Galactic Structure from Faint Stromgren Photometry: The Catalog of Observations

We have initiated the faint photometric survey in the Stromgren system covering about 1 square degree and including 1238 objects in order to develop samples which best probe the thick disk population. The catalog of observations are presented here. They were acquired without kinematic or metallicity biases and are complete to V=17.3-18.5, depending on the field, for 810 early to relatively late type stars. Photometric metallicities were derived for 508 stars and indicate a metal-poor stellar population, consistent with a mixture of thick disk and halo stars. While the Stromgren u-band was not part of the survey, follow-up u-band observations of 32 survey objects indicate that intermediate color survey stars are main-sequence or slightly evolved stars, while redder survey stars are giants

Stellar Populations and the White Dwarf Mass Function: Connections To Supernova Ia Luminosities

We discuss the luminosity function of SNe Ia under the assumption that recent evidence for dispersion in this standard candle is related to variations in the white dwarf mass function (WDMF) in the host galaxies. We develop a simple parameterization of the WDMF as a function of age of a stellar population and apply this to galaxies of different morphological types. We show that this simplified model is consistent with the observed WDMF of Bergeron et al. (1992) for the solar neighborhood. Our simple models predict that WDMF variations can produce a range of more than 1.8 mag in M$_B$(SN Ia), which is comparable to the observed value using the data of Phillips (1993) and van den Bergh (1996). We also predict a galaxy type dependence of M$_B$(SN Ia) under standard assumptions of the star formation history in these galaxies and show that M$_B$(SN Ia) can evolve with redshift. In principle both evolutionary and galaxy type corrections should be applied to recover the intrinsic range of M$_B$(SN Ia) from the observed values. Our current inadequate knowledge of the star formation history of galaxies coupled with poor physical understanding of the SN Ia mechanism makes the reliable estimation of these corrections both difficult and controversial. The predictions of our models combined with the observed galaxy and redshift correlations may have the power to discriminate between the Chandrasekhar and the sub-Chandrasekhar progenitor scenarios for SNe Ia.Comment: 20 pages, latex + 7 postscript figures, to be published in AJ, September 199

Automated Classification of Stellar Spectra. II: Two-Dimensional Classification with Neural Networks and Principal Components Analysis

We investigate the application of neural networks to the automation of MK spectral classification. The data set for this project consists of a set of over 5000 optical (3800-5200 AA) spectra obtained from objective prism plates from the Michigan Spectral Survey. These spectra, along with their two-dimensional MK classifications listed in the Michigan Henry Draper Catalogue, were used to develop supervised neural network classifiers. We show that neural networks can give accurate spectral type classifications (sig_68 = 0.82 subtypes, sig_rms = 1.09 subtypes) across the full range of spectral types present in the data set (B2-M7). We show also that the networks yield correct luminosity classes for over 95% of both dwarfs and giants with a high degree of confidence. Stellar spectra generally contain a large amount of redundant information. We investigate the application of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to the optimal compression of spectra. We show that PCA can compress the spectra by a factor of over 30 while retaining essentially all of the useful information in the data set. Furthermore, it is shown that this compression optimally removes noise and can be used to identify unusual spectra.Comment: To appear in MNRAS. 15 pages, 17 figures, 7 tables. 2 large figures (nos. 4 and 15) are supplied as separate GIF files. The complete paper can be obtained as a single gziped PS file from http://wol.ra.phy.cam.ac.uk/calj/p1.htm

The Application of Artificial Neural Networks to Stellar Classification

We are working on a project to automate the multi-parameter classification of stellar spectra using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Artificial Neural Networks. We present here the usefulness of PCA as a form of spectral data compression, and our results to date of classification on the MK system

From Young and Hot to Old and Cold: Comparing White Dwarf Cooling Theory to Main Sequence Stellar Evolution in Open Clusters

I explore the current ability of both white dwarf cooling theory and main sequence stellar evolution theory to accurately determine stellar population ages by comparing ages derived using both techniques for open clusters ranging from 0.1 to 4 Gyr. I find good agreement between white dwarf and main sequence evolutionary ages over the entire age range currently available for study. I also find that directly comparing main sequence turn-off ages to white dwarf ages is only weakly sensitive to realistic levels of errors in cluster distance, metallicity, and reddening. Additional detailed comparisons between white dwarf and main sequence ages have tremendous potential to refine and calibrate both of these important clocks, and I present new simulations of promising open cluster targets. The most demanding requirement for these white dwarf studies are very deep (V > 25-28) cluster observations made necessary by the faintness of the oldest white dwarfs.Comment: 25 pages, incl. 10 figures, ApJ accepted for April, 200

Using Optical and Near-IR Photometry to Test MACHO Lens Candidates

We obtained new VLT/ISAAC H-band observations for five MACHO LMC source stars and adjacent LMC field regions. After combining our near-IR photometry with HST/PC BVRI optical photometry, we compared the MACHO objects to the adjacent field stars in a variety of color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. These diagnostic diagrams were chosen to be sensitive to our hypothesis that at least some of the MACHO lenses were foreground Galactic disk or thick disk M dwarfs. For the five lensed objects we studied, our hypothesis could be ruled out for main sequence lens masses >= 0.1 Mo for distances out to 4 kpc. On the other hand, the fact that LMC-MACHO-5, an object not in our study, has been recently found to have just such a foreground lens, highlights that the remainder of the LMC MACHO objects should be searched for the signature of their lenses using our photometric technique, or via near-IR spectroscopy. We also constructed diagnostic color-color diagrams sensitive to determining reddening for the individual MACHO source stars and found that these five objects did not show evidence for significant additional reddening. At least these five MACHO objects are thus also inconsistent with the LMC self-lensing hypothesis.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, ApJ, accepted for Oct 1 issu

The Ages of the Thin Disk, Thick Disk, and the Halo from Nearby White Dwarfs

We present a detailed analysis of the white dwarf luminosity functions derived from the local 40 pc sample and the deep proper motion catalog of Munn et al (2014, 2017). Many of the previous studies ignored the contribution of thick disk white dwarfs to the Galactic disk luminosity function, which results in an erronous age measurement. We demonstrate that the ratio of thick/thin disk white dwarfs is roughly 20\% in the local sample. Simultaneously fitting for both disk components, we derive ages of 6.8-7.0 Gyr for the thin disk and 8.7 $\pm$ 0.1 Gyr for the thick disk from the local 40 pc sample. Similarly, we derive ages of 7.4-8.2 Gyr for the thin disk and 9.5-9.9 Gyr for the thick disk from the deep proper motion catalog, which shows no evidence of a deviation from a constant star formation rate in the past 2.5 Gyr. We constrain the time difference between the onset of star formation in the thin disk and the thick disk to be $1.6^{+0.3}_{-0.4}$ Gyr. The faint end of the luminosity function for the halo white dwarfs is less constrained, resulting in an age estimate of $12.5^{+1.4}_{-3.4}$ Gyr for the Galactic inner halo. This is the first time ages for all three major components of the Galaxy are obtained from a sample of field white dwarfs that is large enough to contain significant numbers of disk and halo objects. The resultant ages agree reasonably well with the age estimates for the oldest open and globular clusters.Comment: ApJ, in pres