Gaia results for star clusters and dwarf galaxies in the Milky Way

The second data release of the Gaia mission coupled with ground-based spectroscopic observations has allowed the determination of the orbital parameters for almost all of the Galactic globular clusters, as well as for the known dwarf spheroidal galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Moreover, it has led to the discovery of dwarf galaxies that were accreted by the Galaxy long ago and that are now completely disrupted. By exploiting their dynamics in combination with the globular clusters age-metallicity relation, we investigated the clusters-to-dwarfs connection. We found that about 60 globulars likely formed in situ, and associated those that were accreted to the dwarf galaxy progenitor they likely formed in

COSMIC-LAB: Terzan 5 as a fossil remnant of the Galactic bulge formation epoch

The formation and evolution of galaxy bulges is one of the most debated topics in the modern astrophysics. One approach to address this issue is to look at the Galactic bulge since it is the closest. According to some theoretical models, our bulge may have built up from the merger of substructures formed from the fragmentation of a gaseous disk in the early phases of Galactic evolution. We may have discovered the remnant of one of these substructures in the stellar system Terzan 5. In fact, Terzan 5 hosts two stellar populations with quite different iron abundances, thus suggesting it once was far more massive than today. Moreover, its peculiar chemistry strikingly resembles that observed in the Galactic bulge. In this Thesis we performed a detailed photometric and spectroscopic analysis of this cluster to determine its formation and evolution. Form the photometric point of view we built a high-resolution differential reddening map in the direction of the system and we measured relative proper motions to separate its member population from the contaminating bulge and disk stars. From the spectroscopic point of view we measured abundances for more than 600 stars belonging to Terzan 5 and its surroundings in order to build the largest field-decontaminated metallicity distribution for this system. We find that the metallicity distribution is extremely broad (>1 dex) and we discovered a third, metal-poor and alpha-enhanced population with average [Fe/H]=-0.8 dex. The striking similarity between Terzan 5 and the bulge in terms of their chemical formation and evolution that is clearly revealed by this Thesis suggests that Terzan 5 formed in situ with the Galactic bulge. In particular its metal-poor populations trace the early stages of the bulge formation, while its most metal-rich component may contain crucial information on the bulge more recent evolution.Comment: Ph.D. Thesis. Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, Ph.D. in Astronomy, Cycle XXVII. Thesis defense in December 201

With and without spectroscopy: Gaia DR2 proper motions of seven Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies

We present mean absolute proper motion measurements for seven ultra-faint dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, namely Bo\"{o}tes III, Carina II, Grus II, Reticulum II, Sagittarius II, Segue 2 and Tucana IV. For four of these dwarfs our proper motion estimate is the first ever provided. The adopted astrometric data come from the second data release of the Gaia mission. We determine the mean proper motion for each galaxy starting from an initial guess of likely members, based either on radial velocity measurements or using stars on the Horizontal Branch identified in the Gaia ($G_{\rm BP}$-$G_{\rm RP}$,$G$) colour-magnitude diagram in the field of view towards the UFD. We then refine their membership iteratively using both astrometry and photometry. We take into account the full covariance matrix among the astrometric parameters when deriving the mean proper motions for these systems. Our procedure provides mean proper motions with typical uncertainties of $\sim0.1$ mas/yr, even for galaxies without prior spectroscopic information. In the case of Segue 2 we find that using radial velocity members only leads to biased results, presumably because of the small number of stars with measured radial velocities. Our procedure allows to maximize the number of member stars per galaxy regardless of the existence of prior spectroscopic information, and can therefore be applied on any faint or distant stellar system within reach of Gaia.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Revised version, accepted for publication by A&

Characterization and history of the Helmi streams with Gaia DR2

The halo of the Milky Way has long been hypothesized to harbour significant amounts of merger debris. This view has been supported over more than a decade by wide-field photometric surveys which have revealed the outer halo to be lumpy. The recent release of Gaia DR2 is allowing us to establish that mergers also have been important and possibly built up the majority of the inner halo. In this work we focus on the Helmi streams, a group of streams crossing the Solar vicinity and known for almost two decades. We characterize their properties and relevance for the build-up of the Milky Way's halo. We identify new members of the Helmi streams in an unprecedented dataset with full phase-space information combining Gaia DR2, and the APOGEE DR2, RAVE DR5 and LAMOST DR4 spectroscopic surveys. Based on the orbital properties of the stars, we find new stream members up to a distance of 5 kpc from the Sun, which we characterize using photometry and metallicity information. We also perform N-body experiments to constrain the time of accretion and properties of the progenitor of the streams. We find nearly 600 new members of the Helmi streams. Their HR diagram reveals a broad age range, from approximately 11 to 13 Gyr, while their metallicity distribution goes from $\sim$ 2.3 to $\sim$1.0, and peaks at [Fe/H] $\sim$1.5. These findings confirm that the streams originate in a dwarf galaxy. Furthermore, we find 7 globular clusters to be likely associated, and which follow a well-defined age-metallicity sequence whose properties suggest a relatively massive progenitor object. Our N-body simulations favour a system with a stellar mass of $\sim 10^8\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ accreted $5 - 8$ Gyr ago. The debris from the Helmi streams is an important donor to the MilkyWay halo, contributing approximately 15\% of its mass in field stars and 10\% of its globular clusters.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, submitte

Stellar 3-D kinematics in the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy

Aims. We present the first three-dimensional internal motions for individual stars in the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Methods. By combining first-epoch $Hubble$ $Space$ $Telescope$ observations and second-epoch $Gaia$ Data Release 2 positions, we measured the proper motions of $149$ sources in the direction of Draco. We determined the line-of-sight velocities for a sub-sample of $81$ red giant branch stars using medium resolution spectra acquired with the DEIMOS spectrograph at the Keck II telescope. Altogether, this resulted in a final sample of $45$ Draco members with high-precision and accurate 3D motions, which we present as a table in this paper. Results. Based on this high-quality dataset, we determined the velocity dispersions at a projected distance of $\sim120$ pc from the centre of Draco to be $\sigma_{R} =11.0^{+2.1}_{-1.5}$ km/s, $\sigma_{T}=9.9^{+2.3}_{-3.1}$ km/s and $\sigma_{LOS}=9.0^{+1.1}_{-1.1}$ km/s in the projected radial, tangential, and line-of-sight directions. This results in a velocity anisotropy $\beta=0.25^{+0.47}_{-1.38}$ at $r \gtrsim120$ pc. Tighter constraints may be obtained using the spherical Jeans equations and assuming constant anisotropy and Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) mass profiles, also based on the assumption that the 3D velocity dispersion should be lower than $\approx 1/3$ of the escape velocity of the system. In this case, we constrain the maximum circular velocity $V_{max}$ of Draco to be in the range of $10.2-17.0$ km/s. The corresponding mass range is in good agreement with previous estimates based on line-of-sight velocities only. Conclusions. Our Jeans modelling supports the case for a cuspy dark matter profile in this galaxy. Firmer conclusions may be drawn by applying more sophisticated models to this dataset and with new datasets from upcoming $Gaia$ releases.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication by A&

Kinematic complexity around NGC 419: resolving the proper motion of the cluster, the Small Magellanic Cloud, and the Magellanic bridge

We present $\it{Hubble}$ $\it{Space}$ $\it{Telescope}$ proper motions in the direction of the star cluster NGC$\,$419 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Because of the high precision of our measurements, for the first time it is possible to resolve the complex kinematics of the stellar populations located in the field, even along the tangential direction. In fact, the proper motions we measured allow us to separate cluster stars, which move on average with ($\mu_{\alpha}\cos\delta^{\rm NGC\,419}, \mu_{\delta}^{\rm NGC\,419}$) = ($+0.878\pm0.055$, $-1.246\pm0.048$) mas yr$^{-1}$, from those of the Small Magellanic Cloud and those belonging to a third kinematic feature that we recognise as part of the Magellanic Bridge. Resolving such a kinematic complexity enables the construction of decontaminated colour-magnitude diagrams, as well as the measurement of the absolute proper motion of the three separate components. Our study therefore sets the first steps towards the possibility of dynamically investigating the Magellanic system by exploiting the resolved kinematics of its stellar clusters.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Using MetaPrisms for Performance Improvement in Wireless Communications

In this paper, we put forth the idea of metaprism, a passive and non-reconfigurable metasurface acting as a metamirror with frequency-dependent reflecting properties within the signal bandwidth. We show that, with an appropriate design of the metaprism, it is possible to control that each data stream in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system is reflected in the desired direction without the need for control channels and channel state information (CSI) estimation between the base station and the metaprism, but simply by correctly assigning subcarriers to users. Furthermore, the metaprism can also be designed so that it focuses the signal towards a specific position depending on the subcarrier, provided that it is in the near-field, with consequent path-loss reduction. A critical discussion is also presented about the path-loss gain obtainable from metaprisms and, more generally, from metasurfaces. The numerical results show that this solution is surprisingly effective in extending the coverage in areas experiencing severe non line-of-sight (NLOS) channel conditions, thus making it a very appealing alternative to reconfigurable metasurfaces when low-cost, no energy consumption, and backward compatibility with existing wireless standards are required.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communication

HST absolute Proper Motions of NGC 6681 (M70) and the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

We have measured absolute proper motions for the three populations intercepted in the direction of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6681: the cluster itself, the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy and the field. For this we used Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC and WFC3/UVIS optical imaging data separated by a temporal baseline of 5.464 years. Five background galaxies were used to determine the zero point of the absolute-motion reference frame. The resulting absolute proper motion of NGC 6681 is ($\mu_{\alpha}\cos\delta, \mu_{\delta}$)=($1.58\pm0.18, -4.57\pm0.16$) \masyr. This is the first estimate ever made for this cluster. For the Sgr dSph we obtain ($\mu_{\alpha}\cos\delta, \mu_{\delta})=(-2.54\pm0.18, -1.19\pm0.16$) \masyr, consistent with previous measurements and with the values predicted by theoretical models. The absolute proper motion of the Galaxy population in our field of view is ($\mu_{\alpha}\cos\delta, \mu_{\delta})=(-1.21\pm0.27, -4.39\pm0.26$) \masyr. In this study we also use background Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal stars to determine the rotation of the globular cluster in the plane of the sky and find that NGC 6681 is not rotating significantly:\ $v_{\rm rot}=0.82\pm1.02$ km$\,$s$^{-1}$ at a distance of 1 arcmin from the cluster center.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication by Ap

Proper motions in Terzan 5: membership of the multi-iron sub-populations and first constrain to the orbit

By exploiting two sets of high-resolution images obtained with HST ACS/WFC over a baseline of ~10 years we have measured relative proper motions of ~70,000 stars in the stellar system Terzan 5. The results confirm the membership of the three sub-populations with different iron abudances discovered in the system. The orbit of the system has been derived from a first estimate of its absolute proper motion, obtained by using bulge stars as reference. The results of the integration of this orbit within an axisymmetric Galactic model exclude any external accretion origin for this cluster. Terzan 5 is known to have chemistry similar to the Galactic bulge; our findings support a kinematic link between the cluster and the bulge, further strengthening the possibility that Terzan 5 is the fossil remnant of one of the pristine clumps that originated the bulge.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication by Ap