Faint NUV/FUV Standards from Swift/UVOT, GALEX and SDSS Photometry

At present, the precision of deep ultraviolet photometry is somewhat limited by the dearth of faint ultraviolet standard stars. In an effort to improve this situation, we present a uniform catalog of eleven new faint (u sim17) ultraviolet standard stars. High-precision photometry of these stars has been taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Galaxy Evolution Explorer and combined with new data from the Swift Ultraviolet Optical Telescope to provide precise photometric measures extending from the Near Infrared to the Far Ultraviolet. These stars were chosen because they are known to be hot (20,000 < T_eff < 50,000 K) DA white dwarfs with published Sloan spectra that should be photometrically stable. This careful selection allows us to compare the combined photometry and Sloan spectroscopy to models of pure hydrogen atmospheres to both constrain the underlying properties of the white dwarfs and test the ability of white dwarf models to predict the photometric measures. We find that the photometry provides good constraint on white dwarf temperatures, which demonstrates the ability of Swift/UVOT to investigate the properties of hot luminous stars. We further find that the models reproduce the photometric measures in all eleven passbands to within their systematic uncertainties. Within the limits of our photometry, we find the standard stars to be photometrically stable. This success indicates that the models can be used to calibrate additional filters to our standard system, permitting easier comparison of photometry from heterogeneous sources. The largest source of uncertainty in the model fitting is the uncertainty in the foreground reddening curve, a problem that is especially acute in the UV.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal. 31 pages, 13 figures, electronic tables available from ApJ or on reques

Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy of the Balmer lines in Sirius B

Sirius B is the nearest and brightest of all white dwarfs, but it is very difficult to observe at visible wavelengths due to the overwhelming scattered light contribution from Sirius A. However, from space we can take advantage of the superb spatial resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope to resolve the A and B components. Since the closest approach in 1993, the separation between the two stars has become increasingly favourable and we have recently been able to obtain a spectrum of the complete Balmer line series for Sirius B using HST?s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The quality of the STIS spectra greatly exceed that of previous ground-based spectra, and can be used to provide an important determination of the stellar temperature (Teff = 25193K) and gravity (log g = 8.556). In addition we have obtained a new, more accurate, gravitational red-shift of 80.42 +/- 4.83 km s-1 for Sirius B. Combining these results with the photometric data and the Hipparcos parallax we obtain new determinations of the stellar mass for comparison with the theoretical mass-radius relation. However, there are some disparities between the results obtained independently from log g and the gravitational redshift which may arise from flux losses in the narrow 50x0.2arcsec slit. Combining our measurements of Teff and log g with the Wood (1995) evolutionary mass-radius relation we get a best estimate for the white dwarf mass of 0.978 M. Within the overall uncertainties, this is in agreement with a mass of 1.02 M obtained by matching our new gravitational red-shift to the theoretical M/R relation.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Hot Populations in M87 Globular Clusters

We have obtained HST/STIS far- and near-UV photometry of globular clusters in four fields in the gE galaxy M87. To a limit of m(FUV) = 25 we detect a total of 66 globular clusters (GCs) in common with the deep HST optical-band study of Kundu et al. (1999). Despite strong overlap in V- and I-band properties, the M87 GCs have UV/optical properties that are distinct from clusters in the Milky Way and in M31. M87 clusters, especially metal-poor ones, produce larger hot HB populations than do Milky Way analogues. Cluster mass is probably not a factor in these distinctions. The most metal-rich M87 GCs in our sample are near Z_sun and overlap the local E galaxy sample in estimated Mg_2 line indices. Nonetheless, the clusters produce much more UV light at a given Mg_2, being up to 1 mag bluer than any gE galaxy in (FUV-V) color. The M87 GCs do not appear to represent a transition between Milky Way-type clusters and E galaxies. The differences are in the correct sense if the clusters are significantly older than the E galaxies. Comparisons with Galactic open clusters indicate that the hot stars lie on the extreme horizontal branch, rather than being blue stragglers, and that the EHB becomes well populated for ages > 5 Gyr. We find that 43 of our UV detections have no optical-band counterparts. Most appear to be UV-bright background galaxies, seen through M87. Eleven NUV variable sources detected at only one epoch in the central field are probably classical novae. [Abridged]Comment: 70 pages, 25 figures (including 4 jpgs), 7 tables. To appear in AJ. Full resolution version available at http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~rwo/m87/m87-hotpops.pd

Direct measurement of S-branch N(2)-H(2) Raman linewidths using time-resolved pure rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy.

S-branch N(2)-H(2) Raman linewidths have been measured in the temperature region 294-1466 K using time-resolved dual-broadband picosecond pure rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (RCARS). Data are extracted by mapping the dephasing rates of the CARS signal temporal decay. The J-dependent coherence decays are detected in the time domain by following the individual spectral lines as a function of probe delay. The linewidth data set was employed in spectral fits of N(2) RCARS spectra recorded in binary mixtures of N(2) and H(2) at calibrated temperature conditions up to 661 K using a standard nanosecond RCARS setup. In this region, the set shows a deviation of less than 2% in comparison with thermocouples. The results provide useful knowledge for the applicability of N(2) CARS thermometry on the fuel-side of H(2) diffusion flames

The White Dwarf Distance to the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae and its Age

We present a new determination of the distance (and age) of the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC 104) based on the fit of its white dwarf (WD) cooling sequence with the empirical fiducial sequence of local WD with known trigonometric parallax, following the method described in Renzini et al. (1996). Both the cluster and the local WDs were imaged with HST+WFPC2 using the same instrument setup. We obtained an apparent distance modulus of $(m-M)_V=13.27\pm0.14$ consistent with previous ground-based determinations and shorter than that found using HIPPARCOS subdwarfs. Coupling our distance determination with a new measure of the apparent magnitude of the main sequence turnoff, based on our HST data, we derive an age of $13\pm2.5$ Gyr.Comment: Accepted for publication on the Astrophysical Journa

Convection, Thermal Bifurcation, and the Colors of A stars

Broad-band ultraviolet photometry from the TD-1 satellite and low dispersion spectra from the short wavelength camera of IUE have been used to investigate a long-standing proposal of Bohm-Vitense that the normal main sequence A- and early-F stars may divide into two different temperature sequences: (1) a high temperature branch (and plateau) comprised of slowly rotating convective stars, and (2) a low temperature branch populated by rapidly rotating radiative stars. We find no evidence from either dataset to support such a claim, or to confirm the existence of an "A-star gap" in the B-V color range 0.22 <= B-V <= 0.28 due to the sudden onset of convection. We do observe, nonetheless, a large scatter in the 1800--2000 A colors of the A-F stars, which amounts to ~0.65 mags at a given B-V color index. The scatter is not caused by interstellar or circumstellar reddening. A convincing case can also be made against binarity and intrinsic variability due to pulsations of delta Sct origin. We find no correlation with established chromospheric and coronal proxies of convection, and thus no demonstrable link to the possible onset of convection among the A-F stars. The scatter is not instrumental. Approximately 0.4 mags of the scatter is shown to arise from individual differences in surface gravity as well as a moderate spread (factor of ~3) in heavy metal abundance and UV line blanketing. A dispersion of ~0.25 mags remains, which has no clear and obvious explanation. The most likely cause, we believe, is a residual imprecision in our correction for the spread in metal abundances. However, the existing data do not rule out possible contributions from intrinsic stellar variability or from differential UV line blanketing effects owing to a dispersion in microturbulent velocity.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figures, 1 table, AAS LaTex, to appear in The Astrophysical Journa

Ultraviolet Imagery of NGC 6752: A Test of Extreme Horizontal Branch Models

We present a 1620 A image of the nearby globular cluster NGC 6752 obtained with the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) during the Astro-2 mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1995 March. An ultraviolet-visible color-magnitude diagram (CMD) is derived for 216 stars matched with the visible photometry of Buonanno et al. (1986). This CMD provides a nearly complete census of the hot horizontal branch (HB) population with good temperature and luminosity discrimination for comparison with theoretical tracks. The observed data show good agreement with the theoretical zero-age horizontal branch (ZAHB) of Sweigart (1996) for an assumed reddening of E(B-V) = 0.05 and a distance modulus of 13.05. The observed HB luminosity width is in excellent agreement with the theoretical models and supports the single star scenario for the origin of extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars. However, only four stars can be identified as post-EHB stars, whereas almost three times this many are expected from the HB number counts. If this effect is not a statistical anomaly, then some non-canonical effect may be decreasing the post-EHB lifetime. The recent non-canonical models of Sweigart (1996), which have helium-enriched envelopes due to mixing along the red giant branch, cannot explain the deficit of post-EHB stars, but might be better able to explain their luminosity distribution.Comment: 14 pages, AASTeX, includes 4 EPS figures ApJ Letters accepte

Far-Ultraviolet Color Gradients in Early-Type Galaxies

We discuss far-UV (1500 A) surface photometry and FUV-B color profiles for 8 E/S0 galaxies from images taken with the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, primarily during the Astro-2 mission. In three cases, the FUV radial profiles are more consistent with an exponential than a de Vaucouleurs function, but there is no other evidence for the presence of a disk or of young, massive stars. In all cases except M32 the FUV-B color becomes redder at larger radii. There is a wide range of internal radial FUV-B color gradients. However, we find no correlation between the FUV-B color gradients and internal metallicity gradients based on Mg absorption features. We conclude that metallicity is not the sole parameter controlling the "UV upturn component" in old populations.Comment: 11 pages; tar.gz file includes LaTeX text file, 3 PostScript figures. Paper to be published in ApJ Letter

Amino Acid Usage Is Asymmetrically Biased in AT- and GC-Rich Microbial Genomes.

INTRODUCTION: Genomic base composition ranges from less than 25% AT to more than 85% AT in prokaryotes. Since only a small fraction of prokaryotic genomes is not protein coding even a minor change in genomic base composition will induce profound protein changes. We examined how amino acid and codon frequencies were distributed in over 2000 microbial genomes and how these distributions were affected by base compositional changes. In addition, we wanted to know how genome-wide amino acid usage was biased in the different genomes and how changes to base composition and mutations affected this bias. To carry this out, we used a Generalized Additive Mixed-effects Model (GAMM) to explore non-linear associations and strong data dependences in closely related microbes; principal component analysis (PCA) was used to examine genomic amino acid- and codon frequencies, while the concept of relative entropy was used to analyze genomic mutation rates. RESULTS: We found that genomic amino acid frequencies carried a stronger phylogenetic signal than codon frequencies, but that this signal was weak compared to that of genomic %AT. Further, in contrast to codon usage bias (CUB), amino acid usage bias (AAUB) was differently distributed in AT- and GC-rich genomes in the sense that AT-rich genomes did not prefer specific amino acids over others to the same extent as GC-rich genomes. AAUB was also associated with relative entropy; genomes with low AAUB contained more random mutations as a consequence of relaxed purifying selection than genomes with higher AAUB. CONCLUSION: Genomic base composition has a substantial effect on both amino acid- and codon frequencies in bacterial genomes. While phylogeny influenced amino acid usage more in GC-rich genomes, AT-content was driving amino acid usage in AT-rich genomes. We found the GAMM model to be an excellent tool to analyze the genomic data used in this study