483 research outputs found
The Effect of Type Ibc Contamination in Cosmological Supernova Samples
We explore the effect of contamination of intermediate redshift Type Ia
supernova samples by Type Ibc supernovae. Simulating observed samples of Ia and
mixed Ibc/Ia populations at a range of redshifts for an underlying cosmological
concordance model (\Omega_{m}=0.27, \Omega_{\Lambda}=0.73), we find that even
small contamination levels, 2-5% may bias the derived \Omega_{\Lambda} and
\Omega_{m} towards larger values. We thus emphasize the need for clean samples
of Type Ia SNe for accurate measurements of the cosmological parameters. We
also simulate a SN sample similar to the fiducial SNAP detected distribution
(Kim et al. 2004), but include Ibc contamination. For this distribution we
illustrate the effect of Ibc contamination on the distance modulus vs. redshift
diagram for low and high precision measurements.Comment: ApJ accepte
Uncovering the Beast: Discovery of Embedded Massive Stellar Clusters in W49A
We present subarcsecond J, H, and Ks images (FWHM ~ 0.5") of an unbiased 5'x
5' (16pc x 16pc) survey of the densest region of the W49 giant molecular cloud.
The observations reveal 4 massive stellar clusters (with stars as massive as
\~120 Msun), the larger (Cluster 1) about 3 pc East of the well known Welch
ring of ultra-compact Hii regions. Cluster 1 is a) extincted by at least Av >
20 mag of foreground (unrelated and local) extinction, b) has more than 30 mag
of internal inhomogeneous visual extinction implying that it is still deeply
buried in its parental molecular cloud, and c) is powering a 6 pc diameter
giant Hii region seen both at the NIR and radio continuum. We also identify the
exciting sources of several UCHii regions. The census of massive stars in W49A
agrees or is slightly overabundant when compared with the number of Lyman
continuum photons derived from radio observations. We argue that although the
formation of the Welch ring could have been triggered by Cluster 1, the entire
W49A starburst region seems to have been multi-seeded instead of resulting from
a coherent trigger.Comment: ApJ Letters accepted. All figures provided as nice resolution
jpeg/gif files. Get full-res version at http://www.eso.org/~jalves/W49A.pd
The Star Cluster Population in the Tidal Tails of NGC 6872
We present a photometric analysis of the rich star cluster population in the
tidal tails of NGC 6872. We find star clusters with ages between 1 - 100 Myr
distributed in the tidal tails, while the tails themselves have an age of less
than 150 Myr. Most of the young massive ()
clusters are found in the outer regions of the galactic disk or the tidal
tails. The mass distribution of the cluster population can be well described by
power-law of the form , where , in very good agreement with other young cluster populations found in a
variety of different environments. We estimate the star formation rate for
three separate regions of the galaxy, and find that the eastern tail is forming
stars at times the rate of the western tail and times the
rate of the main body of the galaxy. By comparing our observations with
published N-body models of the fate of material in tidal tails in a galaxy
cluster potential, we see that many of these young clusters will be lost into
the intergalactic medium. We speculate that this mechanism may also be at work
in larger galaxy clusters such as Fornax, and suggest that the so-called
ultra-compact dwarf galaxies could be the most massive star clusters that have
formed in the tidal tails of an ancient galactic merger.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted A&
A near-infrared survey for Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars
Initial results, techniques, and rationale for a near-infrared survey of
evolved emission-line stars toward the Galactic Center are presented. We use
images taken through narrow-band emission-line and continuum filters to select
candidates for spectroscopic follow-up. The filters are optimized for the
detection of Wolf-Rayet stars and other objects which exhibit emission-lines in
the 2 micron region. Approximately three square degrees along the Galactic
plane have been analyzed in seven narrow-filters (four emission-lines and three
continuum). Four new Wolf-Rayet stars have been found which are the subject of
a following paper.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Subdwarf B Stars from the ESO Supernova Ia Progenitor Survey -- Observation versus Theory
Original paper can be found at: http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/cs/328.html--Copyright Astronomical Society of the PacificWe present the analysis of a high-quality sample of optical spectra for 76 sdB stars from the ESO Supernova Ia Progenitor Survey. Effective temperature, surface gravity, and photospheric helium abundance were derived from line profile fits. We demonstrate that our subsample of 52 single-lined sdB stars is a useful tool to compare observation and theory. The predictions of population synthesis models for close binary evolution are compared to our data. We show that the simulations cover the observed parameter range of sdBs, but fail to reproduce the observed distribution in detail
High resolution UVES/VLT spectra of white dwarfs observed for the ESO SN Ia Progenitor Survey III. DA white dwarfs
Original article can be found at: http://www.aanda.org/ Copyright The European Southern Observatory (ESO) DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200912531Context. The ESO Supernova Ia Progenitor Survey (SPY) took high-resolution spectra of more than 1000 white dwarfs and pre-white dwarfs. About two thirds of the stars observed are hydrogen-dominated DA white dwarfs. Here we present a catalog and detailed spectroscopic analysis of the DA stars in the SPY. Aims. Atmospheric parameters effective temperature and surface gravity are determined for normal DAs. Double-degenerate binaries, DAs with magnetic fields or dM companions, are classified and discussed. Methods. The spectra are compared with theoretical model atmospheres using a fitting technique. Results. Our final sample contains 615 DAs, which show only hydrogen features in their spectra, although some are double-degenerate binaries. 187 are new detections or classifications. We also find 10 magnetic DAs (4 new) and 46 DA+dM pairs (10 new).Peer reviewe
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