The Luminosity and Mass Function of the Globular Cluster NGC1261

I-band CCD images of two large regions of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 1261 have been used to construct stellar luminosity functions (LF) for 14000 stars in three annuli from 1.4' from the cluster center to the tidal radius. The LFs extend to M_I~8 and tend to steepen from the inner to the outer annulus, in agreement with the predictions of the multimass King-Michie model that we have calculated for this cluster. The LFs have been transformed into mass functions. Once corrected for mass segregation the global mass function of NGC 1261 has a slope x_0=0.8+/-0.5Comment: 9 pages, A&A macros, accepted for publication in A&

Abundance Patterns in Stars in the Bulge and Galactic Center

We discuss oxygen and iron abundance patterns in K and M red-giant members of the Galactic bulge and in the young and massive M-type stars inhabiting the very center of the Milky Way. The abundance results from the different bulge studies in the literature, both in the optical and the infrared, indicate that the [O/Fe]-[Fe/H] relation in the bulge does not follow the disk relation, with [O/Fe] values falling above those of the disk. Based on these elevated values of [O/Fe] extending to large Fe abundances, it is suggested that the bulge underwent a rapid chemical enrichment with perhaps a top-heavy initial mass function. The Galactic Center stars reveal a nearly uniform and slightly elevated (relative to solar) iron abundance for a studied sample which is composed of 10 red giants and supergiants. Perhaps of more significance is the fact that the young Galactic Center M-type stars show abundance patterns that are reminiscent of those observed for the bulge population and contain enhanced abundance ratios of alpha-elements relative to either the Sun or Milky Way disk at near-solar metallicities.Comment: requires iaus.cls; to appear in Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges, Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 245, 2007, M. Bureau et al. eds., in pres

Reddening and metallicity maps of the Milky Way bulge from VVV and 2MASS III. The first global photometric metallicity map of the Galactic bulge

We investigate the large scale metallicity distribution in the Galactic bulge, using a large spatial coverage, in order to constrain the bulge formation scenario. We use the VISTA variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey data and 2MASS photometry, covering 320 sqdeg of the Galactic bulge, to derive photometric metallicities by interpolating of the (J-Ks)0 colors of individual Red Giant Branch stars based on a set of globular cluster ridge lines. We then use this information to construct the first global metallicity map of the bulge with a resolution of 30'x45'. The metallicity map of the bulge revealed a clear vertical metallicity gradient of ~0.04 dex/deg (~0.28 dex/kpc), with metal-rich stars ([Fe/H]~0) dominating the inner bulge in regions closer to the galactic plane (|b|<5). At larger scale heights, the mean metallicity of the bulge population becomes significantly more metal-poor. This fits in the scenario of a boxy-bulge originated from the vertical inestability of the Galactic bar, formed early via secular evolution of a two component stellar disk. Older, metal-poor stars dominate at higher scale heights due to the non-mixed orbits from the originally hotter thick disk stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

HST NICMOS Photometry of the reddened bulge globular clusters NGC 6528, Terzan 5, Liller 1, UKS 1 and Terzan 4

We present results from NICMOS Hubble Space Telescope observations of the reddened bulge globular clusters NGC 6528, Terzan 5, Liller 1, UKS 1 and Terzan 4, obtained through the filters F110W and F160W (nearly equivalent to J and H). For the first time the turnoff region of Liller 1 and the main sequence of Terzan 5 and Terzan 4 are reached, as well as the horizontal branch of UKS 1. The magnitude difference between the turnoff and the red horizontal branch $\Delta m_{110}=m_{110}^{HB}- m_{110}^{TO}$ is used as an age indicator. From comparisons with new isochrones in the NICMOS photometric system, we conclude that the two metal-rich clusters NGC 6528 and Terzan 5 are coeval within uncertainties ($\sim 20$) with 47 Tucanae. Liller 1 and UKS 1 are confirmed as metal-rich globular clusters. Terzan 4 is confirmed as an interesting case of a metal-poor cluster in the bulge with a blue horizontal branch.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The Red Giant Branch in Near-Infrared Colour-Magnitude Diagrams. II: The luminosity of the Bump and the Tip

We present new empirical calibrations of the Red Giant Branch (RGB) Bump and Tip based on a homogeneous near-Infrared database of 24 Galactic Globular Clusters. The luminosities of the RGB Bump and Tip in the J, H and K bands and their dependence on the cluster metallicity have been studied, yielding empirical relationships. By using recent transformations between the observational and theoretical planes, we also derived similar calibrations in terms of bolometric luminosity. Direct comparison between updated theoretical models and observations show an excellent agreement. The empirical calibration of the RGB Tip luminosity in the near-Infrared passbands presented here is a fundamental tool to derive distances to far galaxies beyond the Local Group, in view of using the new ground-based adaptive optics facilities and, in the next future, the James Webb Space Telescope.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Mass Loss From Planetary Nebulae in Elliptical Galaxies

Early-type galaxies possess a dilute hot (2-10E6 K) gas that is probably the thermalized ejecta of the mass loss from evolving stars. We investigate the processes by which the mass loss from orbiting stars interacts with the stationary hot gas for the case of the mass ejected in a planetary nebula event. Numerical hydrodynamic simulations show that at first, the ejecta expands nearly symmetrically, with an upstream bow shock in the hot ambient gas. At later times, the flow past the ejecta creates fluid instabilities that cause about half of the ejecta to separate and the other half to flow more slowly downstream in a narrow wake. When radiative cooling is included, most of the material in the wake (>80%) remains below 1E5 K while the separated ejecta is hotter (1E5-1E6 K). The separated ejecta is still less than one-quarter the temperature of the ambient medium and the only way it will reach the temperature of the ambient medium is through turbulent mixing (after the material has left the grid). These calculations suggest that a significant fraction of the planetary nebula ejecta may not become part of the hot ambient material. This is in contrast to our previous calculations for continuous mass loss from giant stars in which most of the mass loss became hot gas. We speculate that detectable OVI emission may be produced, but more sophisticated calculations will be required to determine the emission spectrum and to better define the fraction of cooled material.Comment: 34 pages with 20 figures. Higher quality figures are in the ApJ versio

Photometry of the Globular Cluster NGC 5466: Red Giants and Blue Stragglers

We present wide-field BVI photometry for about 11,500 stars in the low-metallicity cluster NGC 5466. We have detected the red giant branch bump for the first time, although it is at least 0.2 mag fainter than expected relative to the turnoff. The number of red giants (relative to main sequence turnoff stars) is in excellent agreement with stellar models from the Yonsei-Yale and Teramo groups, and slightly high compared to Victoria-Regina models. This adds to evidence that an abnormally large ratio of red giant to main-sequence stars is not correlated with cluster metallicity. We discuss theoretical predictions from different research groups and find that the inclusion or exclusion of helium diffusion and strong limit Coulomb interactions may be partly responsible. We also examine indicators of dynamical history: the mass function exponent and the blue straggler frequency. NGC 5466 has a very shallow mass function, consistent with large mass loss and recently-discovered tidal tails. The blue straggler sample is significantly more centrally concentrated than the HB or RGB stars. We see no evidence of an upturn in the blue straggler frequency at large distances from the center. Dynamical friction timescales indicate that the stragglers should be more concentrated if the cluster's present density structure has existed for most of its history. NGC 5466 also has an unusually low central density compared to clusters of similar luminosity. In spite of this, the specific frequency of blue stragglers that puts it right on the frequency -- cluster M_V relation observed for other clusters.Comment: 51 pages, 21 figures, 1 electronic table, accepted to Ap

Chemical composition of stellar populations in Omega Centauri

We derive abundances of Fe, Na, O, and s-elements from GIRAFFE@VLT spectra for more than 200 red giant stars in the Milky Way satellite Omega Centauri. Our preliminary results are that: (i) we confirm that Omega Centauri exibiths large star-to-star metallicity variations ($\sim$ 1.4 dex); (ii) the metallicity distribution reveals the presence of at least five stellar populations with different [Fe/H]; (iii) a clear Na-O anticorrelation is clearly observed for the metal-poor and metal-intermediate populations while apparently the anticorrelation disappears for the most metal-rich populations. Interestingly the Na level grows with iron.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of IAU Symp. 268 "Light elements in the Universe" (C. Charbonnel, M. Tosi, F. Primas, C. Chiappini, eds., Cambridge Univ. Press

High-precision astrometry with VVV. I. An independent reduction pipeline for VIRCAM@VISTA

We present a new reduction pipeline for the VIRCAM@VISTA detector and describe the method developed to obtain high-precision astrometry with the VISTA Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea (VVV) data set. We derive an accurate geometric-distortion correction using as calibration field the globular cluster NGC 5139, and showed that we are able to reach a relative astrometric precision of about 8 mas per coordinate per exposure for well-measured stars over a field of view of more than 1 square degree. This geometric-distortion correction is made available to the community. As a test bed, we chose a field centered around the globular cluster NGC 6656 from the VVV archive and computed proper motions for the stars within. With 45 epochs spread over four years, we show that we are able to achieve a precision of 1.4 mas/yr and to isolate each population observed in the field (cluster, Bulge and Disk) using proper motions. We used proper-motion-selected field stars to measure the motion difference between Galactic disk and bulge stars. Our proper-motion measurements are consistent with UCAC4 and PPMXL, though our errors are much smaller. Models have still difficulties in reproducing the observations in this highly-reddened Galactic regions.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures (some in low res), 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS on March 25, 2015. The FORTRAN routine will be soon made available at http://groups.dfa.unipd.it/ESPG/ , and via email request to the first autho