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E. K. Grebel

Publications and source records attributed to E. K. Grebel.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

The Abundance Properties of Nearby Late-Type Galaxies. \\ II. The Relation between Abundance Distributions and Surface Brightness Profiles

The relations between oxygen abundance and disk surface brightness (OH-SB relation) in the infrared W1 band are examined for a nearby late-type galaxies. The oxygen abundances were presented in Paper I. The photometric characteristics of the disks are inferred here using photometric maps from the literature through bulge-disk decomposition. We find evidence that the OH - SB relation is not unique but depends on the galactocentric distance r (taken as a fraction of the optical radius R_25) and on the properties of a galaxy: the disk scale length h and the morphological T-type. The parametric OH - SB relation reproduces the observed data better than a simple, one-parameter relation; the deviations resulting when using our parametric relation are smaller by a factor of ~1.4 than that the simple relation. The influence of the parameters on the OH - SB relation varies with galactocentric distance. The influence of the T-type on the OH - SB relation is negligible at the centers of galaxies and increases with galactocentric distance. In contrast, the influence of the disk scale length on the OH -- SB relation is maximum at the centers of galaxies and decreases with galactocentric distance, disappearing at the optical edges of galaxies. Two-dimensional relations can be used to reproduce the observed data at the optical edges of the disks and at the centers of the disks. The disk scale length should be used as a second parameter in the OH - SB relation at the center of the disk while the morphological T-type should be used as a second parameter in the relation at optical edge of the disk. The general properties of the abundance - surface brightness relations are similar for the three considered bands B, K, and W1.

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Spectroscopic Signatures of Extra-Tidal Stars Around the Globular Clusters NGC 6656 (M22), NGC 3201 and NGC 1851 from RAVE

Stellar population studies of globular clusters have suggested that the brightest clusters in the Galaxy might actually be the remnant nuclei of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. If the present Galactic globular clusters formed within larger stellar systems, they are likely surrounded by extra-tidal halos and/or tails made up of stars that were tidally stripped from their parent systems. The stellar surroundings around globular clusters are therefore one of the best places to look for the remnants of an ancient dwarf galaxy. Here an attempt is made to search for tidal debris around the supernovae enriched globular clusters M22 and NGC 1851 as well as the kinematically unique cluster NGC 3201. The stellar parameters from the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) are used to identify stars with RAVE metallicities, radial velocities and elemental-abundances consistent with the abundance patterns and properties of the stars in M22, NGC 1851 and NGC 3201. The discovery of RAVE stars that may be associated with M22 and NGC 1851 are reported, some of which are at projected distances of ~10 degrees away from the core of these clusters. Numerous RAVE stars associated with NGC 3201 suggest that either the tidal radius of this cluster is underestimated, or that there are some unbound stars extending a few arc minutes from the edge of the cluster's radius. No further extra-tidal stars associated with NGC 3201 could be identified. The bright magnitudes of the RAVE stars make them easy targets for high resolution follow-up observations, allowing an eventual further chemical tagging to solidify (or exclude) stars outside the tidal radius of the cluster as tidal debris. In both our radial velocity histograms of the regions surrounding NGC 1851 and NGC 3201, a peak of stars at 230 km/s is seen, consistent with extended tidal debris from omega Centauri.

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Discovery of a new Galactic bona fide luminous blue variable with Spitzer

We report the discovery of a circular mid-infrared shell around the emission-line star Wray 16-137 using archival data of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Follow-up optical spectroscopy of Wray 16-137 with the Southern African Large Telescope revealed a rich emission spectrum typical of the classical luminous blue variables (LBVs) like P Cygni. Subsequent spectroscopic and photometric observations showed drastic changes in the spectrum and brightness during the last three years, meaning that Wray 16-137 currently undergoes an S Dor-like outburst. Namely, we found that the star has brightened by \approx 1 mag in the V and I_c bands, while its spectrum became dominated by Fe ii lines. Taken together, our observations unambiguously show that Wray 16-137 is a new member of the family of Galactic bona fide LBVs.

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APASS Landolt-Sloan BVgri photometry of RAVE stars. I. Data, effective temperatures and reddenings

We provide APASS photometry in the Landolt BV and Sloan g'r'i' bands for all the 425,743 stars included in the latest 4th RAVE Data Release. The internal accuracy of the APASS photometry of RAVE stars, expressed as error of the mean of data obtained and separately calibrated over a median of 4 distinct observing epochs and distributed between 2009 and 2013, is 0.013, 0.012, 0.012, 0.014 and 0.021 mag for B, V, g', r' and i' band, respectively. The equally high external accuracy of APASS photometry has been verified on secondary Landolt and Sloan photometric standard stars not involved in the APASS calibration process, and on a large body of literature data on field and cluster stars, confirming the absence of offsets and trends. Compared with the Carlsberg Meridian Catalog (CMC-15), APASS astrometry of RAVE stars is accurate to a median value of 0.098 arcsec. Brightness distribution functions for the RAVE stars have been derived in all bands. APASS photometry of RAVE stars, augmented by 2MASS JHK infrared data, has been chi2 fitted to a densely populated synthetic photometric library designed to widely explore in temperature, surface gravity, metallicity and reddening. Resulting Teff and E(B-V), computed over a range of options, are provided and discussed, and will be kept updated in response to future APASS and RAVE data releases. In the process it is found that the reddening caused by an homogeneous slab of dust, extending for 140 pc on either side of the Galactic plane and responsible for E(B-V,poles)=0.036 +/- 0.002 at the galactic poles, is a suitable approximation of the actual reddening encountered at Galactic latitudes |b|>=25 deg.

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Chemical gradients in the Milky Way from the RAVE data. II. Giant stars

We provide new constraints on the chemo-dynamical models of the Milky Way by measuring the radial and vertical chemical gradients for the elements Mg, Al, Si, Ti, and Fe in the Galactic disc and the gradient variations as a function of the distance from the Galactic plane ($Z$). We selected a sample of giant stars from the RAVE database using the gravity criterium 1.7$<$log g$<$2.8. We created a RAVE mock sample with the Galaxia code based on the Besan\c con model and selected a corresponding mock sample to compare the model with the observed data. We measured the radial gradients and the vertical gradients as a function of the distance from the Galactic plane $Z$ to study their variation across the Galactic disc. The RAVE sample exhibits a negative radial gradient of $d[Fe/H]/dR=-0.054$ dex kpc$^{-1}$ close to the Galactic plane ($|Z|<0.4$ kpc) that becomes flatter for larger $|Z|$. Other elements follow the same trend although with some variations from element to element. The mock sample has radial gradients in fair agreement with the observed data. The variation of the gradients with $Z$ shows that the Fe radial gradient of the RAVE sample has little change in the range $|Z|\lesssim0.6$ kpc and then flattens. The iron vertical gradient of the RAVE sample is slightly negative close to the Galactic plane and steepens with $|Z|$. The mock sample exhibits an iron vertical gradient that is always steeper than the RAVE sample. The mock sample also shows an excess of metal-poor stars in the [Fe/H] distributions with respect to the observed data. These discrepancies can be reduced by decreasing the number of thick disc stars and increasing their average metallicity in the Besan\c con model.

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Kinematic modelling of the Milky Way using the RAVE and GCS stellar surveys

We investigate the kinematic parameters of the Milky Way disc using the RAVE and GCS stellar surveys. We do this by fitting a kinematic model to the data taking the selection function of the data into account. For stars in the GCS we use all phase-space coordinates, but for RAVE stars we use only $(l,b,v_{\rm los})$. Using MCMC technique, we investigate the full posterior distributions of the parameters given the data. We investigate the `age-velocity dispersion' relation for the three kinematic components ($σ_R,σ_ϕ,σ_z$), the radial dependence of the velocity dispersions, the Solar peculiar motion ($U_{\odot},V_{\odot}, W_{\odot} $), the circular speed $Θ_0$ at the Sun and the fall of mean azimuthal motion with height above the mid-plane. We confirm that the Besançon-style Gaussian model accurately fits the GCS data, but fails to match the details of the more spatially extended RAVE survey. In particular, the Shu distribution function (DF) handles non-circular orbits more accurately and provides a better fit to the kinematic data. The Gaussian distribution function not only fits the data poorly but systematically underestimates the fall of velocity dispersion with radius. We find that correlations exist between a number of parameters, which highlights the importance of doing joint fits. The large size of the RAVE survey, allows us to get precise values for most parameters. However, large systematic uncertainties remain, especially in $V_{\odot}$ and $Θ_0$. We find that, for an extended sample of stars, $Θ_0$ is underestimated by as much as $10\%$ if the vertical dependence of the mean azimuthal motion is neglected. Using a simple model for vertical dependence of kinematics, we find that it is possible to match the Sgr A* proper motion without any need for $V_{\odot}$ being larger than that estimated locally by surveys like GCS.

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An optimized Method to Identify RR Lyrae stars in the SDSS X Pan-STARRS1 Overlapping Area Using a Bayesian Generative Technique

We present a method for selecting RR Lyrae (RRL) stars (or other type of variable stars) in the absence of a large number of multi-epoch data and light curve analyses. Our method uses color and variability selection cuts that are defined by applying a Gaussian Mixture Bayesian Generative Method (GMM) on 636 pre-identified RRL stars instead of applying the commonly used rectangular cuts. Specifically, our method selects 8,115 RRL candidates (heliocentric distances < 70 kpc) using GMM color cuts from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and GMM variability cuts from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System 1 3pi survey (PS1). Comparing our method with the Stripe 82 catalog of RRL stars shows that the efficiency and completeness levels of our method are ~77% and ~52%, respectively. Most contaminants are either non-variable main-sequence stars or stars in eclipsing systems. The method described here efficiently recovers known stellar halo substructures. It is expected that the current completeness and efficiency levels will further improve with the additional PS1 epochs (~3 epochs per filter) that will be observed before the conclusion of the survey. A comparison between our efficiency and completeness levels using the GMM method to the efficiency and completeness levels using rectangular cuts that are commonly used yielded a significant increase in the efficiency level from ~13% to ~77% and an insignificant change in the completeness levels. Hence, we favor using the GMM technique in future studies. Although we develop it over the SDSS X PS1 footprint, the technique presented here would work well on any multi-band, multi-epoch survey for which the number of epochs is limited.

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STEP: The VST survey of the SMC and the Magellanic Bridge. I. Overview and first results

STEP (the SMC in Time: Evolution of a Prototype interacting late-type dwarf galaxy) is a Guaranteed Time Observation survey being performed at the VST (the ESO VLT Survey Telescope). STEP will image an area of 74 deg$^2$ covering the main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud (32 deg$^2$), the Bridge that connects it to the Large Magellanic Cloud (30 deg$^2$) and a small part of the Magellanic Stream (2 deg$^2$). Our $g,r,i,H_α$ photometry is able to resolve individual stars down to magnitudes well below the main-sequence turnoff of the oldest populations. In this first paper we describe the observing strategy, the photometric techniques, and the upcoming data products of the survey. We also present preliminary results for the first two fields for which data acquisition is completed, including some detailed analysis of the two stellar clusters IC\,1624 and NGC\,419.

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Newly Discovered RR Lyrae Stars in the SDSSXPanXSTARRS1XCatalina Footprint

We present the detection of 6,371 RR Lyrae (RRL) stars distributed across ~14,000 deg^2 of the sky from the combined data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System 1 (PS1), and the second photometric catalogue from the Catalina Survey (CSDR2), out of these, ~2,021 RRL stars (~572 RRab and 1,449 RRc) are new discoveries. The RRL stars have heliocentric distances in the 4--28 kpc distance range. RRL-like color cuts from the SDSS and variability cuts from the PS1 are used to cull our candidate list. We then use the CSDR2 multi-epoch data to refine our sample. Periods were measured using the Analysis of Variance technique while the classification process is performed with the Template Fitting Method in addition to the visual inspection of the light curves. A cross-match of our RRL star discoveries with previous published catalogs of RRL stars yield completeness levels of ~50% for both RRab and RRc stars, and an efficiency of ~99% and ~87% for RRab and RRc stars, respectively. We show that our method for selecting RRL stars allows us to recover halo structures. The full lists of all the RRL stars are made publicly available.

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The Abundance Properties of Nearby Late-Type Galaxies.I. The Data

We investigate the oxygen and nitrogen abundance distributions across the optical disks of 130 nearby late-type galaxies using around 3740 published spectra of HII regions. We use these data in order to provide homogeneous abundance determinations for all objects in the sample, including HII regions in which not all of the usual diagnostic lines were measured. Examining the relation between N and O abundances in these galaxies we find that the abundances in their centres and at their isophotal R_25 disk radii follow the same relation. The variation in N/H at a given O/H is around 0.3 dex. We suggest that the observed spread in N/H may be partly caused by the time delay between N and O enrichment and the different star formation histories in galaxies of different morphological types and dimensions. We study the correlations between the abundance properties (central O and N abundances, radial O and N gradients) of a galaxy and its morphological type and dimension.

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Constraints on the Galactic Bar from the Hercules stream as traced with RAVE across the Galaxy

Non-axisymmetries in the Galactic potential (spiral arms and bar) induce kinematic groups such as the Hercules stream. Assuming that Hercules is caused by the effects of the Outer Lindblad Resonance of the Galactic bar, we model analytically its properties as a function of position in the Galaxy and its dependence on the bar's pattern speed and orientation. Using data from the RAVE survey we find that the azimuthal velocity of the Hercules structure decreases as a function of Galactocentric radius, in a manner consistent with our analytical model. This allows us to obtain new estimates of the parameters of the Milky Way's bar. The combined likelihood function of the bar's pattern speed and angle has its maximum for a pattern speed of $Ω_b=(1.89 \pm 0.08) \times Ω_0$ where $Ω_0$ is the local circular frequency. Assuming a Solar radius of 8.05 kpc and a local circular velocity of 238 km/s, this corresponds to $Ω_b=56\pm 2$ km/s/kpc. On the other hand, the bar's orientation $ϕ_b$ cannot be constrained with the available data. In fact, the likelihood function shows that a tight correlation exists between the pattern speed and the orientation, implying that a better description of our best fit results is given by the linear relation $Ω_b/Ω_0=1.91 + 0.0044[ϕ_b(°)-48]$, with standard deviation of 0.02. For example, for an angle of $ϕ_b=30°$ the pattern speed is $54.0\pm0.5$ km/s/kpc. These results are not very sensitive to the other Galactic parameters such as the circular velocity curve or the peculiar motion of the Sun, and are robust to biases in distance.

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A new stellar chemo-kinematic relation reveals the merger history of the Milky Way disc

The velocity dispersions of stars near the Sun are known to increase with stellar age, but age can be difficult to determine so a proxy like the abundance of alpha elements (e.g., Mg) with respect to iron, [alpha/Fe], is used. Here we report an unexpected behavior found in the velocity dispersion of a sample of giant stars from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) survey with high quality chemical and kinematical information, in that it decreases strongly for stars with [Mg/Fe] > 0.4 dex (i.e., those that formed in the first Gyr of the Galaxy's life). These findings can be explained by perturbations from massive mergers in the early Universe, which have affected more strongly the outer parts of the disc, and the subsequent radial migration of stars with cooler kinematics from the inner disc. Similar reversed trends in velocity dispersion are also found for different metallicity subpopulations. Our results suggest that the Milky Way disc merger history can be recovered by relating the observed chemo-kinematic relations to the properties of past merger events.

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The RAVE survey: the Galactic escape speed and the mass of the Milky Way

We construct new estimates on the Galactic escape speed at various Galactocentric radii using the latest data release of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE DR4). Compared to previous studies we have a database larger by a factor of 10 as well as reliable distance estimates for almost all stars. Our analysis is based on the statistical analysis of a rigorously selected sample of 90 high-velocity halo stars from RAVE and a previously published data set. We calibrate and extensively test our method using a suite of cosmological simulations of the formation of Milky Way-sized galaxies. Our best estimate of the local Galactic escape speed, which we define as the minimum speed required to reach three virial radii $R_{340}$, is $533^{+54}_{-41}$ km/s (90% confidence) with an additional 5% systematic uncertainty, where $R_{340}$ is the Galactocentric radius encompassing a mean over-density of 340 times the critical density for closure in the Universe. From the escape speed we further derive estimates of the mass of the Galaxy using a simple mass model with two options for the mass profile of the dark matter halo: an unaltered and an adiabatically contracted Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) sphere. If we fix the local circular velocity the latter profile yields a significantly higher mass than the un-contracted halo, but if we instead use the statistics on halo concentration parameters in large cosmological simulations as a constraint we find very similar masses for both models. Our best estimate for $M_{340}$, the mass interior to $R_{340}$ (dark matter and baryons), is $1.3^{+0.4}_{-0.3} \times 10^{12}$ M$_\odot$ (corresponding to $M_{200} = 1.6^{+0.5}_{-0.4} \times 10^{12}$ M$_\odot$). This estimate is in good agreement with recently published independent mass estimates based on the kinematics of more distant halo stars and the satellite galaxy Leo I.

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A Search for Planetary Nebulae With the SDSS: the outer regions of M31

We have developed a method to identify planetary nebula (PN) candidates in imaging data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This method exploits the SDSS' five-band sampling of emission lines in PN spectra, which results in a color signature distinct from that of other sources. Selection criteria based on this signature can be applied to nearby galaxies in which PNe appear as point sources. We applied these criteria to the whole area of M31 as scanned by the SDSS, selecting 167 PN candidates that are located in the outer regions of M31. The spectra of 80 selected candidates were then observed with the 2.2m telescope at Calar Alto Observatory. These observations and cross-checks with literature data show that our method has a selection rate efficiency of about 90%, but the efficiency is different for the different groups of PNe candidates. In the outer regions of M31, PNe trace different well-known morphological features like the Northern Spur, the NGC205 Loop, the G1 Clump, etc. In general, the distribution of PNe in the outer region 8<R<20 kpc along the minor axis shows the "extended disk" - a rotationally supported low surface brightness structure with an exponential scale length of 3.21+/-0.14 kpc and a total mass of ~10^10 M_{\sun}, which is equivalent to the mass of M33. We report the discovery of three PN candidates with projected locations in the center of Andromeda NE, a very low surface brightness giant stellar structure in the outer halo of M31. Two of the PNe were spectroscopically confirmed as genuine PNe. These two PNe are located at projected distances along the major axis of ~48 Kpc and ~41 Kpc from the center of M31 and are the most distant PNe in M31 found up to now.

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In the thick of it: metal-poor disc stars in RAVE

By selecting in the RAVE-DR4 survey the stars located between 1 and 2 kpc above the Galactic plane, we question the consistency of the simplest three-component model (thin disc, thick disc, halo) for the Milky Way. We confirm that the metallicity and azimuthal velocity distribution functions of the thick disc are not Gaussian. In particular, we find that the thick disc has an extended metallicity tail going at least down to [M/H]=-2 dex, contributing roughly at 3% of the entire thick disc population and having a shorter scale-length compared to the canonical thick disc. The mean azimuthal velocity of these metal-poor stars allows us to estimate the correlation between the metallicity and the orbital velocity, which is an important constraint on the formation mechanisms of the Galactic thick disc. Given our simple approach, we find dVphi/d[M/H] ~ 50 km/s/dex, which is in a very good agreement with previous literature values. We complete the study with a brief discussion on the implications of the formation scenarios for the thick disc, and suggest that given the above mentioned characteristics, a thick disc mainly formed by radial migration mechanisms seems unlikely.

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Mean age gradient and asymmetry in the star formation history of the Small Magellanic Cloud

We derive the star formation history in four regions of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) using the deepest VI color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) ever obtained for this galaxy. The images were obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the Hubble Space Telescope and are located at projected distances of 0.5-2 degrees from the SMC center, probing the main body and the wing of the galaxy. We derived the star-formation histories (SFH) of the four fields using two independent procedures to fit synthetic CMDs to the data. We compare the SFHs derived here with our earlier results for the SMC bar to create a deep pencil-beam survey of the global history of the central SMC. We find in all the six fields observed with HST a slow star formation pace from 13 to 5-7 Gyr ago, followed by a ~ 2-3 times higher activity. This is remarkable because dynamical models do not predict a strong influence of either the LMC or the Milky Way (MW) at that time. The level of the intermediate-age SFR enhancement systematically increases towards the center, resulting in a gradient in the mean age of the population, with the bar fields being systematically younger than the outer ones. Star formation over the most recent 500 Myr is strongly concentrated in the bar, the only exception being the area of the SMC wing. The strong current activity of the latter is likely driven by interaction with the LMC. At a given age, there is no significant difference in metallicity between the inner and outer fields, implying that metals are well mixed throughout the SMC. The age-metallicity relations we infer from our best fitting models are monotonically increasing with time, with no evidence of dips. This may argue against the major merger scenario proposed by Tsujimoto and Bekki 2009, although a minor merger cannot be ruled out.

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A RAVE Investigation on Galactic open Clusters I. Radial velocities and metallicities

Context. Galactic open clusters (OCs) mainly belong to the young stellar population in the Milky Way disk, but are there groups and complexes of OCs that possibly define an additional level in hierarchical star formation? Current compilations are too incomplete to address this question, especially regarding radial velocities (RVs) and metallicities ($[M/H]$). Aims. Here we provide and discuss newly obtained RV and $[M/H]$ data, which will enable us to reinvestigate potential groupings of open clusters and associations. Methods.We extracted additional RVs and $[M/H]$ from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) via a cross-match with the Catalogue of Stars in Open Cluster Areas (CSOCA). For the identified OCs in RAVE we derived RV and $[M/H]$ from a cleaned working sample and compared the results with previous findings. Results. Although our RAVE sample does not show the same accuracy as the entire survey, we were able to derive reliable RV for 110 Galactic open clusters. For 37 OCs we publish RV for the first time. Moreover, we determined $[M/H]$ for 81 open clusters, extending the number of OCs with $[M/H]$ by 69.

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Chemical gradients in the Milky Way from the RAVE data. I. Dwarf stars

Aim: We aim at measuring the chemical gradients of the elements Mg, Al, Si, and Fe along the Galactic radius to provide new constraints on the chemical evolution models of the Galaxy and Galaxy models such as the Besancon model. Methods: We analysed three different samples selected from three independent datasets: a sample of 19,962 dwarf stars selected from the RAVE database, a sample of 10,616 dwarf stars selected from the Geneva-Copenhagen Survey (GCS) dataset, and a mock sample (equivalent to the RAVE sample) created by using the GALAXIA code, which is based on the Besancon model. We measured the chemical gradients as functions of the guiding radius (Rg) at different distances from the Galactic plane reached by the stars along their orbit (Zmax). Results: The chemical gradients of the RAVE and GCS samples are negative and show consistent trends, although they are not equal: at Zmax<0.4 kpc and 4.5<Rg(kpc)<9.5, the iron gradient for the RAVE sample is d[Fe/H]/dRg=-0.065 dex kpc^{-1}, whereas for the GCS sample it is d[Fe/H]/dRg=-0.043 dex kpc^{-1} with internal errors +-0.002 and +-0.004 dex kpc^{-1}, respectively. The gradients of the RAVE and GCS samples become flatter at larger Zmax. Conversely, the mock sample has a positive iron gradient of d[Fe/H]/dRg=+0.053+-0.003 dex kpc^{-1} at Zmax<0.4 kpc and remains positive at any Zmax. These positive and unrealistic values originate from the lack of correlation between metallicity and tangential velocity in the Besancon model. The discrepancies between the observational samples and the mock sample can be reduced by i) decreasing the density, ii) decreasing the vertical velocity, and iii) increasing the metallicity of the thick disc in the Besancon model.

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