75 research outputs found
Attenuation and localization of waves in taut cables with suspended masses
This work analyzes structural waves that propagate freely along taut cables, characterized by a discrete array of scatter elements. The outcomes underline the role played by the periodic distribution of such elements, whose presence alters the response of the system when subjected to propagating waves. Namely, when the domain is perfectly periodic, band gaps are found in the spectrum of the problem. It is also shown that the introduction of a defect of periodicity can lead to the appearance of eigenvalues inside band gaps, corresponding to a motion localized around the defect
Stellar Evolution in the Early Universe
Massive stars played a key role in the early evolution of the Universe. They
formed with the first halos and started the re-ionisation. It is therefore very
important to understand their evolution. In this paper, we describe the strong
impact of rotation induced mixing and mass loss at very low . The strong
mixing leads to a significant production of primary nitrogen 14, carbon 13 and
neon 22. Mass loss during the red supergiant stage allows the production of
Wolf-Rayet stars, type Ib,c supernovae and possibly gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)
down to almost Z=0 for stars more massive than 60 solar masses. Galactic
chemical evolution models calculated with models of rotating stars better
reproduce the early evolution of N/O, C/O and C12/C13. We calculated the weak
s-process production induced by the primary neon 22 and obtain overproduction
factors (relative to the initial composition, Z=1.e-6) between 100-1000 in the
mass range 60-90.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, proceedings of IAU Symposium 255,
"Low-Metallicity Star Formation: From the First stars to Dwarf Galaxies",
L.K. Hunt, S. Madden & R. Schneider, ed
Another cluster of red supergiants close to RSGC1
Recent studies have revealed massive star clusters in a region of the Milky
Way close to the tip of the Long Bar. These clusters are heavily obscured and
are characterised by a population of red supergiants. We analyse a previously
unreported concentration of bright red stars ~16' away from the cluster RSGC1.
We utilised near IR photometry to identify candidate red supergiants and then
K-band spectroscopy of a sample to characterise their properties.
We find a compact clump of eight red supergiants and five other candidates at
some distance, one of which is spectroscopically confirmed as a red supergiant.
These objects must form an open cluster, which we name Alicante 8. Because of
the high reddening and strong field contamination, the cluster sequence is not
clearly seen in 2MASS or UKIDSS near-IR photometry. From the analysis of the
red supergiants, we infer an extinction and an age close
to 20 Myr. Though this cluster is smaller than the three known previously, its
properties still suggest a mass in excess of 10 000 M_{\sun}. Its discovery
corroborates the hypothesis that star formation in this region has happened on
a wide scale between ~10 and ~20 Myr ago.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Figure 1
degraded and changed to B&W, Figure 2 degraded to meet size requirement
The chemical composition of planetary nebulae and HII regions in NGC 3109
We present deep spectrophotometry for a sample of 8 PNe and 12 HII regions in
the irregular galaxy NGC 3109, to analyze the chemical composition of both
types of nebulae. We present line intensities and the physical conditions and
the abundances of He, O, Ne, N, S and Ar are derived, using the classical
T_e-based method. We confirm our previous identification of PNe and HII regions
based on photometry, except for one object that we argue is a compact HII
region rather than a PN. We find that the chemical composition of the ISM in
NGC 3109, as sampled by its HII regions, is remarkably uniform. The oxygen
abundance is log O/H + 12 = 7.77 \pm 0.07 in this galaxy, as compared to 8.05
\pm 0.09 for the SMC. PNe show significantly higher oxygen abundances in NGC
3109: log O/H + 12 = 8.16 \pm 0.19. We argue that, similarly to what has been
suggested for some of the PNe in the Magellanic Clouds and other metal-poor
galaxies, oxygen in the PNe in NGC 3109 is affected by dredge up in their
progenitors. This could be also the case for neon. From our analysis, we
conclude that these two elements are not always a safe indicator of the
chemical composition of the ISM at low metallicities. An alternative to the O
and Ne enrichment in PNe is that the low metallicity in HII regions has been
caused by dilution of the ISM due interaction with a neighbor galaxy about a
Gyr ago.
The excitation patterns of the PNe in NGC 3109 are very different from the
excitation patterns of PNe in other galaxies. This would imply that the
evolution of PNe depends upon the properties of their progenitor stellar
populations, which vary from galaxy to galaxy. This should affect the PN
luminosity function and its use as a distance indicator.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Accepted in A&A. Final versio
The populations of planetary nebulae in the direction of the Galactic bulge
We have observed 44 planetary nebulae (PNe) in the direction of the Galactic
bulge, and merged our data with published ones. We have distinguished, in the
merged sample of 164 PNe, those PNe most likely to prtain physically to the
Galactic bulge and those most likely to belong to the Galactic disk. We have
determined the chemical composition of all the 164 objects in a coherent way.
We looked for stellar emission features and discovered 14 new [WR] stars and 15
new weak emission line central stars.
The analyzed data led us to the following conclusions: (1) The spectral type
distribution of [WR] stars is very different in the bulge and in the disk of
the Galaxy. However, the observed distributions are strongly dependent on
selection effects. (2) The proportion of [WR] PNe is significantly larger in
the bulge than in the disk. (3) The oxygen abundances in [WR] stars do no
appear to be significantly affected by nucleosynthesis and mixing in the
progenitors. (4) The O/H gradient of the Galactic disk PNe population flattens
in the most internal parts of the Galaxy. (5) The median oxygen abundance in
the bulge PN population is larger by 0.2 dex than in the disk population seen
in the direction of the bulge. (6) Bulge PNe with smaller O/H tend to have
smaller radial velocities. (7) The oxygen abundance distribution of bulge PNe
is similar in shape to that of the metallicity distribution of bulge giants,
but significantly narrower. (8) The location of SB 32 (PN G 349.7-09.1) in the
(V_lsr, l_II) diagram and its low oxygen abundance argues that it probably
belongs to the halo population.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
VdBH 222: a starburst cluster in the inner Milky Way
Context. It has been suggested that the compact open cluster VdBH 222 is a young massive distant object.Aims. We set out to characterise VdBH 222 using a comprehensive set of multi-wavelength observations.Methods.We obtained multi-band optical (UBVR) and near-infrared (JHKS) photometry of the cluster field, as well as multi-object and long-slit optical spectroscopy for a large sample of stars in the field. We applied classical photometric analysis, as well as more sophisticated methods using the CHORIZOS code, to determine the reddening to the cluster. We then plotted dereddened HR diagrams and determined cluster parameters via isochrone fitting.Results. We have identified a large population of luminous supergiants confirmed as cluster members via radial velocity measurements. We find nine red supergiants (plus one other candidate) and two yellow supergiants. We also identify a large population of OB stars. Ten of them are bright enough to be blue supergiants. The cluster lies behind ≈7.5 mag of extinction for the preferred value of RV = 2.9. Isochrone fitting allows for a narrow range of ages between 12 and 16 Ma. The cluster radial velocity is compatible with distances of ~6 and ~10 kpc. The shorter distance is inconsistent with the age range and Galactic structure. The longer distance implies an age ≈ 12 Ma and a location not far from the position where some Galactic models place the far end of the Galactic bar.Conclusions. VdBH 222 is a young massive cluster with a likely mass >20 000 M⊙. Its population of massive evolved stars is comparable to that of large associations, such as Per OB1. Its location in the inner Galaxy, presumably close to the end of the Galactic bar, adds to the increasing evidence for vigorous star formation in the inner regions of the Milky Way
Evolution of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars. IV. Constraining Mass Loss and Lifetimes of Low Mass, Low Metallicity AGB Stars
The evolution and lifetimes of thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars suffer from significant uncertainties. In this work, we analyze the numbers and luminosity functions of TP-AGB stars in six quiescent, low metallicity ([Fe/H] 72 -0.86) galaxies taken from the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury sample, using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry in both optical and near-infrared filters. The galaxies contain over 1000 TP-AGB stars (at least 60 per field). We compare the observed TP-AGB luminosity functions and relative numbers of TP-AGB and red giant branch (RGB) stars, N TP-AGB/N RGB, to models generated from different suites of TP-AGB evolutionary tracks after adopting star formation histories derived from the HST deep optical observations. We test various mass-loss prescriptions that differ in their treatments of mass loss before the onset of dust-driven winds (pre-dust). These comparisons confirm that pre-dust mass loss is important, since models that neglect pre-dust mass loss fail to explain the observed N TP-AGB/N RGB ratio or the luminosity functions. In contrast, models with more efficient pre-dust mass loss produce results consistent with observations. We find that for [Fe/H] 72 -0.86, lower mass TP-AGB stars (M 72 1 M ) must have lifetimes of 3c0.5 Myr and higher masses (M 72 3 M ) must have lifetimes 72 1.2 Myr. In addition, assuming our best-fitting mass-loss prescription, we show that the third dredge-up has no significant effect on TP-AGB lifetimes in this mass and metallicity range. \ua9 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Spitzer Mid-Infrared Observations of Seven Bipolar Planetary Nebulae
We have investigated the mid-infrared (MIR) and visual structures of seven
bipolar planetary nebulae (BPNe), using imaging and spectroscopy acquired using
the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), and the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional in
Mexico. The results show that the sources are more extended towards longer MIR
wavelengths, as well as having higher levels of surface brightness in the 5.8
and 8.0 microns bands. It is also noted that the 5.8/4.5 and 8.0/4.5 microns
flux ratios increase with increasing distance from the nuclei of the sources.
All of these latter trends may be attributable to emission by polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and/or warm dust continua within circum-nebular
photo-dissociation regions (PDRs). A corresponding decrease in the flux ratios
8.0/5.8 microns may, by contrast, arise due to changes in the properties of the
PAH emitting grains. We note evidence for possible 8.0 microns ring-like
structures in the envelope of NGC 2346, located in a region beyond the minor
axis limits of the ionized envelope. An analysis of the inner two rings shows
that whilst they have higher surface brightnesses at longer MIR wavelengths,
they are relatively stronger (compared to underlying emission) at 3.6 and 4.5
microns. There is also evidence for point reflection symmetry along the major
axis of the outflow.Comment: 27 pages, 22 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 69 pages in
arXi
The optically bright post-AGB population of the LMC
The detected variety in chemistry and circumstellar shell morphology of the
limited sample of Galactic post-AGB stars is so large that there is no
consensus yet on how the different objects are linked by evolutionary channels.
The evaluation is complicated by the fact that their distances and hence
luminosities remain largely unknown. Via cross-correlation of the Spitzer SAGE
catalogue with optical catalogues we selected a sample of LMC post-AGB
candidates based on their [8]-[24] colour index and estimated luminosity. We
determined the fundamental properties of the central stars of 105 of these
objects using low-resolution, optical spectra that we obtained at Siding Spring
Observatory and SAAO, and constructed a catalogue of 70 high probability and
1337 candidate post-AGB stars that is available at the CDS. The sample forms an
ideal testbed for stellar evolution theory predictions of the final phase of
low- and intermediate-mass stars, because the distance and hence luminosity and
also the current and initial mass of these objects is well constrained. About
half of the objects in our sample of post-AGB candidates show a spectral energy
distribution (SED) that is indicative of a disc rather than an expanding and
cooling AGB remnant. Like in the Galaxy, the disc sources are likely associated
with binary evolution. Important side products of this research are catalogues
of candidate young stellar objects, candidate supergiants with circumstellar
dust, and discarded objects for which a spectrum was obtained. These too are
available at the CDS
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