arXiv subjects

Alessandro Bressan

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Bressan.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

On the effect of galactic outflows in cosmological simulations of disc galaxies

We investigate the impact of galactic outflow modelling on the formation and evolution of a disc galaxy, by performing a suite of cosmological simulations with zoomed-in initial conditions of a Milky Way-sized halo. We verify how sensitive the general properties of the simulated galaxy are to the way in which stellar feedback triggered outflows are implemented, keeping initial conditions, simulation code and star formation (SF) model all fixed. We present simulations that are based on a version of the GADGET3 code where our sub-resolution model is coupled with an advanced implementation of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics that ensures a more accurate fluid sampling and an improved description of gas mixing and hydrodynamical instabilities. We quantify the strong interplay between the adopted hydrodynamic scheme and the sub-resolution model describing SF and feedback. We consider four different galactic outflow models, including the one introduced by Dalla Vecchia and Schaye (2012) and a scheme that is inspired by the Springel and Hernquist (2003) model. We find that the sub-resolution prescriptions adopted to generate galactic outflows are the main shaping factor of the stellar disc component at low redshift. The key requirement that a feedback model must have to be successful in producing a disc-dominated galaxy is the ability to regulate the high-redshift SF (responsible for the formation of the bulge component), the cosmological infall of gas from the large-scale environment, and gas fall-back within the galactic radius at low redshift, in order to avoid a too high SF rate at $z=0$.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Estimating the dust production rate of carbon stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud

We employ newly computed grids of spectra reprocessed by dust for estimating the total dust production rate (DPR) of carbon stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). For the first time, the grids of spectra are computed as a function of the main stellar parameters, i.e. mass-loss rate, luminosity, effective temperature, current stellar mass and element abundances at the photosphere, following a consistent, physically grounded scheme of dust growth coupled with stationary wind outflow. The model accounts for the dust growth of various dust species formed in the circumstellar envelopes of carbon stars, such as carbon dust, silicon carbide and metallic iron. In particular, we employ some selected combinations of optical constants and grain sizes for carbon dust which have been shown to reproduce simultaneously the most relevant color-color diagrams in the SMC. By employing our grids of models, we fit the spectral energy distributions of $\approx$3100 carbon stars in the SMC, consistently deriving some important dust and stellar properties, i.e. luminosities, mass-loss rates, gas-to-dust ratios, expansion velocities and dust chemistry. We discuss these properties and we compare some of them with observations in the Galaxy and LMC. We compute the DPR of carbon stars in the SMC, finding that the estimates provided by our method can be significantly different, between a factor $\approx2-5$, than the ones available in the literature. Our grids of models, including the spectra and other relevant dust and stellar quantities, are publicly available at http://starkey.astro.unipd.it/web/guest/dustymodels

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

A New Approach to Convective Core Overshooting: Probabilistic Constraints from Color-Magnitude Diagrams of LMC Clusters

We present a framework to simultaneously constrain the values and uncertainties of the strength of convective core overshooting, metallicity, extinction, distance, and age in stellar populations. We then apply the framework to archival Hubble Space Telescope observations of six stellar clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud that have reported ages between ~1-2.5 Gyr. Assuming a canonical value of the strength of core convective overshooting, we recover the well-known age-metallicity correlation, and additional correlations between metallicity and extinction and metallicity and distance. If we allow the strength of core overshooting to vary, we find that for intermediate-aged stellar clusters, the measured values of distance and extinction are negligibly effected by uncertainties of core overshooting strength. However, cluster age and metallicity may have disconcertingly large systematic shifts when core overshooting strength is allowed to vary by more than +/- 0.05 Hp. Using the six stellar clusters, we combine their posterior distribution functions to obtain the most probable core overshooting value, 0.500 +0.016 -0.134 Hp, which is in line with canonical values.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2017

A new generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI stellar isochrones including the TP-AGB phase

We introduce a new generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI stellar isochrones that include a detailed treatment of the thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase, and covering a wide range of initial metallicities (0.0001<Zi<0.06). Compared to previous releases, the main novelties and improvements are: use of new TP-AGB tracks and related atmosphere models and spectra for M and C-type stars; inclusion of the surface H+He+CNO abundances in the isochrone tables, accounting for the effects of diffusion, dredge-up episodes and hot-bottom burning; inclusion of complete thermal pulse cycles, with a complete description of the in-cycle changes in the stellar parameters; new pulsation models to describe the long-period variability in the fundamental and first overtone modes; new dust models that follow the growth of the grains during the AGB evolution, in combination with radiative transfer calculations for the reprocessing of the photospheric emission. Overall, these improvements are expected to lead to a more consistent and detailed description of properties of TP-AGB stars expected in resolved stellar populations, especially in regard to their mean photometric properties from optical to mid-infrared wavelengths. We illustrate the expected numbers of TP-AGB stars of different types in stellar populations covering a wide range of ages and initial metallicities, providing further details on the C-star island that appears at intermediate values of age and metallicity, and about the AGB-boosting effect that occurs at ages close to 1.6 Gyr for populations of all metallicities. The isochrones are available through a new dedicated web server.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Dynamics of tidally captured planets in the Galactic Center

Recent observations suggest ongoing planet formation in the innermost parsec of the Galactic center (GC). The super-massive black hole (SMBH) might strip planets or planetary embryos from their parent star, bringing them close enough to be tidally disrupted. Photoevaporation by the ultraviolet field of young stars, combined with ongoing tidal disruption, could enhance the near-infrared luminosity of such starless planets, making their detection possible even with current facilities. In this paper, we investigate the chance of planet tidal captures by means of high-accuracy N-body simulations exploiting Mikkola's algorithmic regularization. We consider both planets lying in the clockwise (CW) disk and planets initially bound to the S-stars. We show that tidally captured planets remain on orbits close to those of their parent star. Moreover, the semi-major axis of the planet orbit can be predicted by simple analytic assumptions in the case of prograde orbits. We find that starless planets that were initially bound to CW disk stars have mild eccentricities and tend to remain in the CW disk. However, we speculate that angular momentum diffusion and scattering with other young stars in the CW disk might bring starless planets on low-angular momentum orbits. In contrast, planets initially bound to S-stars are captured by the SMBH on highly eccentric orbits, matching the orbital properties of the G1 and G2 clouds. Our predictions apply not only to planets but also to low-mass stars initially bound to the S-stars and tidally captured by the SMBH.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Dynamics of tidally captured planets in the Galactic Center

Recent observations suggest ongoing planet formation in the innermost parsec of our Galaxy. The super-massive black hole (SMBH) might strip planets or planetary embryos from their parent star, bringing them close enough to be tidally disrupted. We investigate the chance of planet tidal captures by running three-body encounters of SMBH-star-planet systems with a high-accuracy regularized code. We show that tidally captured planets have orbits close to those of their parent star. We conclude that the final periapsis distance of the captured planet from the SMBH will be much larger than 200 AU, unless its parent star was already on a highly eccentric orbit.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Constraining dust properties in Circumstellar Envelopes of C-stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud: optical constants and grain size of Carbon dust

We present a new approach aimed at constraining the typical size and optical properties of carbon dust grains in Circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of carbon-rich stars (C-stars) in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). To achieve this goal, we apply our recent dust growth description, coupled with a radiative transfer code to the CSEs of C-stars evolving along the TP-AGB, for which we compute spectra and colors. Then we compare our modeled colors in the near- and mid-infrared (NIR and MIR) bands with the observed ones, testing different assumptions in our dust scheme and employing several data sets of optical constants for carbon dust available in the literature. Different assumptions adopted in our dust scheme change the typical size of the carbon grains produced. We constrain carbon dust properties by selecting the combination of grain size and optical constants which best reproduces several colors in the NIR and MIR at the same time. The different choices of optical properties and grain size lead to differences in the NIR and MIR colors greater than two magnitudes in some cases. We conclude that the complete set of observed NIR and MIR colors are best reproduced by small grains, with sizes between $\sim$0.035 and $\sim$0.12~$μ$m, rather than by large grains between $\sim0.2$ and $0.7$~$μ$m. The inability of large grains to reproduce NIR and MIR colors seems independent of the adopted optical data set. We also find a possible trend of the grain size with mass-loss and/or carbon excess in the CSEs of these stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Evolution of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars V: Constraining the Mass Loss and Lifetimes of Intermediate Mass, Low Metallicity AGB Stars

Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) stars are relatively short lived (less than a few Myr), yet their cool effective temperatures, high luminosities, efficient mass-loss and dust production can dramatically effect the chemical enrichment histories and the spectral energy distributions of their host galaxies. The ability to accurately model TP-AGB stars is critical to the interpretation of the integrated light of distant galaxies, especially in redder wavelengths. We continue previous efforts to constrain the evolution and lifetimes of TP-AGB stars by modeling their underlying stellar populations. Using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical and near-infrared photometry taken of 12 fields of 10 nearby galaxies imaged via the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury and the near-infrared HST/SNAP follow-up campaign, we compare the model and observed TP-AGB luminosity functions as well as the number ratio of TP-AGB to red giant branch stars. We confirm the best-fitting mass-loss prescription, introduced by Rosenfield et al. 2014, in which two different wind regimes are active during the TP-AGB, significantly improves models of many galaxies that show evidence of recent star formation. This study extends previous efforts to constrain TP-AGB lifetimes to metallicities ranging -1.59 < [Fe/H] < -0.56 and initial TP-AGB masses up to ~ 4 Msun, which include TP-AGB stars that undergo hot-bottom burning.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Synthetic photometry for M and K giants and stellar evolution: hydrostatic dust-free model atmospheres and chemical abundances

Based on a grid of hydrostatic spherical COMARCS models for cool stars we have calculated observable properties of these objects, which will be mainly used in combination with stellar evolution tracks and population synthesis tools. The high resolution opacity sampling and low resolution convolved spectra as well as bolometric corrections for a large number of filter systems are made electronically available. We exploit those data to study the effect of mass, C/O ratio and nitrogen abundance on the photometry of K and M giants. Depending on effective temperature, surface gravity and the chosen wavelength ranges variations of the investigated parameters cause very weak to moderate and, in the case of C/O values close to one, even strong shifts of the colours. For the usage with stellar evolution calculations they will be treated as correction factors applied to the results of an interpolation in the main quantities. When we compare the synthetic photometry to observed relations and to data from the Galactic Bulge, we find in general a good agreement. Deviations appear for the coolest giants showing pulsations, mass loss and dust shells, which cannot be described by hydrostatic models.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

The influence of dense gas rings on the dynamics of a stellar disk in the Galactic center

The Galactic center hosts several hundred early-type stars, about 20% of which lie in the so-called clockwise disk, while the remaining 80% do not belong to any disks. The circumnuclear ring (CNR), a ring of molecular gas that orbits the supermassive black hole (SMBH) with a radius of 1.5 pc, has been claimed to induce precession and Kozai-Lidov oscillations onto the orbits of stars in the innermost parsec. We investigate the perturbations exerted by a gas ring on a nearly-Keplerian stellar disk orbiting a SMBH by means of combined direct N-body and smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. We simulate the formation of gas rings through the infall and disruption of a molecular gas cloud, adopting different inclinations between the infalling gas cloud and the stellar disk. We find that a CNR-like ring is not efficient in affecting the stellar disk on a timescale of 3 Myr. In contrast, a gas ring in the innermost 0.5 pc induces precession of the longitude of the ascending node Omega, significantly affecting the stellar disk inclination. Furthermore, the combined effect of two-body relaxation and Omega-precession drives the stellar disk dismembering, displacing the stars from the disk. The impact of precession on the star orbits is stronger when the stellar disk and the inner gas ring are nearly coplanar. We speculate that the warm gas in the inner cavity might have played a major role in the evolution of the clockwise disk.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Envelope Overshooting in Low Metallicity Intermediate- and High-mass Stars: a test with the Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy

We check the performance of the {\sl\,PARSEC} tracks in reproducing the blue loops of intermediate age and young stellar populations at very low metallicity. We compute new evolutionary {\sl\,PARSEC} tracks of intermediate- and high-mass stars from 2\Msun to 350\Msun with enhanced envelope overshooting (EO), EO=2\HP and 4\HP, for very low metallicity, Z=0.0005. The input physics, including the mass-loss rate, has been described in {\sl\,PARSEC}~V1.2 version. By comparing the synthetic color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) obtained from the different sets of models with envelope overshooting EO=0.7\HP (the standard {\sl\,PARSEC} tracks), 2\HP and 4\HP, with deep observations of the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy (SagDIG), we find an overshooting scale EO=2\HP to best reproduce the observed loops. This result is consistent with that obtained by \citet{Tang_etal14} for Z in the range 0.001-0.004. We also discuss the dependence of the blue loop extension on the adopted instability criterion and find that, contrary to what stated in literature, the Schwarzschild criterion, instead of the Ledoux criterion, favours the development of blue loops. Other factors that could affect the CMD comparisons such as differential internal extinction or the presence of binary systems are found to have negligible effects on the results. We thus confirm that, in presence of core overshooting during the H-burning phase, a large envelope overshooting is needed to reproduce the main features of the central He-burning phase of intermediate- and high-mass stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

Connecting the evolution of thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch stars to the chemistry in their circumstellar envelopes -- I. The case of hydrogen cyanide

We investigate the formation of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in the inner circumstellar envelopes of thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars. A dynamic model for periodically shocked atmospheres, which includes an extended chemo-kinetic network, is for the first time coupled to detailed evolutionary tracks for the TP-AGB phase computed with the COLIBRI code. We carried out a calibration of the main shock parameters (the shock formation radius and the effective adiabatic index) using the circumstellar HCN abundances recently measured for a populous sample of pulsating TP-AGB stars. Our models recover the range of the observed HCN concentrations as a function of the mass-loss rates, and successfully reproduce the systematic increase of HCN moving along the M-S-C chemical sequence of TP-AGB stars, that traces the increase of the surface C/O ratio. The chemical calibration brings along two important implications: i) the first shock should emerge very close to the photosphere, and ii) shocks are expected to have a dominant isothermal character in the denser region close to the star (within ~ 3-4 R), implying that radiative processes should be quite efficient. Our analysis also suggests that the HCN concentrations in the inner circumstellar envelopes are critically affected by the H-H2 chemistry during the post-shock relaxation stages.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

PARSEC evolutionary tracks of massive stars up to $350 M_\odot$ at metallicities 0.0001$\leq Z \leq$0.04

We complement the PARSEC data base of stellar evolutionary tracks with new models of massive stars, from the pre-main sequence phase to the central carbon ignition. We consider a broad range of metallicities, 0.0001$\leq Z \leq$0.04 and initial masses up to $M_{\rm ini}=350\,M_\odot$. The main difference with respect to our previous models of massive stars is the adoption of a recent formalism accounting for the mass-loss enhancement when the ratio of the stellar to the Eddington luminosity, $Γ_e$, approaches unity. With this new formalism, the models are able to reproduce the Humphreys-Davidson limit observed in the Galactic and Large Magellanic Cloud colour-magnitude diagrams, without an ad hoc mass-loss enhancement. We also follow the predictions of recent wind models indicating that the metallicity dependence of the mass-loss rates becomes shallower when $Γ_e$ approaches unity. We thus find that the more massive stars may suffer from substantial mass-loss even at low metallicity. We also predict that the Humphreys-Davidson limit should become brighter at decreasing metallicity. We supplement the evolutionary tracks with new tables of theoretical bolometric corrections, useful to compare tracks and isochrones with the observations. For this purpose, we homogenize existing stellar atmosphere libraries of hot and cool stars (PoWR, ATLAS9 and Phoenix) and we add, where needed, new atmosphere models computed with WM-basic. The mass, age and metallicity grids are fully adequate to perform detailed investigations of the properties of very young stellar systems, both in local and distant galaxies. The new tracks supersede the previous old Padova models of massive stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

Predictions for Ultra-Deep Radio Counts of Star-Forming Galaxies

We have worked out predictions for the radio counts of star-forming galaxies down to nJy levels, along with redshift distributions down to the detection limits of the phase 1 Square Kilometer Array MID telescope (SKA1-MID) and of its precursors. Such predictions were obtained by coupling epoch dependent star formation rate (SFR) functions with relations between SFR and radio (synchrotron and free-free) emission. The SFR functions were derived taking into account both the dust obscured and the unobscured star-formation, by combining far-infrared (FIR), ultra-violet (UV) and H_alpha luminosity functions up to high redshifts. We have also revisited the South Pole Telescope (SPT) counts of dusty galaxies at 95\,GHz performing a detailed analysis of the Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs). Our results show that the deepest SKA1-MID surveys will detect high-z galaxies with SFRs two orders of magnitude lower compared to Herschel surveys. The highest redshift tails of the distributions at the detection limits of planned SKA1-MID surveys comprise a substantial fraction of strongly lensed galaxies. We predict that a survey down to 0.25 microJy at 1.4 GHz will detect about 1200 strongly lensed galaxies per square degree, at redshifts of up to 10. For about 30% of them the SKA1-MID will detect at least 2 images. The SKA1-MID will thus provide a comprehensive view of the star formation history throughout the re-ionization epoch, unaffected by dust extinction. We have also provided specific predictions for the EMU/ASKAP and MIGHTEE/MeerKAT surveys.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Uncertainties on near-core mixing in red-clump stars: effects on the period spacing and on the luminosity of the AGB bump

Low-mass stars in the He-core-burning phase (HeCB) play a major role in stellar, galactic, and extragalactic astrophysics. The ability to predict accurately the properties of these stars, however, depends on our understanding of convection, which remains one of the key open questions in stellar modelling. We argue that the combination of the luminosity of the AGB bump (AGBb) and the period spacing of gravity modes (DP) during the HeCB phase, provides us with a decisive test to discriminate between competing models of these stars. We use the MESA, BaSTI, and PARSEC stellar evolution codes to model a typical giant star observed by Kepler. We explore how various near-core-mixing scenarios affect the predictions of the above-mentioned constraints, and we find that DP depends strongly on the prescription adopted. Moreover we show that the detailed behaviour of DP shows the signature of sharp variations in the Brunt-Vaisala frequency, which could potentially give additional information about near-core features. We find evidence for the AGBb among Kepler targets, and a first comparison with observations shows that, even if standard models are able to reproduce the luminosity distribution, no standard model can account for satisfactorily the period spacing of HeCB stars. Our analysis allows us to outline a candidate model to describe simultaneously the two observed distributions: a model with a moderate overshooting region characterized by an adiabatic thermal stratification. This prescription will be tested in the future on cluster stars, to limit possible observational biases.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

Lithium evolution in metal-poor stars: from Pre-Main Sequence to the Spite plateau

Lithium abundance derived in metal-poor main sequence stars is about three times lower than the value of primordial Li predicted by the standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis when the baryon density is taken from the CMB or the deuterium measurements. This disagreement is generally referred as the lithium problem. We here reconsider the stellar Li evolution from the pre-main sequence to the end of the main sequence phase by introducing the effects of convective overshooting and residual mass accretion. We show that $^7$Li could be significantly depleted by convective overshooting in the pre-main sequence phase and then partially restored in the stellar atmosphere by a tail of matter accretion which follows the Li depletion phase and that could be regulated by EUV photo-evaporation. By considering the conventional nuclear burning and microscopic diffusion along the main sequence we can reproduce the Spite plateau for stars with initial mass $m_0=0.62 - 0.80 M_{\odot}$, and the Li declining branch for lower mass dwarfs, e.g, $m_0=0.57 - 0.60 M_{\odot}$, for a wide range of metallicities (Z=0.00001 to Z=0.0005), starting from an initial Li abundance $A({\rm Li}) =2.72$. This environmental Li evolution model also offers the possibility to interpret the decrease of Li abundance in extremely metal-poor stars, the Li disparities in spectroscopic binaries and the low Li abundance in planet hosting stars.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

The mass spectrum of compact remnants from the PARSEC stellar evolution tracks

The mass spectrum of stellar-mass black holes (BHs) is highly uncertain. Dynamical mass measurements are available only for few ($\sim{}10$) BHs in X-ray binaries, while theoretical models strongly depend on the hydrodynamics of supernova (SN) explosions and on the evolution of massive stars. In this paper, we present and discuss the mass spectrum of compact remnants that we obtained with SEVN, a new public population-synthesis code, which couples the PARSEC stellar evolution tracks with up-to-date recipes for SN explosion (depending on the Carbon-Oxygen mass of the progenitor, on the compactness of the stellar core at pre-SN stage, and on a recent two-parameter criterion based on the dimensionless entropy per nucleon at pre-SN stage). SEVN can be used both as a stand-alone code and in combination with direct-summation N-body codes (Starlab, HiGPUs). The PARSEC stellar evolution tracks currently implemented in SEVN predict significantly larger values of the Carbon-Oxygen core mass with respect to previous models. For most of the SN recipes we adopt, this implies substantially larger BH masses at low metallicity ($\leq{}2\times{}10^{-3}$), than other population-synthesis codes. The maximum BH mass found with SEVN is $\sim{}$25, 60 and 130 M$_{\odot}$ at metallicity $Z =2 \times{} 10^{-2}$ , $2 \times{}10^{-3}$ and $2\times{} 10^{-4}$ , respectively. Mass loss by stellar winds plays a major role in determining the mass of BHs for very massive stars ($\geq{}90$ M$_\odot{}$), while the remnant mass spectrum depends mostly on the adopted SN recipe for lower progenitor masses. We discuss the implications of our results for the transition between NS and BH mass, and for the expected number of massive BHs (with mass $>25$ M$_\odot{}$) as a function of metallicity.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2015

On the Interpretation of Sub-Giant Branch Morphologies of Intermediate-Age Star Clusters with Extended Main Sequence Turnoffs

Recent high-quality photometry of many star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds with ages of 1$\,-\,$2 Gyr revealed main sequence turnoffs (MSTOs) that are significantly wider than can be accounted for by a simple stellar population (SSP). Such extended MSTOs (eMSTOs) are often interpreted in terms of an age spread of several $10^8$ yr, challenging the traditional view of star clusters as being formed in a single star formation episode. Li et al. and Bastian & Niederhofer recently investigated the sub-giant branches (SGBs) of NGC 1651, NGC 1806, and NGC 1846, three star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) that exhibit an eMSTO. They argued that the SGB of these star clusters can be explained only by a SSP. We study these and two other similar star clusters in the LMC, using extensive simulations of SSPs including unresolved binaries. We find that the shapes of the cross-SGB profiles of all star clusters in our sample are in fact consistent with their cross-MSTO profiles when the latter are interpreted as age distributions. Conversely, SGB morphologies of star clusters with eMSTOs are found to be inconsistent with those of simulated SSPs. Finally, we create PARSEC isochrones from tracks featuring a grid of convective overshoot levels and a very fine grid of stellar masses. A comparison of the observed photometry with these isochrones shows that the morphology of the red clump (RC) of such star clusters is also consistent with that implied by their MSTO in the age spread scenario. We conclude that the SGB and RC morphologies of star clusters featuring eMSTOs are consistent with the scenario in which the eMSTOs are caused by a distribution of stellar ages.

astro-ph.SR↗