arXiv subjects

A. Helmi

Publications and source records attributed to A. Helmi.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

RAVE spectroscopy of luminous blue variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud

CONTEXT: The RAVE spectroscopic survey for galactic structure and evolution obtains 8400-8800 Ang spectra at 7500 resolving power at the UK Schmidt Telescope using the 6dF multi-fiber positioner. More than 300,000 9 25 deg southern stars have been observed to date. AIMS: This paper presents the first intrinsic examination of stellar spectra from the RAVE survey, aimed at evaluating their diagnostic potential for peculiar stars and at contributing to the general understanding of Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs). METHODS: We used the multi-epoch spectra for all seven LBVs observed, between 2005 and 2008, in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by the RAVE survey. RESULTS: We demonstrate that RAVE spectra possess significant diagnostic potential when applied to peculiar stars and, in particular, LBVs. The behaviour of the radial velocities for both emission and absorption lines, and the spectral changes between outburst and quiescence states are described and found to agree with evidence gathered at more conventional wavelengths. The wind outflow signatures and their variability are investigated, with multi-components detected in S Doradus. Photoionisation modelling of the rich emission line spectrum of R 127 shows evidence of a massive detached ionised shell that was ejected during the 1982-2000 outburst. Surface inhomogeneities in the nuclear-processed material, brought to the surface by heavy mass loss, could have been observed in S Doradus, even if alternative explanations are possible. We also detect the transition from quiescence to outburst state in R 71. Finally, our spectrum of R 84 offers one of the clearest views of its cool companion.

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arXiv2009

The Dynamical and Chemical Evolution of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies

We present a large sample of fully self-consistent hydrodynamical Nbody/Tree-SPH simulations of isolated dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs). It has enabled us to identify the key physical parameters and mechanisms at the origin of the observed variety in the Local Group dSph properties. The initial total mass (gas + dark matter) of these galaxies is the main driver of their evolution. Star formation (SF) occurs in series of short bursts. In massive systems, the very short intervals between the SF peaks mimic a continuous star formation rate, while less massive systems exhibit well separated SF bursts, as identified observationally. The delay between the SF events is controlled by the gas cooling time dependence on galaxy mass. The observed global scaling relations, luminosity-mass and luminosity-metallicity, are reproduced with low scatter. We take advantage of the unprecedentedly large sample size and data homogeneity of the ESO Large Programme DART, and add to it a few independent studies, to constrain the star formation history of five Milky Way dSphs, Sextans, LeoII, Carina, Sculptor and Fornax. For the first time, [Mg/Fe] vs [Fe/H] diagrams derived from high-resolution spectroscopy of hundreds of individual stars are confronted with model predictions. We find that the diversity in dSph properties may well result from intrinsic evolution. We note, however, that the presence of gas in the final state of our simulations, of the order of what is observed in dwarf irregulars, calls for removal by external processes.

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arXiv2009

Chemical Composition of Extremely Metal-Poor Stars in the Sextans Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

Chemical abundances of six extremely metal-poor ([Fe/H]<-2.5) stars in the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy are determined based on high resolution spectroscopy (R=40,000) with the Subaru Telescope High Dispersion Spectrograph. (1) The Fe abundances derived from the high resolution spectra are in good agreement with the metallicity estimated from the Ca triplet lines in low resolution spectra. The lack of stars with [Fe/H]=<-3 in Sextans, found by previous estimates from the Ca triplet, is confirmed by our measurements, although we note that high resolution spectroscopy for a larger sample of stars will be necessary to estimate the true fraction of stars with such low metallicity. (2) While one object shows an overabundance of Mg (similar to Galactic halo stars), the Mg/Fe ratios of the remaining five stars are similar to the solar value. This is the first time that low Mg/Fe ratios at such low metallicities have been found in a dwarf spheroidal galaxy. No evidence for over-abundances of Ca and Ti are found in these five stars, though the measurements for these elements are less certain. Possible mechanisms to produce low Mg/Fe ratios, with respect to that of Galactic halo stars, are discussed. (3) Ba is under-abundant in four objects, while the remaining two stars exhibit large and moderate excesses of this element. The abundance distribution of Ba in this galaxy is similar to that in the Galactic halo, indicating that the enrichment of heavy elements, probably by the r-process, started at metallicities [Fe/H] < -2.5, as found in the Galactic halo.

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arXiv2008

Fashionably Late? Building up the Milky Way's Inner Halo

Using a sample of 248 metal-poor stars (RR Lyraes, red giants and RHB stars) which is remarkable for the accuracy of its 6-D kinematical data, we find a new component for the local halo which has an axial ratio c/a ~ 0.2, a similar flattening to the thick disk. It has a small prograde rotation but is supported by velocity anisotropy, and contains more intermediate-metallicity stars (with -1.5 < [Fe/H] < -1.0) than the rest of our sample. We suggest that this component was formed quite late, during or after the formation of the disk. It formed either from the gas that was accreted by the last major mergers experienced by the Galaxy, or by dynamical friction of massive infalling satellite(s) with the halo and possibly the stellar disk or thick disk. The remainder of the stars in our sample exhibit a clumpy distribution in energy and angular momentum, suggesting that the early, chaotic conditions under which the inner halo formed were not violent enough to erase the record of their origins. The clumpy structure suggests that a relatively small number of progenitors were responsible for building up the inner halo, in line with theoretical expectations. We find a difference in mean binding energy between the RR Lyrae variables and the red giants in our sample, suggesting that more of the RR Lyraes in the sample belong to the outer halo, and that the outer halo may be somewhat younger, as first suggested by Searle and Zinn (1978). We also find that the RR Lyrae mean rotation is more negative than the red giants, which is consistent with the recent result of Carollo et al.(2007) that the outer halo has a retrograde rotation and with the difference in kinematics seen between RR Lyraes and BHB stars by Kinman et al.(2007).

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arXiv2008

Estimation of the Tilt of the Stellar Velocity Ellipsoid from RAVE and Implications for Mass Models

We present a measure of the inclination of the velocity ellipsoid at 1 kpc below the Galactic plane using a sample of red clump giants from the RAVE DR2 release. We find that the velocity ellipsoid is tilted towards the Galactic plane with an inclination of 7.3 +/-1.8 degree. We compare this value to computed inclinations for two mass models of the Milky Way. We find that our measurement is consistent with a short scale length of the stellar disc (Rd ~2 kpc) if the dark halo is oblate or with a long scale length (Rd~3 kpc) if the dark halo is prolate. Once combined with independent constraints on the flattening of the halo, our measurement suggests that the scale length is approximately halfway between these two extreme values, with a preferred range [2.5-2.7] kpc for a nearly spherical halo. Nevertheless, no model can be clearly ruled out. With the continuation of the RAVE survey, it will be possible to provide a strong constraint on the mass distribution of the Milky Way using refined measurements of the orientation of the velocity ellipsoid.

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arXiv2008

Diffuse interstellar bands in RAVE Survey spectra

We have used spectra of hot stars from the RAVE Survey in order to investigate the visibility and properties of five diffuse interstellar bands previously reported in the literature. The RAVE spectroscopic survey for Galactic structure and kinematics records CCD spectra covering the 8400-8800 Ang wavelength region at 7500 resolving power. The spectra are obtained with the UK Schmidt at the AAO, equipped with the 6dF multi-fiber positioner. The DIB at 8620.4 Ang is by far the strongest and cleanest of all DIBs occurring within the RAVE wavelength range, with no interference by underlying absorption stellar lines in hot stars. It correlates so tightly with reddening that it turns out to be a reliable tool to measure it, following the relation E(B-V) = 2.72 (+/- 0.03) x E.W.(Ang), valid throughout the general interstellar medium of our Galaxy. The presence of a DIB at 8648 Ang is confirmed. Its intensity appears unrelated to reddening, in agreement with scanty and preliminary reports available in the literature, and its measurability is strongly compromised by severe blending with underlying stellar HeI doublet at 8649 Ang. The two weak DIBS at 8531 and 8572 Ang do not appear real and should actually be blends of underlying stellar lines. The very weak DIB at 8439 Ang cannot be resolved within the profile of the much stronger underlying hydrogen Paschen 18 stellar line.

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arXiv2008

On the genealogy of the Orphan Stream

We use N-body simulations to explore the origin and a plausible orbit for the Orphan Stream, one of the faintest substructures discovered so far in the outer halo of our Galaxy. We are able to reproduce its position, velocity and distance measurements by appealing to a single wrap of a double-component satellite galaxy. We find that the progenitor of the Orphan Stream could have been an object similar to today's Milky Way dwarfs, such as Carina, Draco, Leo II or Sculptor; and unlikely to be connected to Complex A or Ursa Major II. Our models suggest that such progenitors, if accreted on orbits with apocenters smaller than ~35 kpc, are likely to give rise to very low surface brightness streams, which may be hiding in the outer halo and remain largely undetected with current techniques. The systematic discovery of these ghostly substructures may well require wide field spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way's outer stellar halo.

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arXiv2008

The mass content of the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy

We present a new determination of the mass content of the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy, based on a novel approach which takes into account the two distinct stellar populations present in this galaxy. This method helps to partially break the well-known mass-anisotropy degeneracy present in the modelling of pressure-supported stellar systems.

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arXiv2008

The Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): second data release

We present the second data release of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), an ambitious spectroscopic survey to measure radial velocities (RVs) and stellar atmosphere parameters of up to one million stars using the 6dF multi-object spectrograph on the 1.2-m UK Schmidt Telescope of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO). It is obtaining medium resolution spectra (median R=7,500) in the Ca-triplet region (8,410--8,795 Å) for southern hemisphere stars in the magnitude range 9<I<12. Following the first data release (Steinmetz et al. 2006) the current release doubles the sample of published RVs, now containing 51,829 RVs for 49,327 individual stars observed on 141 nights between April 11 2003 and March 31 2005. Comparison with external data sets shows that the new data collected since April 3 2004 show a standard deviation of 1.3 km/s, about twice better than for the first data release. For the first time this data release contains values of stellar parameters from 22,407 spectra of 21,121 individual stars. They were derived by a penalized χ^2 method using an extensive grid of synthetic spectra calculated from the latest version of Kurucz models. From comparison with external data sets, our conservative estimates of errors of the stellar parameters (for a spectrum with S/N=40) are 400 K in temperature, 0.5 dex in gravity, and 0.2 dex in metallicity. We note however that the internal errors estimated from repeat RAVE observations of 822 stars are at least a factor 2 smaller. We demonstrate that the results show no systematic offsets if compared to values derived from photometry or complementary spectroscopic analyses. The data release includes proper motion and photometric measurements. It can be accessed via the RAVE webpage: http://www.rave-survey.org and through CDS.

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arXiv2008

The kinematic status and mass content of the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy

We present VLT/FLAMES spectroscopic observations (R~6500) in the CaII triplet region for 470 probable kinematic members of the Sculptor (Scl) dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The accurate velocities (+- 2 km/s) and large area coverage of Scl allow us to measure a velocity gradient of 7.6_{-2.2}^{+3.0} km/s deg^{-1} along the Scl projected major axis, likely a signature of intrinsic rotation. We also use our kinematic data to measure the mass distribution within this system. By considering independently the kinematics of the distinct stellar components known to be present in Scl, we are able to relieve known degeneracies, and find that the observed velocity dispersion profiles are best fitted by a cored dark matter halo with core radius r_c= 0.5 kpc and mass enclosed within the last measured point M(< 1.8 kpc)=3.4 +- 0.7 x 10^8 M_sun, assuming an increasingly radially anisotropic velocity ellipsoid. This results in a mass-to-light ratio of 158+-33 (M/L)_sun inside 1.8 kpc. An NFW profile with concentration c=20 and mass M(< 1.8 kpc) = 2.2_{-0.7}^{+1.0} x 10^8 M_sun is also statistically consistent with the observations, but it tends to yield poorer fits for the metal rich stars.

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arXiv2008

Galactic kinematics with RAVE data: I. The distribution of stars towards the Galactic poles

We analyze the distribution of G and K type stars towards the Galactic poles using RAVE and ELODIE radial velocities, 2MASS photometric star counts, and UCAC2 proper motions. The combination of photometric and 3D kinematic data allows us to disentangle and describe the vertical distribution of dwarfs, sub-giants and giants and their kinematics. We identify discontinuities within the kinematics and magnitude counts that separate the thin disk, thick disk and a hotter component. The respective scale heights of the thin disk and thick disk are 225$\pm$10 pc and 1048$\pm$36 pc. We also constrain the luminosity function and the kinematic distribution function. The existence of a kinematic gap between the thin and thick disks is incompatible with the thick disk having formed from the thin disk by a continuous process, such as scattering of stars by spiral arms or molecular clouds. Other mechanisms of formation of the thick disk such as `created on the spot' or smoothly `accreted' remain compatible with our findings.

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arXiv2007

Analysis and calibration of CaII triplet spectroscopy of Red Giant Branch stars from VLT/FLAMES observations

We demonstrate that low resolution CaII triplet (CaT) spectroscopic estimates of the overall metallicity ([Fe/H]) of individual Red Giant Branch (RGB) stars in two nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) agree to +-0.1-0.2 dex with detailed high resolution spectroscopic determinations for the same stars over the range -2.5 < [Fe/H] < -0.5. For this study we used a sample of 129 stars observed in low and high resolution mode with VLT/FLAMES in the Sculptor and Fornax dSphs. We also present the data reduction steps we used in our low resolution analysis and show that the typical accuracy of our velocity and CaT [Fe/H] measurement is ~2 km/s and 0.1 dex respectively. We conclude that CaT-[Fe/H] relations calibrated on globular clusters can be applied with confidence to RGB stars in composite stellar populations over the range -2.5 < [Fe/H] < -0.5.

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arXiv2007

Is the sky falling? Searching for stellar streams in the local Milky Way disc in the CORAVEL and RAVE surveys

We have searched for in-falling stellar streams on to the local Milky Way disc in the CORAVEL and RAVE surveys. The CORAVEL survey consists of local dwarf stars (Nordstrom et al. Geneva-Copenhagen survey) and local Famaey et al. giant stars. We select RAVE stars with radial velocities that are sensitive to the Galactic vertical space velocity (Galactic latitude b < -45 deg). Kuiper statistics have been employed to test the symmetry of the Galactic vertical velocity distribution functions in these samples for evidence of a net vertical flow that could be associated with a (tidal?) stream of stars with vertically coherent kinematics. In contrast to the `Field of Streams' found in the outer halo, we find that the local volumes of the solar neighbourhood sampled by the CORAVEL dwarfs (complete within ~3 x 10^-4 kpc^3), CORAVEL giants (complete within ~5 x 10^-2 kpc^3) and RAVE (5-15% complete within ~8 kpc^3) are devoid of any vertically coherent streams containing hundreds of stars. This is sufficiently sensitive to allow our RAVE sample to rule out the passing of the tidal stream of the disrupting Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy through the solar neighbourhood. This agrees with the most recent determination of its orbit and dissociates it from the Helmi et al. halo stream. Our constraints on the absence of the Sgr stream near the Sun could prove a useful tool for discriminating between Galactic potential models. The lack of a net vertical flow through the solar neighbourhood in the CORAVEL giants and RAVE samples argues against the Virgo overdensity crossing the disc near the Sun. There are no vertical streams in the CORAVEL giants and RAVE samples with stellar densities >1.6 x 10^4 and 1.5 x 10^3 stars kpc^-3 respectively and therefore no evidence for locally enhanced dark matter.

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arXiv2007

The RAVE Survey: Constraining the Local Galactic Escape Speed

We report new constraints on the local escape speed of our Galaxy. Our analysis is based on a sample of high velocity stars from the RAVE survey and two previously published datasets. We use cosmological simulations of disk galaxy formation to motivate our assumptions on the shape of the velocity distribution, allowing for a significantly more precise measurement of the escape velocity compared to previous studies. We find that the escape velocity lies within the range $498\kms < \ve < 608 \kms$ (90 per cent confidence), with a median likelihood of $544\kms$. The fact that $\ve^2$ is significantly greater than $2\vc^2$ (where $\vc=220\kms$ is the local circular velocity) implies that there must be a significant amount of mass exterior to the Solar circle, i.e. this convincingly demonstrates the presence of a dark halo in the Galaxy. For a simple isothermal halo, one can calculate that the minimum radial extent is $\sim58$ kpc. We use our constraints on $\ve$ to determine the mass of the Milky Way halo for three halo profiles. For example, an adiabatically contracted NFW halo model results in a virial mass of $1.42^{+1.14}_{-0.54}\times10^{12}M_\odot$ and virial radius of $305^{+66}_{-45}$ kpc (90 per cent confidence). For this model the circular velocity at the virial radius is $142^{+31}_{-21}\kms$. Although our halo masses are model dependent, we find that they are in good agreement with each other.

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arXiv2006

Numerical simulations of the metallicity distribution in dwarf spheroidal galaxies

Recent observations show that the number of stars with very low metallicities in the dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way is low, despite the low average metallicities of stars in these systems. We undertake numerical simulations of star formation and metal enrichment of dwarf galaxies in order to verify whether this result can be reproduced with "standard" assumptions. The answer is likely to be negative, unless some selection bias against very low metallicity stars is present in the observations.

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arXiv2006

The DART imaging and CaT survey of the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

As part of the DART project we have used the ESO/2.2m Wide Field Imager in conjunction with the VLT/FLAMES GIRAFFE spectrograph to study the detailed properties of the resolved stellar population of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy out to and beyond its tidal radius. We re-derived the structural parameters of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal using our wide field imaging covering the galaxy out to its tidal radius, and analysed the spatial distribution of the Fornax stars of different ages as selected from Colour-Magnitude Diagram analysis. We have obtained accurate velocities and metallicities from spectra in the CaII triplet wavelength region for 562 Red Giant Branch stars which have velocities consistent with membership in Fornax dwarf spheroidal. We have found evidence for the presence of at least three distinct stellar components: a young population (few 100 Myr old) concentrated in the centre of the galaxy, visible as a Main Sequence in the Colour-Magnitude Diagram; an intermediate age population (2-8 Gyr old); and an ancient population (> 10Gyr),which are distinguishable from each other kinematically, from the metallicity distribution and in the spatial distribution of stars found in the Colour-Magnitude Diagram. From our spectroscopic analysis we find that the ``metal rich'' stars ([Fe/H]> -1.3) show a less extended and more concentrated spatial distribution, and display a colder kinematics than the ``metal poor'' stars ([Fe/H<-1.3). There is tentative evidence that the ancient stellar population in the centre of Fornax does not exhibit equilibrium kinematics. This could be a sign of a relatively recent accretion of external material.

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arXiv2006

The Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): first data release

We present the first data release of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), an ambitious spectroscopic survey to measure radial velocities and stellar atmosphere parameters (temperature, metallicity, surface gravity) of up to one million stars using the 6dF multi-object spectrograph on the 1.2-m UK Schmidt Telescope of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO). The RAVE program started in 2003, obtaining medium resolution spectra (median R=7,500) in the Ca-triplet region ($λλ$ 8,410--8,795 Å) for southern hemisphere stars drawn from the Tycho-2 and SuperCOSMOS catalogs, in the magnitude range 9<I<12. The first data release is described in this paper and contains radial velocities for 24,748 individual stars (25,274 measurements when including re-observations). Those data were obtained on 67 nights between 11 April 2003 to 03 April 2004. The total sky coverage within this data release is $\sim$4,760 square degrees. The average signal to noise ratio of the observed spectra is 29.5, and 80% of the radial velocities have uncertainties better than 3.4 km/s. Combining internal errors and zero-point errors, the mode is found to be 2 km/s. Repeat observations are used to assess the stability of our radial velocity solution, resulting in a variance of 2.8 km/s. We demonstrate that the radial velocities derived for the first data set do not show any systematic trend with color or signal to noise. The RAVE radial velocities are complemented in the data release with proper motions from Starnet 2.0, Tycho-2 and SuperCOSMOS, in addition to photometric data from the major optical and infrared catalogs (Tycho-2, USNO-B, DENIS and 2MASS). The data release can be accessed via the RAVE webpage: http://www.rave-survey.org.

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arXiv2005

The radial velocity dispersion profile of the Galactic halo: Constraining the density profile of the dark halo of the Milky Way

We have compiled a new sample of 240 halo objects with accurate distance and radial velocity measurements, including globular clusters, satellite galaxies, field blue horizontal branch stars and red giant stars from the Spaghetti survey. The new data lead to a significant increase in the number of known objects for Galactocentric radii beyond 50 kpc, which allows a reliable determination of the radial velocity dispersion profile out to very large distances. The radial velocity dispersion shows an almost constant value of 120 km/s out to 30 kpc and then continuously declines down to 50 km/s at about 120 kpc. This fall-off puts important constraints on the density profile and total mass of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way. For a constant velocity anisotropy, the isothermal profile is ruled out, while both a dark halo following a truncated flat model of mass $1.2^{+1.8}_{-0.5}\times 10^{12}$ M_sun and an NFW profile of mass $0.8^{+1.2}_{-0.2}\times 10^{12}$ M_sun and c=18 are consistent with the data. The significant increase in the number of tracers combined with the large extent of the region probed by these has allowed a more precise determination of the Milky Way mass in comparison to previous works. We also show how different assumptions for the velocity anisotropy affect the performance of the mass models.

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