814 research outputs found
Galactic halo stellar structures in the Triangulum-Andromeda region
This letter reports on the Galactic stellar structures that appear in the
foreground of our Canada-France-Hawaii-Telecopse/MegaCam survey of the halo of
the Andromeda galaxy. We recover the main sequence and main sequence turn-off
of the Triangulum-Andromeda structure recently found by Majewski and
collaborators at a heliocentric distance of ~20 kpc. The survey also reveals
another less populated main sequence at fainter magnitudes that could
correspond to a more distant stellar structure at ~28 kpc. Both structures are
smoothly distributed over the ~76 sq. deg. covered by the survey although the
closer one shows an increase in density by a factor of ~2 towards the
North-West. The discovery of a stellar structure behind the
Triangulum-Andromeda structure that itself appears behind the low-latitude
stream that surrounds the Galactic disk gives further evidence that the inner
halo of the Milky Way is of a spatially clumpy nature.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJL, 4 pages, 4 figures. Significant
changes including a larger dataset and a more thorough discussio
Blue Horizontal Branch Stars in the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy
We report on the recovery of a Blue Horizontal Branch (BHB) population
belonging to the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr). The sequence is
clearly identified in the (V, V-I) Color Magnitude Diagram (CMD) obtained for
about 500,000 stars in the region of the globular cluster M~54. The BHB
morphology is similar to the analogous sequence in M~54, but it is
unambiguously associated with Sgr since {\it(i)} it is detected well outside
the main body of the cluster, up to more than 5 tidal radii from the cluster
center and {\it(ii)} the BHB stars follow the radial distribution of the other
stellar populations of Sgr. This finding finally demonstrates that the Sgr
galaxy hosts a significant (of the order of 10%) old and metal-poor
stellar population ([Fe/H]\ltsima -1.3; age \gtsima 10 Gyr), similar to that of
its oldest clusters (M~54, Ter~8). We also show that the Sgr BHB sequence found
here is the counterpart of the analogous feature observed by Newberg et al.
(2002) in the Sgr Stream, in a field more than 80\degr away from the center
of the galaxy.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
A 2MASS All-Sky View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy: IV. Modeling the Sagittarius Tidal Tails
M giants recovered from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) have recently
been used to map the position and velocity distributions of tidal debris from
the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf spheroidal galaxy entirely around the Galaxy. We
compare this data set to both test particle orbits and N-body simulations of
satellite destruction run within a variety of rigid Milky Way potentials and
find that the mass of the Milky Way within 50 kpc of its center should be
3.8-5.6 x 10^11 Msun in order for any Sgr orbit to simultaneously fit the
velocity gradient in the Sgr trailing debris and the apocenter of the Sgr
leading debris. Orbital pole precession of young debris and leading debris
velocities in regions corresponding to older debris provide contradictory
evidence in favor of oblate/prolate Galactic halo potentials respectively,
leading us to conclude that the orbit of Sgr has evolved over the past few Gyr.
Based upon the velocity dispersion and width along the trailing tidal stream
we estimate the current bound mass of Sgr to be M_Sgr = 2 - 5 x 10^8 Msun
independant of the form of the Galactic potential; this corresponds to a range
of mass to light ratios (M/L)_Sgr = 14 - 36 (M/L)_Sun for the Sgr core. Models
with masses in this range best fit the apocenter of leading Sgr tidal debris
when they orbit with a radial period of roughly 0.85 Gyr and have periGalactica
and apoGalactica of about 15 kpc and 60 kpc respectively. These distances will
scale with the assumed distance to the Sgr dwarf and the assumed depth of the
Galactic potential. The density distribution of debris along the orbit in these
models is consistent with the M giant observations, and debris at all orbital
phases where M giants are obviously present is younger (i.e. was lost more
recently from the satellite) than the typical age of a Sgr M giant star.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figures; Accepted for publication by ApJ (October 08,
2004; originally submitted May 10, 2004). Fixed typos and added references.
PDF file with high resolution figures may be downloaded from
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~drlaw/Papers/Sgr_paper4.pd
A dwarf galaxy remnant in Canis Major: the fossil of an in-plane accretion onto the Milky Way
We present an analysis of the asymmetries in the population of Galactic
M-giant stars present in the 2MASS All Sky catalogue. Several large-scale
asymmetries are detected, the most significant of which is a strong
elliptical-shaped stellar over-density, close to the Galactic plane at (l=240,
b=-8), in the constellation of Canis Major. A small grouping of globular
clusters (NGC 1851, NGC 1904, NGC 2298, and NGC 2808), coincident in position
and radial velocity, surround this structure, as do a number of open clusters.
The population of M-giant stars in this over-density is similar in number to
that in the core of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. We argue that this object is
the likely dwarf galaxy progenitor of the ring-like structure that has recently
been found at the edge of the Galactic disk. A numerical study of the tidal
disruption of an accreted dwarf galaxy is presented. The simulated debris fits
well the extant position, distance and velocity information on the ``Galactic
Ring'', as well as that of the M-giant over-densities, suggesting that all
these structures are the consequence of a single accretion event. The disrupted
dwarf galaxy stream orbits close to the Galactic Plane, with a pericentre at
approximately the Solar circle, an orbital eccentricity similar to that of
stars in the Galactic thick disk, as well as a vertical scale height similar to
that of the thick disk. This finding strongly suggests that the Canis Major
dwarf galaxy is a building block of the Galactic thick disk, that the thick
disk is continually growing, even up to the present time, and that thick disk
globular clusters were accreted onto the Milky Way from dwarf galaxies in
co-planar orbits.Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures (2 in colour), accepted for publication in MNRA
Uncovering CDM halo substructure with tidal streams
Models for the formation and growth of structure in a cold dark matter
dominated universe predict that galaxy halos should contain significant
substructure. Studies of the Milky Way, however, have yet to identify the
expected few hundred sub-halos with masses greater than about 10^6 Msun. Here
we propose a test for the presence of sub-halos in the halos of galaxies. We
show that the structure of the tidal tails of ancient globular clusters is very
sensitive to heating by repeated close encounters with the massive dark
sub-halos. We discuss the detection of such an effect in the context of the
next generation of astrometric missions, and conclude that it should be easily
detectable with the GAIA dataset. The finding of a single extended cold stellar
stream from a globular cluster would support alternative theories, such as
self-interacting dark matter, that give rise to smoother halos.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to MNRA
Tracing Galaxy Formation with Stellar Halos I: Methods
If the favored hierarchical cosmological model is correct, then the Milky Way
system should have accreted ~100-200 luminous satellite galaxies in the past
\~12 Gyr. We model this process using a hybrid semi-analytic plus N-body
approach which distinguishes explicitly between the evolution of light and dark
matter in accreted satellites. This distinction is essential to our ability to
produce a realistic stellar halo, with mass and density profile much like that
of our own Galaxy, and a surviving satellite population that matches the
observed number counts and structural parameter distributions of the satellite
galaxies of the Milky Way. Our model stellar halos have density profiles which
typically drop off with radius faster than those of the dark matter. They are
assembled from the inside out, with the majority of mass (~80%) coming from the
\~15 most massive accretion events. The satellites that contribute to the
stellar halo have median accretion times of ~9 Gyr in the past, while surviving
satellite systems have median accretion times of ~5 Gyr in the past. This
implies that stars associated with the inner halo should be quite different
chemically from stars in surviving satellites and also from stars in the outer
halo or those liberated in recent disruption events. We briefly discuss the
expected spatial structure and phase space structure for halos formed in this
manner. Searches for this type of structure offer a direct test of whether
cosmology is indeed hierarchical on small scales.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ap
Absolute Proper Motions to B~22.5: V. Detection of Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Debris in the Direction of the Galactic Anticenter
We have detected a population of predominantly blue (B-V <= 1.1) stars in the
direction l = 167 deg., b = -35 deg. (Kapteyn Selected Area 71) that cannot be
accounted for by standard starcount models. Down to V ~ 20, the colors and
magnitudes of these stars are similar to those of the southern overdensity
detected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and identified as stripped material
from the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. We present absolute proper
motions for the stars in SA 71, and we find that the excess blue stars
represent a distinct, kinematically cooler component than the Galactic field,
and in reasonable agreement with predictions of Sgr disruption models. The
density of the excess SA 71 stars at V ~ 18.8 and B-V <=1.1 is within a factor
of two of the density of the SDSS-south Sgr stripped material, and of that
predicted by the Helmi and White disruption model. Three additional anticenter
fields (SA 29, 45 and 118) show very good agreement with standard starcount
models.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJL, accepted for Ap
Potassium: a new actor on the globular cluster chemical evolution stage. The case of NGC 2808
We derive [K/Fe] abundance ratios for 119 stars in the globular cluster NGC
2808, all of them having O, Na, Mg and Al abundances homogeneously measured in
previous works. We detect an intrinsic star-to-star spread in the Potassium
abundance. Moreover [K/Fe] abundance ratios display statistically significant
correlations with [Na/Fe] and [Al/Fe], and anti-correlations with [O/Fe] and
[Mg/Fe]. All the four Mg deficient stars ([Mg/Fe]<0.0) discovered so far in NGC
2808 are enriched in K by ~0.3 dex with respect to those with normal [Mg/Fe].
NGC 2808 is the second globular cluster, after NGC 2419, where a clear Mg-K
anti-correlation is detected, albeit of weaker amplitude. The simultaneous
correlation/anti-correlation of [K/Fe] with all the light elements usually
involved in the chemical anomalies observed in globular cluster stars, strongly
support the idea that these abundance patterns are due to the same
self-enrichment mechanism that produces Na-O and Mg-Al anti-correlations. This
finding suggests that detectable spreads in K abundances may be typical in the
massive globular clusters where the self-enrichment processes are observed to
produce their most extreme manifestations.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJ, 5 pages, 3 figure
A kinematically selected, metal-poor stellar halo in the outskirts of M31
We present evidence for a metal-poor, [Fe/H] =0.2 dex,
stellar halo component detectable at radii from 10 kpc to 70 kpc, in our
nearest giant spiral neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. This metal-poor sample
underlies the recently-discovered extended rotating component, and has no
detected metallicity gradient. This discovery uses a large sample of 9861
radial velocities of Red Giant Branch (RGB) stars obtained with the Keck-II
telescope and DEIMOS spectrograph, with 827 stars with robust radial velocity
measurements isolated kinematically to lie in the halo component primarily by
windowing out the extended rotating component which dominates the photometric
profile of Andromeda out to 50 kpc (de-projected). The stars lie in 54
spectroscopic fields spread over an 8 square degree region, and are expected to
fairly sample the halo to a radius of 70 kpc. The halo sample shows no
significant evidence for rotation. Fitting a simple model in which the velocity
dispersion of the component decreases with radius, we find a central velocity
dispersion of 152\kms decreasing by -0.90\kms/\kpc. By fitting a
cosmologically-motivated NFW halo model to the halo stars we constrain the
virial mass of M31 to be greater than 9.0 \times 10^{11} \msun with 99%
confidence. The properties of this halo component are very similar to that
found in our Milky Way, revealing that these roughly equal mass galaxies may
have led similar accretion and evolutionary paths in the early Universe.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted in ApJ. substantially revised versio
- âŠ