1,304 research outputs found
Climbing the cosmic ladder with stellar twins
Distances to stars are key to revealing a three-dimensional view of the Milky
Way, yet their determination is a major challenge in astronomy. Whilst the
brightest nearby stars benefit from direct parallax measurements, fainter stars
are subject of indirect determinations with uncertainties exceeding 30%. We
present an alternative approach to measuring distances using
spectroscopically-identified twin stars. Given a star with known parallax, the
distance to its twin is assumed to be directly related to the difference in
their apparent magnitudes. We found 175 twin pairs from the ESO public HARPS
archives and report excellent agreement with Hipparcos parallaxes within 7.5%.
Most importantly, the accuracy of our results does not degrade with increasing
stellar distance. With the ongoing collection of high-resolution stellar
spectra, our method is well-suited to complement Gaia.Comment: published online on MNRA
The Gaia-ESO Survey: Separating disk chemical substructures with cluster models
(Abridged) Recent spectroscopic surveys have begun to explore the Galactic
disk system outside the solar neighborhood on the basis of large data samples.
In this way, they provide valuable information for testing spatial and temporal
variations of disk structure kinematics and chemical evolution. We used a
Gaussian mixture model algorithm, as a rigurous mathematical approach, to
separate in the [Mg/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] plane a clean disk star subsample from the
Gaia-ESO survey internal data release 2. We find that the sample is separated
into five groups associated with major Galactic components; the metal-rich end
of the halo, the thick disk, and three subgroups for the thin disk sequence.
This is confirmed with a sample of red clump stars from the Apache Point
Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey. The two
metal-intermediate and metal-rich groups of the thin disk decomposition
([Fe/H]>-0.25 dex) highlight a change in the slope at solar metallicity. This
holds true at different radial regions. The distribution of Galactocentric
radial distances of the metal-poor part of the thin disk ([Fe/H]<-0.25 dex) is
shifted to larger distances than those of the more metal-rich parts. Moreover,
the metal-poor part of the thin disk presents indications of a scale height
intermediate between those of the thick and the rest of the thin disk, and it
displays higher azimuthal velocities than the latter. These stars might have
formed and evolved in parallel and/or dissociated from the inside-out formation
taking place in the internal thin disk. Their enhancement levels might be due
to their origin from gas pre-enriched by outflows from the thick disk or the
inner halo. The smooth trends of their properties (their spatial distribution
with respect to the plane, in particular) with [Fe/H] and [Mg/Fe] suggested by
the data indicates a quiet dynamical evolution, with no relevant merger events
The Gaia-ESO Survey: the selection function of the Milky Way field stars
The Gaia-ESO Survey was designed to target all major Galactic components
(i.e., bulge, thin and thick discs, halo and clusters), with the goal of
constraining the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Milky Way. This paper
presents the methodology and considerations that drive the selection of the
targeted, allocated and successfully observed Milky Way field stars. The
detailed understanding of the survey construction, specifically the influence
of target selection criteria on observed Milky Way field stars is required in
order to analyse and interpret the survey data correctly. We present the target
selection process for the Milky Way field stars observed with VLT/FLAMES and
provide the weights that characterise the survey target selection. The weights
can be used to account for the selection effects in the Gaia-ESO Survey data
for scientific studies. We provide a couple of simple examples to highlight the
necessity of including such information in studies of the stellar populations
in the Milky Way.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS (April 25,
2016
Stellar twins determine the distance of the Pleiades
© 2016 ESO.Since the release of the Hipparcos catalogue in 1997, the distance to the Pleiades open cluster has been heavily debated. The distance obtained from Hipparcos and those by alternative methods differ by 10 to 15%. As accurate stellar distances are key to understanding stellar structure and evolution, this dilemma puts the validity of some stellar evolution models into question. Using our model-independent method to determine parallaxes based on twin stars, we report individual parallaxes of 15 FGK type stars in the Pleiades in anticipation of the astrometric mission Gaia. These parallaxes give a mean cluster parallax of 7.42 ± 0.09 mas,which corresponds to a mean cluster distance of 134.8 ± 1.7 pc. This value agrees with the current results obtained from stellar evolution models
The Gaia-ESO Survey: N-body modelling of the Gamma Velorum cluster
The Gaia-ESO Survey has recently unveiled the complex kinematic signature of
the Gamma Velorum cluster: this cluster is composed of two kinematically
distinct populations (hereafter, population A and B), showing two different
velocity dispersions and a relative ~2 km s^-1 radial velocity (RV) shift. In
this paper, we propose that the two populations of the Gamma Velorum cluster
originate from two different sub-clusters, born from the same parent molecular
cloud. We investigate this possibility by means of direct-summation N-body
simulations. Our scenario is able to reproduce not only the RV shift and the
different velocity dispersions, but also the different centroid (~0.5 pc), the
different spatial concentration and the different line-of-sight distance (~5
pc) of the two populations. The observed 1-2 Myr age difference between the two
populations is also naturally explained by our scenario, in which the two
sub-clusters formed in two slightly different star formation episodes. Our
simulations suggest that population B is strongly supervirial, while population
A is close to virial equilibrium. We discuss the implications of our models for
the formation of young star clusters and OB associations in the Milky Way.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres
The Gaia-ESO Survey: Tracing interstellar extinction
Large spectroscopic surveys have enabled in the recent years the computation
of three-dimensional interstellar extinction maps thanks to accurate stellar
atmospheric parameters and line-of-sight distances. Such maps are complementary
to 3D maps extracted from photometry, allowing a more thorough study of the
dust properties. Our goal is to use the high-resolution spectroscopic survey
Gaia-ESO in order to obtain with a good distance resolution the interstellar
extinction and its dependency as a function of the environment and the
Galactocentric position. We use the stellar atmospheric parameters of more than
5000 stars, obtained from the Gaia-ESO survey second internal data release, and
combine them with optical (SDSS) and near-infrared (VISTA) photometry as well
as different sets of theoretical stellar isochrones, in order to calculate
line-of-sight extinction and distances. The extinction coefficients are then
compared with the literature to discuss their dependancy on the stellar
parameters and position in the Galaxy. Within the errors of our method, our
work does not show that there is any dependence of the interstellar extinction
coefficient on the atmospheric parameters of the stars. We do not find any
evidence of the variation of E(J-H)/E(J-K) with the angle from the Galactic
centre nor with Galactocentric distance. This suggests that we are dealing with
a uniform extinction law in the SDSS ugriz bands and the near-IR JHKs bands.
Therefore, extinction maps using mean colour-excesses and assuming a constant
extinction coefficient can be used without introducing any systematic errors.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, 1 Appendix accepted for publication in
Astronomy&Astrophysic
The Gaia-ESO Survey: the chemical structure of the Galactic discs from the first internal data release
Most high-resolution spectroscopic studies of the Galactic discs were mostly
confined to objects in the solar vicinity. Here we aim at enlarging the volume
in which individual chemical abundances are used to characterise both discs,
using the first internal data release of the Gaia-ESO survey. We derive and
discuss the abundances of eight elements (Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, Cr, Ni, and
Y). The trends of these elemental abundances with iron are very similar to
those in the solar neighbourhood. We find a natural division between alpha-rich
and alpha-poor stars, best seen in the bimodality of the [Mg/M] distributions
in bins of metallicity, which we attribute to thick- and thin-disc sequences,
respectively. With the possible exception of Al, the observed dispersion around
the trends is well described by the expected errors, leaving little room for
astrophysical dispersion. Using previously derived distances from Recio-Blanco
et al. (2014b), we further find that the thick-disc is more extended vertically
and is more centrally concentrated towards the inner Galaxy than the thin-disc,
which indicates a shorter scale-length. We derive the radial and vertical
gradients in metallicity, iron, four alpha-element abundances, and Al for the
two populations, taking into account the identified correlation between R_GC
and |Z|. Radial metallicity gradient is found in the thin disc. The positive
radial individual [alpha/M] gradients found are at variance from the gradients
observed in the RAVE survey. The thin disc also hosts a negative vertical
metallicity gradient, accompanied by positive individual [alpha/M] and [Al/M]
gradients. The thick-disc, presents no radial metallicity gradient, a shallower
vertical metallicity gradient than the thin-disc, an alpha-elements-to-iron
radial gradient in the opposite sense than that of the thin disc, and positive
vertical individual [alpha/M] and [Al/M] gradients.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figure
Imprints of Nuclear Symmetry Energy on Properties of Neutron Stars
Significant progress has been made in recent years in constraining the
density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy using terrestrial nuclear
laboratory data. Around and below the nuclear matter saturation density, the
experimental constraints start to merge in a relatively narrow region. At
supra-saturation densities, there are, however, still large uncertainties.
After summarizing the latest experimental constraints on the density dependence
of nuclear symmetry energy, we highlight a few recent studies examining
imprints of nuclear symmetry energy on the binding energy, energy release
during hadron-quark phase transitions as well as the -mode frequency and
damping time of gravitational wave emission of neutron stars.Comment: 10 pages. Invited talk given in the Nuclear Astrophysics session of
INPC2010, July 4-9, 2010, Vancouver, Canada; Journal of Physics: Conference
Series (2011
The Gaia-ESO Survey: Chromospheric Emission, Accretion Properties, and Rotation in Velorum and Chamaeleon I
We use the fundamental parameters delivered by the GES consortium in the
first internal data release to select the members of Vel and Cha I
among the UVES and GIRAFFE spectroscopic observations. A total of 140
Vel members and 74 Cha I members were studied. We calculated stellar
luminosities through spectral energy distributions, while stellar masses were
derived by comparison with evolutionary tracks. The spectral subtraction of
low-activity and slowly rotating templates, which are rotationally broadened to
match the of the targets, enabled us to measure the equivalent widths
(EWs) and the fluxes in the H and H lines. The H line
was also used for identifying accreting objects and for evaluating the mass
accretion rate (). The distribution of for the
members of Vel displays a peak at about 10 km s with a tail
toward faster rotators. There is also some indication of a different
distribution for the members of its two kinematical populations. Only a handful
of stars in Vel display signatures of accretion, while many more
accretors were detected in the younger Cha~I. Accreting and active stars occupy
two different regions in a -flux diagram and we propose a
criterion for distinguishing them. We derive in the ranges
-yr and -yr
for Vel and Cha I accretors, respectively. We find less scatter in the
relation derived through the H EWs, when
compared to the H diagnostics, in agreement with other authors
The Gaia-ESO Survey: Detailed Abundances in the Metal-poor Globular Cluster NGC 4372
We present the abundance analysis for a sample of 7 red giant branch stars in
the metal-poor globular cluster NGC 4372 based on UVES spectra acquired as part
of the Gaia-ESO Survey. This is the first extensive study of this cluster from
high resolution spectroscopy. We derive abundances of O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca,
Sc, Ti, Fe, Cr, Ni, Y, Ba, and La. We find a metallicity of [Fe/H] = -2.19
0.03 and find no evidence for a metallicity spread. This metallicity
makes NGC 4372 one of the most metal-poor galactic globular clusters. We also
find an {\alpha}-enhancement typical of halo globular clusters at this
metallicity. Significant spreads are observed in the abundances of light
elements. In particular we find a Na-O anti-correlation. Abundances of O are
relatively high compared with other globular clusters. This could indicate that
NGC 4372 was formed in an environment with high O for its metallicity. A Mg-Al
spread is also present which spans a range of more than 0.5 dex in Al
abundances. Na is correlated with Al and Mg abundances at a lower significance
level. This pattern suggests that the Mg-Al burning cycle is active. This
behavior can also be seen in giant stars of other massive, metal-poor clusters.
A relation between light and heavy s-process elements has been identified.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&
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