36,864 research outputs found
Fitting Isochrones to Open Cluster photometric data: A new global optimization tool
We present a new technique to fit color-magnitude diagrams of open clusters
based on the Cross-Entropy global optimization algorithm. The method uses
theoretical isochrones available in the literature and maximizes a weighted
likelihood function based on distances measured in the color-magnitude space.
The weights are obtained through a non parametric technique that takes into
account the star distance to the observed center of the cluster, observed
magnitude uncertainties, the stellar density profile of the cluster among
others. The parameters determined simultaneously are distance, reddening, age
and metallicity. The method takes binary fraction into account and uses a
Monte-Carlo approach to obtain uncertainties on the determined parameters for
the cluster by running the fitting algorithm many times with a re-sampled data
set through a bootstrapping procedure. We present results for 9 well studied
open clusters, based on 15 distinct data sets, and show that the results are
consistent with previous studies. The method is shown to be reliable and free
of the subjectivity of most previous visual isochrone fitting techniques.Comment: 19 pages, 25 figures, accepted for publication in
Astronomy&Astrophysic
Multiple episodes of star formation in the CN15/16/17 molecular complex
We have started a campaign to identify massive star clusters inside bright
molecular bubbles towards the Galactic Center. The CN15/16/17 molecular complex
is the first example of our study. The region is characterized by the presence
of two young clusters, DB10 and DB11, visible in the NIR, an ultra-compact HII
region identified in the radio, several young stellar objects visible in the
MIR, a bright diffuse nebulosity at 8\mu m coming from PAHs and sub-mm
continuum emission revealing the presence of cold dust. Given its position on
the sky (l=0.58, b=-0.85) and its kinematic distance of ~7.5 kpc, the region
was thought to be a very massive site of star formation in proximity of the
CMZ. The cluster DB11 was estimated to be as massive as 10^4 M_sun. However the
region's properties were known only through photometry and its kinematic
distance was very uncertain given its location at the tangential point. We
aimed at better characterizing the region and assess whether it could be a site
of massive star formation located close to the Galactic Center. We have
obtained NTT/SofI JHKs photometry and long slit K band spectroscopy of the
brightest members. We have additionally collected data in the radio, sub-mm and
mid infrared, resulting in a quite different picture of the region. We have
confirmed the presence of massive early B type stars and have derived a
spectro-photometric distance of ~1.2 kpc, much smaller than the kinematic
distance. Adopting this distance we obtain clusters masses of M(DB10) ~ 170
M_sun and M(DB11) ~ 275 M_sun. This is consistent with the absence of any O
star, confirmed by the excitation/ionization status of the nebula. No HeI
diffuse emission is detected in our spectroscopic observations at 2.113\mu m,
which would be expected if the region was hosting more massive stars. Radio
continuum measurements are also consistent with the region hosting at most
early B stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Fig. 1 and 3
presented in reduced resolutio
The Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud
We present the I-band luminosity function of the red giant branch stars in
the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using the data from the Magellanic Clouds
Photometric Survey (Zaritsky, Harris & Thompson, 1997). Selecting stars in
uncrowded, low-extinction regions, a discontinuity in the luminosity function
is observed at I_0 = 14.54 mag. Identifying this feature with the tip of the
red giant branch (TRGB), and adopting an absolute TRGB magnitude of -4.05 +-
0.04 mag based on the calibration of Lee, Freedman & Madore (1993), we obtain a
distance modulus of 18.59 +- 0.09 (random) +- 0.16 (systematic) mag. If the
theoretical TRGB calibration provided by Cassisi & Salaris (1997) is adopted
instead, the derived distance would be 4% greater. The LMC distance modulus
reported here, 18.59 +- 0.09, is larger by 0.09 mag (1-sigma) than the value
that is most commonly used in the extragalactic distance scale calibrated by
the period-luminosity relation of the Cepheid variable stars. Our TRGB distance
modulus agrees with several RR Lyrae distances to the LMC based on HIPPARCOS
parallaxes. Finally, we note that using the same MCPS data, we obtain a
distance modulus of 18.29 +- 0.03 mag using the red clump method, which is
shorter by 0.3 mag compared to the TRGB estimate.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure
Fragmentation in the Massive Star-Forming Region IRAS 19410+2336
The Core Mass Functions (CMFs) of low-mass star-forming regions are found to
resemble the shape of the Initial Mass Function (IMF). A similar result is
observed for the dust clumps in high-mass star forming regions, although at
spatial scales of clusters that do not resolve the substructure found in them.
The region IRAS 19410+2336 is one exception, having been observed at spatial
scales on the order of ~2500AU, resolving the clump substructure into
individual cores.
We mapped that region with the PdBI in the 1.4mm and 3mm continuum and
several transitions of H2CO and CH3CN. The H2CO transitions were also observed
with the IRAM 30m Telescope. We detected 26 continuum sources at 1.4mm with a
spatial resolution down to ~2200 AU, distributed in two protoclusters. With the
lines emission we derived the temperature structure of the region, ranging from
35 to 90K. With them we calculated the core masses of the detected sources,
ranging from ~0.7 to ~8 M_sun. These masses were strongly (~90%) affected by
the interferometer spatial filtering. Considering only the detected dense cores
we derived a CMF with a power-law index b=-2.3+-0.2. We resolve the Jeans
length of the protoclusters by one order of magnitude, and only find little
velocity dispersion between the different subsources.
Since we cannot unambiguously differentiate protostellar and prestellar
cores, the derived CMF is not prestellar. Also, because of the large missing
flux, we cannot establish a firm link between the CMF and the IMF. This implies
that future high-mass CMF studies will need to complement the interferometer
continuum data with the short spacing data, a task suitable for ALMA. We note
that the method of extracting temperatures using H2CO lines becomes less
applicable when reaching the dense core scales of the interferometric
observations because most of the H2CO appears to originate in the envelope
structure.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted by A&
When the tale comes true: multiple populations and wide binaries in the Orion Nebula Cluster
The high-quality OmegaCAM photometry of the 3x3 deg around the Orion Nebula
Cluster (ONC) in r, and i filters by Beccari et al.(2017) revealed three
well-separated pre-main sequences in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD). The
objects belonging to the individual sequences are concentrated towards the
center of the ONC. The authors concluded that there are two competitive
scenarios: a population of unresolved binaries and triples with an exotic mass
ratio distribution, or three stellar populations with different ages. We use
Gaia DR2 in combination with the photometric OmegaCAM catalog to test and
confirm the presence of the putative three stellar populations. We also study
multiple stellar systems in the ONC for the first time using Gaia DR2. We
confirm that the second and third sequence members are more centrally
concentrated towards the center of the ONC. In addition we find an indication
that the parallax and proper motion distributions are different among the
members of the stellar sequences. The age difference among stellar populations
is estimated to be 1-2 Myr. We use Gaia measurements to identify and remove as
many unresolved multiple system candidates as possible. Nevertheless we are
still able to recover two well-separated sequences with evidence for the third
one, supporting the existence of the three stellar populations. We were able to
identify a substantial number of wide binary objects (separation between
1000-3000 au). This challenges previously inferred values that suggested no
wide binary stars exist in the ONC. Our inferred wide-binary fraction is approx
5%. We confirm the three populations correspond to three separated episodes of
star formation. Based on this result, we conclude that star formation is not
happening in a single burst in this region. (abridged)Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A) accepted. 12 pages, 9 figures +
appendix. New version with language corrections and new ID values in Tab.A.
Mining the UKIDSS GPS: star formation and embedded clusters
Data mining techniques must be developed and applied to analyse the large
public data bases containing hundreds to thousands of millions entries. The aim
of this study is to develop methods for locating previously unknown stellar
clusters from the UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey catalogue data. The cluster
candidates are computationally searched from pre-filtered catalogue data using
a method that fits a mixture model of Gaussian densities and background noise
using the Expectation Maximization algorithm. The catalogue data contains a
significant number of false sources clustered around bright stars. A large
fraction of these artefacts were automatically filtered out before or during
the cluster search. The UKIDSS data reduction pipeline tends to classify
marginally resolved stellar pairs and objects seen against variable surface
brightness as extended objects (or "galaxies" in the archive parlance). 10% or
66 x 10^6 of the sources in the UKIDSS GPS catalogue brighter than 17
magnitudes in the K band are classified as "galaxies". Young embedded clusters
create variable NIR surface brightness because the gas/dust clouds in which
they were formed scatters the light from the cluster members. Such clusters
appear therefore as clusters of "galaxies" in the catalogue and can be found
using only a subset of the catalogue data. The detected "galaxy clusters" were
finally screened visually to eliminate the remaining false detections due to
data artefacts. Besides the embedded clusters the search also located locations
of non clustered embedded star formation. The search covered an area of 1302
square degrees and 137 previously unknown cluster candidates and 30 previously
unknown sites of star formation were found
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