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B. Acosta-Tripailao

Publications and source records attributed to B. Acosta-Tripailao.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Classical Cepheids in the Nuclear Stellar Disk: membership via dynamical analysis

(abridged) Four classical Cepheids have been associated to the Nuclear Stellar Disk (NSD), suggesting a burst of star formation 20 Myrs ago. In this work, we analyse all available data for these four Cepheids in order to gauge if they are bona fide members of the NSD or interlopers in the region. This allows to confirm or rule out the star formation burst hypothesised in the literature. Our dynamical analysis is based on an updated MWpotential that includes all components of the inner Galaxy. We conduct a thorough study of possible systematics, taking into account both observational errors and model dependencies. Our results suggest that only one Cepheid likely belongs to the NSD, while the orbits of other two extend well beyond it. Accounting for observational uncertainties, only 23-28 percent of the realisations sourced from the error distributions for the latter two are compatible with the NSD. For the fourth there are no proper motion measurements available and the light curve analysis puts into question its classification as a classical Cepheid. Through a comprehensive dynamical analysis of available data on the Cepheids attributed to the NSD, we gauged their membership to this structure. Out of the three Cepheids analysed in unprecedented depth, GCC-a is likely a member of the NSD while both GCC-b and GCC-c do not seem dynamically linked to it. Factoring in the observational uncertainties, a non-negligible percentage of the realisations for GCC-b and GCC-c are still compatible with the NSD, thus membership cannot be completely excluded for either with current data. The robust association of only one Cepheid casts doubt on the occurrence of a star formation episode in the NSD, about 20 Myrs ago.

astro-ph.GA↗

Spectroscopic metallicities and first α-element abundances of RR Lyrae stars in Baade's Window

RR Lyrae stars in the bulge have been reported to be associated with the spheroidal, relatively metal-poor component. They offer a way to trace this component with precise distances. While a few studies of RR Lyrae spectra with medium/high resolution are now available, none of them target stars in the Galactic bulge. We present here a spectroscopic determination of Fe and α-element abundances for RR Lyrae stars in the Galactic bulge, with the main goal of providing a benchmark to calibrate other metallicity indicators, appropriate for this specific stellar population. We analyzed FLAMES/GIRAFEE spectra of 78 RR Lyrae stars (60 ab-type and 18 c-type). We applied a full-spectrum fitting technique to obtain the spectroscopic metallicity and overall α-element abundance. Distances are derived by means of a period-luminosity-metallicity relation, and orbits are computed by combining the radial velocities derived here with the proper motions from DR3. Gaia The resulting metallicities peak at [Fe/H] _median = -1.34 +- 0.04 and -1.44 +- 0.08 dex for ab and c-types respectively. The majority of the bulge RR Lyrae are metal-poor stars with relatively high α-element abundances around [α/Fe] ~ 0.25 +- 0.03 dex. We used our spectroscopic measurements to test different methods for deriving metallicities based on photometry, which utilize Fourier parameters in the light curves of the RR Lyrae. The data suggest a possible correlation between the metallicity difference and the [α/Fe] ratio, which needs to be investigated further. There are some ab-type RR Lyrae that show metallicities higher than -1 dex and low [α/Fe] values. We studied these stars kinematically and found a difference between three stars with similar [α/Fe] values and the main group, indicating that they may be slightly younger and correspond to the disk population.

astro-ph.GA↗