We extend the PARSEC library of stellar evolutionary tracks by computing new models of massive stars, from 14 to 350 M⊙. The input physics is the same used in the PARSEC V1.1 version, but for the ...mass-loss rate from considering the most recent updates in the literature. We focus on low metallicity, Z = 0.001 and Z = 0.004, for which the metal-poor dwarf irregular star-forming galaxies, Sextans A, the Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte galaxy and NGC 6822, provide simple but powerful workbenches. The models reproduce fairly well the observed colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) but the stellar colour distributions indicate that the predicted blue loop is not hot enough in models with a canonical extent of overshooting. In the framework of a mild extended mixing during central hydrogen burning, the only way to reconcile the discrepancy is to enhance the overshooting at the base of the convective envelope (EO) during the first dredge-up. The mixing scales required to reproduce the observed loops, EO = 2H
P or EO = 4H
P, are definitely larger than those derived from, e.g. the observed location of the red-giant-branch bump in low mass stars. This effect, if confirmed, would imply a strong dependence of the mixing scale below the formal Schwarzschild border, on the stellar mass or luminosity. Reproducing the features of the observed CMDs with standard values of envelope overshooting would require a metallicity significantly lower than the values measured in these galaxies. Other quantities, such as the star formation rate and the initial mass function, are only slightly sensitive to this effect. Future investigations will consider other metallicities and different mixing schemes.
We introduce a new generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI stellar isochrones that includes a detailed treatment of the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase, covering a wide range of initial ...metallicities (0.0001 < Zi < 0.06). Compared to previous releases, the main novelties and improvements are use of new TP-AGB tracks and related atmosphere models and spectra for M and C-type stars; inclusion of the surface H+He+CNO abundances in the isochrone tables, accounting for the effects of diffusion, dredge-up episodes and hot-bottom burning; inclusion of complete thermal pulse cycles, with a complete description of the in-cycle changes in the stellar parameters; new pulsation models to describe the long-period variability in the fundamental and first-overtone modes; and new dust models that follow the growth of the grains during the AGB evolution, in combination with radiative transfer calculations for the reprocessing of the photospheric emission. Overall, these improvements are expected to lead to a more consistent and detailed description of properties of TP-AGB stars expected in resolved stellar populations, especially in regard to their mean photometric properties from optical to mid-infrared wavelengths. We illustrate the expected numbers of TP-AGB stars of different types in stellar populations covering a wide range of ages and initial metallicities, providing further details on the "C-star island" that appears at intermediate values of age and metallicity, and about the AGB-boosting effect that occurs at ages close to 1.6-Gyr for populations of all metallicities. The isochrones are available through a new dedicated web server.
We present near-infrared (NIR) color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for the resolved stellar populations within 26 fields of 23 nearby galaxies (< ~4 Mpc), based on images in the F110W and F160W filters ...taken with the Wide-Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The CMDs are measured in regions spanning a wide range of star formation histories, including both old dormant and young star-forming populations. We match key NIR CMD features with their counterparts in more familiar optical CMDs, and identify the red core helium-burning (RHeB) sequence as a significant contributor to the NIR flux in stellar populations younger than a few 100 Myr old. The strength of this feature suggests that the NIR mass-to-light ratio can vary significantly on short timescales in star-forming systems. The NIR luminosity of star-forming galaxies is therefore not necessarily proportional to the stellar mass. We note that these individual RHeB stars may also be misidentified as old stellar clusters in images of nearby galaxies. For older stellar populations, we discuss the CMD location of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the HST filter set and explore the separation of AGB subpopulations using a combination of optical and NIR colors. We empirically calibrate the magnitude of the NIR tip of the red giant branch in F160W as a function of color, allowing future observations in this widely adopted filter set to be used for distance measurements. We also analyze the properties of the NIR red giant branch (RGB) as a function of metallicity, showing a clear trend between NIR RGB color and metallicity. However, based on the current study, it appears unlikely that the slope of the NIR RGB can be used as an effective metallicity indicator in extragalactic systems with comparable data. Finally, we highlight issues with scattered light in the WFC3, which becomes significant for exposures taken close to a bright Earth limb.
Using high spatial resolution Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging of resolved stellar populations, we constrain the contribution of thermally pulsing asymptotic giant ...branch (TP-AGB) stars and red helium burning (RHeB) stars to the 1.6 mu m near-infrared (NIR) luminosities of 23 nearby galaxies, including dwarfs and spirals. The TP-AGB phase contributes as much as 17% of the integrated F160W flux, even when the red giant branch is well populated. The RHeB population contribution can match or even exceed the TP-AGB contribution, providing as much as 21% (18% after a statistical correction for foreground) of the integrated F160W light. We estimate that these two short-lived phases may account for up to 70% of the rest-frame NIR flux at higher redshift. The NIR mass-to-light (M/L) ratio should therefore be expected to vary significantly due to fluctuations in the star formation rate (SFR) over timescales from 25 Myr to several Gyr, an effect that may be responsible for some of the lingering scatter in NIR galaxy scaling relations such as the Tully-Fisher and metallicity-luminosity relations. We compare our observational results to predictions based on optically derived star formation histories and stellar population synthesis (SPS) models, including models based on the 2008 Padova isochrones (used in popular SPS programs) and the updated 2010 Padova isochrones, which shorten the lifetimes of low-mass (old) low-metallicity TP-AGB populations. The updated (2010) SPS models generally reproduce the expected numbers of TP-AGB stars in the sample; indeed, for 65% of the galaxies, the discrepancy between modeled and observed numbers is smaller than the measurement uncertainties. The weighted mean model/data number ratio for TP-AGB stars is 1.5 (1.4 with outliers removed) with a standard deviation of 0.5. The same SPS models, however, give a larger discrepancy in the F160W flux contribution from the TP-AGB stars, overpredicting the flux by a weighted mean factor of 2.3 (2.2 with outliers removed) with a standard deviation of 0.8. This larger offset is driven by the prediction of modest numbers of high-luminosity TP-AGB stars at young (<300 Myr) ages. The best-fit SPS models simultaneously tend to underpredict the numbers and fluxes of stars on the RHeB sequence, typically by a factor of 2.0 + or - 0.6 for galaxies with significant numbers of RHeBs. Possible explanations for both the TP-AGB and RHeB model results include (1) difficulties with measuring the SFHs of galaxies especially on the short timescales over which these stars evolve (several Myr), (2) issues with the way the SPS codes populate the color-magnitude diagrams (e.g., how they handle pulsations or self-extinction), and/or (3) lingering issues with the lifetimes of these stars in the stellar evolution codes. Coincidentally these two competing discrepancies-overprediction of the TP-AGB and underprediction of the RHeBs-result in a predicted NIR M/L ratio largely unchanged for a rapid SFR, after correcting for these effects. However, the NIR-to-optical flux ratio of galaxies could be significantly smaller than AGB-rich models would predict, an outcome that has been observed in some intermediate-redshift post-starburst galaxies.
We obtained U sub(330)- and B-band images of the M31 nucleus using the High Resolution Camera of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The spatial resolution in ...the U sub(330) band, 0".03 FWHM, or 0.1 pc at M31, is sufficient to resolve the outskirts of the compact cluster (P3) of UV-bright stars surrounding the M31 black hole. The center of the cluster is marked by an extended source that is both brighter and redder than the other point sources within P3; it is likely to be a blend of several bright stars. We hypothesize that it marks the location of the M31 black hole. Both stellar photometry and a surface brightness fluctuation analysis show that the P3 stellar population is consistent with early-type main-sequence stars formed in a ~100-200 Myr old starburst population. Evolutionary tracks of post early asymptotic giant branch (PEAGB) stars, associated with late-stage evolution of an old population, also traverse the U and U - B domain occupied by the P3 stars; but we argue that only a few stars could be accounted for that way. PEAGB evolution is very rapid, and there is no progenitor population of red giants associated with P3. The result that P3 comprises young stars is consistent with inferences from earlier HST observations of the integrated light of the cluster. Like the Milky Way, M31 harbors a black hole closely surrounded by apparently young stars.
The Hyades, Praesepe, and Pleiades are well-studied stellar clusters that anchor important secondary stellar age indicators. Recent studies have shown that main sequence turn off based ages for these ...clusters may depend on the degree of rotation in the underlying stellar models. Rotation induces structural instabilities that can enhance the chemical mixing of a star, extending its fuel supply. In addition, rotation introduces a modulation of the star's observed magnitude and color due to the effects of gravity darkening. We aim to investigate the extent to which stellar rotation affects the age determination of star clusters. We utilize the MESA stellar evolution code to create models that cover a range of rotation rates corresponding to / c = 0.0-0.6 in 0.1 dex steps, allowing the assessment of variations in this dimension. The statistical analysis package, MATCH, is employed to derive ages and metallicities by fitting our MESA models to Tycho BT, VT, and 2MASS J, Ks color-magnitude diagrams. We find that the derived ages are relatively insensitive to the effects of rotation. For the Hyades, Praesepe, and Pleiades clusters, we derive ages based on synthetic populations that model a distribution of rotation rates or a fixed rate. Across each case, the derived ages tend to agree roughly within errors, near 680, 590, and 110-160 Myr for the Hyades, Praesepe, and Pleiades clusters, respectively. These ages are in agreement with Li depletion boundary-based ages and previous analyses that used nonrotating isochrones. Our methods do not provide a strong constraint on the metallicities of these clusters.
In this paper, we call attention to a particular evolutionary aspect, linked to the physics of stellar interiors, that in all probability is the main cause of this conundrum. This concomitance makes ...the AGB-boosting particularly insidious in the context of present EPS models. As we discuss in this paper, the identification of this evolutionary effect brings about three main consequences. First, we claim that present estimates of the TP-AGB contribution to the integrated light of galaxies derived from MC clusters are biased toward too large values. Second, the relative TP-AGB contribution of single-burst populations falling in this critical age range cannot be accurately derived by approximations such as the fuel consumption theorem, which ignore, by construction, the above evolutionary effect. Third, a careful revision of AGB star populations in intermediate-age MC clusters is urgently demanded, promisingly with the aid of detailed sets of stellar isochrones.
Early-type galaxies (ETGs) frequently show emission from warm ionized gas. These low-ionization emission regions (LIERs) were originally attributed to a central, low-luminosity active galactic ...nucleus. However, the recent discovery of spatially extended LIER emission suggests ionization by both a central source and an extended component that follows a stellar-like radial distribution. For passively evolving galaxies with old stellar populations, hot post-asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are the only viable extended source of ionizing photons. In this work, we present the first prediction of LIER-like emission from post-AGB stars that is based on fully self-consistent models of stellar evolution and photoionization. We show that models where post-AGB stars are the dominant source of ionizing photons reproduce the signatures of nebular emission observed in ETGs, including LIER-like emission line ratios in standard optical diagnostic diagrams and equivalent widths of the order of 0.1-3 . We test the sensitivity of LIER-like emission to the details of post-AGB models, including the mass loss efficiency and convective mixing efficiency, and show that line strengths are relatively insensitive to variations in post-AGB timescale. Finally, we examine the UV-optical colors of the models and the stellar populations responsible for the UV excess observed in some ETGs. We find that allowing as little as 3% of the horizontal branch population to be uniformly distributed to very high temperatures (30,000 K) produces realistic UV colors for old, quiescent ETGs.
Abstract
The thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) experienced by low- and intermediate-mass stars is one of the most uncertain phases of stellar evolution and the models need to be ...calibrated with the aid of observations. To this purpose, we couple high-quality observations of resolved stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with detailed stellar population synthesis simulations computed with the trilegal
code. The strength of our approach relies on the detailed spatially resolved star formation history of the SMC, derived from the deep near-infrared photometry of the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds, as well as on the capability to quickly and accurately explore a wide variety of parameters and effects with the colibri
code for the TP-AGB evolution. Adopting a well-characterized set of observations – star counts and luminosity functions – we set up a calibration cycle along which we iteratively change a few key parameters of the TP-AGB models until we eventually reach a good fit to the observations. Our work leads to identify two best-fitting models that mainly differ in the efficiencies of the third dredge-up and mass-loss in TP-AGB stars with initial masses larger than about 3 M⊙. On the basis of these calibrated models, we provide a full characterization of the TP-AGB stellar population in the SMC in terms of stellar parameters (initial masses, C/O ratios, carbon excess, mass-loss rates). Extensive tables of isochrones including these improved models are publicly available.
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