88 research outputs found
High-resolution infrared spectroscopy as a tool to detect false positives of transit search programs
Transit search programs such as CoRoT and Kepler now have the capability of
detecting planets as small as the Earth. The detection of these planets however
requires the removal of all false positives. Although many false positives can
be identified by a detailed analysis of the LCs, the detections of others
require additional observations. An important source of false positives are
faint eclipsing binaries within the PSF of the target stars. We develop a new
method that allows us to detect faint eclipsing binaries with a separation
smaller than one arcsec from target stars. We thereby focus on binaries that
mimic the transits of terrestrial planets. These binaries can be either at the
same distance as the target star (triple stars), or at either larger, or
smaller distances. A close inspection of the problem indicates that in all
relevant cases the binaries are brighter in the infrared than in the optical
regime. We show how high resolution IR spectroscopy can be used to remove these
false positives. For the triple star case, we find that the brightness
difference between a primary and an eclipsing secondary is about 9-10 mag in
the visual but only about 4.5-5.9 magnitudes in the K-band. We demonstrate how
the triple star hypothesis can be excluded by taking a high-resolution IR
spectrum. Simulations of these systems show that the companions can be detected
with a false-alarm probability of 2%, if the spectrum has a S/N-ratio > 100. We
show that high-resolution IR spectra also allows to detect most of the false
positives caused by foreground or background binaries. If high resolution IR
spectroscopy is combined with photometric methods, virtually all false
positives can be detected without RV measurements. It is thus possible to
confirm transiting terrestrial planets with a modest investment of observing
time.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Challenges in Stellar Population Studies
The stellar populations of galaxies contain a wealth of detailed information.
From the youngest, most massive stars, to almost invisible remnants, the
history of star formation is encoded in the stars that make up a galaxy.
Extracting some, or all, of this informationhas long been a goal of stellar
population studies. This was achieved in the last couple of decades and it is
now a routine task, which forms a crucial ingredient in much of observational
galaxy evolution, from our Galaxy out to the most distant systems found. In
many of these domains we are now limited not by sample size, but by systematic
uncertainties and this will increasingly be the case in the future.
The aim of this review is to outline the challenges faced by stellar
population studies in the coming decade within the context of upcoming
observational facilities. I will highlight the need to better understand the
near-IR spectral range and outline the difficulties presented by less well
understood phases of stellar evolution such as thermally pulsing AGB stars,
horizontal branch stars and the very first stars. The influence of rotation and
binarity on stellar population modeling is also briefly discussed.Comment: Plenary review talk at IAU GA in Rio de Janeiro to be published in
the proceedings of IAU Symposium 262. Movies and talk slides available at
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~jarle/IAU0
Evidence for intermediate-age stellar populations in early-type galaxies from K-band spectroscopy
The study of stellar populations in early-type galaxies in different
environments is a powerful tool for constraining their star formation
histories. This study has been traditionally restricted to the optical range,
where dwarfs around the turn-off and stars at the base of the RGB dominate the
integrated light at all ages. The near-infrared spectral range is especially
interesting since in the presence of an intermediate-age population, AGB stars
are the main contributors. In this letter, we measure the near-infrared indices
NaI and D for a sample of 12 early-type galaxies in low density
environments and compare them with the Fornax galaxy sample presented by Silva
et al. (2008). The analysis of these indices in combination with Lick/IDS
indices in the optical range reveals i) the NaI index is a metallicity
indicator as good as C4668 in the optical range, and ii) D is a
tracer of intermediate-age stellar populations. We find that low-mass galaxies
in low density environments show higher NaI and D than those located
in Fornax cluster, which points towards a late stage of star formation for the
galaxies in less dense environments, in agreement with results from other
studies using independent methods.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Integrated J- and H-band spectra of globular clusters in the LMC: implications for stellar population models and galaxy age dating
(Abridged) The rest-frame near-IR spectra of intermediate age (1-2 Gyr)
stellar populations are dominated by carbon based absorption features offering
a wealth of information. Yet, spectral libraries that include the near-IR
wavelength range do not sample a sufficiently broad range of ages and
metallicities to allow for accurate calibration of stellar population models
and thus the interpretation of the observations. In this paper we investigate
the integrated J- and H-band spectra of six intermediate age (1-3 Gyr) and old
(>10 Gyr) globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud, using observations
obtained with the SINFONI IFU at the VLT. H-band C2 and K-band 12CO(2-0)
feature strengths are compared to the models of Maraston (2005). C2 is
reasonably well reproduced by the models at all ages, while 12CO(2-0) shows
good agreement for older (age>2 Gyr) populations, but the younger (1.3 Gyr)
globular clusters do not follow the models. We argue that this is due to the
fact that the empirical calibration of the models relies on only a few Milky
Way carbon star spectra, which show different 12CO(2-0) index strengths than
the LMC stars. The C2 absorption feature strength correlates strongly with age.
It is present essentially only in populations that have 1-2 Gyr old stars,
while its value is consistent with zero for older populations. The distinct
spectral energy distribution observed for the intermediate age globular
clusters in the J- and H-bands agrees well with the model predictions of
Maraston for the contribution from the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant
branch phase (TP-AGB). We show that the H-band C2 absorption feature and the
J-, H-band spectral shape can be used as an age indicator for intermediate age
stellar populations in integrated spectra of star clusters and galaxies.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, abstract abridged, accepted for publication in
A&
SHARDS: Constraints on the dust attenuation law of star-forming galaxies at z~2
We make use of SHARDS, an ultra-deep (<26.5AB) galaxy survey that provides
optical photo-spectra at resolution R~50, via medium band filters (FWHM~150A).
This dataset is combined with ancillary optical and NIR fluxes to constrain the
dust attenuation law in the rest-frame NUV region of star-forming galaxies
within the redshift window 1.5<z<3. We focus on the NUV bump strength (B) and
the total-to-selective extinction ratio (Rv), targeting a sample of 1,753
galaxies. By comparing the data with a set of population synthesis models
coupled to a parametric dust attenuation law, we constrain Rv and B, as well as
the colour excess, E(B-V). We find a correlation between Rv and B, that can be
interpreted either as a result of the grain size distribution, or a variation
of the dust geometry among galaxies. According to the former, small dust grains
are associated with a stronger NUV bump. The latter would lead to a range of
clumpiness in the distribution of dust within the interstellar medium of
star-forming galaxies. The observed wide range of NUV bump strengths can lead
to a systematic in the interpretation of the UV slope () typically used
to characterize the dust content. In this study we quantify these variations,
concluding that the effects are ~0.4.Comment: 13 pages, 11+2 figures, 3 tables. MNRAS, in pres
Non-parametric analysis of the rest-frame UV sizes and morphological disturbance amongst L* galaxies at 4<z<8
We present the results of a study investigating the sizes and morphologies of
redshift 4 < z < 8 galaxies in the CANDELS GOODS-S, HUDF and HUDF parallel
fields. Based on non-parametric measurements and incorporating a careful
treatment of measurement biases, we quantify the typical size of galaxies at
each redshift as the peak of the log-normal size distribution, rather than the
arithmetic mean size. Parameterizing the evolution of galaxy half-light radius
as , we find at bright
UV-luminosities () and at faint
luminosities (). Furthermore, simulations based on
artificially redshifting our z~4 galaxy sample show that we cannot reject the
null hypothesis of no size evolution. We show that this result is caused by a
combination of the size-dependent completeness of high-redshift galaxy samples
and the underestimation of the sizes of the largest galaxies at a given epoch.
To explore the evolution of galaxy morphology we first compare asymmetry
measurements to those from a large sample of simulated single S\'ersic
profiles, in order to robustly categorise galaxies as either `smooth' or
`disturbed'. Comparing the disturbed fraction amongst bright () galaxies at each redshift to that obtained by artificially redshifting
our z~4 galaxy sample, while carefully matching the size and UV-luminosity
distributions, we find no clear evidence for evolution in galaxy morphology
over the redshift interval 4 < z < 8. Therefore, based on our results, a bright
() galaxy at z~6 is no more likely to be measured as
`disturbed' than a comparable galaxy at z~4, given the current observational
constraints.Comment: 29 pages, 25 figures, 4 tables, published in MNRA
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