deblending individual bright stars, the unresolved background of faint stars, gaseous nebulae, and the diffuse component of the ISM, resulting in unprecedented legacy value for observations of nearby galaxies with MUSE.

Resolved stellar populations: the outlook for JWST and ELT

AbstractThe study of the resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies and star clusters through the analysis of colour-magnitude diagrams provides the most detailed and quantitative determination of the star formation histories of these systems. The properties of different age populations provide an insight into distinct physical processes taking place during the entire history of the stellar system. The detection of the oldest main sequence turn-offs is currently restricted to stellar systems within the Local Group due to the limitations in spatial resolution and flux sensitivity of available telescopes. Individual stars need to be detected and accurately distinguished from their neighbours. To improve this situation we need to build new telescopes with larger primary mirrors that can deliver a very stable image quality at the diffraction limit. Over the next decade we can look forward to new larger telescope in space: the James Webb Space Telescope, currently scheduled to be launched in 2021; and several large telescope projects, the largest of which is the 39m ESO extremely large telescope on Cerro Armazones in Chile, currently scheduled to start operations in 2024.

The BaLROG project – II. Quantifying the influence of bars on the stellar populations of nearby galaxies

We continue the exploration of the BaLROG (Bars in Low Redshift Optical Galaxies) sample: 16 large mosaics of barred galaxies observed with the integral field unit SAURON. We quantify the influence of bars on the composition of the stellar component. We derive linestrength indices of H${\beta}$, Fe5015 and Mgb. Based on single stellar population (SSP) models, we calculate ages, metallicities and [Mg/Fe] abundances and their gradients along the bar major and minor axes. The high spatial resolution of our data allows us to identify breaks among index and SSP profiles, commonly at 0.13$\pm$0.06 bar length, consistent with kinematic features. Inner gradients are about ten times steeper than outer gradients and become larger when there is a central rotating component, implying that the gradients are not independent of dynamics and orbits. Central ages appear to be younger for stronger bars. Yet, the bar regions are usually old. We find a flattening of the iron (Fe5015) and magnesium (Mgb) outer gradients along the bar major axis, translating into a flattening of the metallicity gradient. This gradient is found to be 0.03$\pm$0.07 dex/kpc along the bar major axis while the mean value of the bar minor axis compares well with that of an unbarred control sample and is significantly steeper, namely -0.20$\pm$0.04 dex/kpc. These results confirm recent simulations and discern the important localized influence of bars. The elevated [Mg/Fe] abundances of bars and bulges compared to the lower values of discs suggest an early formation, in particular for early type galaxies.

Spatially-resolved stellar populations of nearby galaxies in multi-filter surveys

AbstractWe have developed a new technique using a novel approach to analyze unresolved stellar populations of spatially-resolved galaxies based on large sky multi-filter surveys. We have successfully applied this technique to 42 early-type galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey. In agreement with some previous work, we find the gradients of early-type galaxies to be on average slightly positive in age and negative in metallicity at large radii (R > Reff). These mildly negative metallicity gradients support a merging scenario. The positive/flat age gradients could support a more uniformly distributed star formation or even secondary burst triggered by mergers.

Stellar populations in the centers of nearby galaxies

AbstractThe great amount of data observed in recent years coupled with modelling using evolutionary synthesis codes (BPASS, COELHO, GALAXEV, GALEV, MILES, PÉGASE, etc. . .) to compute Single Stellar Populations (SSPs) and the availability of fast and ingenious spectral synthesis codes such as starlight, ULySS and VESPA, have significantly shed light on our knowledge about the formation and evolution of galaxies. However, there are still open issues concerning the stellar populations in nearby galaxies, particularly those harbouring Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN): can stellar populations mimic nuclear activity, leading to a misclassification based on optical emission line ratios (Stasińska et al. 2008)? We have applied the starlight code (Cid Fernandes et al. 2005) to a well studied sample of nearby galaxies' nuclear spectra (r < ~ 200 pc), observed with the Hale 5 m telescope at Palomar Observatory in two different regions: ~ 4230-5110 Å and ~ 6210-6860 Å (Ho et al. 1995), with spectral resolutions of approximately 4 Å, and 2.5 Å. The aim is to properly derive the star-formation history (SFH), mean stellar age and metallicity and total stellar mass. Our results show that the star-formation history of Seyfert galaxies are very heterogeneous, i.e. these are composed of young, intermediate and old stellar populations, while the SFH of Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission-Line Regions (LINERs) are basically composed of old stellar populations. The absence of young stars in LINERs indicates that these are not responsible for the observed low-ionization emission lines. Furthermore, although a significant fraction of AGN spectra require a featureless continuum in their Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) modelling, this is not an indicative of the presence of an AGN, instead the continuum may simulate the presence of young stellar populations. The main objective of this research is to complement the study of spectroscopic parameters from 486 galaxies analyzed by Ho et al. (1995) that are public available in the VizieR catalog (Ho et al. 1997, 2009) and provide information about their stellar population content by means of the starlight. The base of Simple Stellar Populations used here was taken from Bruzual & Charlot (2003) and spans 25 ages (from 1 Myr to 18 Gyr) and 6 metallicities (Z = 0.005, 0.02, 0.2, 0.4, 1 & 2.5 Z⊙).

AKARI's infrared view on nearby stars

--Results-- We found that the (B-V) v.s. (V-S9W) color-color diagram is useful to identify the stars with infrared excess emerged from circumstellar envelopes/disks. Be stars with infrared excess are well separated from other types of stars in this diagram. Whereas (J-L18W) v.s. (S9W-L18W) diagram is a powerful tool to classify several object-types. Carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and OH/IR stars form distinct sequences in this color-color diagram. Young stellar objects (YSOs), pre-main sequence (PMS) stars, post-AGB stars and planetary nebulae (PNe) have largest mid-infrared color-excess, and can be identified in infrared catalog. Finally, we plot L18W v.s. (S9W-L18W) color-magnitude diagram, using the AKARI data together with Hipparcos parallaxes. This diagram can be used to identify low-mass YSOs, as well as AGB stars. We found that this diagram is comparable to the [24] vs ([8.0]-[24]) diagram of Large Magellanic Cloud sources using the Spitzer Space Telescope data. Our understanding of Galactic objects will be used to interpret color-magnitude diagram of stellar populations in nearby galaxies which Spitzer Space Telescope has observed. --Conclusions-- Our study of the AKARI color-color and color-magnitude will be used to explore properties of unknown objects in future. In addition, our analysis highlights a future key project to understand stellar evolution with circumstellar envelope, once the forthcoming astronometrical data with GAIA are available.

SPITZERSAGE INFRARED PHOTOMETRY OF MASSIVE STARS IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

We present a catalog of 1750 massive stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), with accurate spectral types compiled from the literature, and a photometric catalog for a subset of 1268 of these stars, with the goal of exploring their infrared properties. The photometric catalog consists of stars with infrared counterparts in the Spitzer SAGE survey database, for which we present uniform photometry from 0.3 to 24 μm in the UBVIJHKs +IRAC+MIPS24 bands. The resulting infrared color-magnitude diagrams illustrate that the supergiant B[e], red supergiant, and luminous blue variable (LBV) stars are among the brightest infrared point sources in the LMC, due to their intrinsic brightness, and at longer wavelengths, due to dust. We detect infrared excesses due to free-free emission among ~900 OB stars, which correlate with luminosity class. We confirm the presence of dust around 10 supergiant B[e] stars, finding the shape of their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to be very similar, in contrast to the variety of SED shapes among the spectrally variable LBVs. The similar luminosities of B[e] supergiants (log L/L ☉ ≥ 4) and the rare, dusty progenitors of the new class of optical transients (e.g., SN 2008S and NGC 300 OT), plus the fact that dust is present in both types of objects, suggests a common origin for them. We find the infrared colors for Wolf-Rayet stars to be independent of spectral type and their SEDs to be flatter than what models predict. The results of this study provide the first comprehensive roadmap for interpreting luminous, massive, resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies at infrared wavelengths.

The Science Case for PILOT III: the Nearby Universe

AbstractPILOT (the Pathfinder for an International Large Optical Telescope) is a proposed 2.5-m optical/infrared telescope to be located at Dome C on the Antarctic plateau. The atmospheric conditions at Dome C deliver a high sensitivity, high photometric precision, wide-field, high spatial resolution, and high-cadence imaging capability to the PILOT telescope. These capabilities enable a unique scientific potential for PILOT, which is addressed in this series of papers. The current paper presents a series of projects dealing with the nearby Universe that have been identified as key science drivers for the PILOT facility. Several projects are proposed that examine stellar populations in nearby galaxies and stellar clusters in order to gain insight into the formation and evolution processes of galaxies and stars. A series of projects will investigate the molecular phase of the Galaxy and explore the ecology of star formation, and investigate the formation processes of stellar and planetary systems. Three projects in the field of exoplanet science are proposed: a search for free-floating low-mass planets and dwarfs, a program of follow-up observations of gravitational microlensing events, and a study of infrared light-curves for previously discovered exoplanets. Three projects are also proposed in the field of planetary and space science: optical and near-infrared studies aimed at characterising planetary atmospheres, a study of coronal mass ejections from the Sun, and a monitoring program searching for small-scale Low Earth Orbit satellite debris items.

The Star Formation History of M33's Outer Regions

The stellar populations of a galaxy are a fossil record of its formation and evolution and the various physical processes involved. Therefore, studying the resolved stellar populations of nearby galaxies can provide important constraints on their structure, formation, and evolution. To that end, we have obtained VI photometry with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope for three fields at deprojected radii Rdp ∼ 9 − 13 kpc (∼ 4 − 6 visual scale lengths) along M33's southeast minor axis. We present results for the star formation history (SFH) of these fields based on the technique of synthetic CMD fitting.

Structural Parameters of Thin and Thick Disks in Edge-on Disk Galaxies

We analyze the global structure of 34 late-type, edge-on, undisturbed, disk galaxies spanning a wide range of mass. We measure structural parameters for the galaxies using two-dimensional least-squares fitting to our R-band photometry. The fits require both a thick and a thin disk to adequately fit the data. The thick disks have larger scale heights and longer scale lengths than the embedded thin disks by factors of ~2 and ~1.25, respectively. The observed structural parameters agree well with the properties of thick and thin disks derived from star counts in the Milky Way and from resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies. We find that massive galaxies' luminosities are dominated by the thin disk. However, in low-mass galaxies (Vc 120 km s-1) thick disk stars contribute nearly half the luminosity and dominate the stellar mass. Thus, although low-mass dwarf galaxies appear blue, the majority of their stars are probably quite old. Our data are most easily explained by a formation scenario in which the thick disk is assembled through direct accretion of stellar material from merging satellites while the thin disk is formed from accreted gas. The baryonic fraction in the thin disk therefore constrains the gas richness of the merging pregalactic fragments. If we include the mass in H I as part of the thin disk, the thick disk contains 10% of the baryons in high-mass galaxies and ~25%–30% of the baryons in low-mass galaxies. Our data, therefore, indicate that the fragments were quite gas rich at the time of merging (fgas = 75%–90%). However, because low-mass galaxies have a smaller fraction of baryons in their thin disks, the pregalactic fragments from which they assembled must have been systematically more gas poor. We believe this trend results from increased outflow due to supernova-driven winds in the lower mass pregalactic fragments. We estimate that ~60% of the total baryonic mass in these systems was lost due to outflows. Pushing the episode of significant winds to early times allows the mass-metallicity relationship for disks to be established early, before the main disk is assembled, and obviates the difficulty in driving winds from diffuse disks with low star formation efficiencies. We discuss other implications of this scenario for solving the G dwarf problem, for predicting abundance trends in thick disks, and for removing discrepancies between semianalytic galaxy formation models and the observed colors of low-mass galaxies.

The star-formation history of the Universe from the stellar populations of nearby galaxies.

The determination of the star-formation history of the Universe is a key goal of modern cosmology, as it is crucial to our understanding of how galactic structures form and evolve. Observations of young stars in distant galaxies at different times in the past have indicated that the stellar birthrate peaked some eight billion years ago before declining by a factor of around ten to its present value. Here we report an analysis of the 'fossil record' of the current stellar populations of 96,545 nearby galaxies, from which we obtained a complete star-formation history. Our results broadly support those derived from high-redshift galaxies. We find, however, that the peak of star formation was more recent--around five billion years ago. We also show that the bigger the stellar mass of the galaxy, the earlier the stars were formed, which indicates that high- and low-mass galaxies have very different histories.

Spectrophotometry of Planetary Nebulae in the Bulge of M31

We introduce crowded-field integral field (3D) spectrophotometry as a useful technique for the study of resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies. The spectroscopy of individual extragalactic stars, which is now feasible with efficient instruments and large telescopes, is confronted with the observational challenge of accurately subtracting the bright, spatially and wavelength-dependent nonuniform background of the underlying galaxy. As a methodological test, we present a pilot study with selected extragalactic planetary nebulae (XPNe) in the bulge of M31, demonstrating how 3D spectroscopy is able to improve the limited accuracy of background subtraction that one would normally obtain with classical slit spectroscopy. It is shown that because of the absence of slit effects, 3D spectroscopy is a most suitable technique for spectrophometry. We present spectra and line intensities for five XPNe in M31, obtained with the MPFS instrument at the Russian 6 m Bolshoi Teleskop Azimutal'nij, INTEGRAL at the William Herschel Telescope , and PMAS at the Calar Alto 3.5 m telescope. The results for two of our targets, for which data are available in the literature, are compared with previously published emission-line intensities. The three remaining PNe have been observed spectroscopically for the first time. One object is shown to be a previously misidentified supernova remnant. Our monochromatic Hα maps are compared with direct Fabry-Perot and narrowband filter images of the bulge of M31, verifying the presence of filamentary emission of the interstellar medium in the vicinity of our objects. We present an example of a flux-calibrated and continuum-subtracted filament spectrum and demonstrate how the interstellar medium component introduces systematic errors in the measurement of faint diagnostic PN emission lines when conventional observing techniques are employed. It is shown how these errors can be eliminated with 3D spectroscopy, using the full two-dimensional spatial information and point-spread function (PSF) fitting techniques. Using 3D spectra of bright standard stars, we demonstrate that the PSF is sampled with high accuracy, providing a centroiding precision at the milliarcsecond level. Crowded-field 3D spectrophotometry and the use of PSF fitting techniques is suggested as the method of choice for a number of similar observational problems, including luminous stars in nearby galaxies, supernovae, QSO host galaxies, gravitationally lensed QSOs, and others.

Ultraviolet‐Optical Pixel Maps of Face‐on Spiral Galaxies: Clues for Dynamics and Star Formation Histories

Ultraviolet and optical images of the face-on spiral galaxies NGC 6753 and NGC 6782 reveal regions of strong ongoing star formation that are associated with structures traced by the old stellar populations. We use these images to construct NUV-(NUV-I814) pixel color-magnitude diagrams (pCMDs) that reveal plumes of pixels with strongly varying near-ultraviolet (NUV) surface brightness and nearly constant I814 surface brightness. The plumes correspond to sharply bounded radial ranges, with (NUV-I814) at a given NUV surface brightness being bluer at larger radii. The plumes are parallel to both the reddening vector and simple model mixtures of young and old populations, thus neither reddening nor the fraction of the young population can produce the observed separation between the plumes. The images and radial surface brightness and color plots indicate that the separate plumes are caused by sharp declines in the surface densities of the old populations at radii corresponding to disk resonances. The maximum surface brightness of the NUV light remains essentially constant with radius, while the maximum I814 surface brightness declines sharply with radius. A mid-ultraviolet (MUV) image of NGC 6782 shows emission from the nuclear ring. The distribution of points in an (MUV-NUV)-(NUV-I814) pixel color-color diagram is broadly consistent with the simple mixture model but shows a residual trend that the bluest pixels in (MUV-NUV) are the reddest pixels in (NUV-I814). This may be due to a combination of red continuum from late-type supergiants and [S III] emission lines associated with H II regions in active star-forming regions. We have shown that pixel mapping is a powerful tool for studying the distribution and strength of ongoing star formation in galaxies. Deep, multicolor imaging can extend this to studies of extinction and the ages and metallicities of composite stellar populations in nearby galaxies.

Structure and Evolution of Stellar Populations in Local Group Galaxies

We use detailed modeling of stellar populations of nearby galaxies to calculate population parameters. Our sample of galaxies includes most galaxies of the Local Group and several more distant giant galaxies. Available data are sufficient to decompose galaxies into the nucleus, the metal rich core, the bulge, the halo, the young and old disks, and the dark halo. We compare mass-to-luminosity ratios and colors of bulges, disks and halos with results of models of galactic chemical evolution. The luminosity-weighted mean of the mass-to-luminosity ratio of visible stellar population is M/LB = 4 ± 1.4 in solar units. This ratio is surprisingly constant for galaxies of very different absolute magnitude.

An Efficient Method to Survey Typical Objects in Nearby Galaxies

Within the framework of our studies of the stellar populations in nearby galaxies (Azzopardi 1984, 1993, and references therein), we have shown for some time that slitless spectroscopy, through either transmission gratings (grisms/grens) or prisms in combination with suitable intermediate band-pass interference filters, allows the detection of a number of objects with outstanding spectral characteristics, even in very crowded fields. We are now carrying out very deep slitless spectroscopy surveys in selected areas of nearby galaxies using both the ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (EFOSC) devices attached at the Cassegrain foci of either the ESO 3.6 m or the Max Plank Gesellschaft/ESO 2.2 m telescopes, as well as the ESO Multi-Mode Instrument (EMMI) at the Nasmyth focus of the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT). The spectra of interest are searched for on the CCD frames by means of a semi-automatic procedure developed in the Munich Image Data Analysis System (MIDAS) environment (Muratorio & Azzopardi 1992). Each 2D-spectrum, whose position is automatically determined by means of the direct imaging frame, is background corrected, normalized and compared with some reference spectra of objects whose nature has been firmly established. All the objects, that have been identified through impersonal selection criteria, are then visually scrutinized in order to reject any possibly spurious objects. As typical examples of our field spectroscopy surveys, we present some preliminary results concerning the detection of Hα emission-line stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) as well as the identification of very faint Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in the Sculptor group galaxy NGC 300.