Dust radiative transfer models are presented for 60 carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds (MCs) for which 5–35 μm Spitzer infrared spectrograph (IRS) spectra and quasi-simultaneous ground-based JHKL ...photometry are available. From the modelling, the luminosity and mass-loss rate are derived (under the assumption of a fixed expansion velocity and dust-to-gas ratio), and the ratio of silicon carbide (SiC) to amorphous carbon (AMC) dust is also derived. This ratio is smaller than observed in Galactic carbon stars, as has been noted before. Light curves for 36 objects can be retrieved from the massive compact halo object (MACHO) and optical gravitational lensing experiment (OGLE) data bases, and periods can be derived for all but two of these. Including data from the literature, periods are available for 53 stars. There is significant scatter in a diagram where the mass-loss rates are plotted against luminosity, and this is partly due to the fact that the luminosities are derived from single-epoch data. The mass-loss rates for the MC objects roughly scatter around the mean relation for Galactic C-stars. The situation is better defined when the mass-loss rate is plotted against pulsation period. For a given period, most of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) stars have mass-loss rates that are in agreement with that observed in Galactic carbon stars (under the assumption that these objects have an expansion velocity and dust-to-gas ratio typical of the mean observed in Galactic carbon Miras). For some SMC sources only, the IRS spectrum at longer wavelengths falls clearly below the model flux predicted by a constant mass-loss rate. An alternative model with a substantial increase of the mass-loss rate to its present-day value over a time-scale of a few tens of years is able to explain the spectral energy distribution (SED) and IRS spectra of these sources. However, the probability to have two such cases in a sample of 60 is small, and makes this not a likely explanation (and testable by re-observing these objects near the end of the lifetime of Spitzer). Alternative explanations are (ad hoc) changes to the dust emissivity at longer wavelengths, and/or deviations from spherical symmetry.
We have selected a homogeneous sample of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the Galactic bulge population from the ISOGAL survey. Our target stars cover a wide range of mass-loss rates (...) and ...differ primarily by their age on the AGB. This homogeneous sample is thus ideally suited to study the dust formation process as a function of age on the AGB. We observed our sample with Spitzer-Infrared Spectrograph, and studied the overall properties of the infrared spectra of these targets. The analysis is complicated by the presence of strong and variable background emission, and the extracted infrared AGB star spectra are affected by interstellar extinction. Several stars in our sample have no detectable dust emission, and we used these 'naked stars' to characterize the stellar and molecular contributions to the infrared spectra of our target stars. The resulting dust spectra of our targets do indeed show significant variety in their spectral appearance, pointing to differing dust compositions for the targets. We classify the spectra based on the shape of their 10-...m emission following the scheme by Sloan & Price. We find that the early silicate emission classes associated with oxide dust are generally under-represented in our sample due to extinction effects. We also find a weak 13-...m dust feature in two of our otherwise naked star spectra, suggesting that the carrier of this feature could potentially be the first condensate in the sequence of dust condensation. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
Stellar populations in the Galactic bulge Vanhollebeke, E.; Groenewegen, M. A. T.; Girardi, L.
Astronomy & astrophysics,
04/2009, Letnik:
498, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Aims. The aim of this paper is to study the characteristics of the stellar populations and the metallicity distribution in the Galactic bulge. We study the entire stellar population, but also ...retrieve information using only the red clump stars. Methods. To study the characteristics of the stellar populations and the metallicity distribution in the Galactic bulge, we compared the output of the galaxy model TRILEGAL, which implements the Binney et al. (1997, MNRAS, 288, 365) bulge model, with observations from 2MASS and OGLE-II. A minimisation procedure has been set up to retrieve the best fitting model with different stellar populations and metallicity distributions. Results. Using the TRILEGAL code we find that the best model resembling the characteristics of the Galactic bulge is a model with the distance to the Galactic centre $R_0 = 8.7\pm ^{0.57}_{0.43}$ kpc, the major axis ratios of the bar $1{:}\eta {:}\zeta = 1{:}0.68{\pm}_{0.19}^{0.05}\!\!{:} 0.31\pm_{0.04}^{0.06}$, and the angle between the Sun-centre line and the bar $\phi = 15^\circ \pm _{12.7}^{13.3}$. Using these parameters the best model is found for a burst of 8 Gyr, although it is almost indistinguishable from models with ages of 9 and 10 Gyr. The metallicity distribution found is consistent with metallicity distributions in the literature based on spectroscopic results.
Context.Based on the expansion velocities of their circumstellar shells, Galactic centre (GC) OH/IR stars can be divided into two groups that are kinematically different and therefore believed to ...have evolved from different stellar populations. Aims.We studied the metallicity distribution of the OH/IR stars population in the GC on the basis of a theoretical relation between EW(Na), EW(Ca), and EW(CO) and the metallicity. Methods.For 70 OH/IR stars in the GC, we obtained near-IR spectra. The equivalent line-widths of $\ion{Na}{i}$, $\ion{Ca}{i}$, $\element12{CO}$(2, 0), and the curvature of the spectrum around 1.6 μm due to water absorption were determined. Results.The near-IR spectrum of OH/IR stars is influenced by several physical processes. OH/IR stars are variable stars suffering high mass-loss rates. The dust that is formed around the stars strongly influences the near-IR spectra and reduces the equivalent line-widths of $\ion{Na}{i}$ and $\ion{Ca}{i}$. A similar effect is caused by the water content in the outer atmosphere of the OH/IR star. Because of these effects, it is not possible to determine the metallicities of these stars with our low-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy.
Context. Recent progress in the seismic interpretation of field β Cep stars has resulted in improvements of the physics in the stellar structure and evolution models of massive stars. Further ...asteroseismic constraints can be obtained from studying ensembles of stars in a young open cluster, which all have similar age, distance and chemical composition. Aims: To improve our comprehension of the β Cep stars, we studied the young open cluster NGC 884 to discover new B-type pulsators, besides the two known β Cep stars, and other variable stars. Methods: An extensive multi-site campaign was set up to gather accurate CCD photometry time series in four filters (U, B, V, I) of a field of NGC 884. Fifteen different instruments collected almost 77 500 CCD images in 1286 h. The images were calibrated and reduced to transform the CCD frames into interpretable differential light curves. Various variability indicators and frequency analyses were applied to detect variable stars in the field. Absolute photometry was taken to deduce some general cluster and stellar properties. Results: We achieved an accuracy for the brightest stars of 5.7 mmag in V, 6.9 mmag in B, 5.0 mmag in I and 5.3 mmag in U. The noise level in the amplitude spectra is 50 μmag in the V band. Our campaign confirms the previously known pulsators, and we report more than one hundred new multi- and mono-periodic B-, A- and F-type stars. Their interpretation in terms of classical instability domains is not straightforward, pointing to imperfections in theoretical instability computations. In addition, we have discovered six new eclipsing binaries and four candidates as well as other irregular variable stars in the observed field. The photometric data of the variable stars are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/515/A16
Aims. We selected a large sample of O-B stars that were considered as (candidate) slowly pulsating B, \beta Cep, and Maia stars after the analysis of their HIPPARCOS data. We analysed our new seven ...passband GENEVA data collected for these stars during the first three years of scientific operations of the MERCATOR telescope. We performed a frequency analysis for 28 targets with more than 50 high-quality measurements to improve their variability classification. For the pulsating stars, we tried both to identify the modes and to search for rotationally split modes. Methods. We searched for frequencies in all the GENEVA passbands and colours by using two independent frequency analysis methods and we applied a 3.6 S/N-level criterion to locate the significant peaks in the periodograms. The modes were identified by applying the method of photometric amplitudes for which we calculated a large, homogeneous grid of equilibrium models to perform a pulsational stability analysis. When both the radius and the projected rotational velocity of an object are known, we determined a lower limit for the rotation frequency to estimate the expected frequency spacings in rotationally split pulsation modes. Results. We detected 61 frequencies, among which 33 are new. We classified 21 objects as pulsating variables (7 new confirmed pulsating stars, including 2 hybrid \beta Cep/SPB stars), 6 as non-pulsating variables (binaries or spotted stars), and 1 as photometrically constant. All the Maia candidates were reclassified into other variability classes. We performed mode identification for the pulsating variables for the first time. The most probable \ell value is 0, 1, 2, and 4 for 1, 31, 9, and 5 modes, respectively, including only 4 unambiguous identifications. For 7 stars we cannot rule out that some of the observed frequencies belong to the same rotationally split mode. For 4 targets we may begin to resolve close frequency multiplets.
Context. Recent progress in the seismic interpretation of field β Cep stars has resulted in improvements of the physics in the stellar structure and evolution models of massive stars. Further ...asteroseismic constraints can be obtained from studying ensembles of stars in a young open cluster, which all have similar age, distance and chemical composition. Aims. To improve our comprehension of the β Cep stars, we studied the young open cluster NGC 884 to discover new B-type pulsators, besides the two known β Cep stars, and other variable stars. Methods. An extensive multi-site campaign was set up to gather accurate CCD photometry time series in four filters (U, B, V, I) of a field of NGC 884. Fifteen different instruments collected almost 77 500 CCD images in 1286 h. The images were calibrated and reduced to transform the CCD frames into interpretable differential light curves. Various variability indicators and frequency analyses were applied to detect variable stars in the field. Absolute photometry was taken to deduce some general cluster and stellar properties. Results. We achieved an accuracy for the brightest stars of 5.7 mmag in V, 6.9 mmag in B, 5.0 mmag in I and 5.3 mmag in U. The noise level in the amplitude spectra is 50 μmag in the V band. Our campaign confirms the previously known pulsators, and we report more than one hundred new multi- and mono-periodic B-, A- and F-type stars. Their interpretation in terms of classical instability domains is not straightforward, pointing to imperfections in theoretical instability computations. In addition, we have discovered six new eclipsing binaries and four candidates as well as other irregular variable stars in the observed field.
Aims. We selected a large sample of O-B stars that were considered as (candidate) slowly pulsating B, β Cep, and Maia stars after the analysis of their hipparcos data. We analysed our new seven ...passband geneva data collected for these stars during the first three years of scientific operations of the mercator telescope. We performed a frequency analysis for 28 targets with more than 50 high-quality measurements to improve their variability classification. For the pulsating stars, we tried both to identify the modes and to search for rotationally split modes. Methods. We searched for frequencies in all the geneva passbands and colours by using two independent frequency analysis methods and we applied a 3.6 S/N-level criterion to locate the significant peaks in the periodograms. The modes were identified by applying the method of photometric amplitudes for which we calculated a large, homogeneous grid of equilibrium models to perform a pulsational stability analysis. When both the radius and the projected rotational velocity of an object are known, we determined a lower limit for the rotation frequency to estimate the expected frequency spacings in rotationally split pulsation modes. Results. We detected 61 frequencies, among which 33 are new. We classified 21 objects as pulsating variables (7 new confirmed pulsating stars, including 2 hybrid β Cep/SPB stars), 6 as non-pulsating variables (binaries or spotted stars), and 1 as photometrically constant. All the Maia candidates were reclassified into other variability classes. We performed mode identification for the pulsating variables for the first time. The most probable $\ell$ value is 0, 1, 2, and 4 for 1, 31, 9, and 5 modes, respectively, including only 4 unambiguous identifications. For 7 stars we cannot rule out that some of the observed frequencies belong to the same rotationally split mode. For 4 targets we may begin to resolve close frequency multiplets.
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