arXiv subjects

F. F. S. Maia

Publications and source records attributed to F. F. S. Maia.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Catching Galactic open clusters in advanced stages of dynamical evolution

During their dynamical evolution, Galactic open clusters (OCs) gradually lose their stellar content mainly because of internal relaxation and tidal forces. In this context, the study of dynamically evolved OCs is necessary to properly understand such processes. We present a comprehensive Washington $CT_1$ photometric analysis of six sparse OCs, namely: ESO 518-3, Ruprecht 121, ESO 134-12, NGC 6573, ESO 260-7 and ESO 065-7. We employed Markov chain Monte-Carlo simulations to robustly determine the central coordinates and the structural parameters and $T_1\times(C-T_1)$ colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) cleaned from field contamination were used to derive the fundamental parameters. ESO 518-03, Ruprecht 121, ESO 134-12 and NGC 6573 resulted to be of nearly the same young age (8.2 $\leq\textrm{log}(t \textrm{yr}^{-1})\leq$ 8.3); ESO 260-7 and ESO065-7 are of intermediate age (9.2 $\leq\textrm{log}(t \textrm{yr}^{-1})\leq$ 9.4). All studied OCs are located at similar Galactocentric distances (R$_{G}\sim6-6.9 $kpc), considering uncertainties, except for ESO 260-7 ($R_{G}=8.9 $kpc). These OCs are in a tidally filled regime and are dynamically evolved, since they are much older than their half-mass relaxation times ($t/t_{rh}\gtrsim30$) and present signals of low-mass star depletion. We distinguished two groups: those dynamically evolving towards final disruptions and those in an advanced dynamical evolutionary stage. Although we do not rule out that the Milky Way potential could have made differentially faster their dynamical evolutions, we speculate here with the possibility that they have been mainly driven by initial formation conditions.

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arXiv2016

Investigation of Galactic open cluster remnants: the case of NGC 7193

Galactic open clusters (OCs) that survive the early gas-expulsion phase are gradually destroyed over time by the action of disruptive dynamical processes. Their final evolutionary stages are characterized by a poorly populated concentration of stars called open cluster remnant (OCR). This study is devoted to assess the real physical nature of the OCR candidate NGC 7193. GMOS/Gemini spectroscopy of 53 stars in the inner target region were obtained to derive radial velocities and atmospheric parameters. We also employed photometric and proper motion data. The analysis method consists of the following steps: (i) analysis of the statistical resemblance between the cluster and a set of field samples with respect to the sequences defined in colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs); (ii) a 5-dimensional iteractive exclusion routine was employed to identify outliers from kinematical and positional data; (iii) isochrone fitting to the $K_{s}\times(J-K_{s})$ CMD of the remaining stars and the dispersion of spectral types along empirical sequences in the $(J-H)\times(H-K_{s})$ diagram was checked. A group of stars was identified for which the mean heliocentric distance is compatible with that obtained via isochrone fitting and whose metallicities are compatible with each other. Fifteen member stars observed spectroscopically were identified together with other 19 probable members. Our results indicate that NGC 7193 is a genuine OCR, of an once very populous OC, for which the following parameters were derived: $d=501\,\pm\,46\,$pc, $t=2.5\,\pm\,1.2\,$Gyr, $\langle\,[Fe/H]\,\rangle=-0.17\,\pm\,0.23$ and $E(B-V)=0.05\,\pm\,0.05$. Its luminosity and mass functions show depletion of low mass stars, confirming the OCR dynamically evolved state.

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arXiv2016

Young and embedded clusters in Cygnus-X: evidence for building up the IMF?

We provide a new view on the Cygnus-X north complex by accessing for the first time the low mass content of young stellar populations in the region. CFHT/WIRCam camera was used to perform a deep near-IR survey of this complex, sampling stellar masses down to ~0.1 M$_\odot$. Several analysis tools, including a extinction treatment developed in this work, were employed to identify and uniformly characterise a dozen unstudied young star clusters in the area. Investigation of their mass distributions in low-mass domain revealed a relatively uniform log-normal IMF with a characteristic mass of 0.32$\pm$0.08 M$_\odot$ and mass dispersion of 0.40$\pm$0.06. In the high mass regime, their derived slopes showed that while the youngest clusters (age < 4 Myr) presented slightly shallower values with respect to the Salpeter's, our older clusters (4 Myr < age < 18 Myr) showed IMF compliant values and a slightly denser stellar population. Although possibly evidencing a deviation from an 'universal' IMF, these results also supports a scenario where these gas dominated young clusters gradually 'build up' their IMF by accreting low-mass stars formed in their vicinity during their first ~3 Myr, before the gas expulsion phase, emerging at the age of ~4 Myr with a fully fledged IMF. Finally, the derived distances to these clusters confirmed the existence of at least 3 different star forming regions throughout Cygnus-X north complex, at distances of 500-900 pc, 1.4-1.7 kpc and 3.0 kpc, and revealed evidence of a possible interaction between some of these stellar populations and the Cygnus-OB2 association.

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arXiv2015

GeMs/GSAOI observations of La Serena 94: an old and far open cluster inside the solar circle

Physical properties were derived for the candidate open cluster La Serena 94, recently unveiled by the VVV collaboration. Thanks to the exquisite angular resolution provided by GeMS/GSAOI, we could characterize this system in detail, for the first time, with deep photometry in JHK$_{s}$ - bands. Decontaminated JHK$_{s}$ diagrams reach about 5 mag below the cluster turnoff in H. The locus of red clump giants in the colour - colour diagram, together with an extinction law, was used to obtain an average extinction of $A_V =14.18 \pm 0.71$. The same stars were considered as standard - candles to derive the cluster distance, $8.5 \pm 1.0$ kpc. Isochrones were matched to the cluster colour - magnitude diagrams to determine its age, $\log{t(yr)}=9.12\pm 0.06$, and metallicity, $Z=0.02\pm0.01$. A core radius of $r_{c}=0.51\pm 0.04$ pc was found by fitting King models to the radial density profile. By adding up the visible stellar mass to an extrapolated mass function, the cluster mass was estimated as $M=(2.65\pm0.57) \times 10^3$ M$_{\odot}$, consistent with an integrated magnitude of $M_{K}=-5.82\pm0.16$ and a tidal radius of $r_{t}=17.2\pm2.1$ pc. The overall characteristics of La Serena 94 confirm that it is an old open cluster located in the Crux spiral arm towards the fourth Galactic quadrant and distant $7.30\pm 0.49$ kpc from the Galactic centre. The cluster distorted structure, mass segregation and age indicate that it is a dynamically evolved stellar system.

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arXiv2013

Mass distribution and structural parameters of Small Magellanic Cloud star clusters

In this work we estimate, for the first time, the total masses and mass function slopes of a sample of 29 young and intermediate-age SMC clusters from CCD Washington photometry. We also derive age, interstellar reddening and structural parameters for most of the studied clusters by employing a statistical method to remove the unavoidable field star contamination. Only these 29 clusters out of 68 originally analysed cluster candidates present stellar overdensities and coherent distribution in their colour-magnitude diagrams compatible with the existence of a genuine star cluster. We employed simple stellar population models to derive general equations for estimating the cluster mass based only on its age and integrated light in the B, V, I, C and T1 filter. These equations were tested against mass values computed from luminosity functions, showing an excellent agreement. The sample contains clusters with ages between 60 Myr and 3 Gyr and masses between 300 and 3000 Mo distributed between ~0.5 deg. and ~2 deg. from the SMC optical centre. We determined mass function slopes for 24 clusters, of which 19 have slopes compatible with that of Kroupa IMF (2.3 +/- 0.7), considering the uncertainties. The remaining clusters - H86-188, H86-190, K47, K63 and NGC242 - showed flatter MFs. Additionally, only clusters with masses lower than ~1000 Mo and flatter MF were found within ~0.6 deg. from the SMC rotational centre.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2010

Characterization and Photometric Membership of the Open Cluster NGC1981

Open clusters belonging to star-forming complexes are the leftovers from the initial stellar generations. The study of these young systems provides constraints to models of star formation and evolution as well as to the properties of the Galactic disc. We aimed at investigating NGC1981, a young open cluster in the Orion Nebula Region, using near-IR and BV (RI)C photometric data.We devised a method that accounts for the field contamination and allows to derive photometric membership for the cluster stars. A new cluster centre was determined by Gaussian fittings to the 2-D stellar distribution on the sky, and has been used used to obtain the radial stellar density profile and the structural parameters. Mass functions were computed for stars inside the cluster limiting radius and total mass estimated from them. Although more easily distinguished by its grouping of 6 relatively bright stars, an underlying population of faint pre-main sequence stars is evident in the cluster area. We showed that this population is related to the cluster itself rather than to the nearby Orion Nebula cluster. Additionally a fraction of the cluster low mass stars may have been evaporated from the region in its early evolution leading to the present sparse, loose structure. The estimated parameters of NGC1981 are core radius Rc = 0.09 +/- 0.04 pc, limiting radius Rlim = 1.21+/-0.11 pc, age t = 5+/-1 Myr, distance modulus (m-M)0 = 7.9+/-0.1 (380 +/- 17 pc), reddening E(B - V)= 0.07 +/- 0.03 and total mass m = 137 +/- 14 M\cdot.

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